A Salute to a Role Model Manager

I was down in LuLu hypermarket along with my wife to get some groceries done. After we finished we headed towards the cashiers but to our dismay people were making long lines all over the available cashier’s counters. As we were joining the crowd people were grumbling with frustrations. One was saying why should these cashier counters be closed? Others were sarcastically taunting that women lost their privilege today referring to a specific counter which was allocated for women only, to facilitate things for them as a culture sensitive gesture but was closed on that particular day.

While such an atmosphere was prevailing all over the place a tall smiling man in a suit appeared all of a sudden. He was silently moving around directing his team members to focus on their customers’ satisfaction. He started to open most of the closed cashier counters to ease the situation. The positive impact on the grumbling crowds was so evident. They rushed towards the newly opened cashiers as if they saw a drop of water in the middle of a desert. Not only he was hovering all over the numerous cashier counters injecting that inspiration touch to all of his cashiers, he gave them moral support to handle their laborious daily task. Besides he was helping them bagging the customers’ groceries to effectively use time and speed up the process and manage this crisis. He insisted on planting a broad smile on his customers’ face and erasing the negative effect which penetrated them while they were waiting for their turn in the congested lines.

His sincere and enthusiastic spirit as manager had a positive spill over on his team members who were in full gear working in harmony to ease the situation.

This manager’s action was not limited to that but he was also flashing a smile at his customers whenever he got a chance and was chatting with them as if he knew them for many years.

Such approached snatched the customers from their grumbling attitude and paved the way for them to appreciate his attitude and sincerity in serving them to the best of his ability. His exhibited skills in changing their perception earned him the required customer satisfaction. This practical situation brought to mind the role of an effective manager as quoted by the late management guru Peter F. Drucker who was referred to as “The Father of Modern Management who said” The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager”.
Yes of course it took a gesture of leadership to uplift the spirit of the staff to defy the odds and gather their courage to deliver the required tasks. As human we all need to feel that we are important and this manager with his excellent people skill knew how to turn a bleak situation to a memorable event. It is because of the show that he orchestrated that my pen was restless tell I have inked that show of courage through which he faced the situation and tamed his angry clientele to ensure that they leave their favorable grocery venue with a broad smile. Such sincere and earnest people deserve reflection so a very well deserved salute to that role model manager.