Master the art of asking powerful , thoughtprovoking questions and actively listening to your employees
employees ’ thinking to work through issues and find solutions themselves . As a manager , you are still responsible for the outcome , but by growing your team ’ s confidence to become independent problem-solvers rather than just ‘ telling ’ them what to do , you are creating a shared ownership of that outcome . This provides the opportunity of continual personal and professional development that benefits the employee , in turn making them more efficient and driven in their role .
The STAR ® model
There is a simple but effective method all managers in the retail industry can follow to achieve this – the STAR ® model :
STOP – when an employee comes to you with a problem , as their manager you must learn to stop and take a step back to recognize your habitual responses , in order to change your state when responding to different situations . This places the control over the situation back in your hands .
THINK – once you have been able to STOP , this gives managers the ability to THINK about whether the situation an employee has presented to them is a coachable moment .
ASK – being able to master the art of asking powerful , thought-provoking questions and actively listening to your employees allows you to ditch the ‘ fix and solve ’ response , and instead presents the other person with a learning opportunity to become independent , solution-driven problem solvers .
RESULT – as a manager , it is your responsibility to achieve a positive result from such an interaction . For continuous performance development , you must approach the conversation openly and empathetically , allowing the employee to imagine themselves taking the action in order to agree a next step that you can then follow up on .
A recent large-scale academic study evaluated by the London School of Economics found that giving managers access to STAR ® Manager to create an Operational Coaching™ style of management saw direct commercial benefits , delivered an ROI of 74 times the investment , improved productivity and retention and increased management capability by over 30 per cent in just six months . Retail managers in particular report benefits ranging from
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