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I can’t believe the words I heard from someone who is supposed to be so smart. As most of you know, I love to write about situations or experiences that we can all learn from and this week I have a real winner. It all started about a year ago when I worked for a chain of stores that you are all familiar with. I probably delivered one of the best speeches of my career. The audience was with me from start to finish, hanging on every word. Then I received one of the longest standing ovations. It was almost embarrassing. And afterwards, I got a chance to discuss the points of my talk in smaller groups.

The chemistry was perfect. I was so sure I would be getting a phone call from the company to do a series of more regional events. But I never heard from them. However, I did get a call from the company asking me to speak at the same annual meeting that was coming up. But I was a little taken aback when the company wanted to interview me via conference call. I was a bit surprised but understood when I was told that the company hired a new director of stores.

What I want to share are a couple of comments made that should give every independent retailer a good feeling about competing with larger chains. The first comment was “I don’t hear many people quoting you or using your principles now.” Huh? My response was “How did you reinforce it?” They didn’t do anything. If I had the power or if any speaker had the power to change behavior without just a little positive reinforcement or reminders from the company, then they would be considered superhuman.

I learned a lesson a long time ago from my seventh grade home room teacher who put a quote on the blackboard and made the whole class repeat it twice a day for a month. It was “Constant iteration and reiteration conveys an alien thought upon a reluctant mind.” If she had told us to say it once I wouldn’t be writing it now. So the first lesson is if you want any type of training to work, you must reinforce it.

The next line really shocked me and would put this man’s tenure at this company in jeopardy. He said that he wanted every store manager to be the CEO of the store. So I asked the question about how much control will the store manager actually have. The response was “Well, they can’t control any of the merchandise coming in, they can’t vary from a store layout, and they have guidelines for every procedure that the manager does.” It doesn’t sound like the job description of a CEO. Actually I just downloaded a definition and it doesn’t seem to match. Does this company really believe their employees will buy into this it? Do you think it’s a bit of a stretch and could create a credibility issue.

A chief executive officer (CEO) or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer (executive) or administrator in charge of total management of a corporation, company, organization, or agency, reporting to the board of directors

Obviously the chemistry was very wrong and I won’t be going back there. But what a waste of an asset and a relationship. I wish them well but I fear they are going down a path that I have seen others go. It’s too bad because they had a GREAT group of managers that lots of other chains would love to have.

The lesson to be learned from the whole experience is that you must treat people with respect. Don’t come up with a cute buzz word that can be transparent as calling the store managers CEO’s. The bottom line is that there is good management and bad management. Good high level managers look at training as an ongoing, never-ending series of lessons to be learned and reinforced. It is a process–not an event. Be sure to use reinforcement as part of your training process so that you can bring your employees to the next level.