A store manager must demonstrate leadership, bring the team together, and deliver results.
However, a store cannot operate effectively with a leader alone. It also needs team members who support the leader and help turn decisions into action.
Today, let’s explore the concept of followership—how team members support and strengthen their leader. To make the discussion more concrete, we will focus on the followership of an assistant store manager.
1. What Is Followership?
For an assistant store manager, followership means working toward the same goal as the store manager: maximizing team performance by constructively supporting and advancing the manager’s policies, decisions, and instructions within the team.
Followership can also be understood as complementing and reinforcing leadership. It is helpful to recognize that leadership and followership work hand in hand to bring a team together and achieve its goals.
2. Why Is Followership Important?
For a team to achieve its goals, it is not enough for the store manager simply to give instructions. Every team member must take action to implement the agreed-upon initiatives.
This is where team members who actively drive those initiatives become essential. The assistant store manager is often the person most expected to fulfill this role.
Followership is also important for effective team management. For example, the assistant store manager can take the initiative in discussions to encourage everyone to share their ideas.
It is also important for the team to see the store manager and assistant store manager working together as a united front.
These outcomes are possible when the assistant store manager demonstrates strong followership.
3. Five Ways an Assistant Store Manager Can Demonstrate Followership
1) Help the Team Understand the Store Manager’s Decisions
Not every team member will always fully understand the store manager’s decisions. When necessary, the assistant store manager should explain them in simpler, more accessible terms.
The better team members understand and accept a decision, the more smoothly initiatives can be implemented, and the stronger the team’s sense of unity becomes. This makes the assistant store manager’s role particularly important.
2) Help the Store Manager Focus on Their Core Responsibilities
The store manager is responsible for steering the overall operation of the store. Ideally, they should be able to concentrate as much as possible on this role.
In other words, the store manager should focus on the tasks that only they can perform and the responsibilities that properly belong to their position.
Therefore, whenever there are tasks the assistant store manager can take on, they should step forward and offer to handle them.
3) Encourage Active Team Discussions
Before the store manager makes a decision, there may be opportunities for team members to share their opinions. At these times, the assistant store manager should actively express their own views and invite other team members to contribute as well.
Good ideas often emerge from lively discussions. Providing opportunities for everyone to speak also helps create a more open and communicative workplace.
4) After a Decision Is Made, Encourage Everyone to Give It a Try
After a lively discussion, the store manager makes the final decision. Even if some team members are not yet fully convinced, the assistant store manager should encourage everyone to adopt the attitude: “Let’s all give the decision a try first.”
If any team members remain unconvinced, the assistant store manager should support them and help them move forward with the decision.
A useful cycle to encourage is:
Discuss → Decide → Try → Check for Problems → Adjust if Necessary
By helping the team follow this cycle, the assistant store manager can turn decisions into action while ensuring that any issues are identified and addressed.
5) Offer Constructive Advice and Alternative Ideas to the Store Manager
If the assistant store manager has doubts about the store manager’s opinions or approach, or believes there is a better way to proceed, they should proactively share their thoughts as constructive suggestions.
Team members may sometimes find it difficult to disagree with the store manager directly. The assistant store manager therefore plays an important role in encouraging healthy discussion by speaking up and offering a different perspective when appropriate.
In Conclusion
Why not review how your assistant store managers demonstrate followership to help improve your store’s overall performance?
