Retail Shift

I remember my first manager-level role — one with employees to train, develop, and retrain should performance fall below expectations. I loved it when my team and I were like a well-oiled machine and never thought about how I would feel if we weren’t. So I was unprepared when my own manager asked me to have a difficult conversation with an employee whom she suspected was stealing from the business. Whether or not I was prepared, it was a conversation I had to have. In hindsight, I can see that I didn’t receive the best direction from my supervisor (perhaps my fears prevented me from really hearing her). Instead I did the best I could do in the moment. Do any of these feeling sound familiar to you? I decided to get rid of any expectations that this would be a conversation of conflict. I got curious instead. It was a productive, personable, and successful straightforward talk. Your next one can be too. In this episode I share the approach I take when I’m curious about an employee's behavior or performance. List