June 2021 - 42

POHMER ON ...
IS ZOOKEEPER
PART OF YOUR JOB
DESCRIPTION?
How to deal with the myriad critical
problems, challenges and opportunities that
must be taken care of throughout the day
By Stan
Pohmer
I
had a sign that read, " My Office
is Not a Zoo! " mounted by the
entrance to my office when I
worked for many years in retail
buying, merchandising and marketing.
Most people thought this was
simply my way of displaying my denial
of reality, hoping against hope that I
could change the pace and demeanor
of my office through the sheer power
of positive suggestion. Others thought
that it was the epitome of sarcasm
because, in the heat of the spring
season, a zoo would have been a
better, kinder, gentler place to be than
in my office.
I think most of you can relate to
this ... whether you're a grower or a
retailer, when spring hits, it hits with a
vengeance and no amount of planning
can ever anticipate or consider the
myriad critical problems, challenges
and opportunities that must be taken
care of throughout the day. I genuinely
believe that there's a little bit of a
masochist in all of us who deal with
live goods; deep down inside, we all get
energized and jazzed by the hectic pace
and the buzz or rush we get in trying to
catch up to (forget about getting ahead
of) the curve, making the seemingly
42 | LAWN & GARDEN RETAILER | JUNE 2021
impossible possible. Truth be known,
I think this is part of the reward of
being in this business ... we're all
adrenaline junkies!
But back to my sign. There really
was a purpose for having this, and
it helped set the tone for my team
members and established a level of
expectation that everyone had to
consciously think about when dealing
with problems and opportunities,
things I affectionately called monkeys.
Moving Monkeys Around
As good managers and leaders, we
all want to maintain an open door for
our team, cultivating an attitude or
even a culture of being approachable.
Human nature being what it is, when
someone has a problem, especially
one that the individual hasn't dealt
with in the past, the path of least
resistance is to bump the decision up
the line, avoiding the possibility of not
just making a bad decision, but any
decision at all. And the easiest thing
this employee can do is to move the
monkey - that problem or decision
- onto someone else's back or to
bring the problem into my office and
leave it there, forcing me to deal with
it, not them.
Now, please don't confuse this with
upward delegation, an art form that
takes many years to perfect; I'm just
referring here to moving problem
monkeys around.
Some managers thrive on making all
of the decisions themselves, feeling the
compulsive need to be " in the loop " on
everything that's going on. But being
overly controlling encroaches on your
valuable time and inhibits your ability
to develop a big-picture outlook -
something that at least one person in
every organization needs to maintain.
If the manager gets bogged down in
the decision minutiae, it's impossible
to keep the most important things
in perspective - the areas that have
the most impact on the business,
like managing cash flow and thinking
strategically.
And by the manager taking on
the responsibility of making, or
being involved in making, all of the
decisions, we lose the opportunity
to develop our team to become
independent, thinking, confident
and responsible employees. That's
not to say that we want to let our
employees run amok, allowing them
to make bad decisions for lack of our
involvement and guidance.
And I'm not suggesting that, as
managers and leaders, we abdicate
our responsibilities to maintain
control of the decision-making
process, but instead just approach
our responsibility differently. Use
these opportunities as teachable
moments that can benefit both you
and your team members now and for
the future!
June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2021
