I am sure we have all been given unrealistic goals. Goals set up by those in the home office that are seemingly impossible to attain. We will not go into the reasons the office sets those goals today but will look at what we can do about them as a store manager.
In the past I can tell you that I have set goals for my own store that have been different from what I was handed for the purpose of maintaining the morale of the store sales team. The reason for this is, when you set a goal the team knows they can't reach they are often beaten before they start. What I have done is to set my monthly goals the first of the year so we could overachieve. Then as we beat the early goals we had the ability to keep the momentum growing.
In most cases the company will give you a goal for a longer period(a yearly goal) we were then allowed to break this up in monthly numbers that would give us the yearly number. I always felt this was smart way to run the store because the company doesn't consider the value of the moral of the store when they decide how much your budget should be. Managers don't get down about this just accept it and move on. It is up to you to do what is right for your store that is why they pay you the big bucks.
I will tell you this you are the captain of your ship! I was opening a new store and it was opening day, the store was having our pre-opening meeting and we had two vice presidents in attendance the spirits were running high and it was my turn to speak. After going over the operational messages to the team I said for all to hear, my personal goal for our store was to beat the number one store in our region within the first year we were open. The response was an over-whelming cheer.
Two things came from this, one was we read our sales numbers in every morning meeting and compared them to the other store. The second was that one of the vice presidents in attendance that day became a help and inspiration to the store in our quest to be #1. I can proudly say that we became the number one volume store in the region in the first six months and I was well treated by the company for the accomplishment. I had been in Retail for many years at this point and had a very good feel for the store location before we opened so I felt this was a goal that was very possible, and the team had the desire to be the best they could be as well.
Goal setting needs to be SMART.
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely
Think about this when you are setting the goals. And hopefully those above you will think that way too. But if they don't you need to be creative in how you approach them with your team.
In the past I can tell you that I have set goals for my own store that have been different from what I was handed for the purpose of maintaining the morale of the store sales team. The reason for this is, when you set a goal the team knows they can't reach they are often beaten before they start. What I have done is to set my monthly goals the first of the year so we could overachieve. Then as we beat the early goals we had the ability to keep the momentum growing.
In most cases the company will give you a goal for a longer period(a yearly goal) we were then allowed to break this up in monthly numbers that would give us the yearly number. I always felt this was smart way to run the store because the company doesn't consider the value of the moral of the store when they decide how much your budget should be. Managers don't get down about this just accept it and move on. It is up to you to do what is right for your store that is why they pay you the big bucks.
I will tell you this you are the captain of your ship! I was opening a new store and it was opening day, the store was having our pre-opening meeting and we had two vice presidents in attendance the spirits were running high and it was my turn to speak. After going over the operational messages to the team I said for all to hear, my personal goal for our store was to beat the number one store in our region within the first year we were open. The response was an over-whelming cheer.
Two things came from this, one was we read our sales numbers in every morning meeting and compared them to the other store. The second was that one of the vice presidents in attendance that day became a help and inspiration to the store in our quest to be #1. I can proudly say that we became the number one volume store in the region in the first six months and I was well treated by the company for the accomplishment. I had been in Retail for many years at this point and had a very good feel for the store location before we opened so I felt this was a goal that was very possible, and the team had the desire to be the best they could be as well.
Goal setting needs to be SMART.
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely
Think about this when you are setting the goals. And hopefully those above you will think that way too. But if they don't you need to be creative in how you approach them with your team.
No comments:
Post a Comment