I was chatting enthusiastically about Mr. Selfridge to one of my colleagues the other day – shocking I know, we should, I’m sure, have been getting on with something. (For those of you not in the UK and therefore missing out on the latest period drama to hit our screens, Mr Selfridge charts the rise of Selfridges, the prestigious department store in London’s Oxford Street.)
The interesting thing was that we both said how much we’d have liked to work for Mr. Selfridge or at least the version of him we’re seeing on our TV screens.
But what makes Mr Selfridge as depicted by the charismatic Jeremy Piven the sort of person you, or at least Tanya and I, want to follow?
The easy answer is he’s an inspiring leader. But what does that mean?
Well, he’s very good at creating a vision. From the very first episode, everyone who worked for him felt that they were on an adventure, that Selfridges was going to be something bigger, better and more exciting than anything before. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
And importantly, he’s able to bring his vision to life, which he does himself on the shop floor, and not by sending a memo round.
His enthusiasm too is electric - he’s a whirlwind. He could also be called a showman, a retail genius, a risk taker and a visionary.
But what Mr Selfridge is particularly good at, is genius at, is something we’ve been talking a lot about recently… employee engagement.
In our recent new modules for Trainers’ Library, we used the following definition of employee engagement:
“When an organisation values their employees and the work that they do and the employees value their organisation and the work that they do.”
And this pretty much, for me, epitomises what’s been going on, to date, at Selfridges. Although he’s clearly the driving force behind his business, interestingly, and heart-warmingly, Mr. Selfridge never seems to take credit to himself – he always recognises any achievements as the result of a team endeavour. And his team responds – almost matching his own innovation and daring.
Perhaps there’s one element of employee engagement we haven’t focused on enough yet – integrity of the leader. And perhaps that can be broken down into two other words – honesty and trust.
Mr Selfridge gave a great team talk last week, after it had come to light that a small number of employees were stealing from the store. And I loved the way he linked behaviours back to his vision for the store, his values and to his belief in his team:
“I wanted to talk to you about something that’s really important to me – honesty. Every customer of Selfridges can trust they’re getting exactly what they’re paying for. I’m proud of that, I hope you are too. Steal from this store, you steal from yourselves... Honest endeavour together – this is the spirit of Selfridges.”
In the same talk he also added, “Without trust, you can’t run anything.”
So, even in difficult circumstances, Mr. Selfridge reminds us that we’re in this together, that we’re a key part of the business and that the spirit of the business is the team working together and trusting one another.
Yep, I’d work for him.
I love January. Well, not all of it. I hate the darkness and the way the weather can trick you into thinking it’s a nice day until you step outside and a biting East wind slaps you in the face. Come to think of it, I hate the post-Christmas credit card too….
Let me start again, January is a fantastic time to be at work. And I love the fresh start, the new strategy, the new ideas, the planning, the buzz and the excitement that a new year at Glasstap generates.
A big part of this is our strategy day, which involves all of the UK team getting together away from the office, where we give ourselves the mental and physical space to focus creatively on the year ahead. (Although emails are still monitored to ensure urgent enquiries are dealt with.)
We begin the day by having a final review of the previous year. Although we review progress against our strategy at quarterly team meetings, this final review is important. It allows us to think about our successes and those areas where we could have done better so that we can learn from these and use those learning points to move forward in the current year.
The day also involves some team exercises to get us in the mood as well as a lot of brainstorming and idea generation.
But the day is also about the ‘nitty gritty’. For those of you that don’t know, Glasstap has been built around five key values, or as we call them, ‘Passions’. Three of these, to be Innovative, Customer Focused and Socially Responsible are featured on our website and stationery. The other, more internal Passions, are to be Financially Strong and Team Spirited.
These Passions have been a fundamental part of our business since 2002. (Before that we had nine values and we could never remember what they all were!)
During the course of our Strategy Day, we commit in our teams and individually to what we’re going to deliver under each of the Passions. This involves us thinking about what we’re going to do better, more or differently. We identify where we’ll need help from other teams to help us achieve our goals and then we commit our actions to paper (or virtual paper).
The records from the day take two forms:
Our Strategy:
This is on our intranet, with a list of objectives under each of our five Passions. It’s updated regularly as we progress through the year so that all of the team can see at any time which objectives we’re hitting and where we need to improve.
Personal Objectives:
Team members record their personal objectives on a record that forms part of their appraisal process. Observant readers will have noticed that by doing this, we’re effectively killing two birds with one stone (with apologies to any vegetarians). We don’t need lots of time consuming separate meetings to agree individual objectives – everyone already knows what their contribution is going to be and how their performance will be measured. We do still have individual review meetings, but the outcomes from the strategy day make these very straight forward and largely focused on providing the help, support and training that individuals will need to achieve their objectives.
I’m really excited about the outcomes from this year’s Strategy Day, which took place in Alston House Hotel last week. In fact, this year’s strategy day has left me even more fired up and excited than usual and I can’t wait until you see the results yourselves as they filter out in the form of new services, new materials and new initiatives. I hope you like them and I hope you’ll let us know what you think - the feedback we receive (for example in our customer satisfaction surveys) does have a real influence on the objectives we agree on our strategy days and the priority we give them.
Why do we put so much emphasis on one day of the year? I truly believe that this one-day is a vital ingredient in the success of Glasstap and here’s why I think so:
- Every member of the team is involved in agreeing our team objectives.
- Team members know what they need to deliver for the team to achieve its objectives.
- Every team member makes a personal, public commitment to doing his or her bit.
- Everyone can see immediately how their individual goals fit with the team and organisational goals.
- Our Passions ensure we have a balanced approach to running our business. They’re essentially an adapted version of the Balanced Business Scorecard, which mean we’re not focusing on short-term financial gain but on developing a truly unique and superb suite of services in the long-term.
Perhaps the most important thing though is that because our team is so involved in the development of our strategy, they feel ownership of it and a commitment towards it. And that, largely is what we strive for when we talk about employee engagement. (You’ll find some fantastic new material in Trainers’ Library on this very topic.)
