I have a mantra that goes: Staff actions impact the customer experience. > The customer experience impacts the purchase. > The purchase is the ultimate measurement of the customer experience.

But there is an element before that.

The leader’s daily performance impacts the staff’s actions.

Retail success is created daily, one customer at a time. One of the biggest challenges in retail is maintaining a high-performance mindset and the right actions to maximize opportunities.

It’s why, in retail, the leader’s performance is vital to a store’s success. I could make a case that frontline leaders have a more significant impact on performance and results than any other type of leader.

That’s why when a company hires me to help them grow their sales, I always start with the frontline leaders. Always.

It’s also the fastest path to higher sales. When I can quickly help the frontline leader(s) improve their daily performance, sales increases happen faster than anything else we can do.

I’ve had a few people challenge me on that. But think about it. Improving a closure rate starts with the leader’s expectations and daily focus. The same goes for increasing average sale, add-ons, customer follow-ups, and on and on and on.

The leader’s daily performance impacts the staff’s actions.

That is why I am so passionate about working with retail leaders. Store owners. Managers. Multi-unit managers. The fastest path to growing sales is growing the leader.

But, and there is always a but, leadership growth starts with change—doing something better or different. More training is rarely the answer. It’s figuring out how to work differently to have a more significant daily impact on staff’s actions.

So, what’s the one thing you can do right now to significantly impact your staff’s actions?

It’s different for every leader. Many leaders know what it is and can commit to making that change immediately.

Others need help identifying it. Some leaders can jump in and make that change, but most need some support and accountability to make the change.

That’s where a leader’s manager or an experienced coach comes in. To help them make that leadership breakthrough that leads the team to higher performance and results.

Here’s the key. The longer you wait to make that change, the more missed sales opportunities there are. I would encourage you to quickly discover the change and growth you can make to have even more impact.

Faster and Higher Breakthrough and Results: if you’d like help making that fast breakthrough, check out my new innovative coaching program, The Retail Leadership Breakthrough: Personalized Blended Coaching for Rapid Impact Growth. This is a brand-new approach that uses 24/7 TimeFlex Coaching to make coaching fast, personal, easy, and successful. Check it out at https://urlgeni.us/leaderbreakthrough

So let me ask three questions:

What’s the worst change you ever made in yourself? (In my twenties, I dyed my hair blonde. A friend looked at me and said, “That’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done.” And that was saying a lot!)
What’s the best change you ever made in yourself? (Besides ditching the blonde hair, mine would be to start taking more responsibility for my daily life.)
​What is the one area of growth or change you can make right now to improve staff performance and results?