Archived Move on up by myself, or wait to be benched?

[JustJoe]

I just looked at JAS for open positions at our neighbor store (at home, so I obviously didn't apply) and there is a SFTL position available.

I'm about to hit 2 years with Spot and in the past few months I've shown that I want to take on more responsibilities. I have oodles of department manager experience from other companies and really want to take that step.

I'm pretty sure that I would have the blessing of my TL and ETL, but I haven't talked to them yet about it. I'm not on a CCA (that would require a sit-down, right?), but there could be a PDD on-file from the old STL talking about me complaining. Oh well, he quit anyway...

I know that Spot loves to develop TMs and dangle that TL carrot, so should I talk to my TL about it or sit and wait to be approached about it?

 

[Producer]

Definitely be proactive. Let your etl and tl know about your interest. If you're going to get the promotion, I think you need to be signed off by your stl and dtl.

 

[consume]

No reason to let someone off the street get it and not appreciate earning their own department

 

[Mhugh220]

Don't sit and wait because it may never come, regardless of your qualifications. Speak up and let your ETL know you are interested so they can either put you down (hopefully they don't) or promote you up. They'll evaluate you and do mock interviews. If you pass those the STL will sign you off and send you to the DTL for a final interview. I'd rather hire from within and I appreciated knowing that I had TMs who wanted to be promoted. That way I can work with them and get them ready for the interviews. Some of the best leaders at Target started as a TM. Go for it!

 

[JustJoe]

I had what I thought was a positive chat with our new STL a few weeks ago. I brought up some things that I saw as "opportunities" (glaring big-ass problems) and offered to be part of the solution. Unlike the old STL who would have made the "opportunities" my fault (even though I was in no way connected to it), the new one was happy to know that there are TMs who want to be part of the solution. With the multiple roles that I have in the store, I can see where teams are cutting corners. I see where the TLs are tying salesplanners without setting them because I get signs and labels that go nowhere. I see where TLs aren't setting salesplanners because I'm tagging all of the promo merchandise for clearance in the backroom. (Yeah, I know that it ultimately falls on the PTL but Team Leaders are still in charge of their areas) The new STL has set the bar and given teams an opportunity to reach it, but he's not taking no for an answer.

I like the guy. I told him that I would like to move up (mentioned that I still have a lot to learn at Spot, but I've held similar leadership positions at other companies). He said that I should go for whatever I want.

I put in for the TL position at our neighbor store.

 

[RetailWorld]

You will formal interview with your STL, then either an ETL-HR or STL at another store, then your DTL. 3 different interviews with 4 questions each that focus in on Leadership Expectations. Have a real situation for each expectation that resulted in you driving sales. Know your 2 strengths and 1 opp. You may get asked what your 2nd opp would be...that throws off a few people.