My brother once told me that I should be able to do any job. I assume, he meant that most jobs are essentially the same. I am not sure that I agree with him but this week I have my own, half stolen, half made up and half trite statement: Everything I learned about careers I learned as a Radio Shack Sales Manager.
If you've been to one of these stores you know exactly what I mean. When I worked there I had a staff of over aggressive, not entirely qualified, mostly nice people who worked for me. I just wanted to the best job I could and make a lot of money, thank you very much!
I don't know when I learned of the golden rule of people but I think it is essentially true.
Sometimes it's referred to as the 80-20 rule. 80% of my customers had no clue. And I mean no clue about anything. These are the folks that have trouble finding a 5 dollar bill in a pocket that contains 2. The 20% get it and are mostly OK. This rule works in many other situations.
As a teacher, my goal is to teach my students well so that they stay out of the Radio Shack 80. The other night, I ran into one of my former students and she is trying like hell to enroll in other 20. Lisa and I pulled up to the DQ drive-up window and after ordering, I commented to Lisa, "She was very polite." Surprise! - one of my own.
She proudly told me that she's going to college. "Great", I said. As I recall, college was never a certainty for her. She has many strikes against her but I am confident for her.
Back in the Radio Shack days my good friend, also named Doug told me, "Douglas, I can out survive any of our District Managers." And we did. There were 5 in the 7 seven years that I ran stores. Most of these guys were pretty good at the job. Education has not been much different. In my seven years working in 2 school districts I have worked for 5 different principals. "Holy shit, Batman that's the same as Radio Shack."
At Radio Shack the real problems were my colleagues and my employees. Now, as you know, I work with some incredible people. Some are great teachers and leaders and educators. Some are absolute boobs. In 1989, I managed my first Radio Shack store. I had one of those boobs working for me. At first, he acted as if he was incharge. He told me that we did things this way or that way while answering my questionswith a nasally "eh".
Eventually, I took control of the situation and the store. I ran the store my way and the boss transferred "eh" to a different location. Mathman HS has some "eh"s, too. One who happens to be my new current administrator. The day before the old boss left, he saidMathman sorry about the "eh" but we'll talk about how to work him.The next day the old boss was gone and the new boss was in.
"Eh", I said. Over and over and over and it continues to echo in my head.
Just like my1989 "eh" the current "eh" is puffing out his chest and claiming expertise that he didn't have last year or the year before that. I hear claims of knowledge and solutions when I walk around corners. Everyone has noticed and people are talking. I am listening above and below. I hope that the new boss is listening, too
