The Store Team - Part 1 - The Big Picture

Why is it that whenever you think about the word "Team" sports comes to mind? Well, the obvious answer is that the term "Team" has always been associated with sports such as football, basketball, hockey and soccer. Coaches breed it, players breathe it and fans live it, The Team!

With years and years of instilling the philosophy and psychology of a team, sports has a serious lead on business when it comes to saturation and results of team development. So how can business make up the lost ground?

Business needs to make a concerted effort based upon an industry as a whole to instill the team philosophy and psychology for maximum results. NACS, the National Association of Convenience Stores has done well in working the industry in the direction of "the Team" with programs such as SDI and SDI II (Supervisory Development Institute). These programs assist supervisors at all levels of knowledge and expertise to be better at multiple facets of their job including the development of store teams.

While programs such as SDI are priceless in the information they deliver, ultimately people fall back to either their level of comfort or to their supervisors expectation levels. So while training and supporting mid level supervisors is important, even more important is to ensure and effect positive change through the owners and senior level executives by getting their level of commitment (and excitement) at the same or even higher level than the supervisors.

So how does an industry change successful chain owners and senior level executives? Show them the money!

Developing store teams ultimately reduces costs, increases profits and expands the base of employee development which affords greater expansion capabilities for the chain. Now that I have your attention, let's dive in to some of the basics of developing a store team.

Let's look at the standard layout of job titles and to whom they report:

Owner
President - Owner
Marketing VP - President
Operations VP - President
HR VP - President

District Manager - Marketing, Operations, HR

Store Manager - District Manager
Assistant Manager - Store Manager

Store Employees - Assistant and Store Manager

Do you notice that the store employees take all the weight generated by all the functions listed above them? Think about that for a moment. Each function above a store employee generates task and expectation that is forced down the food chain and lands squarely on the shoulders of your store level employees. Does that make sense? Would you want to be a store employee of a chain such as this? Would you feel confident as a store employee that you were meeting the needs of each and every person above you? And here is the kicker, as a store employee would you feel that the customer was getting your very best level of service during this?

As an owner of a chain or a single store you have to ask yourself those questions to really understand what your customers are in for in the way of facility and service competence.

Does this typical layout develop a low stress, high pace, high results environment? Or does this layout develop employees that "look out for number one" and plan their moves politically to advance their career?

Typically owners and senior level executive management are stuck in a process of thought that does not allow them to, and I hate to use this abused term, think outside the box. So how can you as an owner expand your mind to include more open source thoughts? I would suggest the following:

1. Most all of you have friends in the sports arena. See if you can get a little time with a sports coach to discuss team philosophy and psychology.

2. Periodically NACS has SDI style classes for executives and owners as well. Check with NACS for availability. Make sure to "leave the business at home" when you go. Pagers, cell phones, etc.. should be left in the hotel room and your job is to come ready to learn and with an open mind.

3. Bring in an outside facilitator to assist you in changing the overall team environment of your store or chain. This is a highly effective method as a greater understanding of your specific store or chain needs can be achieved. And in most cases you get personal assistance to create and implement your new teambuilding strategy.

4. Go to retailers and service businesses outside the convenience store industry to learn. Do you have a favorite restaurant that gives awesome service and a wonderful presentation? See if you can talk to the owner and get a behind the scenes look at what makes them tick. I am sure that you will be very surprised how much effort goes in to making something look effortless.

5. And this is by far the biggest thing to do. IMPLEMENT CHANGE! Do not be afraid to try new things. While your program may be working you could be excelling instead!

Remember that to effectively change the way you do business you have to want it to as well as take all the hurdles out of the way of the success of the change. Just stay focused on the desired results.