January 2013 already!
Things have been so busy in Timaru that is has taken me since September last year to get on here and update my blog!
Where to start?
Timaru definitely got off to a really good start and I instantly enjoyed working in a large store again, and the icing on the cake is how close I am to home. A 2 hour drive at the end of my working week has me back in Christchurch spending time with my friends and family. One of the biggest contributors to your success on the programme is your flexibility and ability to move between any of our 91 stores and locations. Although I am close to home now, and in the region of stores I began my career in 6 and a half years ago, I have spent my share of time away, and expect to do more travelling as my career progresses.
I have set myself up in Timaru slightly different to the other locations I have lived in while on the SMDP. Rather than a flatting situation with other people (which when travelling on the programme I highly recommend as it can be highly social and a good start in a new town), I have opted to rent my own house. I felt while in Timaru I wanted to be fully independent, and have my own space, which has seen me rent a 2 bedroom apartment like house, with a bit of a section too! Over 5 months in Timaru now and definitely enjoying the decision! I have to admit though, I thoroughly enjoy it when I have mates come down and stay!
On to the job now. As I always say, on the programme the learning never stops. After completing all Team Leader roles and gaining experience as an ASM in Cambridge, I was happy with what I had learnt so far. 5 months on in Timaru, I have learnt soo much more still. Every store and environment is different, and as an ASM, you also have to manage and lead different sized and skilled management and leadership teams. I am lucky in Timaru to have a great team, who thrive on success and enjoy development and coaching you give them. I am fortunate to be working for one of the company’s most senior and experienced store manager’s. He constantly challenges me, and often gives me extra responsibility or even more- the whole store at times! With all of that comes feedback sessions which are highly valuable. All part of his way to develop me to be ready to be a store manager one day.
In my role in a bigger store, I have all areas of the store managed by a manager or at least a supervisor, so for the first time in my career, all the results that I drive, are actually driven through manager’s who drive it through their own respective teams. It takes a while to get used to, as I have become so used to working directly with a team member to achieve a result. But this can be highly rewarding as an ASM when things start to tick for you.
We have been lucky in Timaru as a store who is achieving some spectacular results. Since October, Timaru has been not only the number 1 ranked store on the balanced score card for our region- but the entire business. A result we are not getting complaisant with, but certainly celebrating. We all understand that we still have a lot to work on to not only maintain this result, but continue to improve. ‘Continuous improvement’ is a term the management team hear me use a lot, and it is all about assessing how we have performed, taking the good and the bad, and adjusting next time through our learning’s to be even better still! We have recently outlined the big rocks that will give us our biggest bang for buck as a store throughout 2013, to ensure we are all aligned to each other.
We got through Christmas 2012 quite well. We achieved sales targets, and had some fun along the way. Now that it is over, all the team are going about taking some leave and spending some time with their families. When all the management team are back together, we will go offsite and spend some time doing a very thorough debrief on Christmas as a whole. What went well and what could we do differently next Christmas to create an even better environment for our team and customers (continuous improvement).
I recently enjoyed some time off, and after boxing day, flew to the gold coast to spend the new years period with a group of friends to relax, unwind, and of course enjoy some cold ‘fantas’! Back and refreshed now I am motivated and ready for a cracker year that will be 2013!
Monday, February 4, 2013
Thursday, October 11, 2012
September
Well I have just completed one of the busiest months I have ever had!
I had an opportunity last month to spend 2 weeks working in the Hamilton central store, in a support role to assist them through their annual stocktake (a process where everything in a store must be counted at least once for financial purposes). After a long couple of weeks and a few 5am finishes, it was all over and I learnt more about running a stocktake in those 2 weeks than I think I have in my entire career!
As I said last month, I had a lot of work to do to pack up all my stuff in Hamilton for my move South to Timaru. I made the mistake of leaving a lot of this until the final week and days which made it a bit of a rush! My last day of work at Cambridge was on the Thursday and then we had our regional conference on Saturday.
The moving truck came on Friday morning and picked up all my gear. Within an hour it was all gone and I was off to Auckland to get ready for our conference. I was leaving what had been home as I knew it for the last 12 months.
This was my first year attending a conference as an ASM, so I hadn’t been apart of a managers skit before. The theme was 80’s (to coincide with the Warehouse’s 30th Birthday), and me and my store manager dressed up in ‘Chip’s’ character costumes with bikes and all for our skit.
The entire conference was well enjoyed as always by all. The highlight would have to be Cambridge taking out store of the year!!! Out of all 13 stores in our region, region 6, we came out on top as the best store overall for the year, judged by our regional manager. It was such a buzz for not only me but the team also. Was great to see hard work by all, paying off.
After a big night of celebrating and looking after the big cup that went with the award, it was time to start a 1000km+ road trip down to Timaru, ready for my first day on Tuesday. After a long car drive over 2 days, a quick stopover for the night in Wellington, and a ferry ride, I made it.
When I first walked in to the store, I was amazed at how big it was, how bright and open it was, and how friendly the team were.
A few weeks in now, and I have met and built a good relationship with my store manager, met my management team (which is somewhat bigger than the team I had in Cambridge), and have met all the team, including nightfill. Things are happening fast as we quickly approach our ‘golden quarter’ and I look forward to going into some more detail next blog!
That’s me for September!
I had an opportunity last month to spend 2 weeks working in the Hamilton central store, in a support role to assist them through their annual stocktake (a process where everything in a store must be counted at least once for financial purposes). After a long couple of weeks and a few 5am finishes, it was all over and I learnt more about running a stocktake in those 2 weeks than I think I have in my entire career!
As I said last month, I had a lot of work to do to pack up all my stuff in Hamilton for my move South to Timaru. I made the mistake of leaving a lot of this until the final week and days which made it a bit of a rush! My last day of work at Cambridge was on the Thursday and then we had our regional conference on Saturday.
The moving truck came on Friday morning and picked up all my gear. Within an hour it was all gone and I was off to Auckland to get ready for our conference. I was leaving what had been home as I knew it for the last 12 months.
This was my first year attending a conference as an ASM, so I hadn’t been apart of a managers skit before. The theme was 80’s (to coincide with the Warehouse’s 30th Birthday), and me and my store manager dressed up in ‘Chip’s’ character costumes with bikes and all for our skit.
The entire conference was well enjoyed as always by all. The highlight would have to be Cambridge taking out store of the year!!! Out of all 13 stores in our region, region 6, we came out on top as the best store overall for the year, judged by our regional manager. It was such a buzz for not only me but the team also. Was great to see hard work by all, paying off.
After a big night of celebrating and looking after the big cup that went with the award, it was time to start a 1000km+ road trip down to Timaru, ready for my first day on Tuesday. After a long car drive over 2 days, a quick stopover for the night in Wellington, and a ferry ride, I made it.
When I first walked in to the store, I was amazed at how big it was, how bright and open it was, and how friendly the team were.
A few weeks in now, and I have met and built a good relationship with my store manager, met my management team (which is somewhat bigger than the team I had in Cambridge), and have met all the team, including nightfill. Things are happening fast as we quickly approach our ‘golden quarter’ and I look forward to going into some more detail next blog!
That’s me for September!
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Can’t believe we are well and truly over the half way mark of the year already.
A lot has changed in just 2 months! Our Cambridge management team has changed slightly, with our night fill team leader being offered a role in a bigger store within Hamilton, so the challenge was set to employ a new one who would fit well within the Cambridge team, and strive for results as we do so well. After a couple of weeks we found her and it is good to be back to a full team again.
We rounded out the financial year (August 1st to July 31st) with some results as a store to be proud of. Whilst we don’t know where we ranked on the scorecard year to date just quite yet, if our result of 6th in the company at the end of June is anything to go by, we are going to be sitting in a good spot.
This month in July I received some big news. By the middle of August I will be starting at the other end of the country in Timaru, as their assistant store manager. I will be leaving a great team and environment behind earlier than anticipated, but am looking forward not only to moving back down to Canterbury and my original region, but working in a newly refitted, extra warehouse and all the challenges that will no doubt come with it.
The last couple of weeks have been hectic, as I have had to wrap up life as I know it in the Waikato including packing up my gear, and coordinating my travel and relocation plans to Timaru.
18 months ago when I ventured north for the SMDP if you had of told me that I would be sad at the thought of leaving the Waikato, I would have laughed at you. I have met some amazing people here, learnt a lot about and experienced a whole new side to the business I didn’t know existed. I feel like I have really grown as a leader and am a complete different person to when I was a first appointment team leader in Christchurch a year and a half ago.
This weekend coming we are having our regional conference. A time that team members, managers, and partners get together for a day and night to celebrate and reward what the team have given and achieved in the last year. It is always a great weekend, and I’m looking forward to being apart of the region 6 manager’s skit!
As soon as conference is over, the moving truck would have been and gone, and I will be in the car on a massive road trip to start my new role in Timaru within a few days.
In my next blog I look forward to sharing not just how our regional conference went, but how my first few weeks in my new role went!
A lot has changed in just 2 months! Our Cambridge management team has changed slightly, with our night fill team leader being offered a role in a bigger store within Hamilton, so the challenge was set to employ a new one who would fit well within the Cambridge team, and strive for results as we do so well. After a couple of weeks we found her and it is good to be back to a full team again.
We rounded out the financial year (August 1st to July 31st) with some results as a store to be proud of. Whilst we don’t know where we ranked on the scorecard year to date just quite yet, if our result of 6th in the company at the end of June is anything to go by, we are going to be sitting in a good spot.
This month in July I received some big news. By the middle of August I will be starting at the other end of the country in Timaru, as their assistant store manager. I will be leaving a great team and environment behind earlier than anticipated, but am looking forward not only to moving back down to Canterbury and my original region, but working in a newly refitted, extra warehouse and all the challenges that will no doubt come with it.
The last couple of weeks have been hectic, as I have had to wrap up life as I know it in the Waikato including packing up my gear, and coordinating my travel and relocation plans to Timaru.
18 months ago when I ventured north for the SMDP if you had of told me that I would be sad at the thought of leaving the Waikato, I would have laughed at you. I have met some amazing people here, learnt a lot about and experienced a whole new side to the business I didn’t know existed. I feel like I have really grown as a leader and am a complete different person to when I was a first appointment team leader in Christchurch a year and a half ago.
This weekend coming we are having our regional conference. A time that team members, managers, and partners get together for a day and night to celebrate and reward what the team have given and achieved in the last year. It is always a great weekend, and I’m looking forward to being apart of the region 6 manager’s skit!
As soon as conference is over, the moving truck would have been and gone, and I will be in the car on a massive road trip to start my new role in Timaru within a few days.
In my next blog I look forward to sharing not just how our regional conference went, but how my first few weeks in my new role went!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
May has come and gone pretty fast!
It’s pretty much winter now (temperature outside is telling us it is), we are in full swing of all our winter promotional activity. The retail calendar is different as we want to be out of winter product well before spring starts. The cold weather is certainly helping us with this!
Things in Cambridge are progressing reasonably well. From a store perspective the traction and momentum is flowing a lot better with a full management team.
We are in the final quarter of our retail year which means that the more we can do from a store performance point of view, the better position we will be in going into the new financial year.
May saw Cambridge creep into the top ten stores on what we call the balanced score card, a monthly scorecard that ranks stores overall for a combination of performance indicators such as sales against targets, health and safety, clearance sell through, team engagement etc. So a really great result for the store, and a true indication of how well the team are going. It is a rolling scorecard that gives stores an overall ranking at the end of the July month for the entire year.
My ways of working and routines are well and truly set now which I am enjoying as I am a man that needs structure and routine (something the calendar in outlook comes in handy for)!
My travelling to Christchurch is becoming more regular now which is good, and with a lot of my mates turning 21 I’m heading down for as much as those as I’m able to.
It’s almost time for a few of the other SMDpers that are on Phase 2 to make their moves, so will be interesting to see if any join my region- as it’s always handy to have them close!
That’s me for May!
It’s pretty much winter now (temperature outside is telling us it is), we are in full swing of all our winter promotional activity. The retail calendar is different as we want to be out of winter product well before spring starts. The cold weather is certainly helping us with this!
Things in Cambridge are progressing reasonably well. From a store perspective the traction and momentum is flowing a lot better with a full management team.
We are in the final quarter of our retail year which means that the more we can do from a store performance point of view, the better position we will be in going into the new financial year.
May saw Cambridge creep into the top ten stores on what we call the balanced score card, a monthly scorecard that ranks stores overall for a combination of performance indicators such as sales against targets, health and safety, clearance sell through, team engagement etc. So a really great result for the store, and a true indication of how well the team are going. It is a rolling scorecard that gives stores an overall ranking at the end of the July month for the entire year.
My ways of working and routines are well and truly set now which I am enjoying as I am a man that needs structure and routine (something the calendar in outlook comes in handy for)!
My travelling to Christchurch is becoming more regular now which is good, and with a lot of my mates turning 21 I’m heading down for as much as those as I’m able to.
It’s almost time for a few of the other SMDpers that are on Phase 2 to make their moves, so will be interesting to see if any join my region- as it’s always handy to have them close!
That’s me for May!
Rarotonga was awesome! I stayed in an awesome resort on the best part of the island. The snorkelling, kayaking, dining and just plain exploring was amazing. I would definitely recommend it to anyone considering holidaying on an island- and the best part is you can be there in under 4 hours.
When I got back to New Zealand I took the opportunity to spend another week travelling around the North Island, something I have been wanting to do since leaving Christchurch 13 months ago now. I stayed in Rotorua and Tauranga and a few places in between- and of course did all the touristy things there too!
The SMDP gives you a great opportunity to travel- and if given the opportunity I recommend exploring the surrounding areas as much as you can.
I turned 21 in April- over Easter weekend, and as I wasn’t having my party at home until the following weekend, I spent my birthday in Auckland, and got out and about around there also.
I travelled home for my 21st party which I had been planning for most of this year, and it is safe to say it was an awesome party, and I won’t be doing a yardy again for a long time I hope!
I returned to store mid April, and was excited to sink my teeth back into working again as 2 or 3 weeks felt like a life time away from the place.
We have a new Nightfill Team Leader that we have been integrating into the role and store this month. It is great to have a full management team on board and really allows us all to focus on the big rocks now, as well as all the detail that’s important to us.
We are starting to see some good results, for example the last 2 months Cambridge has been first in the business on what we call the people scorecard- a way we measure all processes relating to our people.
With winter sales well and truly under way now we have set our store up to represent the cooler weather- thermals, heaters and wood are selling fast!
In terms of my development I am working on getting my ways of working right. How should I as an ASM be structuring my days, weeks and months to ensure that I get the most from myself, but also my managers and team. We have been working hard in store as a management team to align ourselves with each other, and now have in place regular meetings and catch ups on the same day and (usually) the same time every week.
Some news we got recently was that our store along with 4 others, will be breaking apart from the current region and stores it works with, and will be joining the wider Bay Of Plenty region. It means networking and building relationships with a whole new bunch of people- as well as a new Regional Manager. We now don’t have the luxury of having our meetings in Hamilton- potentially some travel will need to happen when this all takes affect come July.
When I got back to New Zealand I took the opportunity to spend another week travelling around the North Island, something I have been wanting to do since leaving Christchurch 13 months ago now. I stayed in Rotorua and Tauranga and a few places in between- and of course did all the touristy things there too!
The SMDP gives you a great opportunity to travel- and if given the opportunity I recommend exploring the surrounding areas as much as you can.
I turned 21 in April- over Easter weekend, and as I wasn’t having my party at home until the following weekend, I spent my birthday in Auckland, and got out and about around there also.
I travelled home for my 21st party which I had been planning for most of this year, and it is safe to say it was an awesome party, and I won’t be doing a yardy again for a long time I hope!
I returned to store mid April, and was excited to sink my teeth back into working again as 2 or 3 weeks felt like a life time away from the place.
We have a new Nightfill Team Leader that we have been integrating into the role and store this month. It is great to have a full management team on board and really allows us all to focus on the big rocks now, as well as all the detail that’s important to us.
We are starting to see some good results, for example the last 2 months Cambridge has been first in the business on what we call the people scorecard- a way we measure all processes relating to our people.
With winter sales well and truly under way now we have set our store up to represent the cooler weather- thermals, heaters and wood are selling fast!
In terms of my development I am working on getting my ways of working right. How should I as an ASM be structuring my days, weeks and months to ensure that I get the most from myself, but also my managers and team. We have been working hard in store as a management team to align ourselves with each other, and now have in place regular meetings and catch ups on the same day and (usually) the same time every week.
Some news we got recently was that our store along with 4 others, will be breaking apart from the current region and stores it works with, and will be joining the wider Bay Of Plenty region. It means networking and building relationships with a whole new bunch of people- as well as a new Regional Manager. We now don’t have the luxury of having our meetings in Hamilton- potentially some travel will need to happen when this all takes affect come July.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Winter Hits Our Stores
March certainly hasn’t bucked the trend on being busy and not knowing what to write about first.
At the end of February, as I mentioned in my last blog, I attended my first regional manager’s meeting. This generally happens within your store’s region with all Store and Assistant Manager’s- lead by the regional manager at an offsite. Ours was spread over 2 days and was a great platform for us to discuss things that were happening in the business right now, as well as hearing from many leaders in our business.
March also saw us launch our Autumn clothing and footwear range. This was the closest I have ever been to a season launch as I oversee the apparel and footwear team in my store. There was high expectations of us delivering a great launch as our store is considered the ‘store of excellence’ within our region for these categories, and a store that often trains other’s team members. The ladies did a great job and we have been rewarded by some great sales.
A solid couple of months in now and I feel like myself and my Store Manager are slowly aligning ourselves, especially in terms of setting expectations of not just me, but the manager’s that report into me also. I am also now feeling a lot more confident in the role and gaining that understanding of what life as an Assistant Manager in the The Warehouse involves. Something in the coming month’s blogs I will talk more about.
March is a short month for me, as near the end I am off to Rarotonga for a holiday, I look forward to sharing it when I get back!
At the end of February, as I mentioned in my last blog, I attended my first regional manager’s meeting. This generally happens within your store’s region with all Store and Assistant Manager’s- lead by the regional manager at an offsite. Ours was spread over 2 days and was a great platform for us to discuss things that were happening in the business right now, as well as hearing from many leaders in our business.
March also saw us launch our Autumn clothing and footwear range. This was the closest I have ever been to a season launch as I oversee the apparel and footwear team in my store. There was high expectations of us delivering a great launch as our store is considered the ‘store of excellence’ within our region for these categories, and a store that often trains other’s team members. The ladies did a great job and we have been rewarded by some great sales.
A solid couple of months in now and I feel like myself and my Store Manager are slowly aligning ourselves, especially in terms of setting expectations of not just me, but the manager’s that report into me also. I am also now feeling a lot more confident in the role and gaining that understanding of what life as an Assistant Manager in the The Warehouse involves. Something in the coming month’s blogs I will talk more about.
March is a short month for me, as near the end I am off to Rarotonga for a holiday, I look forward to sharing it when I get back!
Monday, February 27, 2012
February Fever
Things just keep getting busier and more full on, and I love it!
So much has happened in the past month that I am literally struggling with where to start.
At the end of January, as I mentioned in my last blog, myself and the others in Phase 2 of the Tore Manager Development programme attended a workshop at Store Support Office. We did activities aimed to increase our awareness around different things as leaders, which we all enjoyed. We also heard from our employment relations and health and safety managers.
The last day saw all 9 of us doing our sign off presentations. It would be fair to say that from the moment we all met in the hotel foyer that morning- the nerves kicked in.
The day was split into time slots and I was lucky last. Everybody's presentations were done really well and it was interesting to see everyone speaking for up to 40 minutes on their past role and journey. I was stoked overall with how mine went but just extra happy to have completed it so I can now focus on the phase ahead- phase 3!
I'm now a few weeks into my role as Assistant Store Manager of our Cambridge store.
I can say that things are going well. My plans of initially watching the inner workings of the store completely went out the window from the first few days, when I realised just how hard it was to be in charge of a store when your Store Manager is away. There were so many variables which popped up that required me to step up and act like a Store Manager.
Due to the nature of the business I’ve only been able to spend a handful of days with my Store Manager. This has meant I have had to pick up on his expectations fairly quickly and apply and deliver these in store through the team and team leaders.
I currently have another person on the SMDP in store working for me as a Team Leader. I'm finding that I am learning a lot through this. As we had built a relationship prior to working in Cambridge we are both learning to keep ‘outside of work’ and ‘in store’ separate so we can stay focused on the important things- what's best for the store and business.
I recently attended my first regional manager's meeting as an ASM. It is a chance every month for ASM's and Store managers from the region to get together for a couple of days to ensure we are all aligned to the objectives we set. We also get to hear from different people from different areas of the business, do activities and discuss relevant business topics.
I am still travelling back and forth lots between Hamilton and Christchurch as well as other parts of NZ to see friends. Between this and my new role it is keeping me busy which I love!!
That's me for February!
So much has happened in the past month that I am literally struggling with where to start.
At the end of January, as I mentioned in my last blog, myself and the others in Phase 2 of the Tore Manager Development programme attended a workshop at Store Support Office. We did activities aimed to increase our awareness around different things as leaders, which we all enjoyed. We also heard from our employment relations and health and safety managers.
The last day saw all 9 of us doing our sign off presentations. It would be fair to say that from the moment we all met in the hotel foyer that morning- the nerves kicked in.
The day was split into time slots and I was lucky last. Everybody's presentations were done really well and it was interesting to see everyone speaking for up to 40 minutes on their past role and journey. I was stoked overall with how mine went but just extra happy to have completed it so I can now focus on the phase ahead- phase 3!
I'm now a few weeks into my role as Assistant Store Manager of our Cambridge store.
I can say that things are going well. My plans of initially watching the inner workings of the store completely went out the window from the first few days, when I realised just how hard it was to be in charge of a store when your Store Manager is away. There were so many variables which popped up that required me to step up and act like a Store Manager.
Due to the nature of the business I’ve only been able to spend a handful of days with my Store Manager. This has meant I have had to pick up on his expectations fairly quickly and apply and deliver these in store through the team and team leaders.
I currently have another person on the SMDP in store working for me as a Team Leader. I'm finding that I am learning a lot through this. As we had built a relationship prior to working in Cambridge we are both learning to keep ‘outside of work’ and ‘in store’ separate so we can stay focused on the important things- what's best for the store and business.
I recently attended my first regional manager's meeting as an ASM. It is a chance every month for ASM's and Store managers from the region to get together for a couple of days to ensure we are all aligned to the objectives we set. We also get to hear from different people from different areas of the business, do activities and discuss relevant business topics.
I am still travelling back and forth lots between Hamilton and Christchurch as well as other parts of NZ to see friends. Between this and my new role it is keeping me busy which I love!!
That's me for February!
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