This
mentor meeting was not only informative, but enlightening and exciting as well.
The meeting was with the merchandising manager named Jim, the store manager
Wendy, the service manager Rob, and a front end store manager in training,
Kristy. It was amazing hearing from four different people and their thoughts
and point of view, rather than just one. It really reiterates the idea of
Wegman’s being a very family-oriented store, that thinks of employees as one
big family. My biggest lesson I
took away from this meeting was how to integrate innovation into your everyday
life, and when running a business especially.
In
Wegman’s, innovation is a daily thing. Wendy, the store manager, gave the
example of how when she was first a store manager a few years ago at a
different location, the employees of Wegman’s insisted that they never install
a self-checkout aisle, and at the time, Wendy agreed. A couple years down the
road, Wendy ended up installing multiple self check-out aisles because that is
what the customers wanted. You have to fulfill the need that you see in your
business. The next lesson I learned is my absolute favorite lesson I have taken
away from the whole experience this entire semester. Wendy stated a great
saying, “Take care of the people that take care of you, that take care of your
customers.” She explained that by treating your employees with respect and as
friends and family, not just employees, it instills a sense of positivity and
productiveness in the workplace. When you treat the people who work for you
nicely and actually care for them, they are going to do their jobs and do them
well, and take care of you. They are going to take care of the customers,
because they are going to treat the customers with respect, the way their
bosses treat them with respect. This is very obvious anytime you walk into a
Wegman’s store. Every employee looks happy to be there, not miserable like many
other stores. Employees almost always say hi to each other when passing each
other in the store. The store truly has a sense of positivity and a sense of
family to it whenever you enter their doors.
The
last lesson I took from this meeting was that as a leader, you can never ask
someone to do something you have never, or would never, do. This is something I
will follow for the rest of my life. Not only will your employees respect you
more for it, but they will be more willing to help you when you do have to ask
them for something. Seeing your boss go out of their way to help the overall
store and their employees with their work is just such a great sight, and
really instills that family-oriented sense that Wegman’s has. In my future, I
will never ask an employee to mop the floor, if I myself have not done it. You
should know what it is like for every employee in your business. Not only will
it give them respect for you, but it will show them that you do ask them to do
something, its because you can’t do it yourself, not because you just don’t
want to. Overall, seeing the
“behind-the-scenes” of a store that I grocery shop at myself was amazing. I
feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity, and will use the lessons I
learned from this meeting throughout all of my future endeavors.
