Team Leadership and Communication in Retail Operations

Introduction: The Role of Retail Resets

In retail, especially specialty stores like Toys "R" Us, sales drive hours. To maximize sales, stores reset with the changing seasons, moving new product to shelves and cycling out older merchandise. This process appears magical to customers—an overnight transformation of the store's appearance. These changes, however, could not happen without an efficient reset crew performing at optimum capacity. For teams like this to perform to the best of their ability, three elements are essential: clear communication, a common goal worked toward by all members, and the ability to share in both the positives and negatives of the outcome.

Planning and Team Selection

Recently, Toys "R" Us underwent a large update to its store interiors. The project, called BAM (Big Assorted Moves), required an overnight team to complete significant changes before business reopened the next day. These changes involved moving entire aisles, resetting merchandise, and building new fixtures. The project required both a leadership team and employees to carry out the work.

As a member of the leadership team, I helped assemble a crew with the necessary qualifications to complete the moves efficiently. When we first received the project plans, we reviewed our staff to identify the most qualified people. Because our store had only about twenty employees outside the Christmas season, it was straightforward to assess each person's strengths. We based our selection on veteran employees with previous reset experience, building our team quickly. We then gathered the team for a meeting to discuss what would be done each night, who would do it, and how it would be accomplished. However, the actual execution differed significantly from our initial plan.

First Night: The Original Plan

On the first night of BAM, we followed the original plan, which consisted of a few aisle moves, two new fixture builds, and some resets. As a leadership team, we assigned employees to specific tasks based on their skill and knowledge. Since we had three leaders, we divided our own skills and broke into three separate teams, each overseeing employees assigned to particular tasks. I took charge of the reset team because I had the most experience with resets in our store. Another manager led fixture building, leveraging his background in constructing fixtures for new stores. The third manager oversaw the aisle moves, as he had the least reset experience but was eager to learn.

We worked side by side with our teams that night—leading without micromanaging, actually working and laughing with our chosen employees. The night moved fairly quickly, and we accomplished everything we had planned. Before leaving, we held a brief team meeting to discuss what had worked and what hadn't. While the team agreed that everything went well, they offered ideas that, in the long run, proved more efficient. They suggested combining efforts into larger moves rather than maintaining separate teams. This feedback would reshape our approach for the following night.

Adaptation and Collaborative Success

On the second night of BAM, we implemented the team's suggestions. Instead of breaking into three separate teams, we worked as one cohesive unit, resetting full sections of aisles before moving them to their final locations. By lunch time, we had completed most major tasks and had only a few new fixture builds and their merchandising remaining.

After lunch, we split the team in half: one group built the new fixtures while the second group sourced the necessary merchandise. Once the fixtures were complete, the entire team quickly set them to planogram specifications. We finished ahead of schedule and were able to begin work on small projects for the next night before our shift ended.

As a member of the leadership team, it was rewarding to see our team take the lead and produce exceptional results. We continued to work collaboratively, discussing each night what worked, what didn't, and how we could improve. Because the team played a significant role in the decision-making process, we finished our BAM moves a full night ahead of schedule. To reward the team, the leadership bought pizza and held a celebration. We shared in the rewards of teamwork with minimal internal conflict. Through this experience, I learned that while teams aren't always necessary, when they work well together and pursue a common goal, more work can be accomplished. As a leader in a team-based environment, it was refreshing to see that when respect was mutual between leaders and subordinates, morale improved and both productivity and decision-making increased.