One of the most important parts of being a manager is that you need to be a great role model for your people. One of the best people managers that I ever worked with would always go and work ‘on a till’ in the front line for an hour or so every day. She would cover breaks, and would also cover a shift once a month when she gave her best mystery shop performer of the previous month the day off. Not only that, when this manager was on the front line she did everything just as she expected her people to do. She was a perfect role model. She always looked the part, and she walked the talk. We will come back to her, I’m sure, in future blog posts.
Contrast that performance with another, more senior manager in the same organisation. Word went around that the new CEO of the group was going to do a ‘back to the floor’ exercise as part of his induction. You wouldn’t believe the furore that caused, but that’s another story! The senior manager in the story turned up at one of the retail units for his day on the front line. As it was the first time he had ever been near a customer, an experienced member of the team had been assigned to look after him. He turned up tieless and as she put it ‘looking a bit the worse for wear’. He then spent most of the morning on his Blackberry, despite the fact that team members were not allowed to have mobile phones with them on the tills. He actually served two customers, very badly! You can imagine what this did for his reputation when the story got around the company. Are you a positive or negative role model as a manager?
I agree Graham it’s absolutely essential to lead by example. The ‘do as I say, not as I do’ regime is not accepted by those who look up to you as a respected leader. As a general rule, we learn more by our visual senses than from auditory commands. Take our parents as an example! Mine, like many in the 60’s and 70’s smoked like chimneys but told their children never to do it – whilst wagging a nicotine stained finger at me and exhaling smoke with an almost ecstatic expression on their faces – what did I do when I turned 16? Of course I smoked! Like you Graham I managed to kick the habit eventually but ‘unlearning’ and removing that visual impression of ‘smoking is acceptable’ despite what was said to the contrary was almost indelible.
This is an extreme example of course but an insight into how powerful the visual example can be. Your teams will almost always ‘do as you do’, whether it’s the right or wrong way. It’s taking role play to the ultimate level and is by far the most effective training technique – to show your team how it’s done in real time, with real customers and their real needs.
Helen, thank you for that great comment! I had never thought of the smoking analogy before! Great to connect with you again, I know we met at a 4N meeting – hope all is going well for you!
Graham, you reminded me of a manager at a small chain grocery store where I worked part-time whilst still in school. I don’t remember his name but his image is engraved in my mind. When the staff were worked to the limit he’d leave his cubicle office and all the reports he had to fill out, and jump into the fray. Groceries, fruit and vegetables, the meat department, the till, he could work them all. A real inspiration to the rest of us!
And that was before the days of computers, when all the sales ledgers had to be filled in with a pen and I guess you had to add up the prices in your head too!