Read the following case study involving Dennigee's Store:

Overview You are the store manager at Dennigee's, one of 988 mid-sized profitable lawn and garden stores scattered throughout the West, Midwest and Southwestern parts of the United States. Your store is located in Phoenix, Arizona. Dennigee's offers lawn and garden products and fresh plants in a great atmosphere and at an affordable price. Its mission statement promises: To be the leading provider of quality lawn and garden products; providing customers with a better life by saving them money and time; providing employees with respect and opportunities; and giving shareholders a return on their investment. The company's strategy is to be a customer-driven provider of high-quality lawn and garden products and fresh plants The focus for this fiscal year is simple and straightforward. Dennigee's will continue to focus their execution on their corporate strategy, referred to as the "Big Five":

1. Grow Customer Numbers Faster than the Competition

2. Lead in Revenue Growth

3. Ensure a Great Customer Experience Every Time

4. Lead in Profitability Growth

5. Use the Strength of Our Culture to Compete

Executing the Big 5 is critically important to the company's success.

The following is background on the Phoenix Dennigee's store:

LY Revenues: $1.6M

TY Plan: $1.8M

13,000 sq. ft combined inventory storage and selling space

Total of 6 Dennigee's stores in the Phoenix market

Home Depot within a 2 mile radius

Lowe's and Menard's within a 5 mile radius

The stores current performance stats:

Current Fiscal Year: Focus Period, Jan 1 Mar 31

QTD	MTD	WTD
Sales Performance: $410K Revenue/Productivity Shrink and discounts: 9.9% vs. target of 6.8%	Sales Performance: $97K Revenue/Productivity Shrink and discounts: 10.2% vs. target of 6.8%	Sales Performance: $28K Revenue/Productivity Shrink and discounts: 10.3% vs. target of 6.8%
Operational Goals: Cash Balance -1.8% vs. goal of -1% Shrink: .09% vs. .03% target	Operational Goals: Cash Balance -1.6% vs. goal of -1% Shrink: .08% vs. .03% target
Customer Retention: Churn: 1.45	Customer Retention: Churn: 1.55
Customer Service Scores: NPS: 45%	Customer Service Scores: NPS: 48%	Customer Service Scores: NPS: 42%
Employee Turnover Exempt: 28% Non-Exempt: 46% Company Turnover Exempt: 18% Non-Exempt: 26%	Employee Turnover Exempt: 18% Non-Exempt: 48%
Job Openings: 6.3% vs. 2.0% goal

You joined Dennigee's less than three years ago as a department manager. You were promoted to assistant store manager at the end of 18 months and then six months ago, you took over as the store manager following the departure of James Kidd. The promotion was based on your selling success. You turned many one-time or infrequent shoppers into profitable repeat customers.And, the changes you made for displaying product choices and pricing were so productive and efficient; they became operational standards for all stores. As a store manager, your main responsibilities include driving revenues, increasing the number of items per customer transaction, and improving inventory turns. Executing each of these responsibilities has its challenges; however, developing your staff into a team has been the most challenging. You have a growing respect for other store managers everywhere as you have learned firsthand about the daily, unpredictable people side of the business. Retaining top talent is an ongoing issue. The average tenure for an employee is 16 months, while it is 22 months for supervisors and managers. There are many performance issues, which vary from person to person. But, you have successfully formed and trained the managerial and supervisory staff who function very well as a team. The part-time employees are a different story. They typically fall short of meeting their daily responsibilities, represent the bottom 25% of the districts employee performance ratings, and their NPS survey percentages are below 60%. You have 26 PT employees. You also have two assistant store managers and 6 department supervisors who all have diverse talents and tactics for motivation. You just completed a Monday morning store walk through. You evaluated and took note of the areas of the store that needed attention, as well as the inventory in-stock status. During the walk, you evaluated all operational areas to make sure they were recovered from the weekends business. Overall, the store had not fully recovered. Last weekend, residents enjoyed sunny, warm weather, which translated to an especially busy Saturday and exceeded revenue targets. As you walked the store you made note of the following:

1. Promotional signage was up-to-date and appropriately displayed.

2. Cleanliness standards were not met. Discarded product packaging and scrap cardboard were observed in some selling areas. Restrooms needed mopping and the mirrors were streaked. Paper products in the restrooms were not adequately stocked.

3. The walk-in greenhouse was up to standard.

4. The watering equipment department was up to standard.

5. Some of the inventory levels were short, especially for the current planting equipment that was being promoted. Liquid fertilizers were also in short supply.

6. You received two e-mails on Sunday from customers complaining about long wait times over the weekend. Plus, selling items at the checkout (gardening gloves and knee pads) were not fully stocked and signed.

So, you made a note to check the weekend schedule to see if the store had been adequately covered. After the store walk, you had a meeting with the entire management team, which included the assistant store managers and department supervisors. You reviewed the summary of the morning store walk with the team. You believe that the management team is not focusing on the right things. However, you recognize that this gives you the opportunity to establish solid expectations, adjust to individual needs, and demonstrate a supportive position. James, the previous store manager, did a reasonably good job, but you are convinced you can do better. You especially want to help your team see the big picture and focus on executing the Big 5.

To accomplish this goal, you decide to talk with the assistant managers to reset goals and expectations and regain their commitment to the Big 5. But, youll have to prepare for these conversations. You have two assistant managersEddie and Amy. Eddie is the veteran of the store. He is responsible for operations and receiving. He was a department manager when the store opened over four years ago and has been the lead assistant store manager for the last two years. He has been a consistent and responsible performer with one notable exception. In the past, Eddie has had bitter and disruptive clashes of wills with several department managers. However, these conflicts end when the department managers leave the store. His customer service skills are exceptional, especially greeting the customers and maintaining operational and inventory standards. However, Eddie did not take your promotion very well. Eddie felt that he was leaped over. As managers you and Eddie get along fine and are cordial to one another. Though Eddie has not been very direct with you about his displeasure, it has shown in his interactions with you. And, youve even heard from other managers that Eddie is upset. However, as the store manager, you have been professional and respectful towards Eddie and involve him in many managerial responsibilities and decisions. Maybe Eddies behavior and feelings should be included in the agenda for the upcoming expectations-setting meeting. You think it would be a good idea to review the job profile for the assistant store manager's position, which is the same as it is for the store manager. This may in fact be the critical piece of the discussion. At times over the past few months, you and Eddie seem to have had overlapping roles. It will be important to clarify and distinguish these roles and align them with the store's goals and objectives. You decide to review Eddies performance agreement for the current year and were reminded of his:

Strengths and achievements:

Improved MTD customer service scores, reduced MTD shrink % vs. target, improved exempt turnover rate

You also note opportunities:

Rollout of new processes needs improvement; Part-time staff needs to be better managed; Needs to spend more time providing employees with ongoing feedback; and Inventory tracking needs focus and improvement.

Amy is the other assistant store manager who oversees the remaining store functions. Amy was initially promoted from a department supervisor position to assistant store manager by your predecessor, just before you took over as store manager. She still acts like the new kid on the block and most of the time she reverts back to serving customers when she is supposed to be supervising. Amy was promoted because her departments led in sales for several focus periods, averaging 5-7% above targeted revenues. But, you think that she spends more time with customers than she supervises. The previous store manager was overall very pleased with Amys performance for several reasons. She was a quick learner and rapidly assimilated lots of product knowledge. In general, employees seem to like Amy and appreciate her quick humor and friendliness. Now that she is an assistant store manager, you feel that Amy is too aggressive with the department supervisors she oversees. She needs to learn the important distinction between being aggressive and energetic. At times, the pace of her speech hurts her ability to connect with employees and customers.

You have tried to give her feedback on how to coach supervisors and employees in customer service and selling techniques, on an ongoing basis. This has been a difficult task given the pace of the store. You have also talked with Amy in an effort to build rapport and learn more about what makes her tick. Amys upcoming formal mid-year review will give you a chance to recap, assess her progress to date, look ahead together, and set expectations for the next half of the year. You decide that your first step in preparing for conversations with Eddie and Amy is to use the T-Sheet, a tool your district manager gave you to capture performance data. You completed one for Amy.

Amy Anderson, Assistant Store Manager	Date: Spring Season, May
Support	Develop
Avoided a difficult situation with an unhappy customer by listening and clearly explaining what she understood the situation to be. Offered solutions and options.	Late twice this month. Said car trouble.
Highly energetic and involved in team meetings. Helps employees understand business results. Offers suggestions and ideas.	Good natured, but occasionally too aggressive approach with customers. Visibly turned off an elderly couple who needed help making a product selection
Consistently executes promotional signage planograms and works toward maintaining very high standards in the store.	Received two complaints from department supervisors managers. Amy keeps cutting them off in front of other employees and customers.
Helps employees up-sell customers using suggestive selling techniques	Store selling area not fully recovered three times this month.

Answer the following:

State your vision for the store; explain

Determine and describe three objectives on which your team should focus, then list them in priority order

Use the Dennigee's Case Study leader plan template to outline your plan; based on your leadership priority list, insert specific goals for each of your objectives (by month, by quarter, and by season)

OBJECTIVES	THIS MONTH	THIS QUARTER	THIS SEASON(YEAR)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Explain how the objectives you have identified and the goals you have set align with the company strategy stated in the case study