Navigating the world of retail, I’ve come to realize that managing conflicts, especially with vendors, salespeople and your own team, is not just part of the job—it’s an art. Whether you’re dealing with a change in sales mix, unexpected problems with a product line or personnel performance, it’s rarely you against the “person responsible.” It’s both of you against the problem.
One of the common, instinctive approaches is to address the problem head-on, which usually means talking to the responsible person. Now, depending on your angle of approach, this can feel like an attack to this person. Immediately putting someone on the defensive is like drawing a line in the sand. You’re positioned opposite this person instead of alongside them. I’m certain we’ve all been on the receiving end of this too, where someone comes in hot and fast to address their concern with something you worked on.
It doesn’t feel good, and you spend more time breaking down these walls and getting to the issue than you do working on the solution.
Context matters. Tone matters. Over the years, I’ve used this phrase more times than I’d like to count, and it’s often my last resort to get a little support: “S—t flows downhill, and we’re both here at the bottom.”
It’s usually when I’m down to the 11th hour, reaching out to people I’ve never met, looking for a little support from someone else with skin in the game. I’m not sure why, but some of my closest friends and allies have been made in these times. I could have approached those moments like a traditional you-versus-me conflict, but instead, I took away the fight by taking away the adversary.
A much stronger fight is us versus the monster. Perhaps it’s the fear of failure or the shared desire not to let people down that unites us, especially in the home improvement industry. The last handful of years have indeed been a whirlwind of challenges: tariffs, COVID, vanishing manufacturers and mounting wage pressures.
These hurdles have continually tested our resilience and adaptability. You’d think, with all these curveballs, our collective batting average would have improved by now. And in many ways, it has.
We’ve learned that we’re all in this together—striving to serve our customers, support our communities and safeguard our bottom lines. It’s in these trying times that the true essence of collaboration shines through.
We realize that what truly matters is not how fiercely we can argue our point, but how effectively we can work alongside others to navigate these rough waters.
This approach not only helps us tackle the immediate challenges—be it poor sales or a misunderstanding with a vendor—but also fosters a sense of unity and partnership.
