SPN

Illusion On The Nile
Alex The Betrayer

Jay the Carney, Haven’t seen or heard from you since Honduras

Well, Cavendish, been busy

You’ve been busy? I’m doin all the work. Job at National Food, infiltrated Nile Warehouse, snuck into Bezes’ castle, even picked up a sidekick, and a senorita along the way. What the hell you been doin?

Here, read these

Cant’ wait to do the sneaky freaky deaky with you, girl
I can tell by the smell, this is love
Ride on my rocket, the one in my pocket

What is this harlequin crap?

Those, my friend, are Nile’s illustrious leader’s love confessions flowing all over his secret mistress

But Bezes’ been married for 25 years

Not after The National Inquisitor breaks the story this weekend

And how did you

Let’s just say there was an Echo in the room

You hacked his personal assistant?

That’s the beauty of it. Alex did it all on her own

I knew that electronic tramp couldn’t be trusted

Yep, turns out jealousy isn’t just a human frailty. And get this, Bezes asked Alex to hire a PI to find the leak

Amazing

There’s more. Alex planned to terminate the other woman, but she disappeared. That’s why she went to the paper

What’s this mistress’ name?

I think it’s Juanita, Chiquita, something like that

Uh Oh

Mark Branson
MBA MSL
#leadership #Retail

Says Who?

The Illusion doesn’t care when you are early

But the one time you are late?

Oh, The Illusion cares

The Illusion doesn’t care when your store looks perfect

But let an executive walk in when you are unprepared

You bet The Illusion cares

The Illusion doesn’t care your store’s sales have been off the chain

Bit have a bad month

The Illusion cares big time

In short

The Illusion doesn’t care about your truths

The Illusion only cares about the perceptions of truth of those around you

Your boss
Her boss
Corporate
Peers
Associates
Customers
Every single person in your life

Wrap yourself in the cloth of truth

Whose truth?

Yours?

I am hard working, dedicated, loyal
Says who?

You?

The sooner you you recognize the power of other’s perceptions, the sooner you can craft your own truths in their minds

Guess what?

They can’t stop you

Why?

Their truths are dictated by #Emotionalintelligence at the most elemental level of their subconscious minds

An area they can’t reach

But consciously, you can

You unknowingly craft The Illusion every single day

Now

Craft The Illusion on your terms

That, my friends, is

The Illusion of Competence

Mark Branson
MBA MSL

Never Satisfied

Retail is Transactional #Leaderership, a model that rewards and punishes performance

The Illusion of Competence exists because we do not determine good and poor performance

Instead, executives and their perception set the bar for good performance, and once attained, the bar gets moved to a higher plateau

In other words executives are

Never Satisfied

However

The same holds true for associates

Associates want more pay, more benefits, not for the promise of more productivity, but just because they are

Never Satisfied

Where does this leave us?

Bosses never satisfied with performance and associates never satisfied with rewards

The river of Discontent flows between these two extremes

I researched transactional leaders and a surprising name surfaced

Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks

#ServantLeadership, is rooted in Transactional Leadership

And guess what?

Executives spending more on benefits than coffee are

Never Satisfied

Associates with benefits the envy of associates everywhere are

Never Satisfied

Transactional Leadership had its shot, and clanked off the rim

Its time for a new direction

The Write Up Rule

Embrace all their flaws

No Stretch Goals

The Illusion of Competence

Do Something

Mark Branson
MBA MSL
#retail

On You

If you do something wrong for 10 years, doing it for 10 years does not change fact it is wrong

Statements prevalent in hashtag#Leadership circles

What can I do for you?
How can I help you?
Can you say “Cop-out”?

Think your Millennial workforce cares about the shoes, clothes, glasses, electronics they sell enough to tell you how to do it better?

You are so wrong

It’s not your associates’ jobs to tell you what you can do for them, and if you need to ask, maybe this leadership thing isn’t for you

Know what your team wants?

They want you to do your job and lead

Make decisions so they don’t have to

Let me spell this out for you

Make their job easier
Make them better at their jobs
Personal sacrifice
Lead by Idea, not by example

Associates follow ideas, plain and simple

The Illusion of Competence gives you the tools

The Three Tenets
Micro-Efficiency
Theory of Deep Understanding
Food Poisoning Theory
The Illusion
Write Up Rule
Plus One Service Model

Your DM and corporate point out your successes and failures, nothing more

Your team’s success starts with you

Do Something
Manage Everything

Mark Branson
MBA MSL

No Is Easy

Thousands of stores closed around you this year. If on future list, your company will not help you. They plan on you failing.

Doing what they said got you into this mess in the first place. Continuing to do so is the definition of insanity.

Stop quoting policy & giving your customers Food Poisoning. Start helping the human in front of you & give them a reason to return.

You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your associates

Start appealing to your customers at the most elemental level of Emotional Intelligence

The pissed off customer is exactly the same as the person quietly walking away. Neither is coming back, yet the company bends over backward for one while taxing the other

Stop It

Focus on emotion, not emotional reaction

Don’t let it get to this point for either customer

Stop waiting for someone to get pissed before you help them

Do what’s right, not what’s written

No one ever built their business by quoting policy

Your business is built on who returns tomorrow, not on what you sell today

The POS system is not your boss

Sales are down this year because business was not built last year

Only you can save your store

What is your new return policy?
You can come back as often as you like d;o)

Mark Branson
MBA, MSL

Same Old Song And Dance

Gap closing hundreds of stores

IKEA cutting 7500 jobs

Someone on LinkedIn saying her Zale’s store closing at Christmas

And this is just the beginning. More store managers will be reaching out in coming weeks, looking for work for their teams as they are handed their pink slips

Know what these managers did wrong?

Trusted leadership to do what’s best for them.

They did exactly what their bosses told them to do. They followed corporate policy. They maintained the status quo.

GAP is not hard to figure out. Media and investors blame swinging and missing at recent fashion trends, but it’s much simpler than that.

Know what I see every time I walk in a GAP store?

Five associates working on projects and a cashier ringing up customers.

I remember the last time I was greeted at GAP. Oh, that’s right, I’ve never been greeted at GAP.

And when you ask for help, associates seem stressed when pulled off their all-consuming projects.

GAP CEO Art Peck actually stated last year that other clothing brands closing was good for GAP.

How did that myopic vision work out?

Your boss isn’t saving you

Executives aren’t saving you

Corporate isn’t saving you

The Illusion of Competence

Only you…Can save you

Mark Branson
MBA, MSL