Last month, I opened a discussion about first bosses, specifically my own from my earliest days. While I had worked shoveling snow and mowing lawns before my days thinning corn on an experimental farm run by Northrup-King when I was fifteen and beginning my job peddling ladies’ and children’s shoes at Butler Shoes in the Lima Mall at seventeen, I consider my first jobs to the latter two, when I received payroll checks.
Now, it was the second of my first two bosses, Johnny Donald, a transplanted Mississippian, who had the greatest influence on me. Not only did he show me that the best bosses ask for input from others, even the very young that he hired, but he also taught me that the successful selling of any product is largely dependent on strong social skills. Later, in my primary occupation as a high-school English teacher, I used that lesson in selling to my students the importance of developing their language skills.
But there was without a doubt one lesson imparted that I consider the most valuable, one I’ve taken into every job I’ve ever held, and it was one, as lessons often tend to be, that I had to learn the hard way. And, it came at precisely the right time in my life.
As I told you last week, the motivation my fellow salespeople and I had to greet enthusiastically our customers at the door is because we were commissioned at 7 percent of our total sales as opposed to being paid at the minimum wage, at that time in the late 1960s of $1.60 hourly.
Now, combining the gift of gab that was genetically passed down to me by a charismatic and personable father with the natural energy of my youth, especially when it came to earning my own money, I actually turned out to have a pretty strong affinity for sales, at times earning some kudos from the man we all deferentially and affectionately called “Boss.” Occasionally, I led the store in sales, including the most important week when it came to selling women’s and children’s shoes: the week before Easter, when I was off school for spring break.
Now, the funny thing about receiving some recognition for doing something well is that it can be a two-sided coin, especially for those who are still navigating the mistake-prone waters of youth. On one side of the coin, some acknowledgment helps build confidence, especially important for the young, but on the other side of the coin, success can also lead to some erroneous certitude that all has been figured out.
The lesson taught involved that other side of the coin. Following some successes in my sales numbers, I began exhibiting some troublesome behaviors and attitudes. Often staff was expected to show up early before the store opened after a shoe shipment had arrived at the end of the previous day. We were expected to stock shelves and “tighten the walls” by placing the stock numbered boxes in the correct slots and then running the rows back and forth so that any empty space appeared at the bottom. In retail sales, you want to show there’s always plenty of product.
Well, I figured for such a dynamic salesman who was confident in making his commission rate yet again, why did I really need to show up every time a shipment arrived to help tighten those walls? Also, while we were expected to meet certain expectations when it came to selling low-cost items like shoe polish and rubber heel plates, why would such a dynamic salesman as I saw myself to be worry about expending energy on selling those trivial items that generated little commission? And, for such a dynamic salesman, was it really all that big a deal if I arrived back from my lunch hour five or so minutes late?
Of course, Johnny Donald had been noticing such behaviors and attitudes, and, one day, after I arrived back from my lunch break, again fashionably five minutes late, he approached and amiably asked if he could have a word in the back. Once behind the wall, he just as casually said to me that perhaps the tendencies he’d lately noticed might dissipate if I took a couple of weeks off.
Of course, we weren’t talking about paid vacation, rather being taken off the schedule, in other words, we’re talking suspension. He finished what he had to say without ever raising his voice. During my time off, I did a fair amount of soul searching about work ethic, about the importance of always being aware of the dangers of complacency and about the importance of humility and keeping the pedal pressed down even when some job successes came my way.
Once I was put back on the schedule, I returned focused, willing and punctual. Among the many lessons my boss taught me, I believe this one to be the one that has helped in every job I’ve ever held since.
While I’m not sure Johnny Donald is still of this world or in the next, I hope somehow my gratitude from my time with him more than fifty years ago for the lessons he taught me, ones I carried with me long after I last saw him, somehow reaches him.
John Grindrod is a regular columnist for The Lima News, a freelance writer and editor and the author of two books. Reach him at [email protected].
