THREE YOUNG, BRILLIANT salespeople sat across from us at a dinner held by a mutual vendor. They had us in stitches for hours, and by the time we left, we were fast friends. They were all fairly new to the jewelry industry, and their spirit and passion for the field inspired me to write this column. With folks like them coming up the ranks, what an incredibly bright future we have in the jewelry business — but they need our help!
One in three jewelers is retirement age or older right now, according to the INSTORE Big Survey. I have no fights to pick with the 60-plus-year-old crowd, but there is a tough reality we must face. A third of independent stores could disappear in the next five to 10 years with no one to pass the torch to.
It’s already happening. I am working with clients regularly who aren’t yet ready to call it quits but want to begin working their way out of the business. I can’t shake the feeling that our industry will incur a great loss if we don’t think about the next generation.
So, jump to my new friends at dinner. Awesome new associates like them are popping up all over the industry and they need two big things from you as a jewelry store owner or manager.
1. They need you to listen. To feel listened to is to feel loved. Your team wants to feel like they belong and are wanted in your business. Spending even 30 minutes a week asking each member of the team for feedback and ideas is a powerful way of planting the seeds for a future visionary leader.
2. They need you to take risks. After you listen, implement their ideas from time to time. Their ideas may not always pan out, and that can be a great thing. Failure is a powerful teacher. Your job as a leader isn’t to prevent failure. It is to manage the failure so it isn’t devastating to anyone and then help your team adapt by going back to the drawing board to find new solutions.
Here’s my challenge to you this month: Ask each member of your team what your company’s greatest strength is. Then listen and take notes. The second step is to tell them what your biggest frustration in the business is right now and ask them how they might solve the problem. Listen. Take notes. Then take a calculated risk and try out one of their ideas.
This is how we plant the seeds to grow future leaders out of young, brilliant salespeople like the ones I befriended at dinner. Doing this on a weekly basis, combined with a structured mentorship program, can pass the torch to a new generation of incredible jewelers!
