Summary

Summary:

Salena Knight, a retail growth strategist and multi-award-winning store owner, discusses four leadership mistakes she often finds herself making. These mistakes include creating chaos by not being organized, overlooking data and metrics, blurring the line between being friendly and being friends with her team, and holding onto relationships that have outgrown their usefulness. Knight emphasizes the importance of being accountable, setting clear expectations, and making tough decisions for the benefit of the business. She encourages listeners to prioritize organization, data analysis, and maintaining a professional relationship with their team.

Chapters

| **Timestamp** | **Summary** |
| ————- | ———– |
| 0:00 | Introduction |
| 0:10 | Topic 1 |
| 1:30 | Topic 2 |
| 3:15 | Topic 3 |
| 5:20 | Topic 4 |
| 7:00 | Topic 5 |
| 8:45 | Conclusion |
| 00:00:01 | Introduction to Black Friday sales bundle. |
| 00:01:32 | Introduction to the podcast episode. |
| 00:03:00 | Acknowledgement of late podcast episodes. |
| 00:03:33 | Discussion on leadership mistakes. |
| 00:04:18 | Story about making a team member cry due to overwhelming workload. |
| 00:08:05 | Realization of current chaos and impact on team. |
| 00:09:17 | Gratitude towards team members for their support. |
| 00:09:57 | Acknowledgment of responsibility as a leader. |
| 00:10:04 | Conclusion and taking ownership of mistakes. |
| 00:09:46 | Not expecting team to fix mistakes, takes ownership |
| 00:10:43 | Not strong in creating chaos, taking control |
| 00:11:31 | Emails not sent for 6 weeks, didn’t check data |
| 00:12:23 | Skipped step of reading end-of-day reports, lost money |
| 00:14:09 | Checking team’s well-being, intervening when necessary |
| 00:14:55 | Foster culture of openness, engagement through team meetings |
| 00:17:14 | Importance of looking at data, reflecting on what happened |
| 00:18:05 | Numbers are just a story, can change the narrative |
| 00:18:45 | Importance of changing the narrative based on data |
| 00:19:26 | The danger of letting things slide when things are going well |
| 00:20:10 | The need to be friendly with your team, but not friends |
| 00:22:06 | The problem with being too nice in business |
| 00:23:58 | The challenge of keeping relationships when outgrown |
| 00:25:55 | It’s okay to let people go and move on |
| 00:26:46 | The anxiety caused by holding onto underperforming agencies |
| 00:27:20 | Outgrowing friendships and family relationships |
| 00:27:42 | Disappointment in family members’ reactions to success |
| 00:27:55 | Feeling inferior or jealous about others’ success |
| 00:28:30 | Letting go of team members who aren’t meeting goals |
| 00:29:47 | Importance of not letting team members feel useless or behind |
| 00:30:39 | Not accepting chaos and seeking better business relationships |
| 00:31:23 | Balancing being friends with team members and being a leader |
| 00:34:19 | Knowing when to stop being nice and make tough decisions |
| 00:35:02 | Avoiding being a bottleneck for the team |
| 00:35:27 | Seeking feedback on leadership traits |
| 00:35:59 | Catching oneself before things go wrong is a true indication of leadership |
| 00:36:18 | Promotion for Ultimate Sales Bundle for Black Friday |
| 00:37:31 | Encouraging reviews for independent retail and e-commerce stores. |
| 00:37:42 | Importance of reviews for the success of the stores. |
| 00:37:50 | Conclusion and invitation to the next episode. |

Quotes

1. **Speaker 1-(00:02:31)**
> “I am stopping the business from moving forward.”

2. **Speaker 1-(00:06:09)**
> “I was a really crappy boss.”

3. **Speaker 1-(00:08:39)**
> “You are not a good leader if your staff are so upset that they can’t live up to your expectations.”

4. **Speaker 1-(00:10:04)**
> “I find myself constantly falling into the trap of being too nice.”

5. **Speaker 1-(00:14:19)**
> “Being nice is often the thing that holds a business back.”

6. **Speaker 1-(00:19:26)**
> “Data shouldn’t be seen as a hard slog, it should be seen as exciting.”

7. **Speaker 1-(00:22:20)**
> “You can be friendly with your team, but you can’t be friends with your team.”

8. **Speaker 1-(00:25:13)**
> “You can be friendly, but there has to be a little bit of separation.”

9. **Speaker 1-(00:29:55)**
> “You have to be the leader and let them go.”

10. **Speaker 1-(00:34:06)**
> “You are all too freaking nice for your own good.”

Show Notes

**About The Guest(s):**

Salena Knight is a retail growth strategist and multi-award-winning store owner. With 17 years of experience in the industry, she helps retail and e-commerce businesses scale and succeed.

**Summary:**

In this episode, Salena Knight reflects on her own leadership mistakes and shares four common leadership behaviors that she finds herself repeating. She discusses the importance of avoiding chaos, staying on top of data, maintaining a professional relationship with your team, and making tough decisions when necessary. By recognizing these mistakes and taking ownership, leaders can create a more successful and harmonious work environment.

**Key Takeaways:**

1. Avoid creating chaos in your business by staying organized and setting clear deadlines.
2. Regularly review and analyze data to make informed decisions and identify areas for improvement.
3. Maintain a professional relationship with your team, being friendly but not crossing the line into friendship.
4. Don’t hold onto relationships that no longer serve your business. Make tough decisions when necessary.

**Quotes:**

– “If your team aren’t doing what you want them to do, there’s a good chance it’s actually your fault.”
– “Being nice is often the thing that holds a business back when the business owner is too nice.”
– “It’s okay to let people go when you’ve outgrown each other.”
– “Maintaining a professional relationship with your team is essential for accountability and growth.”

00:00:01 Speaker 1
Hey there. Thanks so much for joining in to today’s episode. Just a quick break to remind you that my ultimate sales bundle for Black Friday has gone live. If you are looking to create an amazing promotion that will leverage Black Friday for you, then make sure you head over to selenanight.com forward Slash.
00:00:21 Speaker 1
BF like a best friend, but in this case Black Friday selenanight.com/BF and grab my ultimate sales bundle to help you create a Black Friday promotion that will knock it out of the park and get your sales.
00:00:41 Speaker 1
Hey there and welcome to the bringing business to retail podcast. If you’re looking to get more sales, more customers, master your marketing and ultimately take control of your retail or e-commerce business, then you’re in.
00:00:57 Speaker 1
The right place.
00:00:59 Speaker 1
I’m Celina Knight, a retail growth strategist and multi award-winning store owner whose superpower is uncovering exactly what your business requires to move to.
00:01:10 Speaker 1
The next level.
00:01:12 Speaker 1
I’ll provide you with the strategies, the tools and the insight you need to scale your store. All you need to do is take action ready.
00:01:22 Speaker 1
To get started.
00:01:32 Speaker 1
Hey there and welcome to today’s episode of the Bringing business to retail podcast. Now as we go live, I have to say that this episode might be a.
00:01:43 Speaker 1
Little bit late.
00:01:44 Speaker 1
And that is totally my fault.
00:01:48 Speaker 1
In fact.
00:01:49 Speaker 1
The last couple.
00:01:50 Speaker 1
Of episodes have probably gone out a day or two late.
00:01:55 Speaker 1
Why? Because.
00:01:58 Speaker 1
Has been a little bit slash a lot behind in some of the jobs that only I can.
00:02:06 Speaker 1
And as I was sitting down looking at the calendar that my team and I had built out, I realized once again.
00:02:14 Speaker 1
That I am stopping the business from moving forward, which kind of led me into a little bit of a downward spiral because I started thinking about all of the things that I’ve kind of sucked at recently because there’s been a lot on my plate.
00:02:31 Speaker 1
And of course this leads to reflection and on upon reflection on that reflection, I realize that there are probably 4 leadership.
00:02:42 Speaker 1
Skills for leadership behaviours.
00:02:46 Speaker 1
That I kind of find myself.
00:02:48 Speaker 1
Sucking at on a regular basis and I really have to keep myself in check. So today’s episode is going to be called. Let’s think about it. Something like.
00:03:00 Speaker 1
So leadership mistakes, what I find myself constantly repeat.
00:03:07 Speaker 1
Now what I will say before we jump in is the good news is yeah, when you’re aware of your own downfalls or those areas that you’re not strong at, instead of getting angry and frustrated, you can actually see the situation.
00:03:23 Speaker 1
For what it?
00:03:23 Speaker 1
Is which is totally.
00:03:26 Speaker 1
A result of a failure on my behalf to be the leader.
00:03:31 Speaker 1
In my business.
00:03:33 Speaker 1
Because if your team aren’t doing them, what what you aren’t doing what you want them to do. There’s a good chance it’s actually your fault. Anything is people don’t want to hear that. No one wants to hear.
00:03:44 Speaker 1
That they’re not.
00:03:44 Speaker 1
Doing a great job so I decided I would just pull out the mic, record this episode.
00:03:50 Speaker 1
Even though it.
00:03:51 Speaker 1
Is going to be a bit late.
00:03:52 Speaker 1
But as I look across.
00:03:54 Speaker 1
To my whiteboard. I can. I’m.
00:03:55 Speaker 1
Proud of the fact that.
00:03:58 Speaker 1
Everything is kind of pulling back together and I have literally mapped out podcasts all the way through to the end of the year. So you know, barring any things outside of my control, our podcasts should all go out on time along with the promotions that we have put in place. We’ll all go out on time.
00:04:18 Speaker 1
And so I guess this is my first leadership fail that I find myself repeating over and over again, which is bringing my team into chaos. And this is chaos that I specific.
00:04:33 Speaker 1
Has resulted in. It’s not outside economic factors. It’s not that tech has failed. It’s usually because of me.
00:04:42 Speaker 1
And so a little bit of back story here over the past few months, we have been really, really busy inside of the company we’ve grown. We’ve brought on new people. I got a new coach, we spoke at well, I spoke at Reed. But of course that’s a team effort getting prepared for that. We had TR live and in amongst that is just.
00:05:02 Speaker 1
All the general goings on that is running a business and my team doing their jobs and so there’s been a lot of doing things to dead.
00:05:12 Speaker 1
Now I know.
00:05:13 Speaker 1
That both myself and my team are the.
00:05:15 Speaker 1
Kinds of people who love.
00:05:17 Speaker 1
Deadlines like give us a deadline. We will.
00:05:19 Speaker 1
Get stuff done.
00:05:22 Speaker 1
And that is fine when you have one of those short term events like so you’re doing an event or short term scenario. So you’re doing an.
00:05:29 Speaker 1
Event or a product launch? Yeah.
00:05:32 Speaker 1
Throw things into the deep water.
00:05:34 Speaker 1
Like run to deadlines.
00:05:36 Speaker 1
But you can’t live on that constantly. It just burns. It’ll burn you out and.
00:05:41 Speaker 1
It just burns your team.
00:05:44 Speaker 1
So if you have listened for a while, you may have heard this story before, and I tell it at all of my live events because it is one of those reminders within myself to do better, to not let these situations reoccur. And if they if I find myself slipping to do something about it because.
00:06:04 Speaker 1
There was a time when I made someone.
00:06:07 Speaker 1
On my team cry.
00:06:09 Speaker 1
So this most beautiful soul of a person now.
00:06:13 Speaker 1
I remember I walked into the store one day and usually I would walk in and be so excited because I’d listen to a podcast on the way in and I had my next exciting thing to do.
00:06:25 Speaker 1
To grow the business.
00:06:26 Speaker 1
And I remember walking in this day. Beautiful, sunny day. And Nell was at the shop counter with a cup of coffee, and I walked in and I said.
00:06:35 Speaker 1
Ah, I’ve got a great idea. I was listening to a podcast on the way in. I don’t even know what the rest of that sentence is. I don’t even know if I finished that sentence.
00:06:43 Speaker 1
Because at that moment her face dropped.
00:06:47 Speaker 1
And tears start to.
00:06:49 Speaker 1
Well, up in her eyes.
00:06:51 Speaker 1
And of course, that’s stopping in my tracks. Like what? What’s going?
00:06:55 Speaker 1
On here, like what’s happening? Are you OK?
00:06:58 Speaker 1
And she said to me, Sal, I just, I can’t. Like, I know that this is probably another really great idea, but I can’t do anything more like I have.
00:07:09 Speaker 1
All the other great.
00:07:09 Speaker 1
Ideas that you bring in every other day on my plate as well as.
00:07:14 Speaker 1
You know, running the shop.
00:07:16 Speaker 1
Which one do you want me to do first? Cause they’re all great.
00:07:19 Speaker 1
And I don’t want to let anyone down.
00:07:22 Speaker 1
But I can’t do anything else.
00:07:26 Speaker 1
And it was at that moment when I realized that.
00:07:29 Speaker 1
I was a really crappy boss like to make.
00:07:33 Speaker 1
To make someone on my team cry.
00:07:36 Speaker 1
That’s not a good leader.
00:07:38 Speaker 1
Because they weren’t good tears.
00:07:40 Speaker 1
They were bad tears. They were tears of frustration and tears of sadness that she might have.
00:07:45 Speaker 1
Let me down.
00:07:47 Speaker 1
And it was.
00:07:48 Speaker 1
At that point I realized.
00:07:49 Speaker 1
I had some of the best staff, best team.
00:07:52 Speaker 1
That you’d ever imagined. And I really pride.
00:07:54 Speaker 1
Myself on being able to create a great team.
00:07:57 Speaker 1
But you are not a good leader if your staff are so upset that they can’t live up to your expectations.
00:08:05 Speaker 1
And what I had realized was took me a little while to work this out was that I had imposed this self created chaos on everyone trying to do all of the things and they were so keen and they.
00:08:19 Speaker 1
Were so loyal.
00:08:19 Speaker 1
And they loved us. They loved our.
00:08:21 Speaker 1
Customers, they loved the brand that they would do anything to see it work.
00:08:26 Speaker 1
But everyone has.
00:08:27 Speaker 1
A breaking point.
00:08:29 Speaker 1
And that was the day that I broke now.
00:08:32 Speaker 1
And I don’t ever want to have.
00:08:35 Speaker 1
You know to have to go through that.
00:08:36 Speaker 1
Again, and I never.
00:08:37 Speaker 1
Want to put my team through that again?
00:08:39 Speaker 1
And so I realized that.
00:08:41 Speaker 1
This was kind.
00:08:42 Speaker 1
Of happening again all these years later, me being the bottleneck and me leaving things to the last minute was holding everyone else up and it was putting other people under stress.
00:08:56 Speaker 1
So our amazing podcast editor, normally he has heaps of time to go and edit the podcast and get it live, but he’s getting podcasts like today on a Wednesday to go out on a Friday and he has a business too. He can’t just drop everything to do our podcast. So I am so grateful. Wade, as you listen to this for the fact that you do go above and beyond.
00:09:17 Speaker 1
And I am trying my best to get everything all batched up so that there is no more chaos in the podcast.
00:09:26 Speaker 1
Likewise, my team would put together the newsletter and the social media and the beautiful raise Earl, who cuts all of our clips and turns them into reels. They can’t drop everything. I’m not their sole employer. These are all.
00:09:39 Speaker 1
People who run.
00:09:40 Speaker 1
Their own businesses, and so they can’t just drop everything because I didn’t stick.
00:09:45 Speaker 1
To a deadline.
00:09:46 Speaker 1
Or I’m leaving it to the last minute and I would never expect them to. Sure, I totally appreciate they do, and I’m very thankful and grateful.
00:09:57 Speaker 1
But I don’t expect them to if I am. The reason that things are falling through the cracks and I have.
00:10:04 Speaker 1
To take ownership.
00:10:04 Speaker 1
Of it. And it’s my job to put it right. And so even though, as I recall this podcast, it is hot and.
00:10:12 Speaker 1
I would really.
00:10:12 Speaker 1
Rather be in the pool because I have already recorded several podcasts, had a couple of coaching.
00:10:18 Speaker 1
Balls and a team meeting this morning.
00:10:21 Speaker 1
I feel like.
00:10:21 Speaker 1
I’m a little bit talked out.
00:10:23 Speaker 1
But I have to do this because I cannot keep putting my team into chaos and so that is one of the first leadership sales that this is probably not a sale is not the right. That’s really not good terminology, is it? It’s one of those leadership traits that I find myself.
00:10:43 Speaker 1
Not being the strongest ad if we’re gonna put positive affirmations on it.
00:10:47 Speaker 1
Because it’s it, it’s.
00:10:49 Speaker 1
We’re all human. There’s no point dwelling on the.
00:10:51 Speaker 1
Negative. So there are things in my leadership task book.
00:10:55 Speaker 1
That I am not always fantastic at keep.
00:10:58 Speaker 1
Being in control of and that is the first one, it is creating chaos because I am not in control and with that I guess the second one.
00:11:11 Speaker 1
Would be not being in control leads me to the fact that the next one is one that again I have to complete, take complete and I’m taking complete ownership for all of these. But just this morning I accidentally discovered that someone on our contact list hadn’t received any emails for.
00:11:31 Speaker 1
Six weeks.
00:11:32 Speaker 1
And I was like, oh, that’s a little bit odd because we send out, you know, at a minimum, the weekly podcast e-mail. So the system must be broken.
00:11:41 Speaker 1
And so I sent a task to Juliette, can you please check the system this person didn’t?
00:11:45 Speaker 1
Receive an e-mail.
00:11:47 Speaker 1
So I just happened to click through to another customer and this person hasn’t received an e-mail since August. Either. The system must be broken, urgent, urgent, urgent. Can we please have a look at the system because something isn’t working.
00:12:02 Speaker 1
Now the back story.
00:12:03 Speaker 1
Out of all of this is.
00:12:05 Speaker 1
We use a CEO dashboard and my team all have access it to put their data in it and if you have gone through any of our programs.
00:12:13 Speaker 1
I gift you.
00:12:14 Speaker 1
The same CEO dashboard that we use in our business.
00:12:19 Speaker 1
So I have.
00:12:20 Speaker 1
No excuse to not know what is going.
00:12:23 Speaker 1
On everybody puts their data in.
00:12:26 Speaker 1
And then during the weekly meeting, Joette and I.
00:12:28 Speaker 1
Go through and look.
00:12:29 Speaker 1
At the data.
00:12:31 Speaker 1
Here’s the thing. We’ve been a little bit busy. I kind of.
00:12:35 Speaker 1
Skipped that step.
00:12:36 Speaker 1
And not only did I discover that actually the emails never went out, the emails were never actually written, and that is just a process that broke.
00:12:50 Speaker 1
And I was not had.
00:12:52 Speaker 1
I been looking at the data.
00:12:54 Speaker 1
Like I’m supposed to? That should never have happened. And if it did, it should have only slipped once.
00:13:01 Speaker 1
But I.
00:13:02 Speaker 1
Overlooked it. I took my foot off as the off of the.
00:13:06 Speaker 1
Gas and I.
00:13:07 Speaker 1
Let the team down and it’s no one else’s job other than mine to make sure that those metrics are hitting KPI’s.
00:13:15 Speaker 1
Likewise, all of my teams fill out an end of day report and I.
00:13:20 Speaker 1
See them pop.
00:13:21 Speaker 1
Up, but things have been a little bit hectic. I haven’t necessarily been reading every single one.
00:13:29 Speaker 1
But it is my job to read every single one and so when some things didn’t line up when some reporting slit, I wasn’t looking at the numbers.
00:13:41 Speaker 1
That would be enough.
00:13:43 Speaker 1
And as a result, we lost some money. We let some customers down and that is.
00:13:49 Speaker 1
One else.
00:13:50 Speaker 1
‘S fault other than.
00:13:51 Speaker 1
Mine because I could quite easily blame my team and say but you didn’t follow up but you.
00:13:55 Speaker 1
Didn’t cross this task off.
00:13:58 Speaker 1
But at the end of the day, all the road leads back to me. I’m the boss. I’m the CEO and I’m in charge of looking at those metrics and reading those end of day reports.
00:14:09 Speaker 1
Guess what? We are back to putting the time aside every single day in my calendar to looking at the numbers and looking at the reports.
00:14:19 Speaker 1
Looking at the data every day.
00:14:22 Speaker 1
Can lead to a lot of team frustration when you overlook it and it sounds really silly.
00:14:28 Speaker 1
But one of the.
00:14:29 Speaker 1
One of the things I have my team do in their end of day report is they have to rank on a scale of 1 to 10. How they feel about several different areas, like how did they show up? Do they feel that they served people?
00:14:44 Speaker 1
Do they believe that they gave the best that they?
00:14:47 Speaker 1
Could so there’s.
00:14:47 Speaker 1
I think there’s five different areas that I asked them to rate their Physiology and how they showed up.
00:14:54 Speaker 1
And if I’m not looking.
00:14:55 Speaker 1
At those to see how.
00:14:56 Speaker 1
My team are.
00:14:57 Speaker 1
Feeling then.
00:14:59 Speaker 1
She can go bad really, really quickly and.
00:15:04 Speaker 1
I know that if those numbers hit a certain level, I need to do an intervention. I have to find out what happened and sometimes it can be a really simple thing. Everyone.
00:15:14 Speaker 1
Can have a bad day maybe.
00:15:16 Speaker 1
A customer came and said something a bit nasty.
00:15:18 Speaker 1
To you and you didn’t react.
00:15:20 Speaker 1
In the way that you would.
00:15:21 Speaker 1
Have liked to or.
00:15:23 Speaker 1
Maybe someone sales targets are down.
00:15:25 Speaker 1
And they’re feeling a little bit deflated.
00:15:28 Speaker 1
It is my job as the leader to be in there, to manage what they feel in terms of how they show up in the business and if they aren’t feeling fantastic, if they aren’t coming to work and turning up and serving our customers in the best way possible.
00:15:47 Speaker 1
Then it doesn’t do anyone any favours. It doesn’t do our customers any favours and it doesn’t do them any favours. No one wants to finish the day.
00:15:55 Speaker 1
Feeling a bit.
00:15:57 Speaker 1
And so again.
00:15:59 Speaker 1
Even though I’ve been checking it, I was maybe not being as thorough. And so today I went on a whirlwind checking in with everybody and making sure that if they were feeling a little bit down, if they were feeling a little bit deflated, we worked through it. We looked at ways we could get some quick wins and.
00:16:19 Speaker 1
Set up a plan and we’ll report.
00:16:21 Speaker 1
Back on that.
00:16:22 Speaker 1
One tomorrow. These are things that it doesn’t take an awful lot to slip out of the habit of.
00:16:29 Speaker 1
Feeling overwhelmed, which is how I have thought we’ve had so much on bringing in new team members, having to create training and onboarding for those people. We’ve just changed ad agencies like I can find all the excuses in the world. So why I let it slip through the cracks but at the end of the day, these are things that I know.
00:16:52 Speaker 1
History has a habit of repeating.
00:16:54 Speaker 1
And I know where the outcome is if I don’t.
00:16:58 Speaker 1
Take hold of it really, really quickly as the dots started lining up and I realized several of these things were happening.
00:17:07 Speaker 1
I knew that I had to.
00:17:08 Speaker 1
Give myself my own intervention.
00:17:11 Speaker 1
So that first part of creating chaos.
00:17:14 Speaker 1
Quite often is a result of not looking at the.
00:17:17 Speaker 1
Data and I know no.
00:17:19 Speaker 1
It’s not sexy. No one wants to sit down and look at numbers every day.
00:17:26 Speaker 1
But on our team meetings, when we talk about this stuff, it is.
00:17:30 Speaker 1
So surprising at how.
00:17:34 Speaker 1
Fostering a culture of openness and engagement.
00:17:38 Speaker 1
Can literally change people’s lives, and if you guys aren’t doing team meetings, I strongly, strongly suggest that you start doing them, even if they’re.
00:17:46 Speaker 1
Just five or.
00:17:47 Speaker 1
10 minutes because it will really makes your team.
00:17:51 Speaker 1
Feel part of a team.
00:17:52 Speaker 1
And if you are not looking at the data, please put the time aside to do it because the data is just numbers, but what they are is a reflection of what has happened and so.
00:18:05 Speaker 1
You can. I just recorded a podcast this morning.
00:18:09 Speaker 1
I’m not sure if it will go live next week or maybe a bit later, and it it’s it’s called something like money. It’s just a story and you get to write the next chapter.
00:18:19 Speaker 1
That’s just daughter as well. Daughter is just a story. The numbers at the end of the day, your customer tracker, your sales numbers, your CEO dashboard just numbers, it’s just data.
00:18:30 Speaker 1
And it’s just going to show you what has.
00:18:32 Speaker 1
Happened historically.
00:18:34 Speaker 1
And the great thing is you.
00:18:36 Speaker 1
Get to change what tomorrow looks like you are the one who can pull the levers. You can say it’s not gonna be like that.
00:18:43 Speaker 1
Tomorrow or we’re gonna do more.
00:18:44 Speaker 1
Of that tomorrow.
00:18:45 Speaker 1
If it is going really, really well.
00:18:47 Speaker 1
Pump it up.
00:18:49 Speaker 1
If the numbers aren’t reflecting the story that you want.
00:18:51 Speaker 1
To see change the story, change the narrative.
00:18:55 Speaker 1
You’re writing.
00:18:55 Speaker 1
The book here.
00:18:57 Speaker 1
You’re the author. You get to choose the adventure.
00:19:01 Speaker 1
And so data shouldn’t be seen as a hard slog or something that.
00:19:07 Speaker 1
You have to make time for.
00:19:09 Speaker 1
What it should be looking what you should be thinking of as how exciting we get to change tomorrow just by looking at the numbers. I know that’s a little bit weird, but trust me when I actually do this I feel so much more empowered.
00:19:26 Speaker 1
Which is silly, because why did I if it?
00:19:28 Speaker 1
Makes me feel empowered.
00:19:30 Speaker 1
Why did I stop doing it in?
00:19:31 Speaker 1
The first place.
00:19:34 Speaker 1
And the answer to that is because when things are going well, you feel like you can just let it slide.
00:19:40 Speaker 1
But the minute.
00:19:40 Speaker 1
That you let.
00:19:41 Speaker 1
It slide is when it.
00:19:43 Speaker 1
All starts to go.
00:19:45 Speaker 1
Backwards and sometimes it might be a couple of days, sometimes it might be a couple of.
00:19:48 Speaker 1
Weeks and sometimes it might be a couple of months.
00:19:51 Speaker 1
But you can’t afford to wait months.
00:19:54 Speaker 1
To fix a problem.
00:19:56 Speaker 1
And you can’t afford to wait months.
00:19:58 Speaker 1
So lively, something that is doing amazingly because everyone misses out. If you take your eye off the ball.
00:20:07 Speaker 1
Alrighty, Speaking of my amazing.
00:20:10 Speaker 1
The next one is all.
00:20:12 Speaker 1
About them.
00:20:13 Speaker 1
And the next one is probably.
00:20:15 Speaker 1
Quite controversial, and it is one that I do find myself slipping into, and it’s one that you might not agree with.
00:20:25 Speaker 1
But here’s what I can tell you after being business for 17 years and having hired so many people.
00:20:34 Speaker 1
That, as the leader of your business as the CEO.
00:20:38 Speaker 1
You can be friendly with your team.
00:20:41 Speaker 1
But you can’t be friends with your team.
00:20:44 Speaker 1
There are two very, very different scenarios.
00:20:48 Speaker 1
And here’s why I say that.
00:20:50 Speaker 1
Because you let friends.
00:20:52 Speaker 1
Get away with stuff because they’re friends.
00:20:56 Speaker 1
But your team shouldn’t be allowed to get away with stuff. They have to be accountable, and you don’t hold your friends accountable like you think about it. If your friend turns up late to lunch.
00:21:06 Speaker 1
You might joke about it.
00:21:08 Speaker 1
But you don’t hold them accountable in business.
00:21:12 Speaker 1
Everybody has their role to play and if someone isn’t being held accountable.
00:21:17 Speaker 1
That it can go pear shaped. This all connects back together with that self. Impose yourself creating chaos and the not looking at the data is I did this. I was turning up to the.
00:21:30 Speaker 1
Calls. We were having a.
00:21:31 Speaker 1
Chat. We were laughing. We were talking about.
00:21:33 Speaker 1
Our weekend and.
00:21:34 Speaker 1
It was kind of, you know, it’s really easy to move into the friend zone.
00:21:39 Speaker 1
But that’s not what your team need.
00:21:42 Speaker 1
So I’m going to say here I’m going to go out on a limb and say you are 100% can be friendly, you can be empathetic, you can talk about your weekend.
00:21:52 Speaker 1
But at the end of the day, the team has to have that little bit of separation, because without that separation, without that defining line of look, I’m the boss and you work for me.
00:22:06 Speaker 1
Then when that line gets blurry, that is when you stop looking at KPIs, you stop holding people accountable.
00:22:14 Speaker 1
To hit targets.
00:22:15 Speaker 1
And you make excuses for them.
00:22:18 Speaker 1
But this is business.
00:22:20 Speaker 1
And your business is a tool to make money and when you start letting things slide, the money disappears. The customers stopped coming in, the customer experience drops and that is not what you want for your business.
00:22:34 Speaker 1
So 100% be human and 100% be nice.
00:22:41 Speaker 1
But there’s a caveat coming.
00:22:43 Speaker 1
But you also have to be in control and you have to be a leader. That means being friendly and not actually being friends with your team. I know feel free to message me on that one and we can have a debate on it. I’m sure that one is going to rustle some feathers, but I know that every time I have.
00:23:04 Speaker 1
Crossed over that line.
00:23:06 Speaker 1
That is when stuff goes pear shaped. That is when I stop feeling OK with.
00:23:14 Speaker 1
Assigning tasks or let’s just say let’s give you.
00:23:17 Speaker 1
Call it what it is.
00:23:17 Speaker 1
Giving orders I.
00:23:20 Speaker 1
Know that we don’t give orders, we do assign tasks. We do make people be responsible for their actions. We do have targets and KPI’s in place and position descriptions and holding people accountable. All of those things.
00:23:34 Speaker 1
That’s not what you do with your friends.
00:23:37 Speaker 1
But it is what you have to do with your team. So sometimes being nice leads me to my next leadership area that I find that I constantly find myself repeating. It’s really hard not to use the word mistake my 4 leadership mistakes.
00:23:58 Speaker 1
But I find myself constantly falling into the trap of the first one was creating chaos. The second one was overlooking the data every single day.
00:24:09 Speaker 1
Right.
00:24:10 Speaker 1
The next one was being friends with my team. Rather than being friendly.
00:24:15 Speaker 1
With my team.
00:24:17 Speaker 1
And then my last one comes down to something that I see over and over again with the retailers and the e-commerce Store owners that.
00:24:26 Speaker 1
Come through our programs.
00:24:28 Speaker 1
And that is you are all too freaking nice for your own good.
00:24:35 Speaker 1
Yep, say it like it is so.
00:24:39 Speaker 1
Being nice.
00:24:42 Speaker 1
Is often the thing that I find holds a business back when the business owner is too nice and a lot of those things.
00:24:50 Speaker 1
That we’ve just talked about.
00:24:51 Speaker 1
Holding, holding your team accountable, being friends instead of friendly. That is where the Nice.
00:24:58 Speaker 1
Overshadows what you need to do to.
00:25:01 Speaker 1
Grow your business.
00:25:03 Speaker 1
So my last leadership.
00:25:06 Speaker 1
Fail that I find.
00:25:07 Speaker 1
Myself, repeating over and over again.
00:25:10 Speaker 1
Keeping relationships.
00:25:13 Speaker 1
When we’ve outgrown each other.
00:25:16 Speaker 1
Now I don’t know about you, but I have two friends from high school. I’m in my late 40s now, but I am friends with on Facebook. We don’t hang out. We don’t.
00:25:26 Speaker 1
Really chat, we’re.
00:25:27 Speaker 1
Just friends on Facebook. I’m also friends with one.
00:25:29 Speaker 1
Of my teachers.
00:25:30 Speaker 1
From high school on Facebook.
00:25:33 Speaker 1
But there are different people for different seasons.
00:25:35 Speaker 1
Of your life.
00:25:36 Speaker 1
I even think back to my wedding and even though we only had 20 people at our wedding, three of those people were our housemates. And so yeah, we don’t, we don’t even see them anymore. We don’t communicate with them.
00:25:49 Speaker 1
But they were important in our lives at that particular moment.
00:25:55 Speaker 1
And I don’t feel.
00:25:55 Speaker 1
Bad that I don’t communicate with them anymore because we were.
00:26:00 Speaker 1
Friends because of circumstance.
00:26:01 Speaker 1
Instances and the circumstance was that we lived in the same share house, just like you were friends with your high school friends because of circumstances because you went to school together.
00:26:13 Speaker 1
You might be friends with your neighbours because you live in.
00:26:16 Speaker 1
The same St.
00:26:18 Speaker 1
It is OK.
00:26:20 Speaker 1
To let people go.
00:26:22 Speaker 1
And I know that because you are too nice, just like the situation I found myself in where I kept one of our agencies for too long, I made this same mistake.
00:26:34 Speaker 1
Not six or.
00:26:35 Speaker 1
Seven months ago, we had once again it was a completely different agency, but I held on to them for too long because they were Nice.
00:26:43 Speaker 1
The simple fact was they weren’t performing.
00:26:46 Speaker 1
And it got to the point where I was so anxious in our conversations.
00:26:52 Speaker 1
But I was trying to avoid them and my heart would speed up and I would feel like I was going to vomit. I mean, someone who was working for you should not have that effect on you, but because they weren’t performing, I would physically feel sick paying them.
00:27:09 Speaker 1
But that was nice when I would get on my zoom meetings with them and they they are really lovely people.
00:27:16 Speaker 1
The simple fact was.
00:27:18 Speaker 1
We’d outgrown each other.
00:27:20 Speaker 1
They got me to a.
00:27:21 Speaker 1
Certain point in the business.
00:27:23 Speaker 1
But now business got.
00:27:25 Speaker 1
It took off and we’re moving to the next level and they weren’t able to perform at that next level. And as try as they might.
00:27:33 Speaker 1
It just didn’t work.
00:27:36 Speaker 1
And this happens in our friendships.
00:27:39 Speaker 1
It even happens.
00:27:40
In our families.
00:27:42 Speaker 1
I know that there are people in our family who we maybe see once a year because they feel very threatened by the fact that we’ve achieved your their version of success and.
00:27:55 Speaker 1
That’s not something they feel happy about. Whether they feel inferior or whether they’re jealous.
00:28:03 Speaker 1
I’m not sure.
00:28:04 Speaker 1
I don’t know what they’re feeling and it’s disappointing to know that your family.
00:28:10 Speaker 1
I’m excited for you and can’t celebrate with you when great things happen in your family, so you know you just gotta deal with it. You gotta take it when it comes and just.
00:28:21 Speaker 1
Be happy that.
00:28:22 Speaker 1
When they turn up.
00:28:24 Speaker 1
They’re gonna be there and this is the way they go to.
00:28:27 Speaker 1
It so just enjoy it while you can.
00:28:30 Speaker 1
The same thing happens with our team.
00:28:33 Speaker 1
Now, I haven’t let anyone on the team go for quite a while. In fact, we’ve actually been hiring. But if you remember back to, I think I did a podcast maybe in March where I talked about outgrowing the people around you.
00:28:47 Speaker 1
That happens and I think I wouldn’t be the first person to say that I’ve kept people on my team so longer than I probably should have.
00:28:56 Speaker 1
Because so nice because I had probably become friends.
00:29:01 Speaker 1
With them to a degree.
00:29:02 Speaker 1
And I didn’t want to hurt them.
00:29:05 Speaker 1
But when?
00:29:05 Speaker 1
We sleep that.
00:29:07 Speaker 1
When you think about.
00:29:09 Speaker 1
If somebody is turning up every single day and they’re not achieving their potential because.
00:29:15 Speaker 1
But the business is outgrowing.
00:29:17 Speaker 1
So they’re turning up and they’re feeling like.
00:29:21 Speaker 1
Even they’re putting all the effort in, they’re not.
00:29:23 Speaker 1
Hitting the goals that.
00:29:25 Speaker 1
You want them to hit or.
00:29:27 Speaker 1
They feel a bit silly or they feel a bit dumb. Like I’ve heard that before. It’s like I feel like I’m dumb now. I don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t ever want somebody to come to work and feel like they’re useless or they fall in behind. That doesn’t do anyone any favors.
00:29:47 Speaker 1
And so the reality is if you hit that point.
00:29:50 Speaker 1
In your business where?
00:29:52 Speaker 1
There isn’t a position for someone anymore.
00:29:55 Speaker 1
Then you have to be.
00:29:56 Speaker 1
The leader and let them go. And I know personally I’ve reached out to other companies and said I’ve got this amazing employee who I think would be great for you. Are you hiring?
00:30:06 Speaker 1
And they’ve moved to.
00:30:07 Speaker 1
A better job, one that lights them up, one that really invigorates them, rather than dreading coming to work every single day.
00:30:16 Speaker 1
But by the same token.
00:30:19 Speaker 1
These are relationships. Maybe it’s a supplier relationship. Maybe you have a relationship with a supplier who’s always late and as a result you can never.
00:30:29 Speaker 1
Get your product launches.
00:30:30 Speaker 1
Out or you?
00:30:33 Speaker 1
Can’t get hold of the.
00:30:33 Speaker 1
Stock when you need it.
00:30:35 Speaker 1
But it’s a great product.
00:30:36 Speaker 1
So you just deal with it.
00:30:39 Speaker 1
I don’t know. I feel like now is the time where you say I’m no.
00:30:42 Speaker 1
Longer just going to deal with it.
00:30:44 Speaker 1
Like I want a business.
00:30:46 Speaker 1
That doesn’t stress me out.
00:30:48 Speaker 1
I want a business that actually, I enjoy turning up every day, whether it’s in person or online. I want a business where my team are in control of the things that they’re there to manage and my job is to look at.
00:31:03 Speaker 1
The data my.
00:31:04 Speaker 1
Job is to make sure that they’re turning up and they feel fantastic and that the workplace.
00:31:09 Speaker 1
And providing is keeping them stimulated and is keeping them well paid, of course.
00:31:15 Speaker 1
That’s what people turn out to work for.
00:31:17 Speaker 1
And so maybe you found yourselves sowing into some of these leadership fails.
00:31:23 Speaker 1
As well maybe.
00:31:24 Speaker 1
You find yourself creating chaos because you’re not organized.
00:31:28 Speaker 1
Same as social media, girls said to me, you’re like one of the most organized people I know. Everything is in the project management software.
00:31:36 Speaker 1
And do what this all stems back to that original conversation with now, because that was the moment that I realized I wasn’t going to do this again. I’m sure I find myself slipping, but we have project management software so that we can be accountable so that I can so that I can see when I am being the bottleneck.
00:31:58 Speaker 1
The team can see if somebody else is.
00:32:00 Speaker 1
Relying on them.
00:32:01 Speaker 1
The organization that we have is a sole output.
00:32:06 Speaker 1
Of making no cry that day because I don’t want it to happen. I’m sure sometimes I find myself sleepy. But the fact that we have project management software, the fact that we have dates when things have to be completed by it makes it really glaringly obvious.
00:32:24 Speaker 1
When I am letting the team down and you know when the team are letting each other down.
00:32:30 Speaker 1
The data stuff.
00:32:32 Speaker 1
It is boring. It is not sexy. But man is empowering. It is so empowering and it’s actually really exciting for me to look and see what’s happened and know that we can change that future. Tomorrow we can put some goals in place. We can put some.
00:32:52 Speaker 1
Short term targets.
00:32:52 Speaker 1
One of the things we did today was set a goal to do one extra sale by the.
00:32:59 Speaker 1
Of the week. Simple things, right? It’s a little bit fun. It’s a little bit exciting and knowing that when you put that element of gamification in place into the data.
00:33:10 Speaker 1
Then everybody wins.
00:33:14 Speaker 1
But being friends versus friendly.
00:33:17 Speaker 1
I don’t know this one I.
00:33:18 Speaker 1
Would really love to hear your opinions on because if you are anything like me, you value your team so highly and you know that you wouldn’t have a business with.
00:33:29 Speaker 1
But where do you draw the line?
00:33:31 Speaker 1
Like it’s easy, it’s easy to.
00:33:33 Speaker 1
Be though the boss *****.
00:33:34 Speaker 1
But he’s also very easy to just.
00:33:37 Speaker 1
Be one of the team and what I have learned is.
00:33:41 Speaker 1
Being one of the team actually eats away at the respect that your team has for you rather than empowering and giving you that positioning of somebody to follow someone who creates a vision and takes everybody along for the ride.
00:34:00 Speaker 1
And lastly, keeping being nice and keeping those relationships well past.
00:34:05 Speaker 1
Their use by date.
00:34:06 Speaker 1
I know for me that has cost me literally 10s if not hundreds of thousands of dollars just when it comes to working relationships and I’m the only one to blame for that.
00:34:19 Speaker 1
Have the there’s a point where you have to.
00:34:20 Speaker 1
Stop being nice.
00:34:22 Speaker 1
And look at what is the overall best decision for the business.
00:34:27 Speaker 1
And if that means letting somebody go, then that’s that’s just business. That is you being the CEO and quite often it’s for the best for everyone.
00:34:39 Speaker 1
OK. With that I have another call lined up and I’m very proud of myself for getting these podcasts squeezed in between a whole bunch of other things. But guess what? I had a deadline and it’s in the project management software, and as a result I got it done and moving forward I am going to try my best.
00:34:59 Speaker 1
Not to be the bottleneck for the team.
00:35:02 Speaker 1
I am going to get these podcasts batched up so that Wade and the team can do their jobs and I’m going to try and remove as much chaos as possible.
00:35:12 Speaker 1
I’ve already let.
00:35:13 Speaker 1
The agency go and I’m super excited about working with our new agency and my team are amazing and I tell them every single day and you know what?
00:35:22 Speaker 1
They probably don’t actually want to.
00:35:23 Speaker 1
Be friends with me anyway. They just like hanging.
00:35:26 Speaker 1
Out with me.
00:35:27 Speaker 1
When the time comes, so let me know if you’re listening to this episode and you agree or disagree. I would love to hear what you have.
00:35:35 Speaker 1
To say on.
00:35:36 Speaker 1
The matter? Or is there?
00:35:38 Speaker 1
Some other lead.
00:35:39 Speaker 1
The ship trait that you find yourself like constantly, constantly repeating, slowing into the trap of and having to catch yourself because at the end of the day it’s the catching.
00:35:50 Speaker 1
Yourself, you need to.
00:35:50 Speaker 1
Be proud of, because if you can do that before it all goes sideways, then that is actually the true indication of a leader.
00:35:59 Speaker 1
And that you are in your business?
00:36:02 Speaker 1
Alrighty, if you haven’t already, I would love it if you could leave me a review. I’m super crap at asking for that, so leave me a review. Help everybody out there to find the bringing business to retail podcast and I will see you next week.
00:36:18 Speaker 1
Hey there. Thanks so much for joining in to today’s episode. Just a quick break to remind you that my ultimate sales bundle for Black Friday has gone live. If you are looking to create an amazing promotion that will leverage Black Friday for you, then make sure you head over to selenanight.com forward Slash.
00:36:38 Speaker 1
BF like a best friend, but in this case Black Friday selenanight.com/BF.
00:36:45 Speaker 1
And grab my ultimate sales bundle to help you create a Black Friday promotion that will knock it out of the park and get your sales rigging. Alrighty, selenanight.com/BF. I will see you next week. So that’s a wrap. I’d love to hear.
00:37:05 Speaker 1
Your insight you’ve gotten from this episode.
00:37:08 Speaker 1
And how you’re going to put it into action.
00:37:10 Speaker 1
If you’re a social kind of person, follow me at the Celina night and make sure to leave a comment and let me know and.
00:37:18 Speaker 1
If this episode.
00:37:20 Speaker 1
Made you think a little bit differently or gave you some inspiration, or perhaps gave you the kick that you needed to take action. Then please take a couple of minutes to leave me a review.
00:37:31 Speaker 1
On your platform of choice, because the more reviews the show gets, the more independent retail and e-commerce stores just like yours that we can help to.
00:37:42 Speaker 1
And when that?
00:37:43 Speaker 1
Happens. It’s a win for you. A win for your community and a win for your customers. I’ll see you.
00:37:50 Speaker 1
On the next episode.