September FAQ - Getting ready for the peak season - how do I ensure I don't get overwhelmed?
One Friday, each month, I dedicate the post to looking at some questions I have heard recently from developing leaders. Sharing those questions and my thoughts for them is a way for me to spread the information to as many leaders and future leaders as possible. If you have a question about leadership, or just a situation you would like some additional insight on, please email me at Effective Retail Leader. Let’s take a look at this week’s question.
The retail peak season is coming quickly, how do i get ready for that and ensure I do not get overwhelmed?
To say that 2020 has been a crazy year is almost an understatement at this point. It has been unpredictable, unbelievable, and yes, unprecedented in many ways. What should we expect in the last quarter of this year? Most retailers make their entire year based on what happens in the fourth quarter. Black Friday, holidays, and the New Year are all prompts for people to make trips to stores and spend money. What will that look like this year?
Walmart, Target, and many others have already stated that their plans for Thanksgiving are very different this year: they will be closed. Home Depot recently announced that their Black Friday event will be spread across many weeks. I expect others will follow. The nature of that shopping day would lead me to believe that it will look very different for every retailer. Walmart, Target, and Best Buy cannot have hoards of people lining up and crashing into the store all at once on Friday morning.
How is one to prepare for the next thirteen weeks that will look and feel very different from the past? I think today’s question is an excellent one and applaud it being asked. No one wants to feel or be overwhelmed, especially in a year that has been largely overwhelming for any one in this business.
Plan, Project, Forecast
Begin now by laying out the possible scenarios. What are the risks you will face that are possibilities? Then begin to sort those into areas and pieces that you CAN control. With some planning for what you’d like to have happen and forecasting what could be, you can begin to prepare for what actions you can take. You may need to hire more people this year than year’s past, even if you believe your sales will be lower. The risk of associates getting sick and calling out will be higher. That may mean fewer hours for everyone, initially, but having flexibility will give you many more options when any situation arises. Be honest with those you are hiring and keep them informed once on staff.
Build ‘what if’ scenarios
As an extension of your planning, projecting, and forecasting, create a set of situations that might arise during your busiest periods. What if this happens? What if that happens? Then build your potential responses to those situations. It will be impossible to build in every factor. Still, the exercise itself will help prepare you and your other leaders for what could occur in the coming weeks and begin discussing what steps you can take to both mitigate the issue and the reactions that will be necessary in those situations.
Involve your team
Building the scenarios and forecasting the responses is a necessary step, but everyone else needs to know their role in those situations as well. Engage your leadership team and key associates in what you would need from them if any of the problems arise. If you suddenly get sick or have to support in different areas, you may not have the time later to walk everyone through the plan. Get ahead of that part now as well.
It will be impossible to accurately predict what will happen in the final thirteen weeks of what has been an insane year. But having an idea of what you would do in the most likely of situations will ensure that you are better prepared to take quick action and avoid the overwhelm so many of us have felt for large portions of this year so far.
Share your ideas with others - so many people are in a similar situation. The more everyone can share their thoughts and plans, the better everyone will be.
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