Thank You, Be Kind and Support Your Team

Hi there, I'm Ben Morton and welcome to another episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. It's the weekly micro edition of my podcast. Each episode is just six minutes long and is designed to provide you with tips, tools and tactics around specific aspects of leadership and management. It addresses some of the most common challenges you will face as a leader or manager. They are all recorded unscripted whilst I'm out walking in the countryside. So you'll probably hear birds tweeting in the background or just ambient noise as the people around me are going about their day to day life. That's all I'm going to say by way of an introduction, so let's dive straight in to this week's episode.

Today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag may look and sound a little different from the other 48 I've recorded for you in this past year. And that's not just because I'm wearing a silly Santa hat. In today's episode, I've got three slightly different messages around one theme for three slightly different groups of people. So my first message today is to those of you working in the retail and service industry and I'd like to say thank you. I appreciate this is one of the busiest times of the year for you and us shoppers. Us guests don't always show our best traits. Let's say sometimes we may be a little rude, perhaps because we've had a drink too many. Sometimes we might not be quite as patient or as kind as we could be because we're feeling a little stressed about all of the Christmas shopping. So thank you for all of your hard work, especially at this time of year. My second message is for those of us who are shopping or eating out or staying in hotels at this time of year. To all of us, I say let's remember to be kind. Let's remember to be patient and try and notice just how hard those working in retail and the service industry are working to serve us. And my final message in this episode is for the leaders and managers working in the retail and service industry. It's often said that the customer is always right, only the customer isn't always right. Sometimes the customer is absolutely wrong. Sometimes the customer is downright rude. Obnoxious even. So when this happens, when your team are on the receiving end of some impoliteness, please make sure you stand up for them in a polite and courteous way. Your team will remember that and appreciate that much more than they will any gift or card you might choose to give them at this time of year. And Maya Angelou put it perfectly when she said, people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but people will always remember how you made them feel. That's it for this episode. As always, I hope it's been useful. Until next time, look after yourself. Look after those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. And as always, lead on.