One of the many jobs I had prior to joining the Air Force was working at a grocery store…started in high school. Worked really hard and made it up to Grocery Manager when I was 21…and wow, I failed miserably. I had no idea how to manage or lead people. I got to that position because I could stock the shelves faster than my coworkers and my aisles always looked good. Now, I was in charge of the stockers at a different store and my methods didn’t work. My method of “motivating” them was to race them. I always won and my aisles always looked better. I look back and that was probably the most demoralizing thing I could have been doing. Many years later, I wish I would have done things differently. I should have been working side by side with those stockers, working their aisles with them, helping them and teaching them how to be faster, how to make their aisles look better…I missed an opportunity. Never forget, it’s not about how good your aisles look. If the rest of the store is a wreck, you have failed.
