This month I had an opportunity to visit and participate at the NRF which for those of us that have never been, it is one of the largest if not THE largest tech retail trade shows in North America.
I had my first experience being interviewed for a podcast and speaking with other leaders on a panel where we discussed employee engagement and why it matters.
It has always been important to me as a leader, the more organizations that believe in this, the more successful they will be. It was a tremendous experience one that I thoroughly enjoyed.
As leaders in retail, I find it our responsibility to lead in a way that shows who we are, and we care so that our employees can do their best. More importantly, we create a place where they want to be their best, not because of therapy check but because of the passion and enthusiasm we have that transfers down to our frontline employees.
I have learned over the years that If you do not have a strategy and are actively working on your culture it doesn’t mean you don’t have one, every store and office does it just may not be the one you want.
At retailu we are always building courses that are relevant and teach not only retail management and leadership skills, but also develop life skills. WHY? Because we think that if we can build better people, we can make a difference to the planet we live on and develop better businesses. With this in mind, we just finished writing the lesson plan for relationship selling which will be launching soon. I think this is going to be a great one for anyone that wants to develop stronger selling skills and the ability to build relationships with their customers.
As we were finishing up the script for the lessons, I realized that a lot of the content within this course is teaching us to be more mindful of others so that we can form genuine connections.
Mindfulness means to pay attention, be aware of situations and things happening around you so that your response is more thoughtful, which in my mind is the best way to form relationships!
Reflecting on this, we decided to rename the course to mindful selling.
In the world that we live in, we as leaders should be more mindful, of the customers we serve, the waste that we create, the employees that we pay and the way we behave, the business that we build, the families that we raise and how we interact in the world at large.
Here are a few things for us as leaders to consider to become more mindful in the workplace, and our homes.
1. Slow down and say Hello! This sounds so simple however when you have a million things on your todo list it’s not always easy. Today I read on LinkedIn a letter from the president CEO of London Drugs to a woman whose mother had worked for them. It was a letter acknowledging the loss of this woman that had worked for LD and it was so beautifully written it made me think how well do we know our people? And if something was to happen would we know who their families are or even who to contact in a situation like that? Makes you think!
2. Before making decisions consider how people will feel. It does not mean that you may change your choice based on how people will feel, but it may give you perspective on how to communicate change especially when it affects others. Be mindful of the bigger picture and how peoples feelings can influence that. Our teams are the ones that deliver every day, how they feel about what you do is essential.
3. Think about what you think about. The time we spend thinking about solutions versus the problems will serve our teams well. This is a big one; our team needs us to be resilient, I just finished up a video lesson on this. Focusing on solutions and thinking about them create resilience and help instill this core competency in our people. Building resilience is crucial, its called weathering the storm and then be strengthened by it. This is a core behaviour that I look for in leaders when hiring today.
Think about it. Mindfulness Selling…How to make your relationships count.
Can’t wait to launch it…coming soon.
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