In my last blog, I talked about food retailing being about doing a lot of little things right again and again. It’s called doing the basics. When I got promoted to ‘running’ a group of drug stores, my job, or so I thought, was to check and make sure that the basics were happening. If this sounds like a boring, rote task, it was. I was a checker whose job it was to check to make sure other checkers, my store managers, were doing their jobs. I reported to a regional director who checked to make sure that I was checking on my managers. And so on…
Do you see the absurdity of this not to mention the redundancy and wasted manpower?
Later in my career, I had a boss, Rick Anicetti, who described this phenomenon well. Rick pointed out the craziness of having multiple checkers all checking the same exact thing. The visual he shared was of a bunch of checkers (a vice president, director, district manager, store manager, and department manager) all walking a produce case together. The VP sees a spoiled tomato on the stand who hands it to the director, who hands it to the DM ,who hands it store manager, who finally hands it to the embarrassed department manager. This process repeats itself until the poor department manager arms are full of decaying produce. Rick was quick to point out just what a waste of time and talent this is. There was no learning taking place, only shame and humiliation. Unfortunately, this was all too common back then, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it is still happening today.
Today’s story took place when I was a drug store district manager before I had the benefit of Rick’s wisdom. I was responsible for 15 stores in central Maine and, looking back, I would describe myself as an uninspiring checker for my first two years in the role. My days were filled visiting stores and making a list of everything that in my opinion wasn’t right. After completing my store walk with list in hand, I would review it with the anxious store manager. As you can guess, this is not at all inspiring, but I made it worse. I would use carbon paper (Remember carbon paper?) to create two copies of the list so I could recheck on my next visit. I suspect they called me, ‘Carbon Bob’ behind my back. No wonder store managers dreaded my visits which I was able to later confirmed. Many years later, I ran into one of my old store managers at a meeting and asked her to describe my leadership back then. She said, “Oh, that’s easy, you were intense.” Being described as intense still makes me grimace despite appreciating Denise’s honesty.
This is where I need to take a deep cleansing breath as I am embarrassed that I was such a blasé, unimaginative manager.
I certainly wasn’t acting like a leader who teaches, empowers, and motivates others. I was more like a ref keeping score! About two years into the DM job, I had an awakening when a new VP, Bob Dunton, became my boss. I learned quickly that being a checker who checked the checker wasn’t going to cut it with him. I started to shift the conversation with my store managers conveying that I trust them to do their jobs well and that my role was to motivate, teach, and stretch them. Over time, they became less reliant on me, freeing me up to add value by growing the business and exploring new locations. To describe the changes I made, here is a before and after description of my behaviors:
From focusing on what’s wrong to focusing on possibilities
From telling to asking
From being intense to having fun
From walking the store alone to walking the store with employees
From being 100% store focused to 100% customer and employee focused
From finding problems to solving problems together
From micromanaging to challenging and stretching
From reviewing a list to having a conversation
From getting exhausted and discouraged to being energized and inspired
Looking back, this shift in my development had a tangible and lasting impact for Hannaford and my managers. Checking the checker is like playing a game of monkey see monkey do. Once my store managers understood that I was no longer micromanaging them, they stepped up and took more ownership and initiative in their stores. Working retail is stressful enough and by lowering my intensity, I dare say the work became fun. I am not sure they looked forward to my store visits, but I am confident they didn’t dread them. In my final two years as a drug store DM, my store count and store sales grew, and we became profitable for the very first time. I am confident that this would not have happened with my head buried in a list.
For strategic reasons, Hannaford later divested of the drug stores but I had a sustaining positive impact in the grocery stores. This resulted from my efforts that led to the purchase of eight independent drug stores that later became in-store pharmacies with Hannaford. One of those purchases included an independent IGA in Yarmouth ME that went on to become a very profitable store for the company. None of that might have happened if I remained a checker checking the checker list maker.
My appreciation goes out to the late Bob Dunton, my VP while at Wellby Drug Stores, for showing me a new way of being and leading. He passed away much too soon and was a true Mainer and all-around great guy. My appreciation also goes out to Rick Anicetti, for shifting my paradigm on what a productive store visit could be. Without these mentors, I might still be walking the grocery aisles with clipboard in hand and head down.
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See you soon!
Bob Stapleton
Breakthru 
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