![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.retailsystem.com\/cz\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/06\/I-quit.jpg\")
Ever hear the saying \u201can ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure\u201d? I get a heavy eye roll if it is too late. You know the situation. The store manager quits, and they have the only key. Or the passwords. Or knows how things are done. As leaders, it is our process to trust, but verify \u2013 even with the most valued, loyal, tenured respected members of our team. I mean, they would never leave, right? Let\u2019s face it – even the most loyal are 6 lucky numbers from leaving you for a beach elsewhere. I break it into two areas; systems and processes<\/em>.<\/p>\nSystems.<\/strong><\/em> As owner, you are the Admin. Period. Larger organizations have the luxury of redundancy in senior positions, so the risk is mitigated. But for the average business, the owner is the Admin. So, when that horrible moment of gut-wrenching anxiety hits \u2013 you have the master key to ALL<\/em> your technologies. Now it might be tempting to make this part of \u201centrusting and delegating\u201d; I am a HUGE proponent of hiring great people to do great things. But you must keep surety of access, as well as surety of accountability. So, systems and technologies – you are the Admin. Make sure you have a safe and secure place for all credentials, contact information, account numbers. To hit this home and make it stick \u2013 even if you are running to fill in for a delivery driver that suddenly called in sick on a Friday afternoon, and your entrusted and loyal manager says \u201cHey can I sign-up for a new email service \u2013 the answer is \u201cAbsolutely, love your initiative. Please hold on a sec and let\u2019s do that together\u201d. Tactfully engaged. Love it.<\/p>\n Processes.<\/strong><\/em> You meet with your team on a regular basis. We have all done\/do this, and most times these often-impromptu sits quickly go to \u201cnumbers numbers numbers\u201d. Holding regular productive \u2013 agenda driven coaching and mentoring meetings are part art, part science \u2013 and a must. Again, a topic for another day. For today’s topic – during one meeting a month you should ask \u201cLets review your key processes\u201d. This is a great time to brainstorm and collaborate on ways to continuously improve. To give credit where credit is due. These continuously refined key processes should then be documented for others to benefit from. But you see what this does. Those entrusted team members \u2013 doing the right thing in helping you to grow and do better; are now helping you to define what you need should they Mega Millions on you. Leaders at all levels should be building this operational process repository for your business \u2013 no matter how large or small or medium your business is. If you just caught yourself saying \u201cI don\u2019t need to do that because\u2026.blah, blah, blah\u201d. Yep, you too.<\/p>\n So, recap. Systems and Technologies<\/strong><\/em>. You are the Admin. Inject yourself into account creations and software \u201csign-ups\u201d. You don’t need to become the foremost authority on the decision – that is why we hire people smarter than us; but you are the Admin. Processes<\/strong><\/em>. Start building that key process document. Don’t go in hot and heavy and then quit. This is a slow and steady wins the race exercise. It will start small, but over time \u2013 it will become a great training tool as well as what saves you when the horrible happens.<\/p>\n Retail on!<\/p>\n Jesse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As leaders \u2013 unfortunately there are less then rosy days. Yes, it is not all golf courses and lake views from the boat of choice. Of all the days however \u2013 the days that seem to cause the greatest level…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[43,37],"class_list":["post-9825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-retail-strategy","tag-employees","tag-retail-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n