How often are you truly prepared to USE a person's time and attention?
Whenever someone is looking to get promoted, we stack them with activities to help with their growth. One of the managers from a smaller volume store was recently offered to help support one of the larger volume stores until a permanent candidate was hired. I got the chance to speak with her yesterday. I asked her how she was doing and she said she was fine. We made small talk for a brief moment, and then she said..."I'm actually pretty bored here. At [little store] I had a mental laundry list of things to do, but here I feel like all I'm doing is walking around"...
Now, there's about a $13 MILLION dollar difference in volume between the two stores...
How in the heck was boredom the baby that $13M birthed?
It got me thinking about preparation and how often boredom is misdiagnosed. If there's one thing I've learned in retail, it's that people may understand corporate logic but they will always act on their own conclusions. The problem wasn't that she was bored because there was nothing to do. The problem was that she came in expecting to work on the same things she does in a smaller volume, but in a larger volume store the priorities of the leader are very different. As a result, she assumed that there was less to be done. In the battle logic v. assumption, assumption was the clear winner.
Problem is, she wasn't the only one doing the assuming...
We assumed that because she knew the general culture of the Brand, that she'd be okay. We assumed that it would be a seamless transition from store to store. And last but not least, we assumed that we were clear on our expectations on her role as a leader in the building. Unfortunately all of our assumptions were as wrong as hers.
My point is that often times, we believe we are well prepared to use other people's time and attention and we're not. We constantly ask that recruiters, mentors, bosses, etc. pay us their valuable attention and yet we continue to waste it by not having a plan...it's a shame.
I think Zig Ziglar said it best, "People often complain about a lack of time, when the lack of direction is the real problem"
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