September/October 2022 - 24

POHMER ON...
* They want responsibility with accountability.
* They want you to start your relationship with them based
on mutual trust. Neither you nor your employee should
have to wait for trust to be earned.
* They want you to hear their voices and opinions.
* They want to be treated as people, as individuals, and
with respect.
* They want to feel appreciated and recognized for their
accomplishments and efforts.
* They want to look to you to be confident, enthusiastic,
excited, inspired, and motivated. These traits are
contagious and can be instilled in your team.
* They want to be challenged, receive positive reinforcement,
and have the opportunities to gain experience, new skills
and skill sets to develop their potential.
Knowing these common employee needs up front allows
you to anticipate some of them and proactively create and
develop policies and programs that address them. Ensure
that these programs and policies are clearly communicated,
especially to new employees, so they can readily recognize
that you've anticipated many of their needs and motivators.
Rules for Engagement
So how do you engage with your teams and individual
employees to develop mutually satisfying relationships? First
and foremost, listen to them! Ask probing questions and ask
for clarification.
As leaders, we're all prone to be the ones doing all the
talking, but engagement is a two-way street. Listening to
the feedback doesn't mean that you have to agree with
or implement everything your employee voices, but be
empathetic and respectful to what they say. Be ready to
explain what you can or can't address with their requests and
needs, or take their input under advisement (and make sure
you get back to them with a decision).
Here are some suggestions on when to have these
" engage with " conversations with your team members. The
first opportunity is upon hiring them in a complete review
of policies and procedures, with ample time to hear any
concerns and respond to any questions. Next, schedule
24 | LAWN & GARDEN RETAILER | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022
formal status meetings on a regular timetable - weekly,
semi-weekly or monthly - based on your business's time
requirements. These can be as short as 10 minutes or up to an
hour, providing ample time to give feedback, hear concerns or
talk about new projects and personal development. Then, look
for informal opportunities to touch base, using a few minutes
before or after opening/closing, or grabbing a cup of coffee
during a brief moment of down time.
The key is to keep the lines of communication open to
further develop those emotional connections.
I've found that transparency is one of the key areas to
focus on. When I led the hort/lawn and garden division for
a national big box retailer, senior managers were provided
a weekly sales and contribution report (SAC) that provided
weekly, monthly, YTD against plan comparatives for all of
the significant data points, by department. We were on a
retail accounting system, so these data points included sales,
purchase markup (PMU), markdowns by type (promotional,
price reductions, etc.), shrink, GM and contribution (GM less
freight, distribution and marketing expenses).
Most leaders kept these reports under wraps, sharing
info on a need-to-know basis with their teams. However, I
published the report to my headquarters and field teams
weekly, so the entire team could monitor our performance.
My feeling was that the team had more impact on the
results than I did, so it was to our mutual benefit if they could
see how their individual efforts impacted the entire team's
performance. Doing this gave them all " skin in the game "
and provided incentive to maintain personal involvement
and focus on achieving the planned results. And the strategy
worked; in 13 years, the team achieved a Golden SAC
(meeting/exceeding every financial element versus plan) an
unprecedented seven times!
I've said this before: your frontline team, the face of your
brand, has more impact on the customer experience than
your leadership team does. Keeping them involved and happy,
developing their skills, and inspiring and motivating them
are essential to meeting your financial goals. It's all about
engaging with...
Stan Pohmer is president of Pohmer Consulting Group in
Minnetonka, Minnesota. He can be reached at spohmer@pohmerconsulting.com
or 612.605.8799.
http://www.consulting.com
September/October 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September/October 2022
