I meant to have this posted on Friday but was unable to process all of my thoughts until now:
I think it was
in August when Roland applied for the management position at the jewelry
store. They were down to two candidates
but had decided to go with the one who was more familiar with the product. Not a great call in my opinion – but I am just
getting the information second hand. I’ve never
actually met the woman – but this is
an illustration of what makes a leadership vs. management that I had mentioned
in this post.
Not her real name, but I shall call her
Karen – the name that
seemed to get a bad rap during 2020. She
knows product. Roland knows people. I do like a salesman that can tell me the
pros and cons of certain products – electronics for example. It is important – but I think
knowing people is more important. Not
just customers (guests, consumers, or whatever they are called) but employees,
co-workers, peers – neither of
which Karen had experience with.
She would teach the other three workers
about the product and Roland would teach the others how to sell, how to act,
and what to do in various situations – like being robbed for example. Cocky Karen said they would never be
robbed. Technically it was a burglary
but Roland’s 911 went
into effect.
Karen would abuse her manager position
and give herself every Sunday off though Richard and at least one other
employee were told they would only work every other Sunday. Karen didn’t always pay attention to what she had
scheduled. One day she had called to
find out why Roland wasn’t at
work. He said he was scheduled to close
and not open but evidently she had wanted him to do both?
Roland continued to train the other
two. For one thing it has been majorly
slow and the staff has nothing better to do.
But also he leads people – whether he is technically in charge
or not. It’s just part of his charm. People will ask him things as though he is
the designated leader – except for
Karen who seems to have trust issues and has asked others to keep an eye on him
– not realizing
the other two would much rather have Roland as their manage rather than Karen
and will confide in Roland whereas they would never dream up any conversing
with Karen. She doesn’t know how to
lead. She doesn’t know how to
manage.
Roland drove to the location on Thursday
morning after the store opened. Karen
was scheduled to be there. Her rule was
that there always had to be two people in the store, but the other employee was
there by herself. Thus we went shopping
and returned to the store. Karen still
was not there, but the owners were.
Roland turned in his key to them and then called human services to tell
him that he had quit and tried to give the key to Karen as a courteously but
she was not there. We both wondered if
she would still have a job by the end of the day or if she would take her
frustrations out on the other two.
We both feel good about his leaving and
he has no desire to return. He has heard
from one of his former co-workers praising him for his abrupt decision to
leave. Our youngest son also had said
that he had made the right choice.
