Losing my patience.

[truckdemon]

That doesn't make any sense. Our store's GMTL 2 (home, stationery, bath, etc) role was left open for many several months after the last person left the role. She left in January 2021 and it wasn't filled until the following August by a TM at our store who was promoted. We went a whole seven months with just our inbound/GMTL and our GMTL 3 running the floor.

That's how it's always happened at my store, the position is usually filled or at least an announcement of who will be filling the role after a few weeks. That's strange they'd leave a position open for that long. Well anyways, best of luck to you!

 

[CartoonPenguin]

That's how it's always happened at my store, the position is usually filled or at least an announcement of who will be filling the role after a few weeks. That's strange they'd leave a position open for that long. Well anyways, best of luck to you!

My store has always seemed to do that. We have two Style/speciality leads, but up until recently, we operated with just one and the second one was just left unfilled until a TM expressed interest.

 

[CartoonPenguin]

As a team lead, I'll be honest with you. If there is an open position and it hasn't been filled yet after a few weeks, its because they already have a plan in place. If they were going to promote you to the spot that is currently avaliable, they've would've already told you. If you aren't currently on the bench, there is a very high chance that you will not get promoted right now. They are creating a developmental plan for you so you can showcase your skill and drive. You will have to pretty much prove to them that you have the full potential so that you can be put on the bench, so when a spot opens up you will already have the tools and will be fully prepared. So don't take it personally when they announce someone else. Be thankful that they are willing to develop you and work hard at it.

Also, I should probably clarify the timeline here. The role itself hasn't been open for a few weeks. My HR ETL had me fill out the development worksheet a few weeks ago, just a few days after the GMTL 3 put in their notice. The leader's last day was on February 11th, meaning that the role hasn't even offically been open for two weeks until tomorrow.

 

[Hope4Future]

Based off of what you said above, the way it would come across to me in the hiring process is someone who would be good at getting the job done, but not someone good at leading a team of people that need guided and, for lack of a better word, babysat. You can't run your department like a dictator and expect positive results. If I were your ETL I wouldn't hire you because I wouldn't want to have to deal with the fallout and stress because of your behavior.

I've learned long ago that the team is more responsive to a leader they like, respect and can relate to than someone who is a hard ass or disciplinarian. I've had team members who were awful while working under other TL, but once they came and worked for me they were top performers.

This was absolutely the case at my old store. I remember from early 2018 until August of 2019, there was a really friendly ETL-SE who was easy to talk to and morale was high as a result. Unfortunately, he's been replaced twice, and morale has steadily gone down, especially after the most recent ETL-SE was promoted. He had exactly the kind of strict demeanor that you've said you would demonstrate if you became a TL and you will get barebones staff and turnover as people quit.

 

[Hal]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: a regular TM, regardless of what kind of power they may think they have, asking questions and trying to lead other TMs is not a good look. You will get push back, you will breed resentment. Unless a leader tells everyone else on the team that this person has the authority, people will be looking at them like "Who the hell are you? Handle your own business."

I'm not saying lead. I'm saying ask questions and go fix things. At no point did I say "go tell people what to do."

I was a TM and I got promoted. I asked questions. A lot of questions. Because I just wanted to understand people's jobs and I wanted to learn. And if something didn't make sense I asked my leader why we did it that way and can I suggest a change.

Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. But as long as you were being respectful and coming from the perspective of legitimately trying to help and understand people were more than happy to vent.

 

[SilentCrow]

The best question asked in this thread was “why should they promote you”.

The response sounded power hungry. The truth of the matter is leadership is walking a grey line. You have people who act like cops trying to reach a parking ticket quota that just write people up all day and berate their team. They tend to wonder why their metrics aren’t moving in a positive direction though. Quite frankly the team don’t like to work for those type of people. So they start do their required responsibilities and going the extra mile isn’t happening. Target you need team members who are engaged in doing more and really want to support you. So the above description I call a “boss”. This is the vibe I got from the response. Not a leader yet so in the OP mind it’s a utopia where everyone is going to respond to backup etc. Reality is you would have other peers and everyone’s workload varies week to week. So the proper way is to strategically plan out how you can support other areas. If a TL has 20 SPLs due that week and just have them and their DBO and you have no workload I don’t expect them to send their team member for backup at all.

The other category is what I call a “leader”. So a response to “why should they promote you” should be more in line with you hope to make an impact on metrics, sales, and guest experience by investing in your team. Additionally, working with your team to identify and start closing gaps in your process to ensure a more efficient work center should be a priority. Most importantly, being an example to others and helping lead team members to hopefully become leaders in the future should be a personal goal. A leaders response should be team focused. Without them and developing them in a positive way you will be nothing.

Now let’s take an example and see how a “boss” reacts to it and how a “leader” would react.

Scenario: Your unload team seem to be taking an excessive amount of time to complete the unload which leads to lingering freight that doesn’t get pushed hindering all store operations.

Boss reaction: Looks at the unload line and pulls any team member he or she feels is moving too slow and documents them.

Result: Frustrated team that hates you and feels attacked.

Leaders reaction: Access the line and wonders is it due to having too many team members on the line or perhaps the custom blocks needs to be rearranged to ensure a steady flow. Proceeds to talk to some of the team members on the line and ask how can he or she make this better for them. Team members mention that if you notice the custom blocks numbers aren’t going in sequence (ex 1,2,3,4,5) and is jumping a bit causing them to have to look up more and distinguish where to properly put the boxes. Additionally they mention the beginning of the line gets a lot of freight but they’re on the other side of the line and don’t want to all come down to help where they start tripping over each other.

Leader takes this information and works with their ETL to adjust custom blocks and create a more flowing unload line. Now that the leader solved the issue with the process. He or she observes and sees the line and productivity improves. However, there is still a team member or two not moving efficiently. The issues with the line has been solved so that gap has been removed. This now may be a productivity issue. Leader talks with the team member and let’s them know that they seem to be struggling on the line and he or she needs to team member to improve. Offers help to the team member if he or she shall need it and gives some tips. However, reiterates that the team member needs to improve and that this is a PDD hoping that once the leader follows up again the team member productivity improves.

Result: Identified and solved a gap in the process helping the team members with their workload. Properly coached after removing speed bumps with the process.


* Keep in mind the term boss and leader is just my way of separating philosophies. I don’t find the word boss inheritently bad. It’s just how I personally explain the difference in mindsets.

 

[SilentCrow]

Tenure, hard work, nor having an immense amount of knowledge isn’t important. It helps for sure, but leadership is all about mindset.

sorry for the long messages.

 

[BackupTL]

I just wanted to pop in and say meetings are probably the most annoying part of my job because it involves talking about all the things we need to do in a given week, when we could be spending that ~hour in the meeting just doing it.

You don't wanna be in meetings, lol

 

[Far from newbie]

I just wanted to pop in and say meetings are probably the most annoying part of my job because it involves talking about all the things we need to do in a given week, when we could be spending that ~hour in the meeting just doing it.

You don't wanna be in meetings, lol

How I feel exactly. Send an email - get it over with - go DO the work !

 

[truckdemon]

I just wanted to pop in and say meetings are probably the most annoying part of my job because it involves talking about all the things we need to do in a given week, when we could be spending that ~hour in the meeting just doing it.

You don't wanna be in meetings, lol

I hate the BUS status meetings with a burning passion. At my store we have a paper to fill out and they want it very detailed so I usually spend 30 minutes just doing that. Then we waste an hour of our day in the actual meeting, an hour that I could be using to get the 1937372 tasks I need to get done accomplished. And I talk to my ETL and SD constantly about plans, goals, workload priorities on a day to day basis so then we just sit down and say the same stuff we've been talking about already

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

A question about TL development.

A few weeks ago, I talked with my GM ETL about leadership positions. We chatted and she brough up additonal "developmental activities" around the store to help me as I stay in the pipeline and unofficially train to be a leader. This included being the Seasonal DBO, which is easy so far. Our...

www.thebreakroom.org

I believe I rolled it all together nicely there.

TLDR: Target isn't going to develop you as a leader, doing more work isn't leading. If you want to be a leader go lead.

 

[Hal]

Idk why we're still responding.

OP is already proven to be resistant to any advice and will ignore all of this while avoiding any accountability for their actions. They will then in one month will post again complaining that someone got promoted in front of them.

 

[Ashfromoldsite]

Idk why we're still responding.

OP is already proven to be resistant to any advice and will ignore all of this while avoiding any accountability for their actions. They will then in one month will post again complaining that someone got promoted in front of them.

Or they have the hots for someone new.

 

[Hope4Future]

I'm not saying that OP hasn't taken the advice being given to them but I can relate to their frustration with feeling like certain team members aren't pulling their weight. There was a GSTL at my old store that almost everyone disliked because she usually hid in her office and only came out to ask guests for surveys.

 

[allnew2]

Geez what’s happening here. So many complains yet no initiative to fix it by going thru proper channels . Like many posts here it’s all about problem solving and from what I’ve read on here is all about bitching and more bitching .I’ve had that issue in my store as well in regards to market and p1. The solution was to get together with both etls and sd and come up with a plan , market won’t back up but they will make bales after the receiver is gone . P1 will support with with back up and large item returns until they are off at 12:30. And style will back for 1 hour then p2 will back up for 1 hour and same with opu. Drive up will bag orders and sort returns in spare time.