There is an old adage that says, “All new brooms sweep clean, but the old broom catches the corners.”
In its simplest terms, the saying makes sense. A new broom has all its bristles and can pick up more dirt and debris. But some may say the old broom isn’t worth keeping. It’s this broom that easily catches the tough to get to places — the corners, as it were.
This is the premise of a topic that often is not talked about in the open but is important to discuss. Take the new broom and old broom and consider that they are produce managers.
The new broom scenario
How often it is that a newly promoted produce manager comes into their new department full of energy, emotion, excitement and enthusiasm — ready to conquer the world?
This new produce manager is brash, risk taking and possibly a bit too arrogant, but they have earned the title. They are ready to prove to others they have the skills, knowledge and know-how to be successful and, frankly, to compete with their fellow produce managers on who’s the best.
This new produce manager comes in and changes everything, re-merchandises the entire department, changes up the schedule and along the way misses the opportunity to explain to the team what it is they are working to accomplish, because they are too focused on their goal and not the team goal. It is an easy thing to see happen, and it happens often.
Soon, the new produce manager realizes the team is not a cohesive group because they are not being made part of the process. They are only being told what they need to do — and not being taught or even mentored.
This produce manager can be too stubborn to see that their approach, while earning accolades from company leadership due to improved department performance, is losing something important: their team.
The produce manager believes that if they teach and empower their team too much, that they themselves will be less valuable to the company. This happens far too often and is caused by a syndrome I call “Johnny to the rescue,” which is when a person is elevated to a manager role because they can get a lot of work done well themselves, but they have not yet developed the leadership qualities required to develop a team. They are only good at getting the job done, and to them, that is the most important thing. And while it is important, how and who gets the work is done is far more important.
Produce managers who do not recognize their own shortcomings in this regard generally can still be successful long term, but they will never develop the talent or bench which has a long-lasting positive impact on the department and company.
When the old broom comes in
Now take the same circumstance, but this time the incoming produce manager is a seasoned veteran.
They come in and do all the same things, from re-merchandising to adjusting the schedule, but with one big difference. Before doing so, they spend time individually with the team, learning about them and what they know or don’t know and asking questions about the department and where they think improvement can be made.
The produce manager has now effectively empowered the team to take ownership to the improvements they make together — in essence, catching the corners.
This one act taken on by the produce manager does more than improve the performance of the department. It creates a tightly connected team, with each one ready to do what needs to be done to make each other successful.
But there are naysayers: others on the outside who now see this approach as a threat to the rest of the store management team, even making negative remarks about the produce manager’s approach.
By the time these sentiments reach the produce manager, the manager is prepared to respond and does so the best way possible.
By having a developed team that is efficient, on time, retained and achieves every goal presented to them — to that, there is no contesting their collective success.
In the end, the old broom had once been a new broom. That manager learned lessons that only could be achieved by living through it and enduring the struggles from new-broom experiences. The new broom was stiff and hard to bend, but after a few years and some usage, those bristles soften and contour to the floor, grabbing everything in its path — even the corners.
Always remember the “Three I’s of Merchandising:”
• Impact
• Impulse
• Incremental
Happy selling!
This column is part of a series by Joe Watson, who spent 30-plus years as the director of produce for Rouses Markets and was named Produce Retailer of the Year and honored as one of The Packer 25, both in 2014. Watson now serves as a vice president of retail, foodservice and wholesale for International Fresh Produce Association.
