Archived Tell me about a time when...

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you felt crummy about your performance as a leader. Extra points if you were new in role and are now a bad ass. It was a rough day.
 
I remember when I first took over Price Change - didn't have the proper training (my "trainer" and I use that term loosely, called out 3 out of the 5 days that I went to that person's store to train), and I didn't think that I had what it took to lead that team - I was handed a team with blood red scores and expected to get them up ASAP, and the team members didn't take me seriously. I wasn't able to complete the workload all the time, and was struggling to get the scores green. I read up on every little thing regarding Price Change and figured out how each workcenter affected Price Change. I then sat with the team to hold a meeting, discussing with them the correct Best Practices (which none of the other PATLs before me cared about), their Core Roles (which again, none of the PATLs before me cared about), and what both Target's expectations were and what my expectations of the team would be. Once my team saw that I was doing what was in their best interest (and that I was actually working instead of wasting time BSing with people), they gave me the respect I deserved and I gave them my respect. Within a year, the scores were turned around from being blood red to getting green every now and then, and now my store is consistently green and I'm the district trainer for Price Accuracy. I know what it's like to have a rough day, believe me, I do, so if there's any questions you have or need to vent, feel free to PM me.
 
As an Extended Intern my STL tasked me with owning the ad-setup process. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and turned out our ad-setup team wasn't finishing their workload until noon on some Sundays. After about a month I wasn't able to increase productivity, and I was getting pressured even harder by my STL to have our workload complete by 8AM. This was especially stressful because I was up for a job-offer within that year and not being able to effectively lead the setup team reflected poorly on that!
With some trial and error I was able to assess the issue, formulate a plan and successfully execute it so that the team was able to finish under forecasted HQ hours BEFORE 8AM each Sunday.
Even the underdog can come out on top!
HOW'S THAT FOR INTERN
 
With some trial and error I was able to assess the issue, formulate a plan and successfully execute it so that the team was able to finish under forecasted HQ hours BEFORE 8AM each Sunday.

That's a lot of words to say nothing. Go into detail on what you found to be the issues, what you did, what did and didn't work, etc.
 
With some trial and error I was able to assess the issue, formulate a plan and successfully execute it so that the team was able to finish under forecasted HQ hours BEFORE 8AM each Sunday.

That's a lot of words to say nothing. Go into detail on what you found to be the issues, what you did, what did and didn't work, etc.

Was trying to be short, sweet and to the point.

The team I had worked with no sense of urgency. I tried to help them understand the importance of finishing the workload by 8AM, gave them the tools and resources they needed in order to succeed, motivated them, recognized top performers, coached those who needed attention and streamlined the process. I visited another store for inspiration and adopted several small practices that made a significant difference in their timeline. Even with these changes the team wasn't performing well - they were not communicating with each other and it was difficult to empower them to make decisions on their own. I was being called to aisles more often than necessary to answer questions on which sign went up where, where items were flexed, etc.
I partnered with my HR TM's and ETL-LOG/HL to schedule high-potential TM's, my ETL-SL to streamline adjacency ad-maps for SL, and my ad-prep team to ensure they were handing us a well-prepared, time-efficient ad to work (a list of aisles with signs for each block, all signs in order, etc.). I also began scheduling Electronics TM's as a part of the team because they are able to work out signage within that area much more efficiently than other TM's (camera boat and CD's are killer).

Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.
 
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