The best business leaders always put their employees first.
This ensures the employees will put their customers first.
I have the unique advantage as an HR Professional of having had 22 years of practical business experience working my way up through the ranks of a Fortune 100 corporation (Federated Department Stores, parent company of the Bon Marche’, now Macy’s).
I started out as an Executive Trainee, was promoted to Department Manager in a small store, then promoted to Department Manager in a much larger store. From there I was promoted to Divisional Manager of a large store leading a team of 5 Department Managers. After a couple years in that role, I was promoted to Assistant Store Manager where I was responsible for the Human Resources and Operations functions for two and a half years before being promoted to a General Manager position, a position I held for 14 years in two different stores.
In my 14 years as a General Manager, my store organizations earned more performance awards than any of my peers in the company, including twice earning the top award of Store/Store Manager of the Year. I accomplished this by putting my employees first, ahead of my customers. I treated my employees with dignity and respect – I knew every single employee and spoke regularly with each one. I established very challenging short and long term objectives and over-communicated our progress. I spoke honestly and openly with them about the store and the company. I earned their trust and respect and, as a result, they gave me 100% effort and took excellent care of our customers, fully understanding that is how we would succeed as an organization.
At the peak of my time as a General Manager, I led a team of eight exempt managers and 100 non-exempt sales and sales support employees and consistently delivered award winning financial and business results. This experience clearly demonstrates my strong and effective leadership ability, business knowledge, budgeting and planning skills, financial and operational acumen, strategic and tactical mindset, and ability to think critically.