When I think of all of the assets with which we are entrusted and which we are expected to protect for our companies, I find myself thrilled by the challenge. And, maybe just a bit intimidated by the responsibility. Not only do we have the challenge of reducing the negative line items in the profit and loss statements of our employer, but we also have the assignment of protecting our company’s human capital and the image or brand of the company. These responsibilities can be daunting and, if we try to accomplish these all by ourselves, we will probably fail. It takes a whole team to succeed.
This does not mean we need a cast of thousands in the loss prevention department. It means we need to recruit and enlist the efforts of partners throughout the company. Retailers consist of some primary vertical functional areas such as buying and merchandising and store operations. Loss prevention, like IT and human resources are horizontal functional areas that cross through all of the company’s vertical functional responsibilities. We need to have partners in our efforts to protect and reduce loss from every other functional area within the company. Generally, we strive to cultivate those partners as champions for our cause.
How do we identify those champions and begin to educate them on our mission and win them over as partners? It begins with trust. Trust is something that does not just happen. It is earned. And it is so important to the success of not only the loss prevention department, but also the company the department serves. When you have earned trust in your company, you are rewarded with “trust dividends” and if you do not earn that trust then “trust taxes” are imposed upon you, sapping your energy and your effectiveness. And, earning trust is not always easy for us because there are some employees in our companies who believe we are engaged in a mission of catching people doing something wrong. That is the worse stereotype that can happen to loss prevention and, unfortunately, during all of the years I have been in this business, I have seen some fellow practitioners capitalize on this image. I urge you not to fall into that trap. If you do, not only will you not gain the partnership you need, but frankly, you will utterly fail in your mission within your company.
In his book, The Speed of Trust, Stephen M. R. Covey tells the reader to thoroughly embrace and believe in Four Cores of Credibility and then begin to “walk the talk” to earn the trust necessary to create alignment in the functional areas of the organization. Those Four Cores of Credibility are:
Covey goes on to list 13 behaviors necessary for cultivating trust. The following five behaviors flow initially from character:
The next five flow from competence:
And, the last three from an almost equal mix of character and competence:
I believe that a key sub-tactic under the first major tactic of successful loss prevention is to earn, gain and establish trust. For the most part, human nature tells us we do not want to violate trust and let someone down. And the major tactic of loss prevention is where all of us should be spending most of our time and effort.
King Rogers can be reached at (612) 840-2201 or king@kingrogers.com.