Please - Stop telling people to "take on more responsibility".

60SecondsRemaining

Former SrTL - Replen
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Mar 21, 2014
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I no longer work for Target, or retail in general. But please, stop telling people to take on more responsibility. This is the most ass-backward advice and I see it given daily here.

This is not the path to get promoted. This is called scope creep, and it works directly against you if you're trying to move up. Target is a merit-based workplace with pay by position. By taking on more responsibility without getting more pay, the only thing you're doing is ensuring:

A) that you never get taken out of where you are - why would they? You are providing free value.
B) that you are raising the floor for the job requirement - it can be done therefore it should be done. Your effort is irrelevant to them.

People complain constantly about more responsibility and less payroll. Stop telling people to do more with less, it promotes this type of thinking.

Hard workers =/= good leaders. Two entirely different skillsets. Show leadership by leading your co-workers.

Notice someone struggling? Take the time to show them a better way.
Someone new? Ask them if they need help, if they need training on anything.
Be vocal about the needs of the team. As a part of a team we all know there are things the team wants but never speaks to leadership. Be that voice.

This is real leadership. It's internal, and you do it for you. Target can call you a leader but that doesn't make you a leader - it makes you a manager. The power you gain as a leader comes from the respect and buy-in of those you lead, it has nothing to do whatsoever with your position. Helping your team do better makes your job easier. Helping Target do better doesn't do a damn thing for anyone but Target.
 
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I no longer work for Target, or retail in general. But please, stop telling people to take on more responsibility. This is the most ass-backward advice and I see it given daily here.

This is not the path to get promoted. This is called scope creep, and it works directly against you if you're trying to move up. Target is a merit-based workplace with pay by position. By taking on more responsibility without getting more pay, the only thing you're doing is ensuring:

A) that you never get taken out of where you are - why would they? You are providing free value.
B) that you are raising the floor for the job requirement - it can be done therefore it should be done. Your effort is irrelevant to them.

People complain constantly about more responsibility and less payroll. Stop telling people to do more with less, it promotes this type of thinking.

Hard workers =/= good leaders. Two entirely different skillsets. Show leadership by leading your co-workers.

Notice someone struggling? Take the time to show them a better way.
Someone new? Ask them if they need help, if they need training on anything.
Be vocal about the needs of the team. As a part of a team we all know there are things the team wants but never speaks to leadership. Be that voice.

This is real leadership. It's internal, and you do it for you. Target can call you a leader but that doesn't make you a leader - it makes you a manager. The power you gain as a leader comes from the respect and buy-in of those you lead, it has nothing to do whatsoever with your position. Helping your team do better makes your job easier. Helping Target do better doesn't do a damn thing for anyone but Target.
This so much. I see so many “leaders” who do not lead their team, they manage or not even this. When a team member struggles they don’t help them, but start to performance them out. Invest in your team and it will make your job easier.
 
This so much. I see so many “leaders” who do not lead their team, they manage or not even this. When a team member struggles they don’t help them, but start to performance them out. Invest in your team and it will make your job easier.
That depends on the TM. Sad to say that my experience and observation has been that the more understanding some leaders are, the more they are taken advantage of and the less respected they are by the hard-working TMs who get the job done. It can be a fine line. Shit happens in life, I get that, but I would bet we've all had those "it's always something" coworkers.
 
That depends on the TM. Sad to say that my experience and observation has been that the more understanding some leaders are, the more they are taken advantage of and the less respected they are by the hard-working TMs who get the job done. It can be a fine line. Shit happens in life, I get that, but I would bet we've all had those "it's always something" coworkers.
Search my post history for accountability.

There is a difference between "I am trying but I can't seem to get this down" and "I really don't give a shit about this job and have no drive to do better". A function of good leadership as it applies to being in a position of power on a team is to recognize when people are failing, engaging them, and then understanding the root cause for the failure. From there we can give them the resources they need to be successful. If the failure is rooted in a place where it can't be remedied (constantly late, lack of drive, etc) then you have a responsibility to your team to remove that weight from the team, so that they can continue forward unhindered.

Accountability is one of the most important functions of a leader when your scope includes managing a team, because poor performers are a highly visible action. If you can engage someone to do better, the team sees this, it increases their confidence in you. If you make the attempt and the person does not do better, then you remove them. The team also sees this and it increases their confidence in you because you're protecting the team from failure by removing barriers to success. There is nothing more damaging to a team than allowing poor performers to linger after trying to engage them - it lowers the expectations as well as creates a hostile work environment, because it creates festering thoughts (why can Sally get away with xyz but not me?).
 
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I think there are some strong points in the OP (especially scope creep and the negative effect on payroll doing more with less), but I can't quite agree. Generally, TMs who take on more responsibility are the ones who are actually being talked about offstage as people who could promote. That isn't 100% true, though (I can think of two cases of people doing too much and raising their own bar too high). Obviously this varies between individuals and stores. But I would say that the corollary is true in my experience; people who won't or wouldn't take on at least some extra responsibilities are not promotion material.

It might just be that internal promotion at Target and many other places is not ideal. Consider how brutal it can be getting to TL quickly, and how small the raise is, and then how hard one has to work/politic to get to ETL quickly (where the pay seems more reasonable).
 
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I think there are some strong points in the OP (especially scope creep and the negative effect on payroll doing more with less), but I can't quite agree. Generally, TMs who take on more responsibility are the ones who are actually being talked about offstage as people who could promote. That isn't 100% true, though (I can think of two cases of people doing too much and raising their own bar too high). Obviously this varies between individuals and stores. But I would say that the corollary is true in my experience; people who won't or wouldn't take on at least some extra responsibilities are not promotion material.

It might just be that internal promotion at Target and many other places is not ideal. Consider how brutal it can be getting to TL quickly, and how small the raise is, and then how hard one has to work/politic to get to ETL quickly (where the pay seems more reasonable).

People who take on additional responsibility without additional pay are failing to recognize their own market value. Being responsible for something has zero to do with being a leader, and this mentality is there because the "leaders" at Target (and most ground-level supervisors in retail in general) are not leaders. They are doers. They look at a process and they seek to manage the people and control the process.

If you want to be a leader then be a leader. Leadership at its core is about using your time to make others successful, which in turn makes you successful. Does "owning backroom location accuracy" or "owning xyz process" make you a leader? No - because it doesn't improve anyone. You're not leading anything, you're doing. You might use this as an opportunity to help improve people in those areas, but do you need to own something or have some additional responsibility to do that in the first place? Are you really a leader if you need someone to give you permission to improve those around you?

Like I said in the original post - stop perpetuating this mindset. You're just actively contributing to a culture that reveres the bottom line at the expense of true development and growth. The retail industry, in general, is a meat grinder and this mindset is ground zero for the root cause of why.

Edit: I'm not attacking you (because I think I could come off that way), just reiterating that the root cause is coloring your perspective (which is really what I am pointing out anyway)
 
People who take on additional responsibility without additional pay are failing to recognize their own market value. Being responsible for something has zero to do with being a leader, and this mentality is there because the "leaders" at Target (and most ground-level supervisors in retail in general) are not leaders. They are doers. They look at a process and they seek to manage the people and control the process.

If you want to be a leader then be a leader. Leadership at its core is about using your time to make others successful, which in turn makes you successful. Does "owning backroom location accuracy" or "owning xyz process" make you a leader? No - because it doesn't improve anyone. You're not leading anything, you're doing. You might use this as an opportunity to help improve people in those areas, but do you need to own something or have some additional responsibility to do that in the first place? Are you really a leader if you need someone to give you permission to improve those around you?

Like I said in the original post - stop perpetuating this mindset. You're just actively contributing to a culture that reveres the bottom line at the expense of true development and growth. The retail industry, in general, is a meat grinder and this mindset is ground zero for the root cause of why.

Edit: I'm not attacking you (because I think I could come off that way), just reiterating that the root cause is coloring your perspective (which is really what I am pointing out anyway)
Definitely don't feel attacked, that's a great post and I'll consider if my perspective is skewed. What hits strongest in your post is that leadership is about the success of others. It's easy to lose sight of that when you're thinking about hitting metrics and being held accountable for them.

ed: maybe worth thinking about the ways that 'management' conflicts with 'leadership' and how to bring them more in line.
 
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People who take on additional responsibility without additional pay are failing to recognize their own market value.

That's why I left... for a third time. Getting put into the position of being a backup SETL didn't sit well with me. Not when you've got most of the front end not able to work the service desk or do drive up. We all made the same amount of money!

With that said, I still would consider going back to be seasonal some Christmas.
 
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