MY TURN
Why Your New LP Career Is Going Nowhere and How to Fix It
D
uring my first year in the loss prevention field, I had a manager who routinely took walks around the outside of the store during his shift. He regularly asked me to join him, and he would use the time to simply talk. He discussed tricks of the trade, pitfalls, things I should remember for my safety, and other little golden nuggets of information. At the time I took these walks for granted. I viewed them as simple security checks and, frankly, annoying disruptions to my day. I mean c’mon, we had shoplifters to catch, right? But there comes a point in your career when you’re able to reflect with more clarity. Today, I realize those walks were much more than just security checks. They provided my manager with time to teach in his environment, where he had my undivided attention. He knew that one day the information he was giving me would prove useful. He was right. Since his method was so effective, plus I could use more exercise, I thought I’d try it myself today. Let’s take a walk shall we?
This Is for the Rookies
Are you a public sector pro that recently made the jump to the private sector? Perhaps you’re fresh out of school looking to blaze your own trail in loss prevention. Or, maybe you’ve switched careers entirely and landed in this field looking to climb the corporate ladder. Regardless of how you’ve arrived, there’s one thing that you should focus on right out of the gate, as it can be the difference between upward mobility and a stagnant career. And if you apply enough effort to it, you’ll be rewarded with the career you want and deserve, instead of settling for one that someone else thinks you should have. Personal branding—It isn’t just for mega companies with huge marketing budgets. It’s for you. Personal branding is simply the practice of marketing…well, you. It allows you to highlight the skills, traits, and accomplishments that make you unique. Your brand can ultimately become your reputation; what people think of when your name is mentioned.
Let’s Walk over This Way
When you need a dentist, plumber, or even an attorney, how do you evaluate talent before you make a decision on whom to
70
LPM 1113-C.indd 70
By Brandon Brown, CFI Brown is a freelance writer and loss prevention professional with over seventeen years’ experience in the retail, financial, and food-service industries. He holds the Certified Forensic Interviewer (CFI) designation and has received advanced training in Wicklander-Zulawski interview and interrogation and practical kinesics interview and interrogation methods. Brown is a member of the National Writers Union, the International Association of Interviewers, and the Restaurant Loss Prevention and Security Association. He can be reached at brandonbrowncfi@gmail.com.
hire? You probably start your search online or ask your friends and family. Before you hire them, the person’s talent and how they will treat you are probably paramount to you. But how do you measure this and what truly influences the decision you make? Most likely it comes down to one thing—perception. Your own perception of the individual’s talent level and how they treat their customers will either compel you to hire them or keep you searching for a professional that meets your needs. You desperately search for information that will provide insight into this person. You make your own judgments using things like customer testimonials, “star” ratings, and other available data. Throughout your LP career, the folks that will make decisions about you and your career path will do the same thing. And since much of evaluating your talent is subjective, it’s important that you’re involved in the process and proactively influence the perception those people have of you. This is exactly what personal branding will help you do. You may be reading this thinking, “If I just do a great job, my results will highlight my talent.” Maybe; maybe not. I’m sure by now in your new role, you’ve spent a considerable amount of time learning what’s expected of you. You understand the performance metric categories you’ll be measured by—case totals, recovery dollars, sales, accident frequency, shrink numbers, whatever. Producing exceptional results across these categories will surely help justify your employment and satisfy your superiors. But only excelling at them won’t necessarily get you to the next level without mixing in some personal branding. Why?
Let’s Walk across the Street Here
The reason is that real talent can sometimes be difficult to measure and see in the loss prevention industry, especially to the people who really matter when it comes to your career advancement. Whether it’s a superior a bit higher up the ladder in your current company, or a hiring manager at a different company, many times their lines of sight to your talents and accomplishments can be blocked. Sometimes it may be blocked by your immediate supervisor for a myriad of reasons, or sometimes simply because of the nature of our business. For example, the numbers used to evaluate you are often confidential in nature or difficult for hiring managers to locate. Things like privately-held company performance, shrink results, internal theft case totals, recovery dollars, and safety numbers are often very closely guarded.
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2013
|
LPPORTAL.COM
11/27/13 11:48 AM
