Occupassion 101 - Becoming a Retail Manager - How do I become one?

When I was 16, I got my first start working within the (customer) service industry in a restaurant as a dishwasher making $3.75 an hour, and no, I didn't trudge six miles in snow banks 47 million feet high to get there, my parents drove me to work, HA! It was my first obsession with money!! Is it still the root of all evil, I'll let you be the judge of that, but I guess you have to frame it into your own context. Yes, I went down that evil path we all experience when we think of all the things we can do with what we are paid to do, and trust me, I look at every bright shiny object known possible when you see dollar signs, HA! I had to learn quickly that spending more or writing checks that your body can't cash was something that hit me harder than a wall! I was definitely excited that my part-time job as a 16 year old teenager paid for my new Andre Agassi tennis shoes I could wear being a member of the JV Tennis Team when I was in high school with my first two-week paycheck totalling $131.82. Yes, one hundred thirty-one dollars and eighty two cents! I laugh, thinking I was richer than all creation with my first paycheck, but realistic enough to give me the passion to work more so I could make more money to afford more than the tennis shoes I bought with my own money. I still get angry at Uncle Sam for the taxes he takes out of my check then, as I do today *insert small giggle here* as I did then. Today, several industries and careers later, my "OCCUPASSION" lies within the customer service industry as an Assistant Store Manager. Full circle for sure given that customer service was my first career, but have spent the last six years working in retail as a management professional that has is my current occupassion. This little blog/article was written to hopefully provide my insight, candor, and resource for those almost 4.44 million employees in the United States that work as a retail employee from the May 2017 Bureau of Labor website (www.bls.gov, 2018).

So, I don't think I want to bore you with just a bunch of data and statistics, but rather share a few poignant things that I have experienced and the moments that I have enjoyed about being a retail management professional. But, there are a few key things you may want to think about whole-heartedly when making the choice to earn the profession of being a retail manager. I have had the opportunity to work in various spectrums of retail from luxury goods retail, big-box discount, and speciality retail, so again I am sharing the diversity of my experience. Most of us that are in the industry can probably think about these things we have all experienced at one time or another:

As a retail manager, we are in a low-wage profession, and you have to work your way to the higher level titles of ASM, SM/GM, DM, and RM that hopefully lead you to a living wage and that support and afford your lifestyle, most of us have bills to pay like many, and sometimes the reward may not be the compensation, really dependent on the fact that the skill level is not open-heart surgery or the VP of Sales for a Fortune 100 company. I don't think that most individuals make the choice in college to become an "Assistant Store Manager", "Store Manager", "General Manager" in college. For me, it was simply a matter of working within retail or customer service positions because they were easy skilled opportunities to make money in college, or to supplement the careers I was in which paid 95% of the bills.

Sometimes we start out working that "seasonal or part-time" opportunity to afford the addiction of shopping/retail that we become passionate about the product we are selling. Just ask me how many wallets, bags, briefcases I purchased when I was an Assistant Manager at Coach Men's, LOL! But, those titles put your skill sets in a higher range of compensation, and bonus plans, but also mean that with more money, becomes more physical labor, leading and coaching people at a higher level, and managing your administrative and operational tasks that lead to driving the SALES and the BOTTOM LINE of the company, remember. I think most of us can remember the days we had to cover a Manager on Duty or Leader on Duty shift for a peer, but what was worse was dealing with the constant time and attendance issues of call offs of your line-level employees and how you would cover it to manage your business operations trying to call someone in, or deal with the strategy of making it work with a staff of one to three less employees and feeling the weight lift when you call someone in that covers a shift to make your labor stats covered. But then, you realize that the call off wasn't so bad, because you saved on payroll and labor hours, but only good if you also had decreases in your sales and projections. I remember days where being short affected my store when we were super busy and missed out on more sales because we didn't have that extra person on the floor to drive sales.

So, what's my takeaway - As a retail professional, you will deal with sales and the people that run your business and their attendance and performance issues and throw you into a curve ball of who to call in and who to discipline through corrective action so you have to like people - employees/associates/team members/leaders and CUSTOMERS - Did I say, when in doubt, see RULE #1 - You are dealing with face-to-face emotions, personalities, and the human spirit and your connections to those people. Bottom line, you have to be willing to recognize the saving graces of your labor, but in turn, also deal with the crucial conversations of those that deal with time and attendance of your best and brightest of talent and the worst of your unskilled talent. You will be asked to use your labor in a way that makes sense to your business. How many retail managers have been asked to be smart with their labor, scheduling to the needs of business, scheduling based upon who my best sales people are and are they on during peak periods, what team members are only good as cashiers and operational tasks during slow peaks, who are my diamonds in the rough that can pull through, and at what level do I coach, discipline, and reward. Remembering that people are your product and those PEOPLE have a direct variable and tie to your SALES statistics and ability to produce and perform through SALES metrics - Sales is the equation of how people (customer and employee) and the tie to the buying power or vote of that product. People are your product. Just ask my teammates and peers at the number of times that I love to engage with our customer just as much as I do my peers.

Be ready to look at your sales performance, understand trends, and deal with the human capacity of your labor pool. In some situations, I have worked for a retailer that had many people on staff and situations where I was struggling to find coverage - either way, you have to make it work. Make sure your people skills and human resources (HR) acumen is developed. Here's the interesting statistic from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Website (www.bls.gov, 2018) from the May 2017 report that indicates that the mean hourly wage for a retail sales person is $13.20 and the median annual wages is $27,460. So, don't be surprised if the retailer you work for has wages that are not far from that when you reach your first tier of leadership (Keyholder, Supervisor, Team Leader, Manager in Training, and in some cases the Assistant Manger roles) that you will not be much above that median. So, for most of us in retail, we have to budget, work very hard, hope to focus in on key moments of approved overtime or an opportunity for extra compensation, and feeling as though we worked many hours and still feeling as though we question our value. I know that for me, I look to the moments where I can breathe, if you have an unrealistic picture of not working during peak holidays (Black Friday, Holiday/Christmas, etc.) then you will struggle. Most of us in retail look at a Tuesday to celebrate a birthday that is on the weekend, or have our Christmas on January 21 after the holiday ends for my family to celebrate those moments where we are not so tied to work e-mails, texts, and phone calls in our "out of the office" moments of the brick and mortar walls of our stores.

It doesn't matter what type of retailer you have worked for, some things will be the same. Sales is what it is all about. Remember, I used the "S" word several times in the previous paragraphs. One of my retailers I worked for mentioned that the key to being successful was to drive sales through the level of selling and service experiences and "life-styling" the need for luxury that leads them to be a preferred customer and driving loyalty (GILARAT - Sales and Selling Steps). Another retailer shared with me that we drive sales through service and being in-stock, and one retailer shared that selling and service is always a priority for our business. You should know that the profitability and margins and performance metrics that drive sales, is how you know your store is operating and making contributions to the company. As a manager/leader, you'll need to be able to articulate sales performance and where it is coming from and the trends that showcase your ability to exceed goal and speak to why the sales are not there in your business. Know and identify the root cause.

What was different for me in each of the retailers was the level of compensation and benefits I received, based upon the size of the company and the philosophy of treating talent as an employer of choice. I was at three different compensation ranges in each of the retailers that I worked for. One retailer was very clear at looking at my experience and educational background and compensated me for what I feel my value was, had a defined benefit and compensation plan surrounding merit increases and bonuses, another was great at not hiding the realistic picture of what compensation ranges were and showcased where you would be within the range of compensation if you got promoted into a leadership role as an internal promotion. Finally, one of the retailers I have worked for was very secretive about compensation ranges, no annual or semi-annual performance review with feedback and no opportunity for merit or bonus unless you had to ask for it because it is not a part of their HR values and culture, and also when given the opportunity to gain more skills or advancement, there is no clear cut guide to determine the value or equity of your skill or the level of training and development structure that allows you to clearly behave, act, and execute on the deliverables of the increased expectation and accountability given. To me, as a retail manager, I want support, recognition, the ability to showcase my development and reward me for doing that extra for bringing in more sales or more productivity. So, be very clear in determining what your compensation and benefits plan looks like, so that you are not within the many that struggle with their financial plan, because you accepted less than your worth and your skill set because your passion was worth more than the actual dollar value of your compensation and the compensation package. Be clear about your career profession, check your level of emotional intelligence (EQ), and define those goals and make them a part of your performance appraisal and be able to manage up and still to your personal values, and know how you can best work with your manager and how they can best manage you to determining the level of compensation that rewards you for the work. Your worth many times may go unrecognized or undefined so you will have to know how to celebrate individual wins among your team and store victories. Pat yourself on the back and use that in your "awards and recognition" categories on your resumes as you move up the retail management professional ladder.

Vocabulary! There are unique nuances to the retailer you work for but what KPIs (Key Performance Indicators - better known as Metrics) you will be measured on within your role and is there an operational plan that helps you get their realistically and what will put you on a performance plan to coach you up or out of that retailer. These metrics and statistics should be addressed during store visits from your District Manager (DM) or Regional Manager (RM) to know how your business operates and compares to benchmarks and how operationally sound you know where to make business decisions that showcase profits and margins that you own or help to lead with the rest of the individuals that work in that environment. Know what sparks sales and what the individual, store/team, and company goals that make those favorable for you- you'll hear terms of conversion percentage (the equation of the transactions wrung versus foot traffic into the store - how well do you convert a person that walks in to the store and actually makes a purchase or transaction. The alphabet soup and how they theme metrics is different at every retailer but somehow it relates to....WAIT FOR IT...sales and business performance leading to profitability and margins! Yay, so if you can know about these metrics: ADT/ADS (average dollar per transaction/sale), IPT/UPT (items per transaction/units per transaction), SPH (sales per hour), LY sales comp (last year's sales comparison - your ability to generate more sales than the comparative date from last year). The statistics and demographic of knowing your customer and the trends help you plan for how to hit the same sales or more than comparative to last year's numbers.

VISITS from leaders and corporate home office. I know retail managers/leaders that have dreaded these, failed at them, but I have also ran and experienced amazing store visits. As a retail leader - you will churn and burn through visits and audits of all kinds, not necessarily to tear you apart but rather to use those as learning and growing experiences and opportunities for you to identify root causes of problems and issues and how you as a leader can get to being a SOLUTION or SUCCESS Driven provider to getting your store better than the operations the day before. But yes, visits are announced and unannounced. Usually when you get a store audit, or store visit, they look at a number of factors - How well is your store performing from sales, operational functions per your companies policies and procedures (SOPs), and best practices, as well as how your store looks in terms of merchandise, positioning, marketability, and the level of the morale, culture, and ambiance (environment) when you walk into the store and how the employees are either united, motivated, engaged to customers and to their peers and leaders. These factors are all key when you get visited by your upper management (corporate leaders) who will visit for a number of reasons, either to provide you critical feedback (most leaders dread the fact that we will be "called out" or "sternly coached" for something that is not right, in lieu, of coaching and development or providing constructive feedback or criticism on an area of our store/business) or even coaching and resources to make something better than what it is currently.

Human Approach - Okay, so most of us have our beginning story of how we started within retail. I can share that with one retailer (and if you see my LinkedIn Profile) you can get a grasp of where I started with one employer in a part-time seasonal opportunity and I managed to work hard to be promoted several times into new roles or levels because of my performance. Performance is ALWAYS the factor, but also, you need to know that YOU have to master a role in retail, before your upper leaders/managers deem you are ready for the promotion and title of being a leader or manager. At that point, there is a concept that your leaders are deciding, "Do we promote you because you are a master of sales as an associate and can sell at a high level or do we promote you because you are a master at leading people to do what you mastered and can coach and lead those individuals now below you (your subordinates) once promoted?" The key is knowing what the defined path is, how to get there, and did you communicate it to your boss that this is your passion and your motivation? You need to remember that you are not only managing the HR tasks of your employees but also having to manager your level of Human Resources and your performance, see...FULL CIRCLE! At what point do you like feedback, recognition, critical conversations and dialogue, discipline. Regardless, there are many communication events that will deal with your human emotions showcasing both the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. The mood swing as a retail manager is FULL CIRCLE, some days you will blurt out, "I am so tired today" to the extreme of "Wow, what has gotten in to you, you are on fire and productive and driving sales through the ceiling!" What do you know in your vision about becoming a retail manager/leader and what do you obsess about in your role, Howes (2015) states, "Greatness is my passion, but vision is my obsession.", in his book "The School of Greatness". There has to be something about retail you love, and about the customers and the product you love - but where you define that in your retail career - obsession, vision, passion is key!

Division of Responsibility (DOR's) - As a retail manager - you will be responsible for not just working manager-on-duty (MOD) / leader-on-duty (LOD) shifts but also taking an opportunity to work a specific role that helps the overall operation of the business function beyond being a daily manager. Most of these will include the following functional areas: People (Human Resources), Visual Merchandising (How to merchandise your product to sell based on visual marketing strategy and the position and how it will be placed on your sales floor), Selling and Service (How do you generate loyalty and repeat business, and the guest/customer service function of your store and how your team is trained to deliver this), Operations and Logistics (When your product comes in, where will it go, how do you handle problems with products arriving or leaving your store from vendors or your central distribution or warehouse and are you managing your inventory and supply chain that is profitable). Some retailers have your rotate this and others will have more defined opportunity based upon your strengths and weaknesses in your retail skill sets and based upon your experiences.

Okay, as much as I am verbose and very detailed and talkative at this point in my article you will find that one of my areas of opportunity as a leader is knowing when to be more simple and direct and being more succinct in leading, communicating, and driving operations for my current retailer but also being very flexible and taking advantage of every opportunity I can to shine and work hard and offer going above and beyond in sacrificing my days off and my personal life. Those sacrifices are key as well as knowing your threshold for your personal value and balance between your commitment to your retailer and having life balance as well. So, I hope some of you will message me personally and hope I can coach and provide you guidance as to how I have managed being occupassionate about being an Assistant Manager in my past three retailers over six years.

So, what's my Top 10 Factors to consider when deciding to make retail management your "occupassion", and to summarize some of my thoughts I shared through the article.

1. Know your starting point as an associate or where you enter your retailer, what path will it lead you, and what degree is there promotion in title, responsibility, and pay. I started out with one company as a successful seasonal associate and grew to the level of being promoted to Associate Store Manager. What does the pat look like for you starting and growing in retail? "O" - OPPORTUNITY - How is it defined?
2. How well do you know what is expected of you in your role and how do you master and how do you know when it is time for career progression? What sacrifices and schedule will this look like, will it change to be more stressful or more challenging and how will you manage the growth and responsibility in the role if you are considering or being looked at for promotion? "C" - CONTENT & CONTEXT & CHANGE OF THE LEADERSHIP ROLE
3. Be passionate about everything with the retailer, do you plan to only be there part-time, or do you plan to be full-time or even have a taste to be a manager that can manage sales, operations, and people above and below you? What are your strengths and weaknesses? "C" - COMMITMENT TO BRAND
4. Don't lie about what you like and don't like about the retailer you are with, in what capacity can you speak or be spoken to and to whom has your best partnership to help you grow to like it more versus stressing you out to where you lose your voice as you spend more and more time working for a retailer in your occupassion. "U" - UNDERSTANDING AND USING YOUR VOICE
5. Be prepared for decision making and situational awareness in coaching, leading, and managing everyday. You need to know when to cover black and white in policy, and even dealing with the grey of policy and procedure and for dealing with the HR aspect of the business. P - "PERFORMING UNDER POLICIES, PROCESS, PROCEDURES AND PRESSURE"
6. Celebrate and write down your successes, goals met, and recognition and skills that you have mastered. Be able to take into consideration touch bases and one-to-one meetings with your manager and know that they can get you to advancement in an honest and meaningful way. Don't take it for the sake of taking it if you are not ready, don't be forced into something that you feel you are not 100% ready for or to take on to give 115% and be prepared to fail and work through adversity and challenges. "A" - AWARDS VERSUS ADVERSITY
7. Know your business, be passionate about explaining the good, but know how to speak to metrics, opportunities, challenges, and find ways to be collaborative and know where to prioritize your daily tasks from top to bottom. Your ability to communicate and know where you champion your business will go a long way in your mastery of being a retail leader. "S" - SUCCESSFUL SALES & SERVICE
8. Trends and networking - Does your network expand and do you know where other retail leaders are succeeding and do they have best practices that you can implement in your retail landscape, be sure to create the environment from other retail leaders you have worked with or what they have taught you. Training and development and the product knowledge you have will trickle down to your associates making you feel mastered and your employees feeling they are empowered and engaged because you care enough about them and are looking out for their best interest in the same way you do your customers. "S" - SHOWCASING YOUR SKILLS & COMPETENCIES
9. SMILE and BE POSITIVE but rest and vent when you need to. I heard from a colleague that when he was in college he was hugely angered, upset, and defeated after a big project or task that he was struggling to accomplish and find success in getting the project completed. His professor said to him, "The reason you are so upset, angry, mad, about this and are feeling so challenged by it, is because YOU CARE so much to want to do VERY WELL." Your self-care as a manager and your positive vibes need to out weigh the amount of stress customers and employees will give you in every moment. So, find peace and balance and know when to step off of the sales floor, and to value our life outside of the doors of your store, what stays outside of the doors in your personal life and what's inside your store are two different roles. Don't let them get mixed, I have seen too many management careers get crashed because personal things outside of work got them to the point where they have quit or gotten fired. Vice versa applies, don't take your work home, it doesn't have legs, it will be at the store then next day for you to tackle, your personal life deserves a break as well. "I" - IDENTIFYING AS A LEADER
10. Manage projects and lead people. Simple enough, but a good retail manager has an "X-Factor" that has lead them to be a manager and to take on higher responsibility and drive profits and sales as well as understanding the human connection that showcases the talent through their people and empowering them to do do well with the simple tasks so they can be bigger picture players to the corporate vision and mission of their retailer. If you have a shopping addiction, that addiction needs to be managed well, that doesn't necessarily mean that you will be a retail manager, but can be the start of a passion in product that leads to a passion in coaching and leading people and valuing a product and an shopping experience that customers love too! Good Luck and no matter what your "OCCUPASSION" is, make sure it is healthy and positive and remember that your relationships at work are just as valuable as personal relationships. Network and find ways to grow within your four walls and outside of them as well. Send me a personal message to let me know how you have grown in your retail management skills or if you need more advice to succeed in retail management! Good Luck! "O" - OPEN MINDED & "N" - NEXT LEVEL

Now you can spell "O-C-C-U-P-A-S-S-I-O-N" as you hit your role as a Retail Management Professional. Hope to see you with that TITLE someday, and when you reach it, let's network about it!

-Sonny DeGuzman, Retail Management Professional