December 19, 2012
Should Retailers Fire ‘Just Good Enough’ Managers?
All of us have had the experience of shopping in stores that aren’t bad enough to cause us to stop going back and not good enough that we really enjoy the experience.
It’s often not the big things, like keeping product in stock or having a decent price, but the little things, like keeping soap in soap dispensers, cashiers greeting you with a smile, reducing predictable waits, etc.
Just the other day I was in the post office (not known to be a bastion of customer service, but they try). A customer was hand printing shipping addresses on a few labels, holding up the entire line. The postal clerk looked at one label and said, "Is that a ‘P’?" The customer said "yes" and the clerk replied, "In what country?" It was funny, but not good customer service.
My inclination is to blame those types of experiences on the manager for not training employees properly and rigorously enforcing standards. In an article in the Gallup Business Journal, the managing director of Abdul Latif Jameel, the sole distributor of Toyota in Saudi Arabi, says that it is better to have a terrible manager than one who is just good enough. Raad Al-Saady says that barely passable managers tend to hang on because they don’t do anything too wrong (while really bad managers get canned). This leads to the "slow poison" of mediocrity.
The great ones are highly engaged, which leads to optimum team results. But average leaders don’t take ownership of their organization. Their teams are not motivated and deliver "OK" results, but never raise the bar. They also don’t stand out because they aren’t screwing up too badly.
The key, says Mr. Al-Saady, is to use a clear set of criteria to measure performance potential, categorize managers by performance and potential, and make sure they are in roles that get the most out of them.
"It all starts with assessing people properly," concludes Mr. Al-Saady. "If you only put great leaders in leadership positions, you’ll root out mediocrity before it can spread."
An article on human resources on About.com, meanwhile, says that there are seven keys for effective managers:
- Build effective interpersonal relationships
- Communicate effectively in person, print, and via e-mail
- Build a great team and enable staff to collaborate with each other
- Understand the businesses finances, set goals, and document progress
- Create an environment where employees are motivated to succeed as a team
- Lead by example and recognize achievement
- Help associates grow and develop skills
BrainTrust
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
How important is it for retailers to identify and get rid of “just good enough” managers? What are the best ways to assess individuals and advance the right people into management?
Poll
Here’s an employee truism: “How we are managed is how we serve.” If you want ‘just good enough’ sales and customer service than hire ‘just good enough’ managers. If you want something else, hire something else.
The answer is—it depends. It would be great to live in a world where retail organizations knew that they could terminate a “just good enough manager” and have a great one ready to step in. If that is the case the answer is sure, replace them. Actually that environment might motivate some of those on line to be better managers.
When you operate a large number of retail stores you are going to have some managers that are great, some that are good, some that are just good enough and some that need to be allowed to be successful elsewhere. Given that distribution, the company is naturally going to work first on those that need to go.
That doesn’t mean the next level shouldn’t be addressed, but the risk in replacing a bad manager is less than in replacing one who is getting by. With the bad manager, the assumption is that there is only one way to go, and that is up. With the okay manager you could go up or down.
Bottom line: No one will deny that the just-good-enough manager needs to improve, but before termination additional coaching/training might be a better answer for the company.
Before we get rid of anyone we need to understand the nature of the less than delightful service. Is it a systems problem which manifests itself as a personnel problem, or simply a personnel issue?
First we need to be sure that the system is in place to allow the sales person to effectively and efficiently do his or her job. For example, was there someone assigned to make sure the soap dispenser was full? Was there a procedure in place to identify and address predictable wait times?
On the other hand, once the system is in place, we need to FIRE up the staff: Find them, Involve them, Reward them, and Empower them. If we don’t, even the best system will produce the mediocre interactions noted in this article.
Fire them! Well, not necessarily…it all comes down to whether they are on the right seat on the bus. They may be a ‘just good enough’ manager, but excel as an individual contributor. Find the roles that suit them.
It is key to have a manager that can not only execute well, but build and motivate a team. Customers can feel the vibe when they walk into a well managed store with a good team vs average.
Retail in the US is not exactly a place where managers get access to a lot of training. I would venture a guess that if retail managers were surveyed about access to training about the seven steps listed above, there would be a notable lack of access.
If retailers were to fire “just good enough” managers and replace them with new managers, what is the benefit of starting over versus investing in better or some level of training? If, however, managers participate in training and remain “just good enough” the decision to start over is okay.
The wage scale is also an issue, but that’s a whole different conversation.
Oh my. Should we not start by looking at the training (or more likely, the lack thereof) that the companies provide their store managers? While a lot of retailers have come a long way toward seeing the need to properly train their store managers, too many still don’t provide enough training. Think about it: Where are store managers supposed to learn the immense skills they need to run their stores and teams? It’s not like colleges and universities are providing them with the type of training that engineers, nurses and plumbers are getting.
We take good salespeople and turn them into managers without always giving them the training they need. What do you expect in terms of performance when this is the case?
To the question of evaluating and managing the performance of ‘just good enough’ and all managers, retailers need to incorporate a balanced scorecard approach to evaluating total store performance. Instead of just looking at total store sales, a more comprehensive approach to store evaluation should be used.
Raise the bar on everyone in the stores … good, average and poor staff alike. Accepting mediocrity is the death of retail. Just make sure that you, as a retailer, are doing your part to make them successful.
The more relevant question—especially for a chain retailer with multiple locations—is whether the company’s training and policies are also “just good enough.” Are the management tools and professional development in place that might allow good managers to become better, in order to weed out the truly mediocre (or worse)? It’s a fair question, especially if your company is loaded with “just OK” performers.
“Just good enough” is really a sliding scale based on what service level the retailer offers its customers. A higher end retailer could never afford to have a “just good enough” manger. A lower end retailer, not known for service (and probably not that successful) might get away with a manager that isn’t a superstar—but for how long?
Consumers are smarter. They expect more from just about anywhere they spend their money. A manager does more than just manage. He/she trains and influences the culture.
I think the question is rhetorical. It’s not about how important it is to get rid of “just good enough” managers. It’s when to get rid of them. The short answer is when they prove that they are “just good enough.”
Best ways to assess and advance the right people is a tricky question. I’ve seen companies promote their best sales people to management. When it works, great. When it doesn’t, its a lose/lose. The person turns out to be a better sales person than a manager. What the company gets is a mediocre manager and a loss of one of their best sales people. On the flip-side, sometimes great managers make lousy sales people. Bottom line is find someone good at managing, and that is not always promoting people out of what they are really good at—unless they are obviously the best person for the job.
I could post all of the articles and blogs I have written on this topic but I will make it simple.
The worst employee at any level you can have is the one who is just OKAY. If they are really bad you get rid of them. If they are great you should be doing everything you can to retain them. If they are just okay, you accept them. In today’s world MEDIOCRITY is a slow death.
In the retail store of today you are more likely to face termination for poor monetary performance than any other reason. The only other cause for being high on the waiver list is potentially compromising personal conduct and interaction with employees and customers.
The market pressures to slash wages and expand work hours for salaried employees make recruiting and developing individuals with the talent described in this report an impossible job for even the best retail H/R professionals. In any effort to describe the true nature of the problems causing this scale of mediocrity amongst the line managers in retail, a look at what these managers are facing is exactly where to begin. Any and all scores to consider these managers for salary increase, promotion and bonus is largely governed by profit contribution to corporate. There is no store environmental goal except for safety that is identified, remedied, budgeted and placed as a must-do ahead of “acceptable” profit levels that I have ever seen. This keeps these skills very dull among many of the managers in position today for even those managers that had them coming into position.
Therefor it might follow that there is another need to be included with the ones provided in this article. That is for executive management to take ownership for these line management needs and to devise a business plan built solely on customer service that will provide the desired profits as a result of implementation. Perhaps the reason retail executives are sluggish in this direction is simply because of their knowledge of turnover, training costs and employee flight risk levels within the retail industry. The solution to these three problems will enable executive management with the time and funds necessary to acquire the level of management capability described.
Based on ownership of 28 QSR restaurants, my experience teaches me thatfront line managers at retail can add up to 15% in topline revenue. The incremental flow-through profitability on those dollars was consistently 55%+ of those dollars.
Strong leaders inspire associates, store appearance, customers, quality, and product turns. They then bolster associate-retention via better, ongoing training, and sales and profits continue to rise.
Store operations are vital for retail success. If brick & mortar merchants are not committed to store ops, they have a shortened history in front of them. Find the best management candidates, train them, pay them well, seek their input, and make them part of strategic and operational plans. It pays off for all concerned.
A semantic quibble perhaps, but I think it would make more sense to talk about getting rid of “not quite good enough” managers.
Anyway, back on topic, I see a problem with the 7 keys list. Where, exactly, is filling up the soap on the list? Or any of the other little—but not really little!—things alluded to in the second paragraph. Perhaps there should be an eighth key: 0. Know what your job responsibilities are.
Managers “coast” when the company hasn’t lived up to expectations. Have you cut the bonus package? How about staffing? Did you eliminate the assistant manager position? Or change the benefit package?
Most retailers practice a “just-in-time” employment approach and don’t plan on staff staying long enough to have a career. And when there is no advancement or something to reach for, you get no effort.
At this time of year, you see companies scrambling to fill positions. Why? Because this is the best time to dump an unsatisfactory job and find a better one. And when you see ads for the whole staff being replaced, then you know where not to work. Places like Glassdoor are making companies transparent and that’s a good thing!
Great topic but gee you Americans are spoiled. You have an absolutely fantastic service culture by international standards, despite low wages for service staff. Hell, you should come to Australia some time. You’ll pay twice as much for everything and metaphorically get your face slapped in the process!
I love shopping in the US, as do virtually ALL of my compatriots, because your stores are so well managed and staff have so much energy. They even greet you at the door with a smile and ask if they can help you. We go into Victoria’s Secret, Gap, Cheesecake Factory or Trader Joe’s and just go “wow!” You just don’t know how well off you are, my friends.
If a manager is “just good enough,” then I move up one rung on the org chart and hold his/her manager accountable for failing to maximize that individual’s potential.
The worst senior leadership failure in retail is the lack of courage or ability to remove mediocrity at the front line supervisory levels. It has been my experience through 30+ years of leading in retail environments that the only real difference between a consistently performing location and one that does not, is the leader.
- Twice a year, force rank all your store leaders, using consistent measurements including competencies and results.
- Have clear action plans to protect and develop the top 10-20%.
- Have equally clear, no-excuses methods for improving or removing the bottom 10-20% over the next 6 months.
- Have strong, consistent development efforts for all (courses, projects, etc.).
- Do steps 1-4 forever….
More Discussions
How Timely Is the Planned Lowe’s Website Renovation Focusing on Personalization?
Is Lowe’s being timely with its website reno, and is it right to be placed as…Should Costco Be Opening Members-Only Gas Stations?
Is this the right move for the warehouse club?As Boomers ‘Age Out of Peak Purchasing,’ How Can National Brands Retain Interest With Gen Z?
According to a recent First Insight study titled “Is Gen Z Still Choosing Your Brand,” while…
Here’s an employee truism: “How we are managed is how we serve.” If you want ‘just good enough’ sales and customer service than hire ‘just good enough’ managers. If you want something else, hire something else.
The answer is—it depends. It would be great to live in a world where retail organizations knew that they could terminate a “just good enough manager” and have a great one ready to step in. If that is the case the answer is sure, replace them. Actually that environment might motivate some of those on line to be better managers.
When you operate a large number of retail stores you are going to have some managers that are great, some that are good, some that are just good enough and some that need to be allowed to be successful elsewhere. Given that distribution, the company is naturally going to work first on those that need to go.
That doesn’t mean the next level shouldn’t be addressed, but the risk in replacing a bad manager is less than in replacing one who is getting by. With the bad manager, the assumption is that there is only one way to go, and that is up. With the okay manager you could go up or down.
Bottom line: No one will deny that the just-good-enough manager needs to improve, but before termination additional coaching/training might be a better answer for the company.
Before we get rid of anyone we need to understand the nature of the less than delightful service. Is it a systems problem which manifests itself as a personnel problem, or simply a personnel issue?
First we need to be sure that the system is in place to allow the sales person to effectively and efficiently do his or her job. For example, was there someone assigned to make sure the soap dispenser was full? Was there a procedure in place to identify and address predictable wait times?
On the other hand, once the system is in place, we need to FIRE up the staff: Find them, Involve them, Reward them, and Empower them. If we don’t, even the best system will produce the mediocre interactions noted in this article.
Fire them! Well, not necessarily…it all comes down to whether they are on the right seat on the bus. They may be a ‘just good enough’ manager, but excel as an individual contributor. Find the roles that suit them.
It is key to have a manager that can not only execute well, but build and motivate a team. Customers can feel the vibe when they walk into a well managed store with a good team vs average.
Retail in the US is not exactly a place where managers get access to a lot of training. I would venture a guess that if retail managers were surveyed about access to training about the seven steps listed above, there would be a notable lack of access.
If retailers were to fire “just good enough” managers and replace them with new managers, what is the benefit of starting over versus investing in better or some level of training? If, however, managers participate in training and remain “just good enough” the decision to start over is okay.
The wage scale is also an issue, but that’s a whole different conversation.
Oh my. Should we not start by looking at the training (or more likely, the lack thereof) that the companies provide their store managers? While a lot of retailers have come a long way toward seeing the need to properly train their store managers, too many still don’t provide enough training. Think about it: Where are store managers supposed to learn the immense skills they need to run their stores and teams? It’s not like colleges and universities are providing them with the type of training that engineers, nurses and plumbers are getting.
We take good salespeople and turn them into managers without always giving them the training they need. What do you expect in terms of performance when this is the case?
To the question of evaluating and managing the performance of ‘just good enough’ and all managers, retailers need to incorporate a balanced scorecard approach to evaluating total store performance. Instead of just looking at total store sales, a more comprehensive approach to store evaluation should be used.
Raise the bar on everyone in the stores … good, average and poor staff alike. Accepting mediocrity is the death of retail. Just make sure that you, as a retailer, are doing your part to make them successful.
The more relevant question—especially for a chain retailer with multiple locations—is whether the company’s training and policies are also “just good enough.” Are the management tools and professional development in place that might allow good managers to become better, in order to weed out the truly mediocre (or worse)? It’s a fair question, especially if your company is loaded with “just OK” performers.
“Just good enough” is really a sliding scale based on what service level the retailer offers its customers. A higher end retailer could never afford to have a “just good enough” manger. A lower end retailer, not known for service (and probably not that successful) might get away with a manager that isn’t a superstar—but for how long?
Consumers are smarter. They expect more from just about anywhere they spend their money. A manager does more than just manage. He/she trains and influences the culture.
I think the question is rhetorical. It’s not about how important it is to get rid of “just good enough” managers. It’s when to get rid of them. The short answer is when they prove that they are “just good enough.”
Best ways to assess and advance the right people is a tricky question. I’ve seen companies promote their best sales people to management. When it works, great. When it doesn’t, its a lose/lose. The person turns out to be a better sales person than a manager. What the company gets is a mediocre manager and a loss of one of their best sales people. On the flip-side, sometimes great managers make lousy sales people. Bottom line is find someone good at managing, and that is not always promoting people out of what they are really good at—unless they are obviously the best person for the job.
I could post all of the articles and blogs I have written on this topic but I will make it simple.
The worst employee at any level you can have is the one who is just OKAY. If they are really bad you get rid of them. If they are great you should be doing everything you can to retain them. If they are just okay, you accept them. In today’s world MEDIOCRITY is a slow death.
In the retail store of today you are more likely to face termination for poor monetary performance than any other reason. The only other cause for being high on the waiver list is potentially compromising personal conduct and interaction with employees and customers.
The market pressures to slash wages and expand work hours for salaried employees make recruiting and developing individuals with the talent described in this report an impossible job for even the best retail H/R professionals. In any effort to describe the true nature of the problems causing this scale of mediocrity amongst the line managers in retail, a look at what these managers are facing is exactly where to begin. Any and all scores to consider these managers for salary increase, promotion and bonus is largely governed by profit contribution to corporate. There is no store environmental goal except for safety that is identified, remedied, budgeted and placed as a must-do ahead of “acceptable” profit levels that I have ever seen. This keeps these skills very dull among many of the managers in position today for even those managers that had them coming into position.
Therefor it might follow that there is another need to be included with the ones provided in this article. That is for executive management to take ownership for these line management needs and to devise a business plan built solely on customer service that will provide the desired profits as a result of implementation. Perhaps the reason retail executives are sluggish in this direction is simply because of their knowledge of turnover, training costs and employee flight risk levels within the retail industry. The solution to these three problems will enable executive management with the time and funds necessary to acquire the level of management capability described.
Based on ownership of 28 QSR restaurants, my experience teaches me thatfront line managers at retail can add up to 15% in topline revenue. The incremental flow-through profitability on those dollars was consistently 55%+ of those dollars.
Strong leaders inspire associates, store appearance, customers, quality, and product turns. They then bolster associate-retention via better, ongoing training, and sales and profits continue to rise.
Store operations are vital for retail success. If brick & mortar merchants are not committed to store ops, they have a shortened history in front of them. Find the best management candidates, train them, pay them well, seek their input, and make them part of strategic and operational plans. It pays off for all concerned.
A semantic quibble perhaps, but I think it would make more sense to talk about getting rid of “not quite good enough” managers.
Anyway, back on topic, I see a problem with the 7 keys list. Where, exactly, is filling up the soap on the list? Or any of the other little—but not really little!—things alluded to in the second paragraph. Perhaps there should be an eighth key: 0. Know what your job responsibilities are.
Managers “coast” when the company hasn’t lived up to expectations. Have you cut the bonus package? How about staffing? Did you eliminate the assistant manager position? Or change the benefit package?
Most retailers practice a “just-in-time” employment approach and don’t plan on staff staying long enough to have a career. And when there is no advancement or something to reach for, you get no effort.
At this time of year, you see companies scrambling to fill positions. Why? Because this is the best time to dump an unsatisfactory job and find a better one. And when you see ads for the whole staff being replaced, then you know where not to work. Places like Glassdoor are making companies transparent and that’s a good thing!
Great topic but gee you Americans are spoiled. You have an absolutely fantastic service culture by international standards, despite low wages for service staff. Hell, you should come to Australia some time. You’ll pay twice as much for everything and metaphorically get your face slapped in the process!
I love shopping in the US, as do virtually ALL of my compatriots, because your stores are so well managed and staff have so much energy. They even greet you at the door with a smile and ask if they can help you. We go into Victoria’s Secret, Gap, Cheesecake Factory or Trader Joe’s and just go “wow!” You just don’t know how well off you are, my friends.
If a manager is “just good enough,” then I move up one rung on the org chart and hold his/her manager accountable for failing to maximize that individual’s potential.
The worst senior leadership failure in retail is the lack of courage or ability to remove mediocrity at the front line supervisory levels. It has been my experience through 30+ years of leading in retail environments that the only real difference between a consistently performing location and one that does not, is the leader.