Leadership

I just read a couple of articles about leadership which reminded me of lessons long ago learned but forgotten now that I've been out of the work force.  When I worked in drug stores,  management at store level was normally done by young people without much experience.  Each store had an order book and if left to order what one felt was right for their store, I found that the stores would be overstocked on slow moving items and low on better selling merchandise or completely out of stock.  I also noticed that managers scheduled work around what worked best of them and most managers took the attitude that there job was to supervise employees.
  To combat /these problems I constantly had to monitor what was being ordered in the store by putting order quantities in the order book and checking regularly to be sure the order book was being followed.  This resulted in  my stores having the lest inventory per store in the chain yet having virtually no out of stocks.  I also wrote the schedules for each store to maximize worker efficiency and to minimize union problems. 
  Those things were easy.  The hardest part of my job was to train my managers  to recognize that every job in the store was theirs to perform and that employees were there to help them. Having a boss that thinks they need to constantly tell you what to do is demoralizing and causes resentment.  Having a boss that works beside you, teaching you, and helping you learn your job makes one feel valuable and part of the team. 
   By working hand in hand with my young management team, teaching them not only their jobs but how to do mine as well, I succeeded in having highly successful stores and the highest retention rate in the company  as well as more employees promoted to supervisory positions in the company. 
  One thing my managers learned is that things like inventory and schedules  are best left to formulas but people are best treated as people.  You show a genuine interest in them and they will show a genuine interest in you.