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This podcast focuses on the skills required to lead multiple convenience store locations and support store managers at scale. Each episode covers multi-unit operations, performance management, leadership development, and execution across a group of stores.
District managers must balance results, people, and processes across different locations. Drive breaks down how to identify issues, support managers, improve consistency, and build strong operations across an entire district.
If you oversee multiple stores and want to improve performance, accountability, and leadership across your team, this podcast provides clear and practical insights.
Dr EP 105: MANAGERIAL ROLE EVOLUTION (MOVING FROM DOING THE WORK TO LEADING THE TEAM)
You are the District Manager. You visit one of your stores, and you see the Store Manager, Dave, working the register. The store is clean, and the shelves are stocked, but there is no energy. You walk into the back, and you see two other employees sitting on crates, looking bored, with absolutely nothing to do. You ask Dave why he’s on the register instead of guiding those two employees to get more work done. Dave says, "I can do it faster than them, so I just get it out of the way." You think that Dave is just being a hard worker. You are wrong. Dave isn't working hard; he is working against his own success. You caused this problem because you have been judging Dave on how fast he stocks shelves, not on how well he grows his team. You are teaching your managers to be "super-workers" when they should be leaders.
Welcome back to Drive. I am Mike Hernandez. Today, we are talking about why District Managers need to stop rewarding managers for "doing" and start demanding that they focus on "leading."
When you look at your stores, it is easy to be blinded by a clean floor or a full shelf. But look closer. If your manager is the one doing all the heavy lifting, that store has a ceiling. It can only ever be as good as that one person’s hands. As a District Manager, your job is to make sure your managers are building teams that are bigger, faster, and smarter than they are.
To make this change, you have to shift how you look at the store.
First, stop praising "busyness." If a manager tells you they are busy because they are doing all the vendor check-ins themselves, don't say "great job." Say, "Why isn't your Assistant Manager doing that?" You have to stop acting like working harder is the goal. The goal is to build a team. If the manager is doing the grunt work, they aren't managing. They are just a very expensive hourly employee.
Second, look for the "gap" between the manager and the team. If a manager is great but their team is weak, that is a failure of leadership. You need to ask your managers about their training plans. Who did they train this week? What new task did an associate learn? If they can’t tell you, they aren't leading. They are just keeping the seat warm. You need to show them that their real job is to multiply their own skills across the entire staff.
Third, you have to be the coach of the coaches. When you visit a store, don't just walk the floor. Sit down with the manager and look at their assignment sheets. See who is doing the work. If you see the same person doing all the work every day, call it out. Tell the manager, "You are burning this person out and you are keeping everyone else from learning." It is your job to push them to delegate, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Your goal as a District Manager is to build a territory where the stores run better when the manager is training than when the manager is working. That is how you scale.
Alright, let’s get your district's leadership focused on the right things. Your job is to stop letting your managers hide behind "doing" and force them to step up into "leading."
Here is your assignment for the week. During your next three store visits, find one task the manager is doing. Make them stop. Point to a team member and have the manager show them how to do it instead. Watch them do it. Don't let them take over. Make them coach.
I have a "District Leadership Audit" document for you. It’s a simple checklist to help you see if your managers are really leading or just staying busy. Text the word DRIVE105 to 9 5 6 - 8 9 7 - 9 1 9 2. Or, email the word DRIVE105 to admin at c store center dot com and I'll send you the digital copy.
Before you go, a quick personal note. Between 2011 and 2013, I worked on the Navajo Reservation and volunteered on the Tsaille Community College Advisory Board Council. That experience helped me realize I wanted to become a Professor of Convenience Store Retail Operations and give back to the industry by helping to develop talent for it. I learned that you cannot grow your business until you stop being the most important person in the building. You have to start building people who are better than you are. Also, text the letters A I to 9 5 6 - 8 9 7 - 9 1 9 2 if you would like to learn more about how you can practically use artificial intelligence at work. Execution is universal.
Happy Learning. Remember, learning shouldn't feel like punishment. It should feel like a possibility.