A Tale of Two Managers

One Is Planning. One Is Waiting.

Marcus knows Black Friday is coming. He’s ordered extra bags, confirmed his schedule, and made a mental note to get everyone in early. That’s his plan. Beyond that, he figures the day takes care of itself, because it always has.

Dana is doing something different. She’s picked the two numbers she wants to move, conversion and units per transaction, and she’s been coaching those two things on every shift for a week. She’s walked her floor plan and decided exactly where each person stands when the doors open. She knows which of her five staff can run a line solo and which two cannot, and she’s practised with them on the quieter afternoons. Same two weeks. One spent preparing, one spent waiting.

One Is Exhausted. One Is Ready.

Marcus closes at ten, then stays until one in the morning setting the floor himself because he wants it done right. He’ll be back at six. He’s proud of this, and he’ll mention it to his DM.

Dana set her floor over three evenings the week before, using her team, which doubled as training on where everything lives. She sent a short message to her staff that night: here’s our goal, here’s where you’ll start, here’s the one thing I need from each of you. Then she went to bed. On the biggest day of the year, one of these managers is operating on four hours of sleep and will be making decisions from inside a fog by noon.

One Is Working. One Is Leading.

By nine, Marcus is on a register. There’s a line, it’s the right thing to do, and he’s fast. He stays there most of the day. From the register, he can see maybe a third of his store, and he notices nothing about how anyone is selling because he’s looking at a screen.

Dana is on the floor, moving. She’s not ringing unless the line gets dangerous. Instead she’s redirecting people, catching a new hire who forgot to ask about the second gift, saying “nice one” to the part-timer who just added on, clearing a jam in the fitting rooms before it becomes a walkout. Her hands are mostly empty, and that’s the entire point. She’s the only person in the building who can see the whole day, and she’s using it.

One Survived. One Learned.

Marcus locks up at nine, wrecked. The day was a blur. He’ll tell the team they did great, because they worked hard and they did. Tomorrow he’ll do it all again, exactly the same way, because nothing told him to change anything.

Dana gathers her team for eight minutes before they leave. What worked? What cost us sales? She hears that the fitting rooms backed up twice and that nobody could find the gift cards. Tomorrow, one person owns the fitting rooms and the gift cards move to the counter. That’s it. Two small changes, made the same night, applied to a Saturday that’s nearly as big as Friday. Multiply those eight minutes across a whole season and you get two completely different stores by Christmas.

The Bottom Line

Here’s the part worth sitting with. Marcus is not lazy. He worked harder than Dana all week, slept less, and cared just as much. He simply spent all of that effort on the wrong things: tasks instead of people, doing instead of leading, surviving instead of learning.

You’ve got two weeks until your own version of this day. Pick your two numbers and coach them now. Set the floor with your team, not alone at midnight. Keep your hands free when the doors open. And spend eight minutes at close finding one thing to fix. None of that costs money. All of it shows up in the report.

The gap between Dana and Marcus isn’t talent or effort. It’s training. And that’s exactly what we do.

The Certificate of Excellence in Retail Store Management runs February 15 to April 2, 2027. Seven weeks, live sessions with Kevin and Linda, and proven systems for hiring, motivating, coaching and driving your metrics. $795, or $695 at the Early Bird rate.

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