10 Survival Rules for Managers

Episode 144: Being a good manager can be a challenge. Vonda and Lori share ten "survival rules" to help a manager navigate the little things in the day-to- day in your business. They're easy to understand and execute and will be sure to give you a chuckle.

Lori Wilson is the Director of Community for Flower Clique and loves to read and research ways to help managers and owners connect with their teams.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Well this was your confession to the world. So you should be able to sleep well at hope. And I'm sorry. Welcome to the Business and Pleasure of Flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

And Lori Wilson. And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Lori, I'll have to say, whenever I ask you to come up with some ideas for a podcast, I never know what we're gonna talk about. So this is this is a fun one this week.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

I know. Well, this is because you know I'm obsessed with researching anything about retail ownership, right? Whether it is a boss or a manager or an employee, whatever. Any any article I see or TikTok I watch that talks about it, I I lean in. So this is an article, and this is actually from December of 2021. And I want to give the author's name. She wrote it for um medium.com, which you know is a I I pay a monthly fee to have this, and and I get so inspired by a lot of the stuff. And it's really just opinion writing, but her name is Judy Kaldchik. And the article was called 17 Survival Rules for Retail Managers. And so I sent it to you, and we decided this would be really fun to talk about, but we got rid of some of them because they were um kind of corporate y is the word.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

I think exactly, yeah. They didn't really pertain to a retail florist or somebody in the floral industry. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:54

It would be more like a retail manager of the gap or you know, something where you you have corporate above you. So anyway, so we went through and we narrowed it down to I think 10, right? 10, yeah, we have 10. Okay, so and some of them are funny, but so true. And then you kind of added a couple of your own because of your experience in the industry of owning a shop.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

So no, I didn't really add my own. I just have something to say about some of these. We we don't totally agree on a couple of these. Oh, I know, I know. Well, that doesn't surprise me.

SPEAKER_04 2:31

It's okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

We're two to I think we both I think we both agree on the first one.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

Yes, and which one is this?

SPEAKER_02 2:39

It says never use decaf in the work coffee pot.

SPEAKER_04 2:43

Agreed 100%. Um, first of all, I don't know if you know this about me. I don't trust people that drink decaf coffee. I think it's I don't think I think there's something behind the facade of who they are. I'm not I'm just a little bit leery. Now, where that rule goes away is if it's an after dinner coffee.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yeah, well, I appreciate that because that's sometimes I do do a decaf right after dinner so that perhaps I can sleep at night.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

Yes, and I've asked my youngest son who works in the restaurant industry do you when someone orders a decaf, is it truly decaf? And he said, where he works now, yes, because it is much more it's a high end. He said, usually people that order a decaf can tell. Really? Yeah, I can't tell the difference, but he has worked other places prior, and he said, I cannot agree or disagree. Like it's I don't want to throw anybody under the bus, right? Right, it depends on what's in there. So um, anyway, yeah, never use decaf. One thing I want to elaborate on this too is if you're if your staff employees, you know, you always have coffee ready. Maybe not everyone is a coffee drinker, so like like Audrey, you know, Audrey Christophe, who works for us, she's a big hot tea drinker. Yeah, just make sure you have some tea bags too, or you can have hot water and tea bags just just to just have it and creamers.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Oh, yeah, uh you can't survive without creamer.

SPEAKER_04 4:28

Yeah, I wouldn't even drink, I I just drink a little coffee with my creamer. I don't drink a little creamer with my coffee.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

So anyway, yeah, and we would be terribly disappointed if we had decaf and not regular coffee.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

Oh my gosh. Well, wouldn't it? I it it wouldn't. I I would people would see a whole different me in the mornings if if that happened. So anyway, enough about that one. Number two, we preach this all the time when we're talking to our clickers. Number two, be on time. If you come in late, they're gonna come in late. And it again goes back to modeling, right? You cannot be a great leader manager if you use the old adage, do a do as I say, not as I do. That holds no water, right? Because all of us we learn from watching.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

So the adage lead by example is what we want to go with.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

Yeah. Do you remember? Um, it was, I don't remember what year it was. You and I were doing a thing at SAF, and we had during the QA, and I can't remember exactly what the topic was that was leading to this, but the woman that raised her hand was like, How would you deal with this? We've got a great designer, she's been with us forever, we're very close. Anyway, I remember that never on time, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. She's always, even if they change her shift, whatever shift they have her, she's always 15 minutes late. Just always. And she said it's become it's becoming a struggle. And anyway, we she elaborated on it. The woman had been doing this forever, and then other employees start doing it, or other employees are like you clearly play favorites. She didn't act on it. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Yeah, oh, I remember it really well. And what I really remember was others who were in our audience just said, You got to get rid of her. Right. You gotta get rid of her, right? You're causing everybody to not follow rules, and either you just go with what you're doing and let go of the frustration, or just get her out of there, right? Right.

SPEAKER_04 6:45

And that's what I loved because we didn't really even have to answer it and be in the bad guy because so many shop owners and wholesalers, oh you know, managers raise their hand, they're like, You you can't you either say, Listen, if this happens again, you're done. Anyway, I always wondered what happened to her. I have no, I don't even remember who she was, but I wondered, wondered how that got. Okay, number three. What's number three, Vonda? It's one of my favorites, too.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

No name is too hard to pronounce. You could say Tyrannosaurus and pterodactyl. That's when you're for learn the names of the employees and use them. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

And you know what? This can even be let's let's say you hired me and my name's Lori, and but you keep calling me Laura. That's not right. That's not my name, right? That is clearly that's truly happened to me before. Like my name isn't call me by my name.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

I'll all I can come up with is Audrey and Audrey. That's all I can come up with, and I'll just leave it at that.

SPEAKER_04 8:03

Yep. I uh and if Audrey's listening to this, she's going to spit out her hot tea when she hears that. There is no person named Audrey.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Right. But what's hard for me, I will have to say, is the pronunciation of some names. And so that one I will have to say is some somewhat of a challenge, but you know it has to be done. I mean, it's it's not the simple names that sometimes you mess up, but it's there are names out there who are a little bit right, they're more unique.

SPEAKER_04 8:38

Well, and and here's where it's okay to and remember Mindy Corcoran, we had her on the podcast. Um one of my best friends, and she travels the world meeting people from all different countries, and she will always say, if if she's trying to learn a name, she'll ask them again, what's how now how do you pronounce that? Because I want to write this down. And always, you know, or they might say my name's blah blah blah, but you know what? People call me Jan just because it's easier over here, and so I'm okay with and you ask, is that is it okay if we call you that? Um, so I think people with unique names, they're used to your their names being mispronounced. So they're okay if you say, Hey, I want to make sure I get your name right. How do you spell it? You know, and and especially if it's gonna be a new employee, somebody's gonna be with you for a while.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

You want to make sure that you're right respecting them and taking the time to do that. Yeah, I think that's great.

SPEAKER_04 9:48

All right, the next one is I like the next one. It's fun, it is fun, and it's it's true. If you run out of toilet paper, it is always your fault. It is your job as the owner or manager to make sure toilet paper is always in stock.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

And paper towels or a towel to wash your hands, both. It's your responsibility.

SPEAKER_04 10:14

I don't know if I've ever told you this, and I probably shouldn't be saying it live, but did I ever tell you that I stole something once in college? No. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

So and it must have been toilet paper.

SPEAKER_04 10:30

Well, yes. So I, where I worked um at a retail place, it was like it was on campus. Um, it was like a college, you know, clothing slash sporting goods slash sorority fraternity stuff. Like we had everything and a whole, you know, all of us. Book story.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

It was like the book kind of thing. You talked about this job before.

SPEAKER_04 10:52

Yes, I loved it. I loved it, I loved it. But all of us employees who, again, we're in college, most of us living in apartments or you know, whatever, we would steal rolls of toilet paper and throw them in our backpack because we needed toilet paper and we had no money because college, right? So there are times when I can't sleep at night, and I remember that, and I got a lot of guilt, and I feel like I need to track that manager down, but I kind of think he wasn't stupid, like he knew wow, we went through eight rolls of toilet paper today. That's crazy, but anyway, that's my confession.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Well, this was your confession to the world, so you should be able to sleep well and don't even worry.

SPEAKER_04 11:45

And I'm sorry, I want to say I didn't know it was wrong because I did know, but I also knew my roommates relied on me to provide free toilet paper, and it wasn't even good toilet paper, it was like but how we weren't picky, so well, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Better now, okay, good now. This next one is interesting to me. They don't want to make something for a potlug, buy the staff pizza or just have some pizzas and veggies and something pork-free, just have supply the food for the staff, right? And what did you say on this?

SPEAKER_04 12:27

I was all in because I just remember during like teacher appreciation week, where you know, lots of stuff would be provided for us. How excited and joyful I was that that one week, five days, I didn't have to make myself something for lunch and still get to school by 6 40 a.m. is because middle school started early. So walking in, having food there, it it was it was just great.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Well, and okay, so I agree, but when you're in a small family-like run business, right? And they're not family, but you feel like they are, right? We would have the staff saying, let's all just bring something in. I'll bring a crock pot, you bring this, you bring that. So it wasn't me as a manager or owner saying, Oh, hey, everybody, why don't we have a potluck?

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

It was them going, hey, instead of you buying food today, you know, because usually holiday weeks, you know, the beginning of the week, all week long, we would provide lunch. Right. And they're like, no, no, no, let's do one day that we bring something. Sure.

SPEAKER_04 13:42

No, and I think I think this, you know, every one of these rules are can except the toilet paper. Always provide toilet paper. That's the main one, but you know, read the room, read your audience, and maybe ask when you're that close as most of these people are, and especially those smaller shops, say, Hey, what would you prefer? Do you want to bring something or do you want me to provide? I'm happy to provide something if y'all don't want to do that. So, you know, maybe a little bit of both. I would think like the week of Valentine's crazy. No, don't say, can everyone bring something?

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Like, no, don't ask. I mean, if they want to, they and in some cases they do, because they like, oh, I have a new salad I want to bring. Oh, I have a new, you know, yeah, they want to show off.

SPEAKER_04 14:29

No, I I agree with that, but I I think you just depending on the situation and just ask. I think they'd feel very cared for if you ask, which which they prefer prefer. Um, the next one, again, totally 100% believes this. Don't make the new people do all of the scut work, right? Have them take their turn with the folks that did it before you hired them. So if I don't know, you're hiring someone and be cleaning the back, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:05

What'd you say? No, the big one here, Lori, is bucket washing.

SPEAKER_04 15:09

Oh, bucket, yes. So tell me how that was in your shop. Um, did you when you hired someone, you showed them how and then they were just on their own, or did you still have the people that were doing it? You were you never stopped washing buckets. I know that. No, I I always would jump in and wash buckets.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

Normally I would teach them, instruct them about processing flowers first. Don't just like get them into the bucket washing, you know. First, right, it's it's you instruct them on, okay, here's how you process flowers, and then you go, you know what? It's really important that we have clean buckets. And so then you're giving them a reason, and then you show them how to wash a bucket and you watch them watch walk wash a bucket. But then when that's stacking up, you know, a lot of times I would just go and hey, let's get these done, let's work together and get these done. So you're right, don't just always go, oh, well, so and so has to do the buckets now. I I graduated from buckets, I don't have to do them anymore.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

Right. Because if if I was that so and so new, and you just threw me into bucket washing, and we're like, Oh, we're so glad you were here. We hate this job, we hate this job. Now you do it, probably wouldn't stay very long because I'm like, thanks. Like, I hate it too. You're setting me up with that mindset to hate what I'm gonna get ready to do.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Exactly. Another one is say thank you in front of the staff when someone does something correctly. Yes, yes, we talk about this all the time, you know, praise in public, give them criticism and on one-on-one.

SPEAKER_04 16:45

Yeah, no, I think this is so important because everyone, whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, what no matter how you receive praise, everyone wants to know someone's proud of them, right? Or thankful for them, or grateful. Let's take your bucket example you had earlier, and you're training them, maybe instead of saying the negative about it, going, I am so grateful you're here to help us with this process. Um, because it's a hard, you know, you got to do it right. It's a very detailed process. You have to make sure because of the bacteria, right? And and how you dry them. Everybody has a different way on making sure uh that everything is done. Say thank you instead of, oh, we're so glad you're here because we hate this job, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Right? Turn it to the gratitude. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 17:41

The next one, you and I kind of talked about this one too. And um the reason I agree with it is because we have some Flower Clip members that I know do this, and they they would never not do it. Um, post the schedules at least two weeks in advance and put yourself on that schedule too, and then do everything in your power not to change that schedule. Now, the only way you can do this is by making sure your staff knows hey, if you have time you need off, I want to be able to give that to you. So you need to let me know as early in advance as you can, right? Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

No, and I don't disagree with this. I think in my situation, everyone that I had on staff had set schedules, right? So there was no variance, you know. Yeah, even part time, even your part. Okay, like all right, they would come in after school, you know, at you know, 2 30 every single day, except for Saturday. And it was so you had that schedule, I guess. And so we didn't really post a schedule. If somebody was taking time off, then we just let everybody know that. So, you know, when you only have what we have seven or eight people, it wasn't as big of a deal. But it's you're right, you know, transparency, it's right there. It's it's a great idea, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:10

Especially because most flower shops are open at least part of the time on Saturdays. So that's a weekend. So if you need a weekend off, I could see having that schedule big schedule up in the back with people that need to be off certain weekends. I don't necessarily think you have to have every single person's detailed schedule every day on on there. The the big step but it doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt, no. But if that's too daunting of a task, then maybe just make sure you know, oh, hey, I see Lori is off that same weekend that I need to be off. Hmm, maybe I should have asked earlier because she's already off. So maybe I'll switch, you know, those types of things.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Being aware of, you know, other people's needs for sure.

SPEAKER_04 20:04

Right. And making sure they understand, listen, I I want to afford you this time, but you gotta let me know. You can't just let me know the day before. Yeah, right. You know, that's the what's hard. Um, this one was interesting because again, of course, I have a story. If you're not keeping someone after December, like you're hiring for seasonal help, and in this industry, I would imagine a lot of that seasonal help could start in November and go through February, right? I mean, depending, but if you're hiring someone seasonally, do not and and you have no intention of keeping them, make sure that's clear, yeah. Right, don't just um my my again going back to my son when he was younger, he was working at a place part-time, seasonally. They never really told him or clarified what his schedule, they just started slowly not scheduling him, and a lot of places have started doing this where we just kind of quit putting you on the schedule and think because we want you to quit, we don't want to fire you or let you know. First of all, that's just mean, you know, man up and be honest if you don't want him there. Um, or at the very beginning, say, Hey, your contract's gonna be from here to here, or not real contract, but for me, this happened years ago. I wanted like a little part-time job just to get out of the house. So I decided to go work in our little downtown area at The Gap because I loved the Gap. And it was a freestanding one, it wasn't in a mall. Super cute. Anyway, I was just gonna work there for the holidays for through November, December, and most of my schedule, though, was a of times I'd work the nine o'clock nine p.m. shift to like three in the morning when shooting because I had three small kids at home. Again, I went and got this job without ask telling my husband I was doing it. And he so so you can imagine I didn't last too long because he wasn't super thrilled. I loved it. I love love loved this job. But a couple of other people were hired for seasonal help like me too. And after December the other two just kind of stopped being scheduled. He never had like an and me he offered me for whatever reason he wanted me to stay on. Um and I it just didn't sit well with me because he wasn't clear. I feel like he should have had them come in and said thank you as you remember we're you know we just needed you for the season we invite you to come back and apply for the next year or whatever. But they didn't do that. They just the way he treated those two made me not want to be there anymore. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Interesting. Yeah it does um I'm really conflicted on this one I hear what you're saying. I think most people who are hired for um extra time at a flower shop are like extra designers sometimes are freelance and it's they know that they're coming in for certain times. Right. But when you're saying that people are not scheduled as much and you're scheduling them less and less a lot of times that's done Lori to weed out the people who are not doing well and let them as you said make the decision to quit rather than firing them. And that's all has to do with unemployment rules because if I just low get people's hours down and they make that decision it's different than if I fire them now I have to pay unemployment.

SPEAKER_04 24:00

And so do you do that even if you're hiring for I mean a lot of places especially retail hey hire for the holidays right is when you hire that person is that still a thing if you let them go after the holidays it's considered you fired them.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Well it it's not as like I said it's not quite as relevant in the floral industry because they know at that point that this is a busy time. And your point is well taken be transparent with them when you bring them on for a holiday so that they know that you know December 27th you know we're not going to be busy and we're not going to be busy again until February. So you know this is a really a part-time um job that's very seasonal and that's the way it would be I think in that point.

SPEAKER_04 24:53

And maybe at the beginning if you're looking for someone that's comes in seasonally and you could use them maybe say that say hey at the end where it really is a seasonal job let's have them let's have a one-on-one see how it went and if if there is a place for anyway I don't know maybe it just triggered me because I vividly remember because it was a high and a low I was so like wow really you want me to stay on they didn't really need extra people then and I mentioned the other two and they're like oh no no no no we're not well they obviously weren't hardworking yeah and there was there were things that you weren't seeing in them right I appreciate what you're saying is that you didn't feel they were being treated fairly yeah yeah well and and I I would have stayed but again I I chose my marriage yeah that's probably that was a smart one I loved it I loved it I had so much fun because it was constantly busy you know I I never like just stood around okay next one give your team permission to make decisions and answer customer questions you go over this all the time if the customer escalates things then back up your employee right always have their back or what we suggest is bring the manager in bring the owner and manager in if possible to be able to you know elevate the situation right right and and yeah we've done I don't know multiple podcasts on just this one thing um but I do believe even if you're a really small shop and you think oh I don't need to empower or equip them to handle this because I will always be there you never know you just never Murphy's law exactly always gone always there and it's there is a way to calm the customer from from a manager or boss yet without throwing your employee under the bus.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

There really is and maybe if that's something you're not really good at or it's not intuitive maybe you need to practice by writing out a couple of different scenarios on how you can balance that because you know if from a customer standpoint if if they throw their employee under the bus that tells me no matter oh I was right see they are just the worst but if they come out and go well my employee would never do that I don't believe I mean that's bad too right yeah it's it's handling the situation of like you said well we have that in sales prep school as well as we have multiple podcasts on it.

SPEAKER_04 27:48

So yeah yeah so number 10 is a good one number 10 is a good one and this is one you and I both 100% agree on 100% and donuts good delicious yummy donuts at least once a week now that's the part I don't know if once a week is good because I have a problem when donuts are around I I do you know they're just oh gosh I love donuts. So let's say once for me if it was my store once a month is maybe what I would or special occasions.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Special occasions you know occasionally but my suggestions instead of just donuts right I would say do a Panera maybe one week and then because then you could get some nice bagels and some nice rolls sweet rolls blueberry muffins but I think the whole idea is a treat.

SPEAKER_04 28:46

A treat that's exactly what was in my mind it doesn't what is what is considered a treat to your staff and let it be that and it maybe it isn't donuts maybe it's you know bagels or maybe it's pizza whatever but it's something in the morning though I think that's kind of the thing yes it's the donuts kind of say to me have a morning treat so that when they walk in they're like oh my gosh what a special day this is right or oh my gosh I'm so excited I didn't eat breakfast so I'm gonna pour donuts.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Yes true you know that happens sometimes.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

All right Vonda Sue we uh we did it once again we went through our survival rules for um flower shop managers slash owners and I would invite anybody that's listening if there was one that is at the forefront of your mind that we didn't talk about let us know.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

The the ultimate question for you and I think I don't know I was thinking about in 2023 we need to change the question but I don't know what we're gonna change it to though for 2022 we'll come up with something I'm sure you will come up with something I will come up with something but I think it's gonna be a lot different it may have nothing to do with this anyway what's inspiring you right now what's inspiring me is that my house has finally opened back up the contractors have finished our little window problem that we had and it's been two full months that the house has like had plastic draped in it and contractors in and out and it's just because you know it's like oh well we can't do it today it's raining we can't do it this we're on another job I just wish they would you know start a job and finish a job instead of you know trying to split everybody up but I'm inspired because I have my house back that's really inspiring nothing better yeah yeah and that's a big project I mean I've lived through projects here too but nothing that required moving of like walls and stuff so that's it makes you grateful.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

Yes very grateful and inspiring and I I'm inspired by the guys working too you know it's just great to see yeah very good so how about you what is inspiring mine isn't nearly as exciting but yesterday in the mail I got the two books that we're gonna be interviewing Barry Gottlieb and so you sent me both of his books I have given away I had his thank god it's today book but I I gave it to someone and don't know what happened. So thank you for this and then the one I'm very intrigued about is this brilliant on the basics a playbook for business leaders I cannot wait to dive into this so this is inspiring me. This kind of stuff as weird as it seems it's so helpful in my line of work because it gets my brain thinking about other concepts that I can share with our flower clickers. All right all right see you later thank you so much for listening to our podcast we hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the Business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

We look forward to seeing you next week. So please come back and join us and discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business