Shane Decker

Cast Four Types Now

One person can’t do it all. Strive to achieve managerial harmony in your store by ensuring you have four distinct personalities on your staff.

Published

17 years ago

August 1, 2008

Shane Decker Instore August 2008 Issue

WHEN IT COMES to your store, there are four roles that must be played, and you need to have the right personalities assigned. With all four in place, your customers will enjoy an incredible in-store experience. The four are:

The Teacher

This person is a professional learner, and he enjoys sharing that information with others. The Teacher should be giving an hour-long weekly sales meeting on topics like store procedures, product knowledge and salesmanship. A strong Teacher will be adept in all of these areas. He’ll also be willing to share his knowledge to help others succeed, especially in areas where they are weak, and will not hold any information back so he can be smarter than someone else.

The Leader

This is someone who leads by example. Her attitude is always good, and she is always going the extra mile to make customers happy. Everyone wants to be around her, because without saying a word, the Leader has a way of making people feel good. She makes everyone else want to step up. Talk is cheap — action is priceless. And a Leader is a person of action.

The Motivator

This person has the ability to give people belief in themselves to accomplish their goals. If you wanted to reach $1 million in sales, the Motivator would make you believe you could do it — he’d be pushing you, talking to you, making you feel good about yourself. He’d tell you when he saw great teamwork in action or what an excellent add-on sale you made. A Motivator is constantly looking for the good in others, and thus brings out the best in them.

The Delegator

This person gives the right jobs to the right personalities to get them done in the best and quickest way. A great Delegator never micromanages, as that can ruin the trust between the Delegator and the employee. The Delegator is firm but fair — she sets standards for excellence and holds employees accountable to those standards.

If things aren’t getting done during the day, you don’t have a good Delegator. If people are in bad moods or are underperforming, you’re missing a strong Leader or Motivator. If people have been working in your store a long time and still don’t have the knowledge they need, there’s no Teacher.

A person can be two of these personalities, maybe even three, but no one can be all four. When all four exist, harmony reigns and customer expectations are exceeded.

This story is from the August 2008 edition of INSTORE.

Four Decades of Excellence: How Wilkerson Transformed a Jeweler's Retirement into Celebration

After 45 years serving the Milwaukee community, Treiber & Straub Jewelers owner Michael Straub faced a significant life transition. At 75, the veteran jeweler made a personal decision many business owners understand: "I think it's time. I want to enjoy my wife with my grandchildren for the next 10, 15 years." Wilkerson's expertise transformed this major business transition into an extraordinary success. Their comprehensive approach to managing the going-out-of-business sale created unprecedented customer response—with lines forming outside the store and limits on how many shoppers could enter at once due to fire safety regulations. The results exceeded all expectations. "Wilkerson did a phenomenal job," Straub enthuses. "They were there for you through the whole thing, helped you with promoting it, helping you on day-to-day business. I can't speak enough for how well they did." The partnership didn't just facilitate a business closing; it created a celebratory finale to decades of service while allowing Straub to confidently step into his well-earned retirement.