Why Retail Leaders are Gritty AF
If you need something done, get a retail leader
Retail is, by and large, a figure-it-out-on-your-own industry. Most of us who do it and love it didn't set out to make it a career. It simply happened. We woke up one day and were running stores, managing large teams of people, merchandising, and analyzing our KPIs.
We put out fires, change direction, change schedules, take a conference call, and move on. There's little time for thinking, only for doing. Thinking on your feet quickly, making a decision, and moving on is the name of the game.
The corporate office does not afford the office time, payroll, or leadership teams big enough to cover all of our bases. So, we do it all.
Grit is embedded in our work ethic from the beginning.
Grit /grit/ - courage and resolve; strength of character.
"he displayed the true grit of the navy pilot" - Oxford Languages
Grit isn't one thing. Even in the definition, courage, resolve, and strength of character are listed. Grit is challenging to describe but easy to see in others. When we see someone with grit, we respect them. Why? Because the attributes that make us gritty are all singularly tough to cultivate.
In the book The Attributes by Rich Diviney, he lists four attributes that characterize grit: adaptability, courage, perseverance, and resilience. All of those attributes are challenging on their own. But if you can combine them, you're a step ahead of most people.
Here's why retail leaders have them all ingrained.
Adaptability
Adaptability is our entire job. Every day, all day as a retail leader, I spent adapting to what was coming at me. Upset customer? On it! Boss on the phone? Got it! Closer called out sick? Got it covered!
Whatever you think your day will look like, you're wrong. It will be different from what you had planned.
There is almost no time that you get to go into an office and close the door to get your work done. It's all completed on the sales floor in front of your staff and customers, so you better know how to adapt.
The day is full of changing priority orders.
One day, I was running the floor with not enough coverage, and it was busy. Not only that, but we got a rush. I was helping three customers when the back doorbell buzzed, and right at that moment, another customer asked me for a shoe. I think my brain short-circuited. I stopped in my tracks, almost too overwhelmed to put one foot in front of the other.
But I did. I did it every day after that, too. That takes courage.
Courage
Have you ever had to face an upset grandma and solve her problem? How about denying an online return? What if an organized retail crime (ORC) group rushed the store? What do you do?
Almost every day in retail, I had to face something scary or that I didn't want to do. Yes, it gets easier, but it's never something you look forward to doing.
Whenever we would hear the dreaded, "There's a customer on the phone asking for the manager," we'd all look at each other. Who was going to pick it up this time? How awful was this going to be? You never knew. It was rarely someone calling to tell you what a fantastic job you were doing.
To the few people who called us to tell us how awesome we were, thank you sincerely. I still remember those conversations.
Perseverance
If you worked late and had to be up early, that's perseverance. If you're willing to travel to a faraway store and help clean up a giant mess, that's perseverance. Continuing to strive or achieve something despite difficulties or failures—that's perseverance. To succeed in retail, you need a hefty dose of it.
Once, I had a merchandiser on my team who was out a lot. They were out for every heavy shipment drop, significant floor set, or window change. In my high-volume building, it left us scrambling a lot. However, my district visual manager was stacked with perseverance. I think she ate it for breakfast.
She came to our store to help us with a giant window change—in a knee brace. She had nine stores to oversee and a messed-up knee, but she came anyway to help us out. There she was, climbing ladders in our window, making miracles happen even when she could've told us to figure it out on our own.
That's perseverance on display, and she was one of the most resilient people I knew at work.
Resilience
Resilience involves bouncing back from being yelled at by a customer and finding ways to support yourself and others after a difficult day. It also involves surviving what's happening and rebounding from it.
My last store supported our community through wildfires and a global pandemic. We would do whatever we could to help each other and the people we served.
Retail leaders are steeped in resilience. There are crises daily that we need to manage, and we can't get knocked down because there's no one to cover for us. So, we get up, brush ourselves off, and get back to work.
That's why the teams that have forged bonds in retail are so strong. It's the resilience. We'd do anything for each other because we knew our co-workers would do the same for us.
It's almost funny that people sometimes look down on retail leaders as a profession. They have zero idea what our days look like. Any leader who can manage crises, switch priorities on a dime, bounce back from hardship, and still get up the next day and return to it should be revered.
We do it all while smiling and chatting with strangers. That skill alone will always be in demand because most people don't do it all that well.
So, yeah, retail leaders are gritty AF, and we wear that like a badge of honor. Don't dare tell us it can't be done because we'll figure out a way. We'll pick up packing tape, bend a paperclip, and make it work.
We always do.
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Based in Southern California, Kit Campoy is a former retail leader turned freelance writer. She covers Retail, Leadership, and Business. Contact her for blog posts, articles, or LinkedIn content.
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Really like parsing out all the facets of the word grit! Great examples and stories in retail!
Whether or not I'm in retail. I just love reading your stuff. It's so inspiring!