I had a boss who had a  nickname – “The Bullet.” Roger, his real name, was the head of store operations for Hannaford, and like the nickname implied, he moved fast and hit hard. He called things like he saw him, and while he wasn’t always right (He’d say that he was), he was never in doubt. Roger was a typical ‘command and control’ leader who was gifted at motivating people and making things happen. While many leaders contributed to Hannaford’s early success, Roger was the execution guy (pun intended), where it mattered most, in our stores.

My favorite Roger story took place when I was a new assistant manager in Seabrook, NH and  Roger visited my grocery store unannounced. In retail, we referred to this as being “Batman’d.” Remember how the TV Batman would scale up the side of a building to surprise his foe by jumping in through a window? Well Roger, like Batman, would appear in a store unannounced to catch you by surprise. This was a big deal because typically if corporate (the uppity-ups) were coming, you made sure your store looked in grand opening condition. Think of it like hosting a party at your home. You pull out the stops to make sure everything is just right. This is good context, but not why we are here so let me get back to the story.

When Roger came walking in, I was terrified but felt confident that my store was in pretty good shape.  Boy was I about to find out just how wrong I was. With Roger at my side, I saw an entirely different store than I had just a few minutes before, and let me tell you, it wasn’t pretty. The floors weren’t as clean as I thought, empty shelves miraculously appeared, employees approached us missing their name tags, and my fresh departments weren’t quite as ‘fresh’ as I remembered that morning when I did a store walk. The ultimate embarrassment occurred when we entered the snack aisle, and there was a huge bag of popped popcorn resting on top of the aisle marker that hung down from the ceiling. Roger asked me how long I thought the bag of popcorn was ‘up there.’ I told him I wasn’t sure but suspected it’s been up there for quite a while. He agreed and proceeded to tell me that people often  ‘look’ but don’t ‘see’ and as a new manager, I was doing a lot of looking and not much seeing. He said while this was normal human behavior, it was unacceptable for someone, in this case me, who was in charge of a grocery store.

Roger could have berated me but instead he taught me a lesson that has stayed with me my entire life. The lesson is that we live our lives in routines where we miss a lot of what is happening around us. In most instances, missing the obvious does little or no harm. But in some situations, it can cause big time trouble. This is especially true for leaders who fail to see what’s really happening around them. Failing this, they can put their company at risk not to mention eroding the trust people have in them. My friend and fellow podcaster, Joyce Wilson-Sanford, refers to this phenomenon as having blind spots and that we all have them. Joyce argues that good leaders recognize this and seek help and feedback to mitigate them.

If we often look but don’t see what’s important to our work, then what can we do about it? In looking back to Roger’s visit, there are some things that I could have done differently that may provide clues to this question. They include:

• Seeing the store with a fresh set of eyes – This is an expression for what happens when you see or experience something for the first time. You see things  with fresh eyes and take it all in with wonder, perhaps caution, and a lot of curiosity. This sharpens your focus and has you look deeper, seeking to understand what’s going on. If I had begun my store walk as if I was seeing my store for the very first time, I would have probably seen what I saw with Roger at my side.   
• Shifting my perspective – I could have walked the store that morning as if I had an imaginary Roger walking right beside me. This perspective forces me to ask what Roger would see if he was walking the store. Looking at a situation from the perspective of someone you respect forces you to get out of your head by seeing something from their perspective. Shifting perspective is also a powerful way to resolve conflicts by seeing  disagreements through the eyes of people with whom we disagree.
• Breaking up my routine – If I had done my store walk differently, say starting in the last aisle, I suspect I would have seen the store differently and hopefully with a bit more focus and intention. So much of our lives we are on autopilot and changing routines is a good way to see how our habits may be limiting us. I had a coaching client who told me the best thing coming out of our coaching was my advice for her to take a different way each time she went from her office to the bathroom and back. By changing routine, she ran into and interacted with more of her associates than before. The affinity for her grew through these informal, daily check-ins with her team. As important, she gained new insights on what was really going on that increased her effectiveness.
• Make a checklist – I managed a store before having a store walk checklist became a standard operating procedure. If I had a checklist of what to specifically look for that day, I would in all likelihood have seen what’s most important to our customers (and to Roger). FYI, I probably would still not have seen that dang bag of popcorn. This is a cautionary point because a store checklist can result in tunnel vision where you only see what you are being asked to check on.  
• Ask others the question, “How do you see this?” – Getting another person’s opinion is a great way to challenge your own beliefs. It helps to uncover our blind spots. Asking this question is perhaps the most powerful question a leader can ask. It shows respect for the person’s opinion you are asking and help’s when you haven’t a clue to what is really going on. As a new assistant store manager, there was a lot I was clueless about and if I only asked this question more, I could have avoided a lot of mistakes and lumps on my head.

That’s it for now. If you liked this blog story, I invite you to join me and Joyce Wilson-Sanford on our Bob’nJoyce Talk HR & OD Podcast. You can find us at:

I want to thank Roger Hoyt and all of the mentors that I have had to help me along the way. I hope to share more stories this year that informs and amuses. I hope you got something from today’s blog that you can apply to your own life or, at the very least, had a good laugh at my expense.

Be well,

Bob Stapleton

The Breakthru blog