# New GM TL in need of advice



## swordfishtrombon (May 30, 2021)

Title basically. I’m a new GM2 TL over seasonal, pets, luggage, entertainment and toys. I’m also the fill in for our inbound TL on his off days. I wasn’t trained at all, which is nothing new for my target career. I started out as a cashier, then moved to style where I was a dbo and then fulfillment full time when the pandemic hit. I’ve also been part of the unofficial POG team when we do big sets - I’ve done seasonal, beauty, and tech sets plus all my own sets when I was the IHS dbo.

My current issue is that I haven’t really been trained at all. My GM TL peers are great about answering my questions and helping me for the most part but I often feel guilty about asking them for help because I feel like I’m taking them away from their responsibilities.

One of my biggest struggles is with my routine. I feel like I’m floundering most of the time. Right now if I’m a mid shift I generally call for the GM1 lead and ask if there’s anything he needs help with. If nothing is on fire, I check my email, then partner with him to see how the unload went, what the plans are for the day, what everyone in flex is doing, etc. Then I normally walk the floor and backroom, come up with a tentative plan for the day, then get with all of my team members (all two of them lmao) and ask how they’re doing and give them the rundown. Then I usually do my floor audits (TLs are the only ones trusted to do the audits at my store for some reason) then get with my ETL. Sometimes my ETL will identify areas that need help (usually merchandising changes that need to be made in seasonal). If she doesn’t have any notes, I’ll spend my day helping out in whatever area I think needs it. Usually that’s remerchandising empty aisles/endcaps or fixing my backroom. I inherited red BRLA for pets, toys, and seasonal and a pretty rough looking toys department. Plus seasonal needs a lot of help right now since we’re at the end of the set and I’m starting to plan BTS. Sometimes I spend part of my day helping flex if it gets crazy or setting entertainment/random other revisions/salesplans in my area if my TMs don’t have time. At the end of the week I normally go through and separate out all my label strips for the next weeks revisions and lay them out on my desk with the paper planograms so they’re easy to for my team members to grab and set.

Every time I ask me ETL for feedback she says I’m doing great and she doesn’t have any feedback. But to be honest I don’t feel like much of a leader, I feel like an overpaid TM. I don’t feel like my team respects me very much because I came from style and a lot of them think they deserved the promotion over me. None of them have said that to my face but I can tell by the way our interactions have changed and from speaking to my ETL and the other TLs. Nobody ever really asks me for advice or help. I’ve also only really had two performance conversations and my ETL keeps asking me to have more and stronger PCs. But I feel weird having them because I was never performanced (aside from quick attendance convos) as a TM and I’ve sat in on a grand total of one performance conversation so I’m just not really even sure what I should be saying or how harsh I should be.


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## Jenim12 (May 30, 2021)

Okay, I'm not the king of GMTLs or anything, but I do have some feedback for you based on your post. You said that you check in with your TMs and then go take off to audit, work on backrooms, remerch, helping fulfillment, etc but nowhere do you say that you actually spend time working side-by-side with your TMs.... unless of course, you have a bunch of brilliant Rockstar TMs. Do you?? And the fact that your ETL wants you doing more and more productive PDDs. It sounds like you're uncomfortable (because you're new at being a leader. This is one of the hardest parts of the job) giving performance feedback to the team and you are putting yourself in situations where you don't have to do it.

So you spend time fixing red backrooms. Why were those backrooms red? You spent time fixing them, and so what? They became red because your TMs either don't know what they're doing back there or don't care what they're doing. Did you bring them back there to train them? Did you work with them and show them what's bad? Did you show them what's good? Did you give them some guidance? Did you key those in Workday so there is a record of it?

Same thing with seasonal. Why are you spending so much time by remerching empty aisles? Did your DBO not notice that you had blown aisles? If so, why didn't they fix it? Did it not bother them? Did they think "eh I'll leave it for the new TL to fix"? Do they not know how to remerch? Did you have them come work on it with you so you can teach them what to do? Are they too behind on freight to touch that project? Why are they behind on freight? Did you work with them on freight to see where they are struggling? Did you tell them how to be more effective and put it in workday?

It's a lot of questions, but do you see where I'm going with this? You're not a TM anymore and your job is to LEAD you team. Of course, you're going to need to jump in and help. You're getting 40 hours a week and will need to throw some freight or help with pulls or whatever when you get slammed. But your primary function is to DEVELOP your team so they can do a better job and get more done without you having to do it all by yourself. You need to start asking "why?" And get to the root of the problems you're having, and work directly with your team to help them become better business owners. This is also probably why nobody is asking you for help or advice. Of course YOU know what to do and can provide support, but can your team? Whether they ask you for help or feedback or not, your job is to go and give it so they are more productive.  I would guess this is why you feel like an overpaid TM, because you're doing a lot of TM stuff, but not doing a lot of the TL things you should be doing, especially with performance management.

I know this sounds harsh, and I definitely could be wrong here because I only know you through this post, but just my (internet rando) $0.02

If you want some help with performance conversations, as well as what specifically I'm talking about when I'm working with my team, let me know! More than happy to offer specific suggestions. We're all on the same team here, I want you to feel like you're succeeding


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## Bufferine (May 31, 2021)

Target wants their TM’s to work independently. A TM should not need a daily meeting to know what’s going on and it seems like a lot of time wasted. You should be super happy that TM’s aren’t needing you and giving you free time to do other work. I don’t know why you think other TM’s wanted the position and are jealous. Did they apply for it? Probably not. You seem not to respect them so you may not get respect back.


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## swordfishtrombon (May 31, 2021)

Bufferine said:


> Target wants their TM’s to work independently. A TM should not need a daily meeting to know what’s going on and it seems like a lot of time wasted. You should be super happy that TM’s aren’t needing you and giving you free time to do other work. I don’t know why you think other TM’s wanted the position and are jealous. Did they apply for it? Probably not. You seem not to respect them so you may not get respect back.



Idk it’s what all the leadership in my store is expected to do. Strange that TMs at your store get no interaction from leadership. That’s the one thing I feel confident I’m definitely supposed to be doing because if I don’t know what my TMs are doing pretty much at all times _I _get chewed out by my ETL. Also not sure how you got that I disrespect TMs? I definitely don’t, I’m probably the nicest/least confrontational leader in the store. Which is part of my problem I think. But the TMs who I think don’t respect me I 100% know _did_ apply for the position I got since other leadership has told me they did and have also told me that those TMs have asked other leaders why I got the position/basically don’t think I deserve it.


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## Planosss enraged (May 31, 2021)

Bufferine said:


> Target wants their TM’s to work independently. A *TM should not need a daily meeting to know what’s going on and it seems like a lot of time wasted*. You should be super happy that TM’s aren’t needing you and giving you free time to do other work. I don’t know why you think other TM’s wanted the position and are jealous. Did they apply for it? Probably not. You seem not to respect them so you may not get respect back.


Last year I wrote over 2000 assignment sheets for my Market DBOs. So lol to Target wanting TMs to work independently.
The OP is doing a decent job of struggling.


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## swordfishtrombon (May 31, 2021)

Jenim12 said:


> So you spend time fixing red backrooms. Why were those backrooms red? You spent time fixing them, and so what? They became red because your TMs either don't know what they're doing back there or don't care what they're doing. Did you bring them back there to train them? Did you work with them and show them what's bad? Did you show them what's good? Did you give them some guidance? Did you key those in Workday so there is a record of it?


Yes, we’ve had smart huddles where we fix the backroom, I’ve gone over ghosts/baffles, backroom zone, idiot proofing backroom, how to avoid creating errors. Still getting a lot of errors.




Jenim12 said:


> Same thing with seasonal. Why are you spending so much time by remerching empty aisles? Did your DBO not notice that you had blown aisles? If so, why didn't they fix it? Did it not bother them? Did they think "eh I'll leave it for the new TL to fix"? Do they not know how to remerch? Did you have them come work on it with you so you can teach them what to do? Are they too behind on freight to touch that project? Why are they behind on freight? Did you work with them on freight to see where they are struggling? Did you tell them how to be more effective and put it in workday?


I don’t have a seasonal DBO rn, it’s just random fill ins. Getting an actual DBO over there is my top priority going into BTS and should happen in the next week.




Jenim12 said:


> You said that you check in with your TMs and then go take off to audit, work on backrooms, remerch, helping fulfillment, etc but nowhere do you say that you actually spend time working side-by-side with your TMs.... unless of course, you have a bunch of brilliant Rockstar TMs. Do you??


 
My toys DBO is pretty great despite only having been there for a few months. Like I said, I don’t have a seasonal DBO currently. I do spend time in the workload but I got told I was helping push/set too much by my ETL so now if I have to help them I’ll help with pulls or visuals, which is probably why I spent so much time merchandising. Part of the other issue is I feel bad overwhelming them with tasks since my store gets 7 trucks a week between 1300-1800 pieces usually. I have one TM for toys/sporting goods and one for seasonal/pets/entertainment/luggage. They get 6-7 hour shifts usually and are expected to push between 7-9 uboats a piece on top of POG, visuals and pulls. So I end up taking on a lot of the workload myself because there’s no one else to do it.




Jenim12 said:


> But your primary function is to DEVELOP your team so they can do a better job and get more done without you having to do it all by yourself. You need to start asking "why?" And get to the root of the problems you're having, and work directly with your team to help them become better business owners.



yes I’d definitely agree this is where I’m currently struggling the most. More definitely gets accomplished on days when I delegate better but I don’t know how to develop them to want to take ownership of their department? Idk when I was DBO I just kind of… took over it because I liked it and was good at merchandising. Nobody ever asked me whether I wanted it. And any time I didn’t know the answer to a question I’d ask, and nobody ever asks me any questions, I just come back later and find something done wrong. So it’s hard for me to follow up because I don’t always know exactly who is making mistakes or why or where they’re making them.


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## Jenim12 (May 31, 2021)

Hmm, yeah, I mean that's definitely not a lot of team to go around, so my priority would be making sure the 2 DBOs I have are the best 2 damn DBOs in the store. Regardless, your trucks are pretty small, so I'm wondering if you're a lower volume store? This could also mean smaller pulls as well? Hopefully that is pretty manageable even with only 2 DBOs.

So anyway, IMHO, I would go work with each DBO through their full routine. Go zone with them, go pull their OFOs with them, go work off their uboats with them, then it will help them finish earlier so you can go merchandise with them, or set with them, or backroom profile with them etc etc. This gives you a chance to get to know them a little bit better and bridge that communication gab, and also gives you the chance to course correct any errors or inefficiencies on the spot. If you're going to have to insert yourself in the workload (which is fine), at least use that time to develop your team.

You can take a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. You cannot make someone care about something, but at the very least, you can give them the tools to succeed if they want to. If they choose not to at that point, then you may need to reassess your staffing needs, but the important part is that you can actually see what they're doing and give the right feedback. The key piece after that is to have a meaningful chance to set your expectations, and follow up on that, whether that's some praise, a seek-to-understand convo, or a PDD.


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## swordfishtrombon (May 31, 2021)

Jenim12 said:


> Regardless, your trucks are pretty small, so I'm wondering if you're a lower volume store?


Lmao no, we’re not crazy high volume but we did $50m in sales last year and we are a tier 1 BTC/BTS school which is why getting a solid DBO in seasonal is something that needs to happen NOW.




Jenim12 said:


> So anyway, IMHO, I would go work with each DBO through their full routine. Go zone with them, go pull their OFOs with them, go work off their uboats with them,



Oof this might be a hard sell with my ETL, it’s very not the norm for my stores leadership. But if it gets results I think she’ll be cool with it. My stores leadership is very reactive and I think this is a really proactive approach and nows the best time to do it before I get into the thick of the BTS craziness. It’ll definitely help identify training gaps, some of which I’ve already found with my toys DBO. She’s great she just was trained in December and has retained a lot of bad habits because… well she wasn’t really trained.


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## Planosss enraged (Jun 1, 2021)

Here’s a guide to BTS!


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