Leadership
Improve Job Performance: Teach, Test, Trust (2020)
Do you notice job performance improve once you teach a new skill? Does the associate apply their new skill set flawlessly or change their behavior? I bet you both were so enthusiastic about what they learned to improve their job performance! And then...it doesn’t seem to improve their performance. Ugh.
It doesn't mean they don't want to do better nor does it mean they didn’t really their new skill. Truth is, we often need more than just a teaching lesson on how to do it for it to stick. But often times, we expect too much after just one successful lesson, a highly enthusiastic student or one successful demonstration of the task.
Today, perhaps more than ever, we need our teams to be execute flawlessly and demonstrate leadership. Teams are smaller than ever. There are new protocols to complete to ensure our teams and customers feel safe. My hope is that this post will give you another tool for your leadership tool belt!
Breathe on Me
Ever since my daughter was very young, taking care of her teeth was always a focus. Whether it was in the morning before school or at night before bed, she diligently brushed her teeth. To encourage it, I bought her every toothpaste, tooth brush and Dixie cup that she wanted! Whether it was Disney Princesses or Dora the Explorer. If she wanted it, we bought it.
When she was old enough to brush her teeth without our supervision, something started to happen. She would get ready to leave for school in the morning or go to bed at night, I would call her over and ask her to breathe on me. Initially, she was happy to do it. Then she started to ask me why I wanted her to breathe on me and I explained that I was checking to see that her teeth were brushed. What she learned was, because I loved her, I checked that she was really brushing her teeth. She learned that there was going to be follow up. Have you heard the saying, "trust but verify"?
It's called Teach, Test, Trust
In today's post, I want to talk about the most effective way to teach a new behavior, follow up to ensure that it is being done the right way and then after a few times of following up and seeing good execution, trusting them to do it without your oversight. It doesn't mean you won't ever follow up. Good management should always have checks and balances on how the team is performing. But it gets easier to trust after you have been through the teaching and testing components.
We can apply this method of teach, test and trust to any topic and role. I am in retail (as are most of you who are reading this) so I like to use Floor Supervision as an example. I use floor supervision because there are so many nuances to being really good at it.
- Being a good floor supervisor requires being effective at multi-tasking.
There are tasks like:
Observing sales associate performance and providing in-the-moment feedback
- Ensure customers are being engaged
- Driving sales results
- Depending on the level of talent and experience on the team as well as how busy the store is, there are components of floor supervision that will require you to adjust.
Teach a new Skill
- So let's say you have a new assistant manager. You have taught them how to be a good floor supervisor. They appear to get it, at least when you are working. But then one day you stop by the store and there is no floor supervisor anywhere to be seen. You start to panic asking yourself, where is the manager? Why aren't they floor supervising the way I taught them? Where did I go wrong?
- First, don't panic. You just learned a valuable lesson. You trusted too soon. You cannot trust until you have sufficiently taught and tested. In this specific example, there could be multiple facets at play. Remember, this is a moment in time and there could be a good explanation. Without more facts, we just don't have enough context to determine what is wrong.
Test their Skills and Provide Support
Teaching someone a new skill is an important first step. It is probably impractical to think that someone will perfect a new skill just from being taught. In some instances, they will. However, the more complicated the task, like floor supervision, the longer it could take to really master the behaviors. Remember the nuances we talked about earlier? They might master floor supervision during low traffic, low volume days. Then have to learn again to really master high traffic, peak days. Or maybe they are really good when super experienced associates are working and less so if the team is new.
What does it mean to test someone to see how well they have learned a new skill? Remember, "breathe on me"? I was checking to see that she brushed and flossed the way she had been taught and the way she did when I was watching.
Likewise, you will need to test their floor supervision capabilities. This could happen a multitude of ways from observing their floor supervision performance during a shift, to an unannounced visit when they are running the sales floor.
The goal is never to catch them doing something wrong. It is so important to ensure this is clearly understood. The purpose of testing is so that you can see them in action and coach as needed. This of this as being their safety net.
This is such a great way to be there to provide the additional support that is needed in order for them to be consistent at the execution of this skill.
Trust: True Performance Change
So far, you have successfully taught them a new skill. Then you tested their performance to provide the necessary support and coaching. Now, you can feel confident in trusting them to perform the skill in your absence.
It is so important to still follow up and see what their results are. To continue the floor supervision example, looking at their sales results is a great “report card” on how they are doing. While the results don’t always tell the full story, it is a great first step. Another great way to have your trust reinforced is to look at customer reviews and feedback. Talk to other team members. Everywhere you look, there will be opportunities for you to get feedback that will allow you to know how well they are doing.
When your team knows that you care about them and are there to ensure their success, they will be so grateful for teach, test and trust!
Now it’s your Turn
I am sure there are lots of examples you can think of where you can apply teach, test and trust to further improve your team’s performance. It ultimately is developing your leadership skills too! Mastering teach, test, trust is one of the many important skills needed to move up in your retail career! It helped me move up from being responsible for a district to being responsible for 500 stores!
In your Corner,
p.s. Please “like” and “share” these posts with friends and colleagues who might benefit from the content! Thank you!
p.s.s. If you are a District Manager and would like to do a podcast with me, email me at Rachel@runninggreatstores.com. You have one of the most difficult jobs in retail today and are the lynchpin of your organization! I want to tell your story!
