As my own boss, employing 5 staff, I can see very quickly where I have made mistakes in terms of how I behave to the employees, and the different ways that they individually react to me and to my business.

I have been running my own business for over 9 years now. This experience, combined with what I have learnt at courses I have taken and seminars I have attended form the basis of my confidence and my belief in an even more successful future in the retail sector.

I had attended a Retail Development Course in early 2005, as well as a Retail Merchandising Training course 4 year’s ago, which, are literally two events that have changed my understanding of business and over all vision, furthermore have been a major help to me and my business.

I used to run my own business with my own rules, and have always been a step aheadof my competitors. After all these years in business, I now appreciate the value of help from experienced sources, sharing ideas and experiences and considering alternative paths, puts me two steps ahead instead of one.

I look especially at two types of management style self-assessment activities. These are Action Centred Leadership and Situational Leadership.

The Action Centred Leadership focused my preferences to: achieving the task, developing the individual and maintaining the team. It also examined my managerial un-interest i.e. getting over involved in the work of my staff.

The Situational Leadership activity showed how I need to adjust my management style to the different types of staff that I employ i.e. look at their levels of skill and motivation and apply the appropriate style to help them achieve and develop.

I now appreciate far more that teamwork is definitely needed in a retail environment. If you do not treat people as individuals, or train them in business techniques, then you will end up wasting a lot of time and money on staff because you will be doing it all yourself. Staff must be trained to work together to improve business.

The task must be identified and must be delegated to individuals. Also management has to manage their time better – and not get over involved in low level tasks. Time and capital must not be wasted. Time and capital must be used efficiently.

2.2 Employment legislation - an appreciation:

2.2.1 Overview

      This part of course covered the key principles of performance management.
At work, discipline is really a combination of two things: one static and one dynamic.

One of the main messages to come from the course were the reasons why people under-perform. These include: they don’t know what is expected of them, they don’t know that they are not meeting expectations and they are not told that they are under-performing.

As person running my own business and employing staff this part of the course has been very important for me. I always try to leave a gap between staff and myself. This way at least I can hold them accountable. To much involvement and over-familiarity with staff in a small business environment can bring more problems than anything else.

When I give responsibility to them the least I expect is that the job gets done.

After this training that I felt that 80% of my handling of my staff was wrong.

The course covered the main areas of employment law as it can affect small businesses. I and the other course delegates quickly found out that we really had no idea about the subject.

I now realise that these laws and procedures have to be followed whether you employ one member of staff or one hundred! It is also my responsibility to keep myself and my staff updated regarding any changes to the laws affecting the business.

I also understand the benefit of having good job descriptions and specifications in a retail environment, particularly when linked to achieving business targets. I can see how this approach will benefit me, my business and my staff..

• Impact on me:

I was actually stunned when I realised how little I knew about current employment law and its impact on business and managers. I intend contacting ACAS  to find out how I can obtain  help and information from them.

I was particularly interested in the handling a discipline hearing session. I have never done this to any of my staff, but after this training I am confident that I could, if necessary, do it properly.

As I mentioned before, I always try to go with my own ideas rather than listen to somebody else. But I know now the consequences of not following the laws.
 
             When there is problem with staff, and when they are performing at a lower standard
             than you expect, then applying the principles learned on the course will not only
             increase the chances of getting a poor performer to improve, it will also reduce the possibility of paying out a lot of money in compensation.

• Summary of action points:

• Interviewing techniques an appreciation

• Overview

This course covered good recruitment selection practice. I was mainly interested in Job Descriptions, Job Specifications and Person Specifications.

I try to find the right person for the right job. This has been very difficult for me and I must admit that I wasn’t that good in finding the right person for the business.

I always try to ask questions and get answers from the applicant. But sometimes I appreciate that the information gained has not been enough. After this course I realise where I have been going wrong.

              I am now more aware of staff selection and using the Person Specification. On staff
              selection I realise that I must put the applicant at ease, lead gradually into subjects to    discuss, and question with a purpose (getting at the truth by using the “funnel approach”).     

The Person Specification ensures that the interviewer does not make totally subjective decisions by specifying before the interview the sort of person that will do the job and fit in with the existing work group. The Person Specification contains the following key headings:

• Physical make up
• Attainments
• General Intelligence
• Special aptitude
• Circumstances
• Interests.

            We examined the use of these documents through facilitated discussions, individual practical work and group activity on case studies.

• Impact on me:

I am running my own business.  This particular course is especially important for me as I am looking for other businesses as well as expanding my existing business. This means that it is vital that I find the right people. The techniques covered will be invaluable. I must, however, practise all that I have learned on the course otherwise it can be so easily forgotten!

• Summary of action points

2.4 Instructional techniques:

2.4.1    Overview:

This part of course was really aimed at helping us realise the potential of our businesses and staff.

To achieve this we covered two key areas:
-Improving sales and profitability
-coaching skills

These two subjects are the back-bone of the business. Everything that we do should be linked to these.

When we looked at the “realising business potential” section, we considered the following:

• Identifying and resolving problem issues in the business.
• Focus and direction.
• Make time for marketing.
• Cash and profit.
• Drawing up the business plan.
• What will we be targeting for a year ahead?

If we analyse all these key subjects and use them with the right management practise, then our businesses should be much easier to run and should be more successful.

Over the last eight years I have always kept a book of my sales. But in my experience probably 9 out of 10 small business never keep a record of sales. This will not allow them to compare their year-on-year sales to establish trends, unusual increases or decreases etc. They don’t do business plans or market research, let alone projecting P & L statements and cash flow forecasts.

All this makes running the business a little more difficult!

My simple check-list from this part of the course is:

To improve the performance of the business we must regularly review our

Customers and markets
Financial controls (including cash management)
Management practises.

The second part of the course was spent looking at ways of helping staff realise their potential, using in particular coaching skills.

We are working in an ever changing world: people, products, technology, etc. Our business practises have to keep up with these changes, which means that our staff have to have the necessary knowledge and skills.

The session on coaching skills was very detailed and showed how important it is to be consistent in our approach to staff and to make coaching a “structured conversation”. As the owner/manager, it is my responsibility to ensure that all my staff are fully trained and are able to offer excellent service to our customers.

I will use the following key points for all my future coaching sessions:

- Prepare
- Set the Scene,
- Use the right behaviour,
- Follow up

• Impact on me:

This part of course had a good impact on me because I realise that some of the subjects covered on the course I am already doing, like sale records and cash flow forecasting.

I will, however, make more use of formalised controls and be more aware of sales and profitability by using management accounts. I also intend meeting with my staff to discuss how we can improve sales, and customer service.

The coaching skills part was also important. I intend assessing my staff in terms of their competence and confidence mix, and then prepare a training needs document for the business.

After this course I will try to get more information about the main subjects.

• Summary of actions points:

2.5        Interpersonal skills:

• Overview:

This part of course basically covered skills that we use in our face to face interactions with others. Effective interpersonal skills are about using our behaviour to help achieve our objectives in our encounters with other people. The course covered basic communication skills, including:

• Interpersonal  skills
• Interpreting signals
• Listening and questioning skills
• Handling conflict
• Customer care

Relevant Skills and Behaviour:

• Verbal skills
• Non-verbal skills
• Listening
• Questioning
• Influencing and persuading
• Giving and receiving feedback.

The course re-emphasised the fact that good communication is vital for business i.e. good customer service comes from good communication practise.

We also examined the relevant importance of different communication elements needed to transmit a message. The published results were staggering, and showed how important understanding the signals that people give really is. The results are:

• Body language   55.0%
• Words  7.0%
• Tone of voice 38.0%

Body language as particularly significant. People at work are giving signals all the time Effective managers’ ability to interpret these signals is of paramount importance

For the last three years I realise that I have been sub-consciously interpreting the signals that my staff have been giving. However, I have not acted on those signals. I now realise that I can use the signals to determine how I should approach a member of staff and probably get a better end result!

Customer care:

The world changes and businesses that do not adapt disappear. The quality of customer service must be:

                             Commitment to continuous improvement.

This means that the search for quality will never end and we should always try to do better than the day before.
 
I must ask the customers what they want and what will be the best for them. I must hold regular meetings with them to find out the negative and positive aspects of our business as the customer sees them. I must measure and improve our customer service and ensure that the customer leaves the store with smile on his or her face. This will take time but will pay dividends in the long term.

• Impact on me:

After this course I am more likely to understand my business and staff better. It will be easier to get results from staff. Also I am more interested in body language and the signals that people give. I will try to get more information about this subject. 

The Handling Conflict activity included a personal self assessment analysis from which I achieved the following score profile:

• Column1     (Aggressive/ Confrontive)                28        (15)
• Column 2     (Assertive/Persuasive)                     68         (70)
• Column 3     (Observant/Introspective)                39         (50)
• Column 4     (Avoiding/Passive)                          15         (15)

As far I believe that these scores were in the main a fair reflection of my conflict management style

As a person in retail I am a very practical, “hands-on” manager. I know that I will gain in experience but this course has really taught me the difference between working smarter and harder. I know that I have to improve my skills for almost every subject covered.  This will take time but I am willing to learn.

• Summary of action points:

• Overall conclusions  and action plans:

3.1       This course has been very helpful for me. As I said before, I have spent the last eight years running a retail business. I believe that I had enough confidence to attend and benefit from this course. I didn’t realise how much I really did not know.
 
This course has made me even more confident and has helped me understand business and people a lot more.

Part one of the course has been very helpful for me. I didn’t know that there was so much involved and that there are so many management techniques that can be applied in retail.

This course will help my future business. I believe that it will be a much better business than the one I have already.

Part 2 of course; employment legislation, made me realise that discipline is so important  in business. If all staff are working in a disciplined way, for and with each other, the business will be more successful. This will benefit the customer is well.

I also agree that there must be a gap between employees, customers, and managers. Over-involvement and over-familiarity is not good for business.

I understand the benefit of having a well-written job description when dealing with staff who are not performing to standard, and how managers can use this to good effect.

The informal discipline interview meeting to help close the gap between actual and required performance is an excellent idea and one that I will use in the future when the opportunity arises.

Part 3 of the course, Interview Techniques, was the most important one for me and the one  that was most interesting. If you want have good business with good customer service; you must have good staff. To do this you have to get the right managers and the right staff  and ensure that they are working together to achieve the business goals.

Also each retailer must have his or her own interview questions for their business.
I believe that a CV only tells you what the applicant wants you to know, whereas an application form asks for information that you need to know.
 
Good preparation is vital to ensuring a successful interview.

Part 4 of the course, Instruction Techniques, is probably the one that can really help me with my next business.

This will help me to prepare a more detailed finance plan and will be helpful for budget construction.

Staff must be trained to give good service and customer care and when there is a conflict situation,  staff and managers must be trained to resolve the problem.

Part 5 of the course, Interpersonal Skills, was very detailed. The key message that I have taken from this part of course is that good customer care and service will bring success to the business. Staff should be trained and customers should be considered and listened to. We must find out the positives and negatives of our businesses and develop plans to improve. It’s never late to learn!

3.2   Summary of action plans:

•       Impact on my staff:

I will train my staff again. I will teach them the basics of what I have learned from course, and how we can improve the business. We will find out our mistakes and improve our levels of service, customer relations, etc.

I will train one the staff  to become the manager and let him or her become involved in the financial aspects of the business so that I can prepare for the next business.

•        Impact on the business:

As I said before, I am trying to open another business by early spring 2004. If I can I will follow what  l have learned from this course. I will certainly monitor the finance, the staff, the supervisors, the managers, etc.  Then I will compare the results to the previous business to see the difference.

I will try to get more professional in interview techniques.

Finally, I believe that this has been a very helpful course and I believe everyone running a retail business should have training at least as good as this.

This will help more people to be successful and run better retail businesses, thereby helping to retain and create more jobs.

                                                                                 Ertugrul Hazar
      
                                                                                 Angel Supermarket and Off Licence