Field Notes for Retail Leaders

She called out because she has anxiety? Honestly, I was confused. This was new to me. Twenty years ago, the only acceptable reason to call out was if you physically couldn't move. I'd built my whole career on that standard. I put myself last and called it work ethic. (I'm not saying that's healthy, by the way.) So my first instinct was to push back. My second instinct — the one I'd trained myself to actually use — was to ask a different question. Not "is this real?" I asked, When did she tell...

You found out this morning. The regional manager — or the DM, or the VP, or someone from corporate — is coming in. The date is on the calendar. Suddenly, everything you've been meaning to get to feels very, very urgent. Here's the thing about corporate visits: retail is chaotic. You can't control everything. You can't guarantee a perfect day. But you can control whether you're prepared — and prepared leaders don't just survive visits, they own them. After 25 years leading retail teams, here's...

Will I see you this summer? Summer Break ☀️ '26 is coming! A free, 3-month book club for the people who build, lead, and support retail.Save your spot here. We begin June 1st. SAVE MY SPOT! We'd worked together for a couple of years by then. She knew me. I knew her. She was at my desk doing a file audit when I blew through the back to grab something. Five employees on the floor, average weekday, the kind of day where you're moving constantly and not thinking about much except what's in front...

Will I see you this summer? Summer Break ☀️ '26 is coming! A free, 3-month book club for the people who build, lead, and support retail.Save your spot here. SAVE MY SPOT! Hey Leader, Every week, DMs flutter into my LinkedIn inbox. Many are from people I don't know. I've never met them, but my writing resonated, and they're looking for a small piece of advice. Here are two of the most common questions I get. Here are my answers. As always, no bullshit. Q: I'm burned out, sad, and frustrated....

Will I see you this summer? Summer Break ☀️ '26 is coming! A free, 3-month book club for the people who build, lead, and support retail.Save your spot here. SAVE MY SPOT! Hey Leader, You know how store visits go. You get feedback from a corporate visit and your first reaction is: Really? That's what you came up with? This is your big complaint? I've sooooo been there. A regional manager came through my store once. Their big call out? How shipment was stacked in the receiving hallway. That was...

Hi Retail Leaders I'm concerned about you. I don't think you're allocated enough payroll to do your job. Because of that, many other things suffer: customer service, store standards, training, and career advancement. I put a post on LinkedIn the other day asking store leaders how many hours they were given every week, and I was shocked. Most people are working with fewer than 200 hours a week. One person even said they were given 77 hours a week. I still have not recovered from that number....

I got a hilarious DM this week. Someone told me their former boss asked them if they knew of me. When they confirmed, their boss said, I think she’s a whiny little baby. She never got promoted. Sounds like a personal problem. Better to just keep your mouth shut. Promotion is easy when you’re good." Well then. LMAO. Here's the thing: there is a leadership crisis in retail. Turnover is 80% and executives treat it like a cost they don't have any control over. That's absolutely false. They can...

If there's one thing you can count on when leading a retail team, it's uncertainty. You're making decisions without a full data set. You're adjusting to new priorities and new demands. You're helping a customer solve a problem you've never thought of before. You do your best. But are you making the right decisions? You wanna know what? The leaders who hold it together aren’t the ones with all the answers. They’re the ones who show up, stay transparent, and refuse to let panic fill the...

Hey Leaders, How many conversations have you had like this with your boss? ⬇️ Oh, you want to move up from your store manager position to a DM?That's great!But ...You have to be an area manager first. How do you do that?Well, um, you need to be asked.No, you can't apply.We ask you. I know, you want to move up. And we've hired a lot externally. And you can be a DM someday. Yes, absolutely. But yeah, you need to be an area manager. But you need to wait some more until we ask you. Got it?Yay!...