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Hi, I just downloaded your Iphone app and have been listening to your pod cast and I am really enjoying them.  
 
I also just became a member of your web site. 
 
I was listening to the "one on one's" and I have a few questions.  We own 4 pawnshops and have 18 employees.  My Dad was a self taught manager/owner.  I graduated from college in 2000 with a business degree.  I have pretty much learned how to manage on my own since my dad is not real good at communication.  My dad is a very quiet man and has very little communication at all before I graduated from college my dad really only had to manage 1 or 2 employees.    Since I got out of college we expanded our store locations  and employees now having 18 employees for me to manage.  My dad just kick back  now making pretty much no decisions whatsoever!
 
I have a Manager and asst. Manager and 2 employees at each location.  The manager and asst manager are on Salary only.  The employees are hourly.  I am the VP and I "float" to all the stores through out the week.  I look over reports and just check on things.  My relationship with everyone is surface.  I try to create a very positive atmosphere and my employees know what we expect as far as customer service and store appearance.  We have manager, asst manager, and employee meetings at Ihop about 3 times a year.   
 
I want to do one on one's but I am worried that I will be asking or going over the same items every week.  (not the personal things but the store things)
What do I talk about.... The stores stay clean and organized......I feel like everyone has a good attitude and treat customers well.....so what am I meeting for.  We do not go over sales or loans with the employees.  We do not offer commission because we do not know how to structure it. 
 
Usually when I go to the stores I ask how everyone is doing and usually I just get a 30 second run down and that is about it.  I always ask people if they need anything and I usually get a no.  So I am worried that these one on ones would be very short and repetitive.
 
Also, where would we meet.  Would me meet somewhere  in the store in a conner and stand?   Each store has a desk but it is in the middle of the work area.  Also, I have alot of female employees so I do not want to take them alone outside the workplace.  Any suggestions.   Also would you say I have One on ones with all 18 employees?
 
 
Thanks very much and I am looking forward to hearing from you.
 
 
Brian

acao162's picture

Welcome to MT, glad to have you as part of the community! 

Sounds to me like you haven't listened to all the older O3s podcasts?  If you go to the Podcasts area & then sort by One-on-Ones, it will give you a big list to listen to.  That might clear some of your questions up.

To hurry you along though....there is a great O3 document you can download & use for the O3.  Remember the format - 10 min for them, 10 for you, 10 for the future.  The document has great questions to get you started too. 

My suggestion is that you start with your managers, starting with the best one. There's a sample e-mail you can download too, or use it as a way to kick start the conversation.

As far as where, is there a break room, stock room or other corner you could use?  It doesn't have to be in an office, just away from traffic.  You don't have to go offsite, maybe outside - back of the store?  I'm just guessing, as I don't know what your physical location looks like.  Essentially, find a spot that is quiet, tell the other staff you two are in a meeting for 30 minutes & are not to be disturbed. 

Good luck! 

bug_girl's picture

It sounds like you have a good crew to work with!  You're in a really enviable position--you don't have to address performance issues, and you have lots to give positive feedback about.

Speaking as a relative newbie--I found that I've gotten great results by beginning with listening.

What would your managers like to do with your facetime? What do they need help with? Do they know you think things look good?

The thing that helped me the most as I transitioned into "proper" management was thinking of myself as being primarily a supporter, not a law-giver.

Good luck!

 

(and if you don't remember, the law giver :)

 

cruss's picture
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I agree with all the other posters and would like to add a couple of points beyond the O3s.

1: Are you training your managers to be better managers. 

I would suggest that once you roll out the Manager Tools trinity with your store managers you have them roll out these tools to their individual teams. You shouldn't be doing the 03s and giving feedback to each employee, the store managers should. You should be coaching them on the skills needed and then delegating these responsibilities to them. There are casts for both rolling out the trinity and for having your directs roll the trinity out to their teams.

 

2: Do you have a good system for measuring the performance of your employees?

You mentioned that you don't discuss sales and loans with employees. This makes me wonder how they know how well they are preforming? To me it sounds like you are in a retail business and aren't using sales and services (loans) numbers for your performance goals. You may need to implement some good proxies so each store and employee knows what goals they are trying to reach. This will give you (and them) a meaningful way to measure their progress towards these goals. Alternatively I would question why you aren't sharing these numbers with the employees. I'm sure you have good reasons, but you may need to ask if these reasons are serving the business needs for performance and growth.

There are some wonderful casts on goal setting that include examples of setting up proxies for things that are hard to measure.

Canyon R