An Introvert in Retail

Four lessons from an accidental career.

In 2004, I was 22 years old, jobless, a college dropout (merely a pause, I swore), and living with my parents after a three-year adventure in another state. An ultimatum came down the pipes: get a job. So I found one that I figured would be easy: a part-time holiday associate for a mega-giant beauty retailer. I had experience — hostessing at a restaurant, assistant-managing a boutique in Seattle. I had the gift of gab from my numerous acting classes. I was hired on the spot.

Smiling and shaking hands with the woman who was to become my first and greatest mentor, I had no idea I’d just stumbled and landed face first onto a career I never asked for or wanted.

A decade later, I was managing a $2.5 million dollar store for this company, and had been for 5 years. Under my direction was a rotating staff of between 15 and 70 depending on the time of year. Over the course of my tenure, I had close to a thousand employees. Ten different, full-time assistant managers, twenty part-time managers, and a blurred, rotating door of young, fresh-faced college girls.

I read recently that the average length of a retail job is less than 4 years. This statistic includes full-time managers with salary and benefits. Another related article further cited the emotional, spiritual, and physical drain of retail sales, which speaks to the high turnover rate.

There are people out there, however, who are uniquely suited to a career in retail management. Speaking from experience, here’s why:

1. Control

The definition of control is to have the power to influence or direct people’s behavior. While controlling people isn’t a viable or sustainable goal (if you’re not a tyrant or sociopath), influencing them is. By educating, inspiring, and challenging people who are otherwise disengaged, you can drive positive changes in their behavior, which drives positive sales growth.

There’s a lot of freedom (read: control) to be had when you manage well. Of course, there will always be people to answer to: district managers, regional managers, zone presidents, et cetera. But if you are proactive instead of reactive, and the first employee you manage is yourself, you’ll find yourself praised instead of critiqued. Your bosses will look to you to lead change instead of simply complying with it. There will be no micro-managing. You’ll be given awards, flown out of state to speak on panels, train other store managers and new-store teams, and people will know your name. Woo!

The keys to the control-freak kingdom: manage yourself first.

2. Emotional investment

The role of influencing people has another name: Teacher. Seeing nervous and fearful first-time-job holders become tenacious and confident young women due, in part, to my influence was what kept me coming back day after day. It sustained me when economic stutters tanked business for months at a time, when relied-upon employees quit with no notice, and when the physical + emotional drain of the holiday season made me swear that each one was my last.

Over the years, I discovered that the most successful managers in my industry (up to and including VPs and COs) had one trait in common: they cared. About staff retention and customer service. About performance excellence, brand development, and whether or not their tiny slice of the corporate pie positivity impacted these standards.

In a world which tells retail employees, “You’re a replaceable rung at the bottom of the corporate ladder, a frontline slave for your company,” managers find meaning and sustenance in having an emotional investment.

You can’t have a career in retail and be successful if you don’t give a shit about your company, people, or service. You just can’t.

3. Masochism

When someone hands you the keys to a business, ties a 2+ million dollar anvil of responsibility around your waist, and doesn’t pay you much, while simultaneously demanding consistent, stellar results regardless of uncontrollable, external factors. . . It takes a special kind of crazy to thrive.

In September of 2009, I broke my foot. One of the long bones on top (I forget what it’s called). I have zero recollection of how or where it happened. I might have dropped a 10 pound box of shower gel on it. I might have slammed in it a door at home, who knows. I was busy. I was tired. Shit happens.

In any event, I had a broken foot in a career that depended on me moving for at least 38 hours of my 43 hour work week. Not standing, leaning, or otherwise being supported. So what did I do? Did I tell my boss? Did I seek medical attention or leave? Nope. I ignored it. I worked a holiday season (50+ hours a week) on a broken foot. My only concession to pain was copious Advil and ice every morning and evening.

Like I said, a special kind of crazy.

Imagine yourself facing an angry customer. We’ve all seen them, regardless of whether you’ve done time in retail. I’m talking about the kind of angry that has nothing to do with you, but stems from some deep discontent within their private life. Now imagine that customer screaming at an eighteen-year-old, minimum-wage associate who has ZERO ability to give them what they’re demanding (usually something in direct conflict with company policy).

Do you let that customer take out their wrath on the girl whose eyes are even now filling with tears of humiliation and powerlessness? Hell no. You remove that associate from their personal torture session and you take it. You breathe deeply, pulling on some deep, inner well of calm you never knew was there, and you take it.

And when that customer is gone, without what they asked for but sickly satisfied by venting their rage, you calmly walk off the sales floor, lock yourself in the bathroom, and scream. Or cry. Or laugh.

Or you screamlaughcry.

And then you do it again tomorrow.

4. Extroversion

People. Peoplepeoplepeople. PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. There’s no escaping them, but especially in retail. Hello, you work in customer service. You are the face your company shows the public. There are expectations of conduct.

Smiling/moving/talking/laughing — nonstop, mind you.
Authenticity — customers know if you’re faking it.
Investment — in meeting and exceeding your customer’s expectations.

Had a fight with your significant other? Aww, so sad, customers don’t care. Migraine? Take some meds. Finals week? Not a valid excuse to give less than 100%. Your dog died yesterday? This one works, go home.

The fact is, if you aren’t a people-person, retail will destroy you. It’s a realm crafted for extroverts who thrive on conversation, who revel in uncovering a customer’s unspoken needs, and who celebrate making a stranger smile.

I am an extrovert.

I am also an introvert.

This is what tanked me in the end. I thrived and simultaneously starved, because I didn’t have enough time to recharge. My often non-sequential days off were spent almost exclusively recovering. One weekend off a month was not enough.

An introvert needs quiet time. No people. No distractions. We need more than a few hours here or there (usually spent running errands, doing household chores, seeing family, friends, et cetera). It is essential. It is a non-negotiable. NO PEOPLE.

Strangely, there were some accidental benefits of my blossoming introversion. In the last year of my career, I spent less time on the selling floor and more time at my desk, strategizing and implementing new business plans. I focused more on developing my managers rather than servicing the public (which, consequently, happens more effectively as a result).

But although this transitional period was marked with some of my greatest growth as a leader, it also brought light to a growing realization:

Retail management was not for me.

It took me ten years to realize this (see #3 Masochism). However, if you happen to be a controlling, emotionally invested, masochistic, extroverted person, retail might very well be your one true calling. Enjoy!

xx

Laura

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