Being Right

By Greg Waters
District Operations Manager
The Home Depot

About ten years ago, I was assigned as the District Safety Manager for three districts, with a span of 27 stores. Frequently I would partner up with one of the three District Loss Prevention Managers in my market and we would conduct surprise visits at night, testing physical security, alarm procedures, and safety practices. I remember on occasion that both me and my business partner would be unpleasantly surprised with what we would find, walking into a store unannounced at 2 in the morning. I’m sure many safety and loss prevention professionals can relate!

I distinctly recall a conversation I had one evening (or was it morning?), driving back from a rural store. We had three hours in the car to talk over what had just happened. The loss prevention guy was complaining to me about how it was just too easy to gain access to the store, how the store had a lack of controls over the doors, the compactor, etc. I had a moment of clarity, perhaps inspired by sleep deprivation, and I said to him, “You’re right about all of that. But being right doesn’t mean we get to win.”

I have thought about this time and time again in the past ten years. Too often, we are content with being right. We’re right when we identify that a manager isn’t following established procedures. We’re right to illuminate the problem to our business partners who are the “owners” of the business and who are in the chain of command of the offenders. We’re right all along. And yet...and yet...we sometimes get no traction from being right.

The manager who may make a mistake is also right. He or she is right when they feel like they’re doing their best. They’re right when they feel overwhelmed. They feel that they’re right when they can’t be in every place at once and have to take a shortcut to get everything done that their company requires them to do. They’re right when they think that those who wrote the standards don’t have an appreciation for their daily workload.

So who’s really right here?

I propose we quit trying to be right, and start trying to be transformational. Maybe instead of being right, we could listen more. Maybe we could become better coaches and try to help a struggling manager find a way to accomplish their goals without taking shortcuts. Perhaps we could all transition out of an auditor mentality and into a mentor mentality. Maybe then, we would get buy in.

Now please don’t misunderstand. There are still some nonnegotiables. Managers who are unethical or take a shortcut that puts someone’s safety at risk have to be addressed with a very low tolerance for deviating from policy. But we’d be more effective if we backed off of a zero tolerance stance and adopted a stance of allowing people to make honest mistakes. Just possibly, we could make room for those whose motives are sound, but whose environment is less than perfect.

Let’s quit worrying about being right, and start winning. Together. Just a thought.