Retailers around the world have embraced self-checkout technology in recent years, but at least one is going back to the old-fashioned approach of paying real human employees to work their registers. Since March 2024, Dollar General has removed self-checkout kiosks in around 12,000 of its more than 20,000 stores.
The reason: Shrink.
Anyone who has worked in the retail sector knows that shrink doesn’t refer to your favorite t-shirt when it comes out of the dryer or to a visit to a psychiatrist. From mom-and-pop clothing stores in small towns to jewelry stores in metro malls to every Walmart, Target, and Best Buy in the suburbs, shrink refers to the loss of inventory, typically due to damage, errors, or theft by shoppers and employees.
In fiscal year 2022, the average shrink rate was 1.6%, according to the National Retail Federation, which accounts for a whopping $112.1 billion in losses. It’s a big deal to businesses, and Dollar General’s leaders have data showing that using employees in the checkout process reduces their losses from shrink.
There’s another type of shrink that should concern businesses and not just those in retailing: Leadership Shrink.
I’m not talking about the loss of leaders, but the loss of what matters to leaders — time, confidence, and joy, for instance.
Don’t let people steal your time.
People can steal a lot of things from a leader, but the most important thing for me to protect was time.
Leaders need margin. Much like a good March Madness basketball team creates space on the court so players can hit shots, we need to create space in our lives.
How we fill that space looks different for everyone. For me, I needed time outside of work to spend with family, friends, and my creator. Quiet time to meditate, think, and pray, in fact, was essential to my leadership success and to my relationships.
To prevent shrinkage of time, leaders must intentionally create and protect space (a time and a place) for thinking and reflecting on work and non-work matters and for enjoying our non-work relationships. Not just occasionally, but as part of a disciplined routine. This allows us to satisfy our own needs so that we are in a better position to serve the needs of others.
Don’t let people steal your confidence.
Leaders operate in a wide-open field that’s full of challenges, many of them hidden like land mines. The only way to cross it is to take risks that inevitably result in a few failures, and it’s hard not to take those losses personally.
The critics inside and outside of an organization are quick to point out our failures and second-guess our decisions, but at times the person most likely to steal our confidence is ourselves.
We can prevent this type of shrink by refusing to give the critics (including our inner critic) undue influence on our attitude. It’s also helpful to remember the good decisions and successful projects that helped us get to a position of leadership in the first place.
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Don’t let people steal your joy.
Everyone wants to be happy, but happiness is an emotion that’s held in the fickle hands of life’s circumstances. We can always pursue happiness, but we won’t always be happy.
Joy has more staying powers, but critics will try to steal it by taking our time and emphasizing our failures, as well as by belittling our successes. The negative voices in our lives chirp relentlessly like hungry birds. And even if they don’t take our time or confidence, they can steal our joy.
The last thing an organization needs is a joyless leader, because no one wants to follow someone who comes across uninspired or depressed. We need to lead with energy, and energy is fueled by inner joy. So, as one preacher put it, we can’t give the enemy a seat at our table (even if the enemy is a chirping bird).
Whatever we value most in our leadership, whether it’s time, confidence, joy, or something else, rest assured that it will come under attack. We have to protect it from shrink – from the people and circumstances that threaten to damage or steal it. Because if we lose too much of what matters to our leadership, we’ll soon go out of business.
