Managing the Management

I had a brief stint as a retail manager. By brief, I mean about a year and a half. It was, without a doubt, the most anxiety-filled overwhelming task I've ever participated in, but I learned more about myself and others in that short time than probably any other period in my life. I learned things that can't be taught in a book; things like good confrontation skills, and the delicate balance between being fair and just without getting walked all over. At the peak of my store's season, I was wholly responsible for 28 employees, not to mention the merchandising and sales of 2 high volume departments. To complicate matters, I was all of 19 years old at the time (one of the youngest area sales managers in the company) and all but 2 of my associates were senior to me.

Looking back now, I'm not entirely sure how I survived. I remember many an afternoon/evening/morning sitting, crying at my tiny desk in the corner of my tiny stockroom after shrieked at, cussed out, and insulted by an irate customer (or even an associate). But much like vacations in Rocky Point, you have to experience hell to really appreciate heaven.

In spite of the routine compliments paid me by my district and store manager about my managing ability, I had little faith in myself at the time. It wasn't until later in life; after being managed by a series of less-than-adequate managers in various positions myself, that I realized how good my associates really had it. They were the real reason I stayed in that hell-job as long as I did. I loved my associates, well most of them. But the ones you love, those are the ones you get up in the morning for (or in my case just never go home and spend the night). Nothing in that godforsaken store came anywhere near watching someone actually enjoy their underpaid, overworked position just because you were able to create a pleasant working environment for them doing things they loved.

I had a wonderful mentor (ironically, in the one career I haven't pursued). Her name was Astrid Tuholski. She is German and was my first manager when I began my short career as a department store clothing salesperson. She was brilliant, everything I knew to do as a manger was just from watching her interact with her associates. She always knew exactly what to do to make her good associates love their job and make her bad ones hate it, all the while appearing completely professional and appropriate.

Here's some of what I learned from her:

• Make your associate(s) your number one priority; before merchandise, deadlines, goals, even bosses; if they're happy everything else will fall into place.
• Be a buffer for your associate(s), it's your job to get yelled at by irate customers, co-worker's or annoying bosses; not theirs.
  
• Be an example for your associate(s) to follow.
• Never expect an associate to do something you're not willing to do yourself.
• Never expect as much out of your associate(s) as you do yourself, that's why you get paid more than them (hopefully).
• Be very selective and hesitant when fraternizing with associates (better yet, just avoid it altogether).
• Confrontation is part of the job so get over your fear of it (or learn how to fake it well) because you WILL NOT make a very good manager.