- Joined
- Sep 30, 2012
- Messages
- 17
Ok, long story but if anyone has some advice it would be great. Basically I have been trying to become a team lead and i want to know if i have a real beef or if i should look elsewhere.
So i started working at Target almost three years ago April (2011). Hired as a backroom team member, I learned the ropes quickly, and through that first holiday season, i proved to be the best backroom team member we had. I was quicker, more accurate, and could get things done nobody else could. With my first first quarter, I had asked about what all it would take to be a team lead and that i was interested. My backroom TL took me under his wing. We went over TL expectations, were I sat, and what I could do to improve. Basically i needed to challenge more, be more assertive, and create some bigger examples of leadership that i could take to interviews with me.
I took on a changing bike assembly process, and while we were already one of the best in the group with bike sales, my added ideas to the new process (have to backstock all unbuilt bikes) helped ensure that the right bikes were being set aside for bike assemblers and the flow of backroom locations caused unbuilt bikes to be pulled first, then built bikes. It went very smooth and continues to be the way we deal with our summers of 7 pallets of bikes. I also took on backroom accuracy, basically posting tips on our backroom board to communicate to the team, as well as sharing sloppy backroom aisles to ease our accuracy issues (between 97.5 and 98). Halfway through the year, my backroom TL quits and my ETL transfers in the same time frame. With a new TL and no ETL, i was put on the back burner, and after sitting for so long, I took a job as a merchandising brand tm that November (2012).
Easy to say that wasn't the smoothest of transitions. It took a couple of months to fully understand everything about the job. Visual adjacencies, POG's, d-code work were all a bit of a challenge. January comes around and the only other brand tm quits, leaving me the only one to do the work (granted we did also have a helper who was picking things up along the way). Also that month an EIT that was with us for a bit became the ETL of softlines while my former ETL became just GE (later on she became HR at another store making him ETL of both areas). Regardless of all of this, I started to get a solid hang of everything, and after making three hires for brand, i quickly became the leader of the team. Any question that they had or any concerns, they came to me instead of the TL or ETL. To be very honest the TL doesn't help much if at all and the ETL to this day has no clue what he is doing. I finally had a mastering of the job after some months, and i started talking about TL development again.
They gave me ownership over the infant department right before the start of the month long baby sale we had. Infants was our 2nd worst softlines department behind shoes, with the YTD comps behind district and company numbers. With my attention to signing, superzoning of problem areas, and removing an entire row of racks to make it possible to cart through the department, we were blowing away district and company numbers that month and even managed to get ahead YTD. It became our strongest department, and i was given major props for it.
But even after all of this, I was getting nowhere. The TL and ETL were going opposite ways on many things, and i was either getting scolded for challenging too much (irony) or for going behind either of them. I couldn't win, I wanted to do what was best but even when one agreed the other didn't. I truly felt like i did a great job while i was a brand tm. I was the team's mentor, who they came to with concerns, especially with our TL and ETL. I was never mean, always willing to help and teach. Always patient, but always fostered a lets-get-it-done attitude, and yet i was always getting scolded for going behind my TL, challenging either of them, or trying to help my fellow TM's with issues that they were apparently suppose to go to my TL or ETL with, but obviously weren't comfortable. I had it, and in November (2013), I sat down and chatted with my ETL HR, and we agreed that transferring back to backroom where I enjoyed things and where I could perhaps get a better development plan going was the better thing.
So in the backroom, everyone already sees me as a mentor, a great knowledge of everything target, and was welcomed back. The newish (<1 year) ETL said we would get started right away with things. Sat down once to look at expectations and that was it. Granted, i understand it was the 4th quarter, but to be able to make a plan or give me a better understanding of where i sat would have been nice. She finally said a week ago that I will be sitting down with the TL in one week (from today) to set some goals, and a few weeks after that I would sit down with my ETL and look at my progress with the goals and set a timeline for interviews.
Am i wasting my time? I know im not perfect, but i know i would make a better leader than anyone they have put on the bench or is currently a team lead. Im the best at what I do, i am already a mentor to every other tm, and yet im still sitting here waiting. I feel like I should look elsewhere but at the same time I've been at this for so long. Any questions or advice from some experts would be great and thank you in advance.
So i started working at Target almost three years ago April (2011). Hired as a backroom team member, I learned the ropes quickly, and through that first holiday season, i proved to be the best backroom team member we had. I was quicker, more accurate, and could get things done nobody else could. With my first first quarter, I had asked about what all it would take to be a team lead and that i was interested. My backroom TL took me under his wing. We went over TL expectations, were I sat, and what I could do to improve. Basically i needed to challenge more, be more assertive, and create some bigger examples of leadership that i could take to interviews with me.
I took on a changing bike assembly process, and while we were already one of the best in the group with bike sales, my added ideas to the new process (have to backstock all unbuilt bikes) helped ensure that the right bikes were being set aside for bike assemblers and the flow of backroom locations caused unbuilt bikes to be pulled first, then built bikes. It went very smooth and continues to be the way we deal with our summers of 7 pallets of bikes. I also took on backroom accuracy, basically posting tips on our backroom board to communicate to the team, as well as sharing sloppy backroom aisles to ease our accuracy issues (between 97.5 and 98). Halfway through the year, my backroom TL quits and my ETL transfers in the same time frame. With a new TL and no ETL, i was put on the back burner, and after sitting for so long, I took a job as a merchandising brand tm that November (2012).
Easy to say that wasn't the smoothest of transitions. It took a couple of months to fully understand everything about the job. Visual adjacencies, POG's, d-code work were all a bit of a challenge. January comes around and the only other brand tm quits, leaving me the only one to do the work (granted we did also have a helper who was picking things up along the way). Also that month an EIT that was with us for a bit became the ETL of softlines while my former ETL became just GE (later on she became HR at another store making him ETL of both areas). Regardless of all of this, I started to get a solid hang of everything, and after making three hires for brand, i quickly became the leader of the team. Any question that they had or any concerns, they came to me instead of the TL or ETL. To be very honest the TL doesn't help much if at all and the ETL to this day has no clue what he is doing. I finally had a mastering of the job after some months, and i started talking about TL development again.
They gave me ownership over the infant department right before the start of the month long baby sale we had. Infants was our 2nd worst softlines department behind shoes, with the YTD comps behind district and company numbers. With my attention to signing, superzoning of problem areas, and removing an entire row of racks to make it possible to cart through the department, we were blowing away district and company numbers that month and even managed to get ahead YTD. It became our strongest department, and i was given major props for it.
But even after all of this, I was getting nowhere. The TL and ETL were going opposite ways on many things, and i was either getting scolded for challenging too much (irony) or for going behind either of them. I couldn't win, I wanted to do what was best but even when one agreed the other didn't. I truly felt like i did a great job while i was a brand tm. I was the team's mentor, who they came to with concerns, especially with our TL and ETL. I was never mean, always willing to help and teach. Always patient, but always fostered a lets-get-it-done attitude, and yet i was always getting scolded for going behind my TL, challenging either of them, or trying to help my fellow TM's with issues that they were apparently suppose to go to my TL or ETL with, but obviously weren't comfortable. I had it, and in November (2013), I sat down and chatted with my ETL HR, and we agreed that transferring back to backroom where I enjoyed things and where I could perhaps get a better development plan going was the better thing.
So in the backroom, everyone already sees me as a mentor, a great knowledge of everything target, and was welcomed back. The newish (<1 year) ETL said we would get started right away with things. Sat down once to look at expectations and that was it. Granted, i understand it was the 4th quarter, but to be able to make a plan or give me a better understanding of where i sat would have been nice. She finally said a week ago that I will be sitting down with the TL in one week (from today) to set some goals, and a few weeks after that I would sit down with my ETL and look at my progress with the goals and set a timeline for interviews.
Am i wasting my time? I know im not perfect, but i know i would make a better leader than anyone they have put on the bench or is currently a team lead. Im the best at what I do, i am already a mentor to every other tm, and yet im still sitting here waiting. I feel like I should look elsewhere but at the same time I've been at this for so long. Any questions or advice from some experts would be great and thank you in advance.
