Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM NOVEMBER 2022 44 T hese days, if I'm going to be honest, people are restless. We're still trying to figure out what and who we are in the next normal of a post-pandemic world. There's no new normal, and some things are normal, and some things will never be the same. We have a sense that we want some sort of normalcy, but we're just not sure what that is. For some leaders, it's as if they are doing the equivalent to standing in front of the fridge when you think you're hungry, but you're not really hungry. Or you want something, but you don't know what it is, and nothing sounds good, so you circle back to the pantry, then to the fridge, then you peek in the freezer, and you wander out to the garage. Then you start over again. Finally, you can't stand it, and you order pizza. It's as if a leader's internal dialogue sounds like this: let's try this! No, never mind, let's do this! Wait . . . maybe we want this instead! Let's be DARING. No, that's not what we want. Let's be GREAT! Let's take a sharp right turn and throw it all out the window! Let's get a Black Belt! No, let's RESTRUCTURE! Let's make it LEAN! Wait . . . let's just go back to what we know. Ad infinitum. Insert "shiny, pretty, thing" into every place it says "this." Friends, I'm going to invoke the Moonstruck Method 1 here: SNAP OUT OF IT! If you want to create a team that is creative, innovative, high trust, high performance, and highly engaged, you need to stay the course. So many companies begin one initiative before they've even given the current one time to prove itself. They get impatient with the long list of things they cannot control, so they change directions (or people, or focus, or markets, or . . . ) because they think they can control that. Recently, I met with a group of manufacturing leaders who, under less-than-ideal circumstances, have persevered. They went back to work during the pandemic much earlier than most because their supply chain participation was important. Their administrative counterparts worked from home dealing with video conferencing, home schooling, and pets with separation anxiety, yet these people wore their masks every day and went to work. They've been short-staffed for months. It's hard to make good hires. Their people are tired. Luckily, their leaders are bright and thoughtful enough to realize that they need to take their employee engagement data seriously and try to learn in order to make changes. They realize the VUCA 2 workplace is not going away anytime soon. They want to do the right thing. And yet, it's so tempting to veer off course, to try to look for a quicker, shinier way to make things happen, and to make things different. Their impatience gives their teams a sense of vertigo and whiplash—they can't keep up, no matter how hard they try, and some, eventually, don't. Stay the course. It's simple, but not necessarily easy. It's hard to predict exactly the timing for true culture change, but it's not quick. You need to select some metrics to let you know you're on course, and you're making progress, because sometimes it feels like a long time before you can say "wow, it's really different around here." Measure progress, not perfection. In my work, we begin with trust because everything emanates from that foundation: high trust is the foundation for everything you want. When I asked a recent group to identify the difference between how they felt working in a high trust environment versus a low trust environment, these were the highlights: Where do you want to work? Where do you think you'll get high levels of productivity, trust, morale, profitability, or meeting your mission? Retention of customers or clients or patients? Snap out of it. Do the work. Ask for help. 1 Referencing Cher's iconic scene with Nicholas Cage in the movie Moonstruck. 2 Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity are the current primary forces impacting the workforce experience. SNAP OUT OF IT! Libby Wagner Culture Coach RO Libby Wagner, author of The Influencing Option: The Art of Building a Profit Culture in Business, works with clients to help them create and sustain Profit Cultures www.libbywagner.com HIGH TRUST Valued Encouraged Happy Inspired Competent Confident Safe Supported Loyal Challenged—in a good way Creative Willing to take risks Fair Dependable Respected Willing to go above and beyond LOW TRUST Suspicious Frustrated Stressed Tired/exhausted Angry Wary Stupid Devalued Protect myself Unwilling to do anything extra Disappointed Discouraged Untrusting Looking for a new job Unhappy

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