It is a sound business philosophy to allow that one’s successes are a team effort. The old “I couldn’t have done this without…”
You fill in the blanks.
After all, there is no ‘I’ in TEAM.
But…there is a “ME.” And the ME is the one that gets the blame when there is a mistake.
But from my experience~as a manager and an associate~one’s successes are a team effort but so often are one’s failures.

I’m all for taking ownership of errors and part of owning errors is fixing them and seeing the project through to completion.
But one shouldn’t need a spanking, verbal abuse or demoralizing treatment to check a behavior. Behaviors are not people.
And sometimes, stuff just happens.

It’s a waste of valuable resources to demoralize someone especially, when time can be put to better use actually fixing the issue.
As we used to ask when a mistake was made:
Was the error done in good faith?
Did the person who made the mistake have the client-customer-team’s best interest at heart and it was “just a mistake?”
If a mistake is made~then we should see this as an opportunity to find out why.
Is management effectively communicating expectations? Is there training needed? Are there conflicting directives that might be interfering with getting the projects done?
Are all parties providing the correct information at the most effective time?
Success is a collaborative venture. It has to be if you have created and managed your team well.

In the past, I have seen a locker room mentality~primarily cultivated by some management teams~that earnestly believe that it’s a helpful and successful model.
It’s even espoused on some LinkedIn blogs by really successful, really winning people.
But it’s a philosophy that can create a culture in a retail environment that can have serious pitfalls.
I’m fine with the slapping of backs and rough language~I’m a big girl. I cut my teeth on a construction crew working as a Sheetrock Woman.
(Notice there are no ironic quotation marks here.)

But not all women~or men for that matter~are okay with it. It’s exclusive. But in a bad way.
So the guys shouldn’t get frustrated when a woman gets a little teary or worse~noticeably upset~if you call her out in front of her peers.
She~and sometimes even he~is not a football player~despite the fact that management wants to make them to “feel” as if they are.
Hey, I get the Tony Dungy references & the hardline on expectations. I understand the goal & I understand what’s at stake but your average retail sales associate didn’t expect to be joining a football team when they signed onto their company.
Hopefully, they are being paid well as an incentive but that company also, expects the employee to be able to gracefully withstand verbal abuse from strangers while talking about a myriad of subjects.
It’s akin to asking a football player to let fans stand 3 ft from them while yelling & raising their hands while he explains to them how to embroider, throw a curve ball & clean a carburetor~at the same time.
And that football team metaphor doesn’t cut it when the safety has called out, the running back is boning for bucks in the break room, and the second team is light due to cutbacks in payroll.
Welcome to Retail.
It’s a challenging and rewarding career…
But it’s still not a football team.

Paying employees well doesn’t give you the right to use football metaphors to demoralize or instill an atmosphere of fear:
“Ah, jeez, you don’t want to be cut from the team do you?”
“For what we pay you…”
And before you say it…just because someone (male or female) might not tolerate a locker room culture that doesn’t mean that person shouldn’t be given a spot on your Winning Team.

Because they are a retail associate~not a football player.
And sometimes, this valued employee, is a woman. And though there are women who aren’t fazed by the “hardline” there are some who are.

I was actually one of the woman who, in the past, wasn’t fazed by sport metaphors…But then I learned something.
You know what that was?
It had to do with the expectation of professional respect.
If I didn’t get it…
I learned that when I pushed back~I got hit harder than my male peers.
And when I got back up & “took it like (a man)” I was deemed “condescending” & perceived as “someone with an attitude.”
And my male peers? All they would get was a snort of admiration & a slap on the back.
So no…I am not a football player because the rules…are not applied equally or fairly.
And so next time when you see a woman’s face turn pink or they get a little teary when they are being called out remember this:
You are not playing fair.
You have essentially told that woman that
The Locker Room has a sign on it and it says:
“No Girls Allowed!”
And she knows it.