Management has the ability to make or break a team of retail employees. Too strict and few will want to work for the leader, too lax and the store can become the wild west with everyone doing their own thing.

Here are seven skills that all business owners, managers, and shift leaders should develop.

1. The Ability to Make Difficult Decisions

Most retail managers are required to make tough decisions every day. It’s a necessary, though undesirable, part of the job. Shift leaders will face the task of dealing with difficult customers, making split-second decisions, and guiding other employees to make their own right decisions. Managers have to handle employee evaluations, recruiting decisions, as well as terminations. They also need to make larger decisions that could have larger financial repercussions like scheduling and promoting.

When faced with a critical decision, looking at the facts objectively can be hard. The old adage we see what we want to see allows some leaders to procrastinate or avoid the tough choices. The question to ask yourself is, Is this affecting our customers in a negative way? If so, make a decision – provide more training, establish more concrete processes, or make a change.

2. The Ability to Get Everyone Onboard – Even if They Disagree With It

In retail, a lot of factors dictates what happens; you overbought too much merchandise that isn’t selling, so now you have to find a way to convince people they want it. Your management team has decided to offer a new loyalty program that staff doesn’t think is very good, but they still have to promote it. You get the picture.

While there are bound to be disagreements, a true leader has to find a way to get everyone to agree to a course of action. That doesn’t mean everyone will agree with the course, but they must agree to work together.

One thing that can help is to make change a part of every day. Associates fight change when things have been left static too long and they’ve been told to just deal with it. A true leader has to take the time for one-on-one conversations if they want to lead their team in one direction.

3. The Ability to Give Feedback On A Regular Basis

One thing we have heard is that Millennials want to know how they are doing more than most other generations. This is a good thing. It’s important to remember that positive feedback should be given just as often as negative feedback.

Shift leaders need to know how to give feedback in a positive manner to keep the crew customer-focused. Managers need to give more formal feedback about overall job performance and connect with every employee on every shift. Business owners must know when to speak up if the manager or team is performing poorly and to reward them when goals are exceeded.

If this seems difficult for you, put a reminder in your smartphone for every morning, Who did you connect with today?

Related article: How to Create Loyal Retail Employees

4. The Ability to Listen

Shift leaders have a balancing act; they need to listen to other employees’ concerns as well as remain open to management advice.

Managers and owners need to listen to feedback from the team – especially their shift leaders – for issues on the salesfloor from a policy that is not working, to a product that is defective, to employees who are not doing their jobs.  While it is easy to accomplish tasks, leadership is seeking to understand what is in their employees’ heads.

A good way to do this is to take the employee off-site to a coffeehouse and simply ask for feedback such as What would you like more of from me? What would you want less of? What do you feel you’re not getting from me? Don’t get defensive with your answers, just thank them and take action.

5. The Ability to Communicate Clearly and With Focus

Store owners must have a vision for customer service and be able to concisely give expectations to management. In turn, managers should be able to give clear instructions and feedback to shift leaders, who use their own communication skills to keep the rest of the team on-task throughout the shift.

Writing down your vision for customer service is a good start. Tell it to a friend and see if they can tell you what that would look like if they were an employee.

6. The Ability to Gain and Hold the Trust of Others

Without trust, any team of retail employees will fall apart. Every management person has to earn each employee’s trust, especially those they work with most frequently.

You earn trust by being honest, by doing what you say, and by keeping confidences private. Your team should feel you are out to develop them as a person first, and an employee second.

7. The Ability to Stay Positive

Working in retail can be difficult and demanding. It’s not always easy to stay positive, but that’s part of being an effective leader. Even when sales are down, management has to find a way to stay optimistic and confident.

Negative emotions tend to have a trickle-down effect, decreasing morale for the whole team. No one wants to work with Bitter Betty, so be sure you’re not enabling those behaviors.

Nothing is all-or-nothing, if traffic is slow, you can find time to role-play or bone up on retail sales training so when it does pickup, you’ll be ready.

See also, 5 Retail Management Practices That Can Bring A Customer First Focus To Your Store

In Sum

Leadership is such a broad word and means many things to different people. The one quality leaders possess is keeping the target in the future and providing hope to those they are charged with developing. Use these seven retail management tips to developing a winning team.

Author: Bop Phibbs, www.retaildoc.com