Porn or Pawn? | Pawn Leaders
I remember a funny encounter back when I was in college that taught me something important when it came to running my pawn shop.
I'll never forget, in a communications class, they were asking each of us whether we had a job and do any sort of work. Do we have a business? And of course, I was excited. I raised my hand, "Yeah, I own a pawn shop."
Some looked at me in awe.
"Very nice." "Cool." "Okay."
And some people gave me strange or funny looks.
But at the end of class, I'm putting on my backpack, suddenly this guy stops me and he says, "Hey, Yigal, um, I've got a question for you, actually a few."
"Sure shoot. What's going on?"
He said, "it's about the store that you own."
I said, "ah, yeah, I'll answer any question you need. How can I help?"
He said, "I was wondering, is it a good place to shop?"
I said, "amazing place to shop for great deals. Uh, I don't charge too much money. You know, it's not like retail. Um, it's a really good place to buy stuff. Different types of things."
He looks at me straight in the face and he goes, "is it a good idea if I bring my girlfriend with me?"
I was like, "of course there's things for her. And there are things for you. You guys will have an amazing time. I'll help you out. I'll give you a discount. Come shop at my store."
And he looked at me again. He goes, "so I shouldn't be embarrassed to go in?"
I said, "absolutely not! How would you be embarrassed? I know that some people don't like coming into the store, there might be a taboo around it, but honestly, it's amazing."
And then he says, great, what's the address to your porn shop?
And I said, "No, no, no. I don't own a porn shop. I own a pawn shop!"
The moral of the story is that we undoubtedly had a 20-minute discussion, and yet our points of view were entirely different. I was discussing my pawnshop with him. He was talking about what he thought was a porn store to me.
So many times, in our leadership and in the management of our teams, we're talking but there isn't any communication because we have divergent views on what's going on. We heard something different. We view things differently. And as we sit here reflecting on it, we wonder"why the items are not sufficient."
"I advised them what to do. Why isn't my team carrying out the tasks that I instructed them to perform?"
"I don't understand why my team is not operating in the manner that I want or performing the activities that I want them to do."
And the reason is that they're hearing and understanding differently.
So, how are we going to address this lack of communication? How will we overcome the problem of a conflicting opinion that prevents us from seeing things from each other's perspective?
The way that we do that is we repeat ourselves. We make sure that the person hears us and knows exactly what needs to be done. And in the end, we hold them accountable.
So what does this look like? This might seem childish to a lot of you. It might also seem weird to do. But this is an example of how you communicate effectively:
A team member comes up and says, "Hey boss, um, what do you want me to do with our showcases?"
And you say, "I want you to put all the diamond jewelry on the left showcase. I want you to put all the colored stones in the right showcase. And then let's put all of the rings in the showcase towards the front."
They say, "great."
What's the typical scenario? They usually walk away. "Okay, understand."
To ensure that communication truly took place, you can say something like, "Can you tell me what you heard me say? I want to make sure I was clear." It's entirely possible that they'll figure it out. It's also possible that they'll tell you something completely different. Don't get easily irritated and say, "look, you're an idiot." Instead, this is what you can do:
- Put it in writing.
- Hold them accountable.
Why, why does this happen to us? Because as humans, we have a thousand things going on in our minds. So, most of the time, someone walks into a conversation and is thinking about everything else that's going on. And you're talking, you're engaged, but they don't hear exactly what you want them to hear.
This week, I challenge you to ensure that your communication is delivered effectively and efficiently to your team members.
Yigal Adato
Yigal is a 3rd generation pawn broker, and is now a mentor, coach and educator with the pawnbroking industry.
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