Great Minds

I like Eleanor Roosevelt's quote:

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

Just because a prominent person makes a statement, doesn't mean you have to agree with it. After all, it was her opinion. But to me the quote does ring true for reasons that I will now explain with this short story.

Jack was invited to attend an interview for a new job, the Manager at a large DIY store, which was part of an international group. He was young, ambitious and with relevant retail experience but not at managerial level. He had also recently completed a BA in Business Studies through intensive part-time study. So at the age of 32 he was looking for a real career challenge. His interview was to take place at the headquarters of the DIY chain in Amsterdam but at his own initiative, he decided that two days prior to the interview, he would visit the store in Antwerp, where the vacancy had arisen. He would go as a 'customer' purely to get a feel for the environment. He arrived at the store and asked one of the sales assistants for help to purchase an electric drill. The assistant said he knew nothing about drills, so pointed him in the direction of another assistant. The lady was busy labelling items to put on the shelf and told him to wait until it was convenient for her to take a break. She then showed him a range of drills within the price range €30 to €150. He proceeded to ask her questions about the specifications of the different drills, to which she responded rather curtly that she wasn't an expert on drills and neither could that be expected of her on the money that she was earning. She pointed out that she was busy doing her labelling, couldn't spend any more time with Jack so he should make a decision but she did tell him that if the drill developed a fault in the first year, it was covered by the manufacturer's guarantee. Big deal and it wasn't a very good shopping experience for Jack!

When he returned home his partner was keen to know how he'd got on. Here are three possible responses depending on Jack's personality.

Small-minded Jack.

"I walked into the store , tried to find a sales assistant to help me buy a drill, which was difficult, but I eventually found this jerk who wasn't interested and pointed me in the direction of his colleague. Well this bitch was even worse, too busy to deal with me immediately and when she finally did give me some of her precious time, she basically just took me to the area where the drills were displayed and told me she knew nothing about the specifications. The decision was mine. She really was a prize prat and if I had my way, I would sack all the dickheads in that store and start from scratch."

Average-minded Jack.

"I walked into the store and eventually managed to get a sales assistant to help me buy a drill. Her knowledge on drills was very limited so I ended up with no real guidance. It wasn't a pleasant shopping experience and if a better competitor moved into the area, the store would really suffer."

Great-minded Jack.

I didn't have a good shopping experience purely because the assistants that I encountered were not sufficiently knowledgeable or motivated to assist. But I think this provides a tremendous opportunity for a change programme. If I get the job of Store Manager, my number one priority will be staff training and development. I would start by sitting down with each member of staff, explaining that my vision for the store is for it to be the best shopping experience in town. I would describe how it was going to be a tough, challenging and exciting journey for the team to achieve the vision. Then through a process of individual appraisals, each employee's strengths and weaknesses would be explored and appropriate training and development programmes would be initiated."

Great-minded Jack's enthusiasm was infectious and he could see his partner was also excited. She asked Jack if he would be expressing these views at the interview. Jack's response........"You bet!"........and he did........he became the Store Manager.

So there you have it, small and average minds are very narrow and focussed on the past, identifying problems rather than solutions. Great minds think about the future looking for solutions and opportunities.

I like Eleanor Roosevelt's quote!