Retail Leadership Training
The Essential Retail Leadership Skills for Worn-Out Multiunit Managers
“Do more with less.” Is there any more tired phrase? In retail, though, it is, without a doubt, the everyday reality. Retail multiunit managers are struggling to deal with effective execution in the stores, retention issues, labor shortages, pressures on payroll, online competition, and on and on. These issues are always present to some degree,…
Read MoreMicrolearning Raises the Game for Retail Management Training
No matter how powerful a learning experience is, the bigger question on the minds of today’s retail executives is this: What do we have to show for it? When it comes to retention of key concepts, we know that people are up against the forgetting curve. Without effective reinforcement, what’s here today could easily be…
Read MoreDon’t Ignore the Leadership Development Needs of Store Support Leaders
Retailers rarely question the value of spending time and money on developing leaders in their field organizations. Regionals, DMs, store managers, and even assistants in stores receive formal and informal development and resources to help them hone their leadership ability and skills. But when we conducted national research with a number of retailers, we found…
Read MoreReadying Your People for the Next Big Retail Shake-Up
From Amazon’s growing brick-and-mortar presence to the news that Michael Kors is planning to buy Versace, if there is any industry that’s experiencing shake-ups, it’s retail. Mergers and acquisitions. Right-sizing and restructuring to make a company more competitive. Relocating headquarters. Adapting to increased pressure on distribution centers. And on and on and on. They’re all part…
Read MoreRetail Training ROI: The Key Variable You May Be Overlooking
When you send a district manager or buyer through a retail training workshop, it’s an investment of time, money, and effort — and that’s not even taking into account the fact that they’ll be away from their daily responsibilities. It’s also a down payment on the results and impact you expect to see when they return.…
Read MoreHere’s How Retail Managers Can Get More Strategic With Store Visits
We all know the power of being present. As a retail district manager or regional field leader, when you’re able to be present both mentally and physically, it magnifies the opportunity to influence and affect behavior. Of course, when you’re leading from a distance, the lion’s share of your communication doesn’t happen face to face. And that means…
Read MoreHow Retail Managers Use Technology to Lead from a Distance
When people talk about technology in retail, invariably they’re focused on things like omnichannel, mobile payments, robots and automation, product displays, and data analytics, among other digital tools and solutions. But there’s another way technology influences everything that happens in the retail environment, and that’s through internal communication. Particularly for multiunit retail managers like district…
Read MoreWhy Retail District Managers Need More Than On-The-Job Training
If you ever doubted that retail is its own breed, take a generic leadership development course. You’ll quickly discover that what applies in other types of organizations doesn’t necessarily translate. It’s not just the setting — although the environment certainly is a factor — it’s the nature of the challenges, the dynamics of the different people…
Read MoreIs Your Retail Manager Training Making an Impact? Here’s How to Find Out
One of the biggest challenges of so-called “soft skills” behavior-based training is measuring return on investment. Did the time and money spent on the training deliver dividends back to the business? And how can we sustain and keep building on that value? This is a big concern for retailers when they take leaders away from…
Read More4 Skills Retail Leaders Need to Succeed
We’re often asked what key skills and behaviors store managers, district leaders, and other retail leaders need to succeed in today’s challenging retail environment. While the retail world continues to go through disruption and upheaval, we’ve seen through our continuing research over the years that there are a few core, foundational attributes that are consistently…
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