October 18, 2023 • 47 mins
Ready to revolutionize your retail leadership skills? Trust us, you don't want to miss this insightful discussion as we uncover seven transformative leadership lessons from the hit TV show, Ted Lasso. We promise that embracing these principles will not only elevate your impact on your team, but will also boost the profitability of your stores, and catapult your retail career to new heights.
What if you could build a stronger rapport with your team by simply being seen? In this episode, we emphasize the importance of acknowledging your team members and sharing personal stories to foster a deeper connection. We also urge you to remain curious as a leader, a quality that goes a long way in understanding and bonding with your team. Delving into the skills of your team, being brave enough to voice your truth, and rebounding swiftly from errors, are vital components in creating a resilient, goal-oriented team.
Lastly, we touch on the importance of nurturing a growth mindset and operating with a higher purpose. When leaders demonstrate genuine interest and foster a sense of connection, it leads to an exchange of talents and ideas, and ultimately a resilient and united team. We conclude by addressing the challenges of leadership and offering actionable advice to tackle them. Whether you're a fan of Ted Lasso or not, these lessons are a game-changer for anyone looking to enhance their leadership prowess. So, tune in and get ready to transform your leadership journey!
Changed the Simplesat information
Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!Start for FREE
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Sponsors:
________________________
________________________
HAVE YOUR SAY!
In just 7 minutes, your input will help build The Campus 2025 Retail Leadership Development Report, identifying the gaps and creating solutions tailored to the real needs of leaders like you. HERE.
Your input is important!.
Thanks for listening!
__________________________________________________
READ OUR RETAIL LEADER NEWSLETTER
MEET STEVE!
------------------------------------------------
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey there, retail leaders, it's Steve Worthy.
Before we jump into our episodethat I know you are going to
enjoy, I've got a littlesomething that I think you'll
like.
You know how we always talkshop and we share insights here,
right?
Well, I put together thisnewsletter.
It's called Worthy Retail News.
Here's what it does it allowsus to continue our candid
dialogue.
(00:22):
It's another way for us toprovide straight talk
conversations and stories andeven some more behind the scenes
perspectives from topprofessionals in the retail
industry.
Just click the link in the shownotes to subscribe or, better
yet, you can go toworthyretailnewscom.
Is just that easy.
Worthyretailnewscom, trust me,is worth a look.
(00:46):
All right, let's go ahead anddive into the episode Now.
I rarely say on my episodes thatthere's something mandatory for
you to do, but on this episodeI honestly feel it is mandatory
for you to watch Ted Lasso.
(01:06):
You have to watch Ted Lasso.
Here's the thing about TedLasso.
Here's the story.
It is of an American collegefootball coach who was actually
selected to go over to Englandand actually coach a lower level
, what we call in the statesoccer, what they call football
(01:27):
team.
And most of you will probablythink that, oh okay, all right,
it's just this story about a guywho's going to go over there
and he's going to bring the,bring the club from the bottom
to the top.
Yada, yada, yada.
Got to tell you what right now.
It is so much more than that.
Ted Lasso is quintessentialretail, and what I mean by that
(01:52):
is retail is all about people.
Retail is about the humancondition.
It is about human exchange.
It is about understanding thecomplexities of people and
actually providing a service ora product that actually meets
their needs.
Ted Lasso does an amazing jobof breaking down the human
(02:13):
condition, how we see things,how we think our little
idiosyncrasies that we think noone is watching.
But, more importantly, how dowe engage and connect with each
other on a deeper level?
I'm going to tell you right nowI'm not going to tell you to
stop the podcast and go listento Ted Lasso, but I'm going to
(02:33):
tell you right after you'regoing to want to watch all three
seasons of Ted Lasso.
After this episode, let's goahead and get started.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Welcome to Retail Leadership with Steve Worthy,
where we go well beyond thecorporate playbook to unpack
major opportunities, hiddenchallenges and critical issues
that senior retail leaders faceevery day.
If you're ready to get theinsights you need to elevate the
impact you have on your team,increase the profitability of
(03:06):
your stores and level up yourretail career, then keep
listening, my friend, because Isee a lot more success in your
future.
So let's get started right now.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
All right, so, once again, what does the seven
lessons of Ted Lasso have to dowith retail leadership?
And dare I say, everything.
Because retail, once again, atits core, it's about human
interaction, the human condition, it's about human exchange.
It's about an exchange of timeand emotion.
I know that sounds super kindof like you know, mystical,
(03:42):
steve.
What are you talking about?
Like retail is all about, likeconnecting with somebody, giving
them a product or giving them aservice.
I understand that.
But before they even get to thestore, before they even get to
even connecting with you, thereis an emotional thing that takes
place as it relates to aproduct or service, even dare
say hi to the brand that theyactually connect with.
(04:05):
And if we have a betterunderstanding about human
connection and human conditionas a retail leader, as a retail
brand, guess what?
We can actually improve theoverall satisfaction and, dare I
say, careers of retail leadersand also the satisfaction of our
(04:25):
customers as well.
So I want to dive in today toseven Ted Lasso leadership tips
that I know you are going toenjoy and they're going to
really truly impact you as well.
Let's go do the first one.
This first point is I thinkit's fundamental to the show.
(04:50):
It really is, even though itkind of happens kind of like I
think it's season two for allthree seasons this lesson is
really fundamental to theoverarching aspect of the show.
But I wanted to start with thisbecause I think it's important.
As retail leaders, we have tounderstand how to be a goldfish.
(05:10):
And the reason I wanted tostart with this one is because
and I'm going to play a littleclip here is that Sam is one of
the soccer players who's kind ofgrowing into his talent and he
makes a mistake and he starts tobeat himself up about the
mistake and it almost to thepoint where, you know, ted has
(05:31):
to kind of take him to the sideand say something to him and
give him this little pep talk.
And it's a very short pep talk.
Here's the scene and we'regoing to get right into all of
the lessons.
So we'll get some flowersbecause this spot here is where
Sam died.
It's very saddened Boy.
(05:52):
Walk away, you little prick.
All right, grandad, keep yourwig on.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Thanks, roy, you're good.
Hey Sam, where's that?
Coach?
I'm sorry.
You know what the happiestanimal on earth is.
It's a goldfish.
No, I know why.
No, got a 10 second memory.
Be a goldfish, sam.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, we have to teach our team how to fail
forward, how to fail fast.
So the first lesson from TedLasso is to be a goldfish Think
very quickly about whatever themistake it is that you've made,
but be able to move past it veryquickly.
And then you have to get on tothe next thing.
(06:38):
Lesson two At the end of thefirst two seasons, rebecca, who
is the manager of the.
She's the manager of the club.
She always comes to town.
(06:58):
It's I'm not giving away toomuch, but she always comes down
and it has this big to do withwhether it's a secret or it's
something that's been reallybugging her and she talks to Ted
about it and he, he, uh, sheapologizes, she apologizes.
When lesson number two is toapologize as a leader, we don't
(07:25):
even think about this one um asmuch as we should.
We just talked about be agoldfish and make a mistake.
When we, as a leader, have theability to learn how to
apologize for a mistake that wehave made, it's extremely
important.
Now here's the thing theapology may not always be
(07:48):
accepted.
I'll give you a quick story.
I had a conversation withsomeone.
I was a store manager at thetime.
I had a conversation withsomeone and I was writing them
up, giving them a coaching, ifyou will, for, um, I can't, it
was a missed opportunity orsomething, but it was.
It was on several occasionsthat they have done this.
(08:08):
So it just got to the pointwhere we actually had to have a
conversation.
I had to document theconversation, so I documented
the conversation.
They didn't appreciate theconversation, but of course,
back in those days, you have toprint everything out and then
put it into, you know, your,your actual file in a filing
cabinet.
So, um, what I did was, um, Ihad a printer in my office but I
(08:32):
, I hit print and I left andwent out to the sales floor.
I and I locked my door as astore manager should sometimes,
because there are sensitiveinformation in there and I ended
up walking the store andsomeone came up to me and was
like, hey, there's something inthe printer and I'm like what
are you talking about?
What had, what had occurred?
(08:54):
Was that my, my?
When I printed the, the, thedocumentation, it went to what
we um at the time and target,called TSC, which is really
where all of the HR people andand everybody kind of sits, and
even even people who are waiting, waiting the clock in.
They sit and just kind of waitand the coaching document
(09:15):
actually went to that printer.
The printer is heavily used.
They printed out plan of grants, printing out signs.
It's heavily used.
So, needless to say, thatcoaching document, a lot of
people saw it Right and for me,as a leader, I never want to put
somebody's um, uh situation outthere, you know, in the streets
(09:38):
if you will, but they saw it.
Needless to say, this person wasum, extremely upset, extremely
upset.
You know, while the it was,while it was a a simple era in
the fact that I didn't check theright um printer, the, the
ramifications of this mistakewith my relationship with this
(10:00):
person, um, was kind of almostirrevocable in the context that,
even though I had apologized,our relationship was never the
same after that.
I use that as an, as an example.
I don't want to, you know,paint a picture that, okay, just
because you apologize,everything's going to be okay.
It's a lot of times they're not.
(10:20):
I wanted to use that as anexample is that we have to
apologize.
I have so many other moreexamples of when I've had to
apologize for something thatI've done wrong and or uh, or
misunderstood or I'vemiscommunicated something, I
actually had to go back andchange the communication.
So it's important that, asleaders, we learn how to
(10:42):
apologize.
We have to demonstrate humility, accountability for everything
that we've done and, once again,whether they accept the apology
or not, it's important for usto take that step as a leader.
So that's lesson number twofrom Ted Lasso.
All right.
(11:07):
Lesson number three focus on thelongterm.
As Ted takes the position as a,as a uh football manager, he
begins to realize that the teamis not going to be turned around
overnight.
It's not going to be able togenerate the results that one he
(11:28):
wants, his uh, his, his comanager wants, or what his um or
what his boss wants.
He realizes that this is goingto be a longterm project.
A longterm project, a couple ofthings with longterm projects,
a couple.
One of the things that you wantto try to do as best as you
(11:50):
possibly can is to get a quickwin.
Try to find something to get aquick win.
As a football manager, one ofthe things that you want to try
to do is actually do that.
You actually want to win like amatch, right If you are the
bottom tier, which which they,the um, the the team was.
(12:10):
Ted's perspective was like howcan I get a quick win, how can I
get something just to kind ofgalvanize our team around?
And once you're able to getlike a quick win, what's now?
It's becomes a perspective oftalent.
You have to assess the talentof where you currently are.
Then the current talent thatyou have take you to where you
(12:35):
need to be and in a lot ofinstances they can't.
Some instances they can, someis because of the leader.
Before you didn't have therequisite skills to take them to
the next level.
And now you come in and youknow your.
Your goal and your focus is tofigure out what you have from a
team standpoint dynamics,ability, skills and then assess
(12:57):
whether or not you can add valueum, enough value to bring that
person up to a certain levelwhere you can move forward and
take the market.
I'm going to just go back andback and forth from football to
to to retail and be able to takethe market to where it is that
you need to go.
The problem is is that we don'tdo a thorough enough assessment
(13:18):
of our team.
We just take everybody at facevalue and just assume that we
can change everybody.
That's not always the case.
A lot of times you actuallyhave to change your team up, you
have to reevaluate your teamand to see if they're going to
actually be able to take you tothe promised land.
If you will, you have to bestrategic about it.
(13:42):
The last part of this is goingto be the goal.
When we start to think aboutour goal, we have to realize
that that goal may shift overtime.
It just it really may.
We may want to, and I don'tmean the actual end result.
So let's just say you want tobe number four, five or six or
(14:04):
seven in sales.
That's the goal.
But the direction and thethings that you actually have to
do to get there may bedifferent, may look different,
they may sound different, right,and you have to be okay with
being adaptable.
That's one of the lessons thatwe've learned with Ted Lasso.
As it relates to focus on thelong term is that while the goal
(14:24):
was to actually go from onelevel of the of soccer to the
next level, the higher, higherlevel, he, the team, took so
many different iterations inpass in order to actually get
there.
You have to be okay withunderstanding that, as the goal
may not shift the direction inwhich you get there and the
(14:45):
people that actually go alongwith you for the ride may shift.
So, lesson number three focuson the long term.
Okay, lesson number four payattention to the detail, details
(15:09):
, pay attention to the details,and I know you are probably
automatically thinking as aretail leader.
You think I mean all the trashthat's outside the building.
You think I mean all the labelson the end caps are, are, you
know, are right?
You think I mean thateverybody's wearing a name tag.
(15:29):
You know things like that.
I get it, I get it.
You know, initially, when I was, was was creating these, these,
these lessons, I was going togo that route, but I actually
ended up rewatching, like theentire three seasons of Ted
Lasso and I realized was that,you know, I it's.
(15:54):
I wanted to go a little deeperand less surface level with this
one because I think it'simportant.
I think when we start to talkabout pay attention to the
details, we are literallytalking about.
You know all the differentnuances of your team's
personality.
The different nuances of yourteam's personality.
(16:17):
How do you understand who theyare, what they do, where they've
come from, the different thingsthat excite them, the different
things that actually impactthem and who they are.
So when we start talking aboutpaying attention to the details,
it's about connecting with yourteam at a deeper level and a
(16:41):
broader level, understanding andspending time with them.
When you pay attention to thedetails of your team, here's are
a couple of things thatactually happen.
You build trust, you enhancethe, you enhance your own
credibility, you driveexcellence.
You are also modeling thebehavior right.
(17:05):
So when we start to talk abouta lead by example or inspire
trust, one of the things that Ioften talk about and say is that
we have to live by the sameexpectations that we place on
other people.
A lot of leaders don't do that.
They expect their team to be ata certain level of authenticity
(17:27):
and genuineness andapproachability and we are not,
and we place those undue andunreasonable and unrealistic
expectations upon the team whenwe are not living out those same
things ourselves.
The last piece that I think isthe most important part for pay
(17:48):
attention to the details is thatwhen you do that, you prevent
overlooking issues.
You right, when you payattention to the details, the
smallest little thing couldactually be something that is a
typical VI Iceberg for somethingthat's very big and the more
(18:10):
you are in that, and I mean thatas it relates to your team, as
it relates to their ability tolead.
I remember having a conversationwith a leader and on several
occasions I just heard them.
They would talk about theirteam and when they got to this
(18:30):
one person, the tone alwayschanged, always changed.
And that's okay, I just put itas a one off.
Right, I just put it as a oneoff Because you know, we all
have those people sometimes onour team that were like, oh gosh
, okay, I remembered, I storedthat just on a couple other
(18:51):
occasions, same thing happened,same thing happened.
And I was like what is going on?
And I said and I brought it totheir attention.
I said, hey, do you realize,every time you talk about XYZ
team member, your tone changesand they're like no, I didn't, I
didn't, I didn't think about it.
(19:11):
I said so what's going onbetween between, between,
between you two?
And I won't get into the, tothe, to the, to the crest of the
details, but there wassomething that was actually
happening.
There was a, a, some measure ofmisinformation and
miscommunication that the leaderdidn't appreciate or didn't
(19:33):
like, or something along thoselines and in I in they were able
to address it because I wasable to address it with that
leader and my my tone and tenurechanged a little bit was like
well, you need to address thisbecause it is coming out in your
conversation.
And if it's coming out in aconversation with me, I can
(19:55):
almost assume, I can almostguarantee you, that it's coming
out With your peers or theirpeers or your team Right.
So, and when you are payingattention to the details, you
are able to see little Nuancesthat could be just the tip of
the iceberg.
So we want to make sure that weare addressing those things.
(20:22):
Okay, number five, lesson numberfive Know your purpose.
I know that sounds so big.
I know that sounds so big.
You know who can say theyreally know their purpose.
Steve, what are you talkingabout?
What are you talking about?
I You're, as that relates topurpose, when, when Ted Lasso
(20:43):
took the position as a, as amanager, he was really trying to
figure out his purpose in life.
He had personal things going onin his life that he still needed
to address and when he took theposition, he was in the state
of really finding his purpose.
He was one thing over here inthe States, a successful college
(21:07):
football coach.
When he came over to the UK hewas something completely
different, but he wanted to usethis experience to you in the UK
to really truly find hispurpose.
He wanted to find out what his,what he, stood for.
He wanted to find out his valuesystem.
So when I say purpose, I reallymean your value systems, like
(21:28):
what are you going to stand for?
What are the, your behaviors,your thoughts, your concepts,
your skills that you hold trueto yourself, that others can see
in you?
An issue is that we once again,I see, is that we we place
unnecessary pressure on otherpeople when we don't place that
(21:51):
same pressure on ourselves toactually Know what we stand for.
Right, even an uncertainty.
As a retail leader, you arefaced with uncertainty all the
time.
There is change that happenshourly, right.
As a, as a, as a, as a leader,I could come into a market and
(22:12):
change the entire complexion ofthat market.
Every store I went into, youthe everything that they wanted
to do.
That day they changed.
When I walked into the storethey had the best late plans,
but when Steve walked in thedoor, guess what a lot of those,
some of those plans just wentout the window.
Right so?
(22:33):
But as a leader, when you changeup kind of who you are, the
processes and the routines thatare going to change, but what
you stand for and your valuesystem should never change.
So when I say, lesson numberfive is know your purpose, know
what you're going to stand for,because the sooner you can
(22:56):
discover your own values andsystems and things that you're
gonna stand for, the more youcan actually help your team
discover theirs Can.
Can you imagine a team thatunderstands who they are and
what they stand for and wherethey want to go?
(23:18):
Man, there is nothing like that, especially when we think about
it as it relates to retail.
We want to make sure that weunderstand our values and our
purpose so that we can helpothers Understands that,
understand theirs and we canmove forward as a team.
Two more to go.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
You're listening to retail leadership with Steve
worthy.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Alrighty.
Lesson six oh, oh, I love thisone too.
I excuse, number seven is thebest one, because I'm glad you,
you know Everybody's holding offuntil number seven's.
Number seven is the best one.
They're all great, but numberseven is has to be the best, but
number six, um, every one isworthy of attention and I I
didn't.
You know, there's no punintended, I didn't mean to put
(24:05):
my name in there, but that's thetruth.
Every one is worthy ofattention, value and acknowledge
every team member, no mattertheir role, no matter their role
.
Ted Lasso did an amazing job ofthis.
If you watch, if you watch theshow, he had a Unique way of
(24:28):
connecting with each and everyone of his players, each and
every one of his staff members,everybody around him.
He had a unique way, and Idon't and but here's the thing
he didn't change who he was ashe connected with everybody.
He just met everybody wherethey were Right.
Here is the biggest piece thatI want.
(24:50):
I want you to get from this oneand this is going to change
your leadership anytime youconnect with somebody here it is
Is that most people on yourteam Just want to be seen.
They just want to be seen byyou.
You have a big position.
When you walk into the store,everything changes.
(25:14):
When you walk into a market,everything changes.
And those people the cardattended to cash years, to the
person that's working in grocery, to the person that's working
in the back they just want to beseen by you.
And, my god, if you don'tacknowledge them, shame on you.
Shame on you.
(25:35):
Everyone is worthy of yourattention.
And then, if you want to takeit deeper, here's the thing that
I realized about myself.
I While ago in retail.
In retail, I and I probably inlife too, and this is just me
(25:57):
telling myself I suck at names.
I Really do, I really do.
Thank God for name tags inretail, thank God for name tags
in retail.
But here's the one thing that I, I, I do, I do extremely well
and I am just gonna, I'm tootinmy own horn here and hopefully,
you, you, you have somethingthat you do extremely well that
(26:19):
you were able to toot your ownhorn with as well.
I remember, I Remember storiesabout people.
I Remember stories about people.
I can remember, you know acashier whose son tried out for
the soccer team.
I can remember a logisticsperson.
Their mom was battling x, y andz.
(26:41):
I can remember One of one of my, one of my store managers took
a vacation and they they wentwhite water rafting.
Right, I can remember certainstories about people and for me
that was more impactful thanjust remembering their names
because once again we had thename tag.
(27:01):
But that is a level ofconnection that that helped me,
excuse me, it allowed me to seethem, it allowed them to be seen
differently.
Oh my gosh, he remembers that.
Right, I remember I'm aManchester City football
supporter and several storesthat I would go into they would
(27:22):
have, you know, team members whowere Manchester United fans,
and so that was our little thing.
I, I have to time.
I can remember their namesbecause I had so many freaking
stores.
Right, I Inventory learningnames.
But I walk in, you know, I walkin and I see him.
I'd be like yo, manchester'sblue, meaning that's.
(27:43):
So that's if you, if you knowfootball, then you know that's,
you know it's it's.
There's two rival teams in onecity.
Manchester City is had, theywear blue, manchester United
wears red, and so for thelongest they would always say
Manchester is Red.
But now the tide is turning,the team is crushing it, and so
I can walk in and say, hey,manchester, manchester is blue
(28:06):
and that's our level ofconnection.
They felt seen, how are youseeing your team?
Do you see your team?
Listen?
Number six was everyone isworthy of attention.
Now let's move to number seven.
This is the one I knoweverybody has been waiting for.
(28:26):
Well, I love every point, everylesson in this episode.
I just love what he talks about, and the last point that we are
going to talk about is to becurious and not judgmental.
(28:47):
Here's a little clip from thatepisode.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
You know, rupert, guys have underestimated me my
entire life and for years Inever understood why.
I used to really bother me.
But then one day I was drivingmy little boy to school and I
saw this quote by Walt Whitman.
It was painted on the wallthere.
It said be curious, notjudgmental.
I like that.
So I get back in my car and I'mdriving to work and all of a
(29:17):
sudden it hits me All themfellas that used to belittle me,
not a single one of them werecurious.
You know, they thought they hadeverything all figured out.
So they judged everything andthey judged everyone, and I
realized that they'reunderestimating me.
Who I was, had nothing to dowith it, because if they were
(29:40):
curious they would ask questions, questions like have you played
a lot of darts, ted?
Which I would have answered yes, sir.
Every Sunday afternoon I had asports ball with my father from
age 10 to 16 when he passed away.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
What you just heard was probably one of the most
famous scenes in Ted Lasso,where he's battling Rupert doing
darts and he goes into thestory and he talks about you
know how people underestimatedhim in his entire life.
And he talks about this quote,and this is lesson number seven.
It says be curious and notjudgmental.
(30:25):
Once again, this has to be oneof the most powerful scenes.
I think it's season one has tobe one of the most powerful
scenes in Ted Lasso because ofthe story in which he talks
about it.
The context is that his entirelife people have underestimated
(30:46):
him.
They said he couldn't do this,they said he couldn't do that
and he said no one bothered toask a question about who he was
and his ability to lead, hisability to connect.
They were not curious.
There was just a study that wasdone by Eek Magazine and also
(31:08):
Harvard Business School, andthey talked about what was the
number one trait that leadersneed to have in order to be
successful.
And guess what it was?
It was curiosity.
It was curiosity.
I'll make sure I leave a linkto that article if you want to
read that.
So curiosity as a leader opensup the door for you to embrace
(31:33):
change, to handle mistakes, tounderstand your team's
motivations and then also forthem to understand who you are.
Curiosity begets curiosity.
If I'm curious with you, thenthey have.
Your team is open to beingcurious with you, with you.
(31:53):
You have to be okay with that.
You have to be okay with themasking questions about who you
are, where you come from, whatdid you do?
What was the failure that youhad?
What was the success that youhad?
I'm not talking about gettinginto intimate personal details.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm just talking about justnormal curiosity For me.
(32:14):
I'm the youngest of sevenSpoiled brat was a spoiled brat
growing up and then I would kindof share that story in my team.
I'm like, yep, I can see thatand it was just an ongoing
little thing that they knewabout me.
Right, curiosity begetscuriosity.
(32:36):
Here's the thing that I want toleave you with around be
curious and not judgmental.
Your team will not come to you.
If you hold judgment, if youdon't suspend your judgment
about them coming to you with acomplaint or with an issue, over
time you are going to lose yourcredibility with that team.
(32:59):
So we want to talk about the becurious.
But the last part of that isprobably the most important part
is to be is to not bejudgmental when people are
coming to you with a concern.
Here's the thing Every markethas has that person.
I didn't, it didn't matter,almost right, almost every store
(33:22):
has that person, right?
That will always say that thatcake.
Can I see you for a second,right?
I mean if you don't raise yourhand, if you're in the car, but
if you're listening to this, youknow what I'm talking about.
Every store has that person.
I don't know who they are, butwhen you walk with, your leader
walks into the store and theygot an issue and they have tried
(33:43):
their best to probably talk totheir leader about it.
Guess what they?
They leapfrog you and comeright to me and hey, you never
talked to you for a second.
And I know in my youngleadership I would get so like,
like, bent out of shape aboutthose circumstances I really
like and I would talk to myleader.
You can handle the situation.
But what I realized was that II had a different level of
(34:07):
cachet that I needed to be ableto utilize and what I would do
was allow myself to embracethose circumstances when people
would, would want to come to meand then at the end of that
conversation I always turned itthat, hey, next time go to your
boss, and then I would go and Iwould loop back with the boss
(34:30):
and talk to them about, hey,this is something that you
really need to kind of thinkabout as well.
So, and over time, I was ableto suspend judgment and really
be able to embrace those issuesor even challenges that they had
for the store, for the market,and I got a lot of great ideas
from those team members.
(34:51):
So number seven be curious andnot judge mental as a leader.
It's important, it's incumbent,it's imperative All the m's,
all the m's for you tounderstand that if you want to
be successful, if you want yourteam to embrace, change, embrace
(35:17):
who you are as a leader, youhave to be curious, but you also
have to not be judgmental withyour team.
All right, you know what'scoming up next.
Right, you know what's comingup next.
The North Star is coming upright now.
All right, the North Star isthat point in this podcast where
(35:41):
you know you've been listeningto me talk, I've been giving you
all of this information andyou're like Steve, what does
this mean to me?
How does this apply to mysituation and what does this
look like?
We we focus in on the NorthStar because it provides you a
perspective of behaviors,thoughts and traits and ideas
that you should exhibit if youare implementing what, whatever
(36:02):
it is that we just spoke about.
So we just gave you seven, Ijust gave you seven lessons from
Ted Lasso.
Here's what it looks like as a,as a leader, as a senior retail
leader, when you put thesethings into place Okay, this is
our, these are North Starsengagement with your team
becomes more genuine.
(36:23):
Engagement with your teambecomes more genuine when you
start to implement these seven,these seven lessons, your team
will.
Their ability to connect withyou and their ability to kind of
go back and forth with you willbecome more genuine.
(36:44):
And here's here's a definingpoint Um, a good friend of mine.
We always talk about um, whenleaders, like leaders, will say
you know, I'm a great leader,I'm a great leader, and our
pushback is always like well,did your team tell you that?
Right, we can say that we're agreat leader all day long, but
then our team tell us that it'sthe same thing with, with, with
(37:05):
genuine team connection, we canfeel the genuineness, but guess
what, when, when, when our bosscomes in and they can feel that
genuine connection that you havewith your team, guess what?
That's a whole nother level.
That's a whole nother level.
So you don't want to do thatfor the accolades or the, the,
the, the um, recognition of yourboss, right?
(37:28):
You don't want to create a teamjust just for that.
But when, when someone else cansee it, man, that's super
important.
That goes such a long way.
You start to realize that youhave something very special.
Number two for a North Star isthat you and your team begin to
embrace a growth mindset.
(37:48):
You embrace, you embrace agrowth, a growth mindset.
When you are not connectingwith your team, when you are um,
not um, providing attention,when no one knows their purpose,
when no one is paying attentionto the details, no one is
growing.
Your market isn't growing.
Your, the, the, your, thestories aren't growing.
(38:08):
Everybody has a very scarce, uh, scarce mentality, scarcity
mentality.
Where they don't want to, theywant to hold on to whatever it
is that they have leadership,position, team, wise no one
wants to develop in and sharetalent, right, everybody wants
to hold on, right.
But when you are implementingthese, these lessons, the growth
(38:30):
mindset of your team.
Right, because there's a,there's a genuine interest and
connection.
Guess what this feeds into?
More growth mindset of peoplewanting to share talent.
People wanted to share ideas,people wanted to provide
feedback.
You know as well.
So when I was I'm going fromstore manager to district
manager um, my peers were soamazing because our boss had
(38:55):
created a growth mindset in ourmarket.
They knew that my store wasgoing to be under massive
scrutiny.
You know just as it should,right?
And when you reach out toanother level, right, people are
going to like, come to yourstore and check it out.
And what I realized was that,um, as we were in a meeting and,
um, my boss said, hey, steve'sgoing to be going up for
(39:16):
interviews.
In that meeting, I had theleast three of my peers who had
been with the company at least,all of them at least 10 years.
All of them at least 10 years.
I was only with the company forum, about 16 months at the time
.
That's it, um, and all three ofthem were like hey, dude, I'm
going to come walk your store.
And they didn't walk my storewith bad intentions.
(39:39):
They walked my store in orderto help me get promoted.
Our entire market had a growthmindset.
It was next man up.
Who's getting promoted?
Let's help them.
Who's going for this?
Let's go.
Let's figure it out, right?
So, when you are implementingthese seven lessons, you will
have a growth mindset and yourteam will have a growth mindset.
(40:04):
And the last piece is that andthis sounds so big, but it's so
true is that you and your teamwill begin to operate in a place
in a sense of purpose.
And a sense of purpose we justtalked about earlier that retail
is about the human connection.
(40:25):
It's about the human condition.
It's about helping people underthe, providing people a
solution to their problem.
Right, we don't think about itthat way.
We think people just come inand get commodities, and they
come in and get soap, they comein and get clothing and
underwear, but they have aproblem.
That's a problem that they'retrying to solve, and that
product solves that problem.
(40:45):
Right, our job is to make surethat we actually have the
solution for them.
But also, how can we providemore solutions?
Right, that's increased, moresales.
Right, but how do we deal thiswith a purpose?
How do we do this with a biggerperspective in mind?
(41:06):
If we are looking at these sevenlessons and we are applying
them.
And I'm not saying you actuallyhave to apply these every
single day.
There are going to be timeswhere you have to throttle one
for the next.
But if we have this ethos ofaround, being curious and not
judgmental and allowingeverybody to be seen, guess what
(41:27):
?
Overall, overall, our entiremarket, our entire team begins
to look differently.
You begin to look differently,you begin to lead differently,
you begin to be seen differentlyby your team, by your boss, by
your boss's boss.
They can feel the change.
(41:48):
The thing that happened in TedLasso I'm going to close with
this is that people started tofeel the change.
They started to feel thepurpose and intent that he was
trying to create with his team.
They started to see the vision.
They started to catch thevision.
(42:08):
It took some time, it took somechanging of the team, it took
some hard conversations, it tooksome people apologizing, but
over time, they started to seethe vision and things started to
change.
It wasn't easy.
(42:30):
Listen to me, I say this all thetime Leadership will be easy if
it wasn't for the people.
But guess what?
If it wasn't for the people,you wouldn't be a leader,
because truly, by definition, aleader has followers, so it
wouldn't be the case.
I hope that these seven lessonsthat you will study, that you
(42:50):
will take to heart, that youwill add to your repertoire or
your toolbox or whatever analogyyou want to use, that will help
you from a leadershipstandpoint, because right now,
this is your time.
This is your time as a leader,to understand who you are, so
that you can become the leaderthat you have always wanted to
(43:13):
be.
Thank you for listening toRetail Leadership with Steve
Worthy.
I am your host, steve Worthy,which is kind of redundant, but
that's the case, that's how Inamed it.
But there it is.
Have a great day and God bless.
Hey there, retail leaders, it's Steve Worthy.
Before we jump into our episodethat I know you are going to
enjoy, I've got a littlesomething that I think you'll
like.
You know how we always talkshop and we share insights here,
right?
Well, I put together thisnewsletter.
It's called Worthy Retail News.
Here's what it does it allowsus to continue our candid
dialogue.
(00:22):
It's another way for us toprovide straight talk
conversations and stories andeven some more behind the scenes
perspectives from topprofessionals in the retail
industry.
Just click the link in the shownotes to subscribe or, better
yet, you can go toworthyretailnewscom.
Is just that easy.
Worthyretailnewscom, trust me,is worth a look.
(00:46):
All right, let's go ahead anddive into the episode Now.
I rarely say on my episodes thatthere's something mandatory for
you to do, but on this episodeI honestly feel it is mandatory
for you to watch Ted Lasso.
(01:06):
You have to watch Ted Lasso.
Here's the thing about TedLasso.
Here's the story.
It is of an American collegefootball coach who was actually
selected to go over to Englandand actually coach a lower level
, what we call in the statesoccer, what they call football
(01:27):
team.
And most of you will probablythink that, oh okay, all right,
it's just this story about a guywho's going to go over there
and he's going to bring the,bring the club from the bottom
to the top.
Yada, yada, yada.
Got to tell you what right now.
It is so much more than that.
Ted Lasso is quintessentialretail, and what I mean by that
(01:52):
is retail is all about people.
Retail is about the humancondition.
It is about human exchange.
It is about understanding thecomplexities of people and
actually providing a service ora product that actually meets
their needs.
Ted Lasso does an amazing jobof breaking down the human
(02:13):
condition, how we see things,how we think our little
idiosyncrasies that we think noone is watching.
But, more importantly, how dowe engage and connect with each
other on a deeper level?
I'm going to tell you right nowI'm not going to tell you to
stop the podcast and go listento Ted Lasso, but I'm going to
(02:33):
tell you right after you'regoing to want to watch all three
seasons of Ted Lasso.
After this episode, let's goahead and get started.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Welcome to Retail Leadership with Steve Worthy,
where we go well beyond thecorporate playbook to unpack
major opportunities, hiddenchallenges and critical issues
that senior retail leaders faceevery day.
If you're ready to get theinsights you need to elevate the
impact you have on your team,increase the profitability of
(03:06):
your stores and level up yourretail career, then keep
listening, my friend, because Isee a lot more success in your
future.
So let's get started right now.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
All right, so, once again, what does the seven
lessons of Ted Lasso have to dowith retail leadership?
And dare I say, everything.
Because retail, once again, atits core, it's about human
interaction, the human condition, it's about human exchange.
It's about an exchange of timeand emotion.
I know that sounds super kindof like you know, mystical,
(03:42):
steve.
What are you talking about?
Like retail is all about, likeconnecting with somebody, giving
them a product or giving them aservice.
I understand that.
But before they even get to thestore, before they even get to
even connecting with you, thereis an emotional thing that takes
place as it relates to aproduct or service, even dare
say hi to the brand that theyactually connect with.
(04:05):
And if we have a betterunderstanding about human
connection and human conditionas a retail leader, as a retail
brand, guess what?
We can actually improve theoverall satisfaction and, dare I
say, careers of retail leadersand also the satisfaction of our
(04:25):
customers as well.
So I want to dive in today toseven Ted Lasso leadership tips
that I know you are going toenjoy and they're going to
really truly impact you as well.
Let's go do the first one.
This first point is I thinkit's fundamental to the show.
(04:50):
It really is, even though itkind of happens kind of like I
think it's season two for allthree seasons this lesson is
really fundamental to theoverarching aspect of the show.
But I wanted to start with thisbecause I think it's important.
As retail leaders, we have tounderstand how to be a goldfish.
(05:10):
And the reason I wanted tostart with this one is because
and I'm going to play a littleclip here is that Sam is one of
the soccer players who's kind ofgrowing into his talent and he
makes a mistake and he starts tobeat himself up about the
mistake and it almost to thepoint where, you know, ted has
(05:31):
to kind of take him to the sideand say something to him and
give him this little pep talk.
And it's a very short pep talk.
Here's the scene and we'regoing to get right into all of
the lessons.
So we'll get some flowersbecause this spot here is where
Sam died.
It's very saddened Boy.
(05:52):
Walk away, you little prick.
All right, grandad, keep yourwig on.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Thanks, roy, you're good.
Hey Sam, where's that?
Coach?
I'm sorry.
You know what the happiestanimal on earth is.
It's a goldfish.
No, I know why.
No, got a 10 second memory.
Be a goldfish, sam.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, we have to teach our team how to fail
forward, how to fail fast.
So the first lesson from TedLasso is to be a goldfish Think
very quickly about whatever themistake it is that you've made,
but be able to move past it veryquickly.
And then you have to get on tothe next thing.
(06:38):
Lesson two At the end of thefirst two seasons, rebecca, who
is the manager of the.
She's the manager of the club.
She always comes to town.
(06:58):
It's I'm not giving away toomuch, but she always comes down
and it has this big to do withwhether it's a secret or it's
something that's been reallybugging her and she talks to Ted
about it and he, he, uh, sheapologizes, she apologizes.
When lesson number two is toapologize as a leader, we don't
(07:25):
even think about this one um asmuch as we should.
We just talked about be agoldfish and make a mistake.
When we, as a leader, have theability to learn how to
apologize for a mistake that wehave made, it's extremely
important.
Now here's the thing theapology may not always be
(07:48):
accepted.
I'll give you a quick story.
I had a conversation withsomeone.
I was a store manager at thetime.
I had a conversation withsomeone and I was writing them
up, giving them a coaching, ifyou will, for, um, I can't, it
was a missed opportunity orsomething, but it was.
It was on several occasionsthat they have done this.
(08:08):
So it just got to the pointwhere we actually had to have a
conversation.
I had to document theconversation, so I documented
the conversation.
They didn't appreciate theconversation, but of course,
back in those days, you have toprint everything out and then
put it into, you know, your,your actual file in a filing
cabinet.
So, um, what I did was, um, Ihad a printer in my office but I
(08:32):
, I hit print and I left andwent out to the sales floor.
I and I locked my door as astore manager should sometimes,
because there are sensitiveinformation in there and I ended
up walking the store andsomeone came up to me and was
like, hey, there's something inthe printer and I'm like what
are you talking about?
What had, what had occurred?
(08:54):
Was that my, my?
When I printed the, the, thedocumentation, it went to what
we um at the time and target,called TSC, which is really
where all of the HR people andand everybody kind of sits, and
even even people who are waiting, waiting the clock in.
They sit and just kind of waitand the coaching document
(09:15):
actually went to that printer.
The printer is heavily used.
They printed out plan of grants, printing out signs.
It's heavily used.
So, needless to say, thatcoaching document, a lot of
people saw it Right and for me,as a leader, I never want to put
somebody's um, uh situation outthere, you know, in the streets
(09:38):
if you will, but they saw it.
Needless to say, this person wasum, extremely upset, extremely
upset.
You know, while the it was,while it was a a simple era in
the fact that I didn't check theright um printer, the, the
ramifications of this mistakewith my relationship with this
(10:00):
person, um, was kind of almostirrevocable in the context that,
even though I had apologized,our relationship was never the
same after that.
I use that as an, as an example.
I don't want to, you know,paint a picture that, okay, just
because you apologize,everything's going to be okay.
It's a lot of times they're not.
(10:20):
I wanted to use that as anexample is that we have to
apologize.
I have so many other moreexamples of when I've had to
apologize for something thatI've done wrong and or uh, or
misunderstood or I'vemiscommunicated something, I
actually had to go back andchange the communication.
So it's important that, asleaders, we learn how to
(10:42):
apologize.
We have to demonstrate humility, accountability for everything
that we've done and, once again,whether they accept the apology
or not, it's important for usto take that step as a leader.
So that's lesson number twofrom Ted Lasso.
All right.
(11:07):
Lesson number three focus on thelongterm.
As Ted takes the position as a,as a uh football manager, he
begins to realize that the teamis not going to be turned around
overnight.
It's not going to be able togenerate the results that one he
(11:28):
wants, his uh, his, his comanager wants, or what his um or
what his boss wants.
He realizes that this is goingto be a longterm project.
A longterm project, a couple ofthings with longterm projects,
a couple.
One of the things that you wantto try to do as best as you
(11:50):
possibly can is to get a quickwin.
Try to find something to get aquick win.
As a football manager, one ofthe things that you want to try
to do is actually do that.
You actually want to win like amatch, right If you are the
bottom tier, which which they,the um, the the team was.
(12:10):
Ted's perspective was like howcan I get a quick win, how can I
get something just to kind ofgalvanize our team around?
And once you're able to getlike a quick win, what's now?
It's becomes a perspective oftalent.
You have to assess the talentof where you currently are.
Then the current talent thatyou have take you to where you
(12:35):
need to be and in a lot ofinstances they can't.
Some instances they can, someis because of the leader.
Before you didn't have therequisite skills to take them to
the next level.
And now you come in and youknow your.
Your goal and your focus is tofigure out what you have from a
team standpoint dynamics,ability, skills and then assess
(12:57):
whether or not you can add valueum, enough value to bring that
person up to a certain levelwhere you can move forward and
take the market.
I'm going to just go back andback and forth from football to
to to retail and be able to takethe market to where it is that
you need to go.
The problem is is that we don'tdo a thorough enough assessment
(13:18):
of our team.
We just take everybody at facevalue and just assume that we
can change everybody.
That's not always the case.
A lot of times you actuallyhave to change your team up, you
have to reevaluate your teamand to see if they're going to
actually be able to take you tothe promised land.
If you will, you have to bestrategic about it.
(13:42):
The last part of this is goingto be the goal.
When we start to think aboutour goal, we have to realize
that that goal may shift overtime.
It just it really may.
We may want to, and I don'tmean the actual end result.
So let's just say you want tobe number four, five or six or
(14:04):
seven in sales.
That's the goal.
But the direction and thethings that you actually have to
do to get there may bedifferent, may look different,
they may sound different, right,and you have to be okay with
being adaptable.
That's one of the lessons thatwe've learned with Ted Lasso.
As it relates to focus on thelong term is that while the goal
(14:24):
was to actually go from onelevel of the of soccer to the
next level, the higher, higherlevel, he, the team, took so
many different iterations inpass in order to actually get
there.
You have to be okay withunderstanding that, as the goal
may not shift the direction inwhich you get there and the
(14:45):
people that actually go alongwith you for the ride may shift.
So, lesson number three focuson the long term.
Okay, lesson number four payattention to the detail, details
(15:09):
, pay attention to the details,and I know you are probably
automatically thinking as aretail leader.
You think I mean all the trashthat's outside the building.
You think I mean all the labelson the end caps are, are, you
know, are right?
You think I mean thateverybody's wearing a name tag.
(15:29):
You know things like that.
I get it, I get it.
You know, initially, when I was, was was creating these, these,
these lessons, I was going togo that route, but I actually
ended up rewatching, like theentire three seasons of Ted
Lasso and I realized was that,you know, I it's.
(15:54):
I wanted to go a little deeperand less surface level with this
one because I think it'simportant.
I think when we start to talkabout pay attention to the
details, we are literallytalking about.
You know all the differentnuances of your team's
personality.
The different nuances of yourteam's personality.
(16:17):
How do you understand who theyare, what they do, where they've
come from, the different thingsthat excite them, the different
things that actually impactthem and who they are.
So when we start talking aboutpaying attention to the details,
it's about connecting with yourteam at a deeper level and a
(16:41):
broader level, understanding andspending time with them.
When you pay attention to thedetails of your team, here's are
a couple of things thatactually happen.
You build trust, you enhancethe, you enhance your own
credibility, you driveexcellence.
You are also modeling thebehavior right.
(17:05):
So when we start to talk abouta lead by example or inspire
trust, one of the things that Ioften talk about and say is that
we have to live by the sameexpectations that we place on
other people.
A lot of leaders don't do that.
They expect their team to be ata certain level of authenticity
(17:27):
and genuineness andapproachability and we are not,
and we place those undue andunreasonable and unrealistic
expectations upon the team whenwe are not living out those same
things ourselves.
The last piece that I think isthe most important part for pay
(17:48):
attention to the details is thatwhen you do that, you prevent
overlooking issues.
You right, when you payattention to the details, the
smallest little thing couldactually be something that is a
typical VI Iceberg for somethingthat's very big and the more
(18:10):
you are in that, and I mean thatas it relates to your team, as
it relates to their ability tolead.
I remember having a conversationwith a leader and on several
occasions I just heard them.
They would talk about theirteam and when they got to this
(18:30):
one person, the tone alwayschanged, always changed.
And that's okay, I just put itas a one off.
Right, I just put it as a oneoff Because you know, we all
have those people sometimes onour team that were like, oh gosh
, okay, I remembered, I storedthat just on a couple other
(18:51):
occasions, same thing happened,same thing happened.
And I was like what is going on?
And I said and I brought it totheir attention.
I said, hey, do you realize,every time you talk about XYZ
team member, your tone changesand they're like no, I didn't, I
didn't, I didn't think about it.
(19:11):
I said so what's going onbetween between, between,
between you two?
And I won't get into the, tothe, to the, to the crest of the
details, but there wassomething that was actually
happening.
There was a, a, some measure ofmisinformation and
miscommunication that the leaderdidn't appreciate or didn't
(19:33):
like, or something along thoselines and in I in they were able
to address it because I wasable to address it with that
leader and my my tone and tenurechanged a little bit was like
well, you need to address thisbecause it is coming out in your
conversation.
And if it's coming out in aconversation with me, I can
(19:55):
almost assume, I can almostguarantee you, that it's coming
out With your peers or theirpeers or your team Right.
So, and when you are payingattention to the details, you
are able to see little Nuancesthat could be just the tip of
the iceberg.
So we want to make sure that weare addressing those things.
(20:22):
Okay, number five, lesson numberfive Know your purpose.
I know that sounds so big.
I know that sounds so big.
You know who can say theyreally know their purpose.
Steve, what are you talkingabout?
What are you talking about?
I You're, as that relates topurpose, when, when Ted Lasso
(20:43):
took the position as a, as amanager, he was really trying to
figure out his purpose in life.
He had personal things going onin his life that he still needed
to address and when he took theposition, he was in the state
of really finding his purpose.
He was one thing over here inthe States, a successful college
(21:07):
football coach.
When he came over to the UK hewas something completely
different, but he wanted to usethis experience to you in the UK
to really truly find hispurpose.
He wanted to find out what his,what he, stood for.
He wanted to find out his valuesystem.
So when I say purpose, I reallymean your value systems, like
(21:28):
what are you going to stand for?
What are the, your behaviors,your thoughts, your concepts,
your skills that you hold trueto yourself, that others can see
in you?
An issue is that we once again,I see, is that we we place
unnecessary pressure on otherpeople when we don't place that
(21:51):
same pressure on ourselves toactually Know what we stand for.
Right, even an uncertainty.
As a retail leader, you arefaced with uncertainty all the
time.
There is change that happenshourly, right.
As a, as a, as a, as a leader,I could come into a market and
(22:12):
change the entire complexion ofthat market.
Every store I went into, youthe everything that they wanted
to do.
That day they changed.
When I walked into the storethey had the best late plans,
but when Steve walked in thedoor, guess what a lot of those,
some of those plans just wentout the window.
Right so?
(22:33):
But as a leader, when you changeup kind of who you are, the
processes and the routines thatare going to change, but what
you stand for and your valuesystem should never change.
So when I say, lesson numberfive is know your purpose, know
what you're going to stand for,because the sooner you can
(22:56):
discover your own values andsystems and things that you're
gonna stand for, the more youcan actually help your team
discover theirs Can.
Can you imagine a team thatunderstands who they are and
what they stand for and wherethey want to go?
(23:18):
Man, there is nothing like that, especially when we think about
it as it relates to retail.
We want to make sure that weunderstand our values and our
purpose so that we can helpothers Understands that,
understand theirs and we canmove forward as a team.
Two more to go.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
You're listening to retail leadership with Steve
worthy.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Alrighty.
Lesson six oh, oh, I love thisone too.
I excuse, number seven is thebest one, because I'm glad you,
you know Everybody's holding offuntil number seven's.
Number seven is the best one.
They're all great, but numberseven is has to be the best, but
number six, um, every one isworthy of attention and I I
didn't.
You know, there's no punintended, I didn't mean to put
(24:05):
my name in there, but that's thetruth.
Every one is worthy ofattention, value and acknowledge
every team member, no mattertheir role, no matter their role
.
Ted Lasso did an amazing job ofthis.
If you watch, if you watch theshow, he had a Unique way of
(24:28):
connecting with each and everyone of his players, each and
every one of his staff members,everybody around him.
He had a unique way, and Idon't and but here's the thing
he didn't change who he was ashe connected with everybody.
He just met everybody wherethey were Right.
Here is the biggest piece thatI want.
(24:50):
I want you to get from this oneand this is going to change
your leadership anytime youconnect with somebody here it is
Is that most people on yourteam Just want to be seen.
They just want to be seen byyou.
You have a big position.
When you walk into the store,everything changes.
(25:14):
When you walk into a market,everything changes.
And those people the cardattended to cash years, to the
person that's working in grocery, to the person that's working
in the back they just want to beseen by you.
And, my god, if you don'tacknowledge them, shame on you.
Shame on you.
(25:35):
Everyone is worthy of yourattention.
And then, if you want to takeit deeper, here's the thing that
I realized about myself.
I While ago in retail.
In retail, I and I probably inlife too, and this is just me
(25:57):
telling myself I suck at names.
I Really do, I really do.
Thank God for name tags inretail, thank God for name tags
in retail.
But here's the one thing that I, I, I do, I do extremely well
and I am just gonna, I'm tootinmy own horn here and hopefully,
you, you, you have somethingthat you do extremely well that
(26:19):
you were able to toot your ownhorn with as well.
I remember, I Remember storiesabout people.
I Remember stories about people.
I can remember, you know acashier whose son tried out for
the soccer team.
I can remember a logisticsperson.
Their mom was battling x, y andz.
(26:41):
I can remember One of one of my, one of my store managers took
a vacation and they they wentwhite water rafting.
Right, I can remember certainstories about people and for me
that was more impactful thanjust remembering their names
because once again we had thename tag.
(27:01):
But that is a level ofconnection that that helped me,
excuse me, it allowed me to seethem, it allowed them to be seen
differently.
Oh my gosh, he remembers that.
Right, I remember I'm aManchester City football
supporter and several storesthat I would go into they would
(27:22):
have, you know, team members whowere Manchester United fans,
and so that was our little thing.
I, I have to time.
I can remember their namesbecause I had so many freaking
stores.
Right, I Inventory learningnames.
But I walk in, you know, I walkin and I see him.
I'd be like yo, manchester'sblue, meaning that's.
(27:43):
So that's if you, if you knowfootball, then you know that's,
you know it's it's.
There's two rival teams in onecity.
Manchester City is had, theywear blue, manchester United
wears red, and so for thelongest they would always say
Manchester is Red.
But now the tide is turning,the team is crushing it, and so
I can walk in and say, hey,manchester, manchester is blue
(28:06):
and that's our level ofconnection.
They felt seen, how are youseeing your team?
Do you see your team?
Listen?
Number six was everyone isworthy of attention.
Now let's move to number seven.
This is the one I knoweverybody has been waiting for.
(28:26):
Well, I love every point, everylesson in this episode.
I just love what he talks about, and the last point that we are
going to talk about is to becurious and not judgmental.
(28:47):
Here's a little clip from thatepisode.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
You know, rupert, guys have underestimated me my
entire life and for years Inever understood why.
I used to really bother me.
But then one day I was drivingmy little boy to school and I
saw this quote by Walt Whitman.
It was painted on the wallthere.
It said be curious, notjudgmental.
I like that.
So I get back in my car and I'mdriving to work and all of a
(29:17):
sudden it hits me All themfellas that used to belittle me,
not a single one of them werecurious.
You know, they thought they hadeverything all figured out.
So they judged everything andthey judged everyone, and I
realized that they'reunderestimating me.
Who I was, had nothing to dowith it, because if they were
(29:40):
curious they would ask questions, questions like have you played
a lot of darts, ted?
Which I would have answered yes, sir.
Every Sunday afternoon I had asports ball with my father from
age 10 to 16 when he passed away.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
What you just heard was probably one of the most
famous scenes in Ted Lasso,where he's battling Rupert doing
darts and he goes into thestory and he talks about you
know how people underestimatedhim in his entire life.
And he talks about this quote,and this is lesson number seven.
It says be curious and notjudgmental.
(30:25):
Once again, this has to be oneof the most powerful scenes.
I think it's season one has tobe one of the most powerful
scenes in Ted Lasso because ofthe story in which he talks
about it.
The context is that his entirelife people have underestimated
(30:46):
him.
They said he couldn't do this,they said he couldn't do that
and he said no one bothered toask a question about who he was
and his ability to lead, hisability to connect.
They were not curious.
There was just a study that wasdone by Eek Magazine and also
(31:08):
Harvard Business School, andthey talked about what was the
number one trait that leadersneed to have in order to be
successful.
And guess what it was?
It was curiosity.
It was curiosity.
I'll make sure I leave a linkto that article if you want to
read that.
So curiosity as a leader opensup the door for you to embrace
(31:33):
change, to handle mistakes, tounderstand your team's
motivations and then also forthem to understand who you are.
Curiosity begets curiosity.
If I'm curious with you, thenthey have.
Your team is open to beingcurious with you, with you.
(31:53):
You have to be okay with that.
You have to be okay with themasking questions about who you
are, where you come from, whatdid you do?
What was the failure that youhad?
What was the success that youhad?
I'm not talking about gettinginto intimate personal details.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm just talking about justnormal curiosity For me.
(32:14):
I'm the youngest of sevenSpoiled brat was a spoiled brat
growing up and then I would kindof share that story in my team.
I'm like, yep, I can see thatand it was just an ongoing
little thing that they knewabout me.
Right, curiosity begetscuriosity.
(32:36):
Here's the thing that I want toleave you with around be
curious and not judgmental.
Your team will not come to you.
If you hold judgment, if youdon't suspend your judgment
about them coming to you with acomplaint or with an issue, over
time you are going to lose yourcredibility with that team.
(32:59):
So we want to talk about the becurious.
But the last part of that isprobably the most important part
is to be is to not bejudgmental when people are
coming to you with a concern.
Here's the thing Every markethas has that person.
I didn't, it didn't matter,almost right, almost every store
(33:22):
has that person, right?
That will always say that thatcake.
Can I see you for a second,right?
I mean if you don't raise yourhand, if you're in the car, but
if you're listening to this, youknow what I'm talking about.
Every store has that person.
I don't know who they are, butwhen you walk with, your leader
walks into the store and theygot an issue and they have tried
(33:43):
their best to probably talk totheir leader about it.
Guess what they?
They leapfrog you and comeright to me and hey, you never
talked to you for a second.
And I know in my youngleadership I would get so like,
like, bent out of shape aboutthose circumstances I really
like and I would talk to myleader.
You can handle the situation.
But what I realized was that II had a different level of
(34:07):
cachet that I needed to be ableto utilize and what I would do
was allow myself to embracethose circumstances when people
would, would want to come to meand then at the end of that
conversation I always turned itthat, hey, next time go to your
boss, and then I would go and Iwould loop back with the boss
(34:30):
and talk to them about, hey,this is something that you
really need to kind of thinkabout as well.
So, and over time, I was ableto suspend judgment and really
be able to embrace those issuesor even challenges that they had
for the store, for the market,and I got a lot of great ideas
from those team members.
(34:51):
So number seven be curious andnot judge mental as a leader.
It's important, it's incumbent,it's imperative All the m's,
all the m's for you tounderstand that if you want to
be successful, if you want yourteam to embrace, change, embrace
(35:17):
who you are as a leader, youhave to be curious, but you also
have to not be judgmental withyour team.
All right, you know what'scoming up next.
Right, you know what's comingup next.
The North Star is coming upright now.
All right, the North Star isthat point in this podcast where
(35:41):
you know you've been listeningto me talk, I've been giving you
all of this information andyou're like Steve, what does
this mean to me?
How does this apply to mysituation and what does this
look like?
We we focus in on the NorthStar because it provides you a
perspective of behaviors,thoughts and traits and ideas
that you should exhibit if youare implementing what, whatever
(36:02):
it is that we just spoke about.
So we just gave you seven, Ijust gave you seven lessons from
Ted Lasso.
Here's what it looks like as a,as a leader, as a senior retail
leader, when you put thesethings into place Okay, this is
our, these are North Starsengagement with your team
becomes more genuine.
(36:23):
Engagement with your teambecomes more genuine when you
start to implement these seven,these seven lessons, your team
will.
Their ability to connect withyou and their ability to kind of
go back and forth with you willbecome more genuine.
(36:44):
And here's here's a definingpoint Um, a good friend of mine.
We always talk about um, whenleaders, like leaders, will say
you know, I'm a great leader,I'm a great leader, and our
pushback is always like well,did your team tell you that?
Right, we can say that we're agreat leader all day long, but
then our team tell us that it'sthe same thing with, with, with
(37:05):
genuine team connection, we canfeel the genuineness, but guess
what, when, when, when our bosscomes in and they can feel that
genuine connection that you havewith your team, guess what?
That's a whole nother level.
That's a whole nother level.
So you don't want to do thatfor the accolades or the, the,
the, the um, recognition of yourboss, right?
(37:28):
You don't want to create a teamjust just for that.
But when, when someone else cansee it, man, that's super
important.
That goes such a long way.
You start to realize that youhave something very special.
Number two for a North Star isthat you and your team begin to
embrace a growth mindset.
(37:48):
You embrace, you embrace agrowth, a growth mindset.
When you are not connectingwith your team, when you are um,
not um, providing attention,when no one knows their purpose,
when no one is paying attentionto the details, no one is
growing.
Your market isn't growing.
Your, the, the, your, thestories aren't growing.
(38:08):
Everybody has a very scarce, uh, scarce mentality, scarcity
mentality.
Where they don't want to, theywant to hold on to whatever it
is that they have leadership,position, team, wise no one
wants to develop in and sharetalent, right, everybody wants
to hold on, right.
But when you are implementingthese, these lessons, the growth
(38:30):
mindset of your team.
Right, because there's a,there's a genuine interest and
connection.
Guess what this feeds into?
More growth mindset of peoplewanting to share talent.
People wanted to share ideas,people wanted to provide
feedback.
You know as well.
So when I was I'm going fromstore manager to district
manager um, my peers were soamazing because our boss had
(38:55):
created a growth mindset in ourmarket.
They knew that my store wasgoing to be under massive
scrutiny.
You know just as it should,right?
And when you reach out toanother level, right, people are
going to like, come to yourstore and check it out.
And what I realized was that,um, as we were in a meeting and,
um, my boss said, hey, steve'sgoing to be going up for
(39:16):
interviews.
In that meeting, I had theleast three of my peers who had
been with the company at least,all of them at least 10 years.
All of them at least 10 years.
I was only with the company forum, about 16 months at the time
.
That's it, um, and all three ofthem were like hey, dude, I'm
going to come walk your store.
And they didn't walk my storewith bad intentions.
(39:39):
They walked my store in orderto help me get promoted.
Our entire market had a growthmindset.
It was next man up.
Who's getting promoted?
Let's help them.
Who's going for this?
Let's go.
Let's figure it out, right?
So, when you are implementingthese seven lessons, you will
have a growth mindset and yourteam will have a growth mindset.
(40:04):
And the last piece is that andthis sounds so big, but it's so
true is that you and your teamwill begin to operate in a place
in a sense of purpose.
And a sense of purpose we justtalked about earlier that retail
is about the human connection.
(40:25):
It's about the human condition.
It's about helping people underthe, providing people a
solution to their problem.
Right, we don't think about itthat way.
We think people just come inand get commodities, and they
come in and get soap, they comein and get clothing and
underwear, but they have aproblem.
That's a problem that they'retrying to solve, and that
product solves that problem.
(40:45):
Right, our job is to make surethat we actually have the
solution for them.
But also, how can we providemore solutions?
Right, that's increased, moresales.
Right, but how do we deal thiswith a purpose?
How do we do this with a biggerperspective in mind?
(41:06):
If we are looking at these sevenlessons and we are applying
them.
And I'm not saying you actuallyhave to apply these every
single day.
There are going to be timeswhere you have to throttle one
for the next.
But if we have this ethos ofaround, being curious and not
judgmental and allowingeverybody to be seen, guess what
(41:27):
?
Overall, overall, our entiremarket, our entire team begins
to look differently.
You begin to look differently,you begin to lead differently,
you begin to be seen differentlyby your team, by your boss, by
your boss's boss.
They can feel the change.
(41:48):
The thing that happened in TedLasso I'm going to close with
this is that people started tofeel the change.
They started to feel thepurpose and intent that he was
trying to create with his team.
They started to see the vision.
They started to catch thevision.
(42:08):
It took some time, it took somechanging of the team, it took
some hard conversations, it tooksome people apologizing, but
over time, they started to seethe vision and things started to
change.
It wasn't easy.
(42:30):
Listen to me, I say this all thetime Leadership will be easy if
it wasn't for the people.
But guess what?
If it wasn't for the people,you wouldn't be a leader,
because truly, by definition, aleader has followers, so it
wouldn't be the case.
I hope that these seven lessonsthat you will study, that you
(42:50):
will take to heart, that youwill add to your repertoire or
your toolbox or whatever analogyyou want to use, that will help
you from a leadershipstandpoint, because right now,
this is your time.
This is your time as a leader,to understand who you are, so
that you can become the leaderthat you have always wanted to
(43:13):
be.
Thank you for listening toRetail Leadership with Steve
Worthy.
I am your host, steve Worthy,which is kind of redundant, but
that's the case, that's how Inamed it.
But there it is.
Have a great day and God bless.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.