Submitted by: Dickson J. Sipemba, District Director of Operations
They say that in business, if you’re not growing and changing, your dying. So, I like to approach change head on and with a positive attitude!
We recently realigned a few districts, and I am helping to lead a new district. As a District Director, I feel the most important part of my role is to ensure that my team is comprised of great talent and that we have “A” players at all levels. This is very important for any team to succeed! My philosophy is to expect A LOT from the team and the team to expect A LOT from me (A- Attitude, L- Leadership, O- Ownership, T- Tenacity).
My first goal was to focus my new team on three “Big Rocks”: People, Behaviors, and Customer Experience. To kick this off, I held a General Manager meeting for the team to come together as a team. We set our team goal as Growth, which has both an internal focus on our people and an external focus of growing our relationships with our customers.
We are concentrating on growing and developing our team members, retaining top talent, and developing quality skills so that each team member will ultimately impact customer experiences and our Company’s brand. To help them better understand these strategies and how to employ them, I provided each General Manager with the book, “Lessons from the Mouse” by Dennis Snow.
One of the most powerful lines from the book is, “We knew that our jobs and our attitudes about our jobs were vital to the guest experience.” I really wanted to drive this point home with my team. All of our customers should be served at highest level while receiving a world class experience at all the times. Our customers’ experience begins before they even walk through our door, so it’s important to maintain a well-kept store in addition to the service we offer once customers walk through our doors.
I’m excited to be working with a new team and after our first General Manager meeting, I know this team will be successful. I plan to check back in regularly with them to see how “Lessons from the Mouse” has impacted their career and how they have passed along some of these strategies to their store teams. After all, everyone has room to grow!