Good day and Welcome to the “CafeBoss”
If today is your first time at the Café, then let me introduce myself. I am called the Café Boss.
The CafeBoss is where new and entry-level assistant managers can go and get fundamental leadership skills training.
I am a Retail manager with over 30 years of experience and stories. I started just like you as a shift manager and worked my way up to Regional Management positions. I also enjoy a good cup of Coffee.
One of the things I have always enjoyed doing for my team is teaching them & helping them grow and develop in their Leadership Career. Sitting at a café and having a “sharing of my experience” conversation was one of my favorite ways to answer their questions and help a new manager be effective and achieve success in their new position.
Some of my team would call me “The Boss.” Because of my affection for Coffee and being a manager, people began to call me the CafeBoss.
When I first started as a manager, I remember being trained on leadership basics such as Time management. I was given a Franklin Planner along with training on how to use it. (By the way, I still use it to this day!)
I remember being trained in communication and listening skills. But today, I am seeing very few companies providing their entry-level managers with this kind of training. Some companies may train the General Manager and then expect them to train their leadership team.
That watered-down training is almost useless for a new manager. Most of the training a new manager gets is a correction after they have made a mistake. Mistakes that might have been prevented if we had spent some time teaching and training our new leaders and managers.
I am noticing a recent trend in some companies. In today’s world, companies are doing 1 of 2 things.
- They are hiring “experienced” managers from other companies. They are by-passing internal employees claiming that they are not trained. The company also does not invest any time in training and developing internal employees for higher management positions.
- Other Companies are promoting people into leadership positions again without any training. More and more, I am seeing good people who were excellent at their current job and now get promoted and be put in charge of a team or project without any formal training.
Senior management tells you what to do and then expects you to figure it out. Well, that happened to me when I first became a shift leader. I was a great stocker who overnight was promoted to a shift leader.
I had to figure it out on my own. I promised myself that I would be a different type of leader and help people just like you as much as I could.
The “CafeBoss” training is designed for what I call the “forgotten leader.” That new or recently promoted manager who works every night and every weekend and is left on their own to “Figure it Out.” It is also created for that loyal, dedicated employee who is bypassed for promotion because no one has taught them some leadership skills.
Good Leadership development builds skills over time, and at the moment, you need it. A good leader spends time listening, providing feedback, coaching, and demonstrating Emotional Intelligence. You cannot learn these skills overnight. You need to know the fundamental basics and practice them every day.
In my years of experience, leadership development comes from real-world experiences. These experiences stay with you forever. Learning the foundational leadership tools will help you be as prepared as you can be for most day-to-day situations.
The second thing that helps me succeed in these day-to-day situations is a Coach or a Mentor.
Fortunately, I met a mentor that took the time to answer questions and help me figure them out. That Mentor helped me through some of the hard conversations I had while providing corrective feedback to an employee that needed to change. To prepare for that conversation, my Mentor and I would practice the situation. Because that Mentor took the time to help me initially, I grew into a very successful Leader.
It would help if you found a Mentor/Coach to help you through the beginning stages of your leadership career. Find someone you trust and someone who is successful. Until you find that Mentor, I want to help you to be an effective and successful manager. I want to share some of what I have learned that helped me be successful.
I started in retail as a part-timer working in a supermarket while still in high-school. By the time I was 18, I was promoted to shift manager. I studied, learned, and listened to my Mentor and became an award-winning Store Manager. I took that experience and worked as a District Manager and Regional Manager and earned several more awards along the way.
I do not claim to know all that it takes to be successful, but I can share what has worked for me. I want to share the many lessons I provided to my teams as their trainer.
The “CafeBoss” library has some of the foundational skill training that you need to help you get started in your new career as a leader or manager.
The “CafeBoss” also offers email access and 1:1 Coaching to help you understand some of these foundational basics.
My goal as the Creator of the “CafeBoss” is to provide these foundational tools to all entry-level managers and leaders and provide them at an affordable price.
I don’t believe you need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on leadership workshops. I also know that many entry-level managers are underpaid because they “don’t have the experience. I want everyone to have the opportunity to access this training.
A long time ago, someone took the time to teach me about leadership and management. I want to now “Pay That Forward” and help tomorrow’s leaders by sharing some of my Real-world Experience.
Thank You For Reading
Welcome to “The CaféBoss”
CafeBoss 