Walmart Store Managers
Photo: Walmart

Can Walmart Train Its Store Managers to Become Leaders?

Walmart has launched Manager Academy, a week-long training session to help store managers guide their teams.

Lorraine Stomski, Walmart’s senior vice president, learning & leadership, wrote in a company blog that last year the retailer held similar training sessions for store managers hired or promoted during  the novel coronavirus pandemic. The company saw the value of the sessions for those managers, and consequently felt that all managers could benefit from the networking and leadership exercises.

Those participating include veteran managers who can “brush up on their leadership skills and help mentor the newer managers.”

The training objectives include:

  • Understanding Walmart’s values and championing its culture at work;
  • Leading with empathy and focusing on the well-being of associates;
  • Learning how to further engage with the retailer’s customers and communities;
  • Embracing change and being an example to others to do the same.

Store managers receive a “360-degree feedback survey” from fellow associates and managers during the session to help activate the training exercises. Following the week-long session, managers participate in a six-month mentorship with managers who have completed the class and have longer tenures with solid track records.

The training also includes exploring case studies about leading store operations, networking with senior leaders and touring stores with the latest technology.

“We know many have the retail knowledge and customer service skills to do the job of a store manager successfully,” wrote Ms. Stomski. “What they’re seeking is additional training around leadership and managing teams.”

Manager Academy is part of Walmart’s $1 billion five-year investment in a career-development program announced in July 2021 that also covers college tuition and books for employees.

Bob Phibbs, CEO, The Retail Doctor, wrote in a blog entry that store managers must be good at multi-tasking and acting quickly on decisions. He stressed the importance of being able to motivate.

“The best managers know how to get the most out of their team by using their people management, listening, and problem-solving skills to encourage their associates and sustain employee engagement,” said Mr. Phibbs. “That means using judicious, constructive criticism instead of belittling them. It means respecting others instead of ‘my way or the highway.’ It means leading by example instead of doing as I say.”

BrainTrust

"Managers aren't born, they're cultivated. This is a great idea for Walmart."

Dr. Stephen Needel

Managing Partner, Advanced Simulations


"What’s not to like about this leadership training initiative at Walmart? Feels like a home run to me."

Dave Bruno

Director, Retail Market Insights, Aptos


"This is a process of both training & discovery. It’s a level playing field for those being trained, and for Walmart it’s an opportunity to see how the cream rises to the top."

Jeff Sward

Founding Partner, Merchandising Metrics


Discussion Questions

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What benefits will Walmart and its managers receive from the retailer’s Manager Academy program? Would you add key learning components besides understanding the company’s values, leading with empathy, engaging with customers, and embracing change?

Poll

22 Comments
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Mark Ryski
Noble Member
10 months ago

Retailers can’t run their stores by algorithm – it takes leaders with good judgement. I especially appreciate Walmart’s focus on some softer, people skills which are more important now more than ever. Walmart is making an investment in people because they expect that it will result in better business outcomes including higher sales and better customer service, and I think that this bet will pay off.

Allison McCabe
Active Member
10 months ago

This is a great start. Increased loyalty, employee retention and a better customer facing experience should follow. The trick is long term commitment to constantly upping the skill set with courses and mentorship not only through six months, but with additional courses throughout. Leading with empathy should always be reinforced with self evaluation of management style. Embracing change is great and also needs the ability to guide others through it. Writing and delivering feedback are critical. Checking the box as trained is a strong step. Next keep raising the bar with supplemental options.

Bob Amster
Trusted Member
10 months ago

Managers and customers will benefit directly from such an academy and equally important is that Walmart will have created a huge pool of potential executives. Through the training, Walmart executives will be able to uncover those employees who have the potential to grow and be trained further, eventually entering the ranks of middle and even upper management.

John Lietsch
Active Member
10 months ago

Promoting employees into positions of leadership doesn’t automatically make them leaders so investing in leadership training is worthwhile and should benefit the customer, the organization and the individual. I suspect that one week isn’t sufficient but the real value of the training is the mentorship program, an incredibly important element of anyone’s leadership and personal growth. I would add problem solving, project/task management and prioritization — leaders need to know what to solve, how to solve and in what order.

Dave Bruno
Active Member
10 months ago

What’s not to like about this leadership training initiative at Walmart? Personal growth for the managers, growth in productivity for their teams, and greater engagement and tenure for both managers and associates. Feels like a home run to me.

Rich Kizer
Member
10 months ago

Absolutely. But clearly the education must be frequent. It is a great strategy to pursue, but the pursuit must be continual to produce buy-in on the staff’s part and not look like just another meeting.

Dr. Stephen Needel
Active Member
10 months ago

Managers aren’t born, they’re cultivated. This is a great idea for Walmart. I hope they go beyond the idealistic objectives listed above and get into best-practice decisions. I’m guessing there’s nothing new that happens that hasn’t happened before — teach to that experience.

Gene Detroyer
Noble Member
Reply to  Dr. Stephen Needel
10 months ago

There are great leaders who are great managers. There are great leaders who are poor managers.

What makes the latter great is that they find great managers to help them out.

David Spear
Active Member
10 months ago

Soft people skills are essential and it’s good to see Walmart trying to upskill its managers. Walmart should also consider follow-on courses through a series of both online and in-person instruction that continues to elevate these individuals throughout their careers. The goal would be two-fold: enhance the skills of our people managers and, in parallel, identify high-potentials and move them into positions of increased responsibility. At some point, Walmart will find its future Directors, VPs, SVPs and perhaps even its future CEO from these cohort classes.

Gene Detroyer
Noble Member
10 months ago

I am not a big fan of management training. In my 17 years with two international corporations, I spent more weeks in these types of sessions than I cared to. There are certain talents that come with an individual that can’t be trained. As Bob Phibbs says, “The best managers know how to get the most out of their team by using their people management, listening, and problem-solving skills to encourage their associates and sustain employee engagement,” We can’t repeat that too often. As that famous management book said, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”

It seems to me that this is a process of discovering the best and brightest. When it comes to management traits, I don’t think there are any Eurekas. The most important learning is understanding company values, which are not always apparent. The next is how and why the company makes the decisions it does. Lastly, what is the company thinking about for the future?

Patricia Vekich Waldron
Active Member
10 months ago

Managers, associates and customers will all benefit from this program, as will Walmart’s top and bottom line. It’s about time retailers return to investing in and valuing customer-facing managers.

Ricardo Belmar
Active Member
10 months ago

Retail is absolutely a people business and it’s all about building relationships. Whether those relationships are between store manager and store associate, or with a customer, having the right leadership skills that motivate employees to engage customers is a must for success. Bob Phibbs is 100 percent correct in his assessment of what store managers need from a skills perspective. This is a great move by Walmart to provide the skilling every store manager needs!

Jeff Sward
Noble Member
10 months ago

This is a process of both training and discovery. It’s a level playing field for those being trained, and for Walmart it’s an opportunity to see how the cream rises to the top. People can be trained only so far into the growth process. Some managers can climb the hill earlier and faster and higher than others.

Ryan Mathews
Trusted Member
10 months ago

With respect, I think the headline is a bit misleading. There is a world of difference between leaders and managers. Can Walmart train existing managers to be better managers? Of course. Can it train managers to become leaders? That is a much different question and not one that can be answered by a week’s worth of training. Retailing is a tough business, especially at Walmart’s scale where conformity, not entrepreneurial experimentation, is the goal. Real leaders are change agents and change is not necessarily a goal when you are trying to provide uniform service and merchandising and ensuring brand compliance across 4,000 or 5,000 stores. Also a week isn’t enough time for in-depth training. A start? Sure, but only that. And if managers don’t already understand the company’s culture and values, why are they managers? And while leading with empathy sounds great, it’s hard to put into practice given something as “simple” as labor scheduling. Ditto with “embracing change.” This sounds like a baby step in what may be the right direction, but teaching people how to manage is not the same as teaching them how to lead. Leadership is a quality that is innate in many cases, not something that can be taught, especially when it’s wrapped up in progressive “HR Speak.”

Gene Detroyer
Noble Member
Reply to  Ryan Mathews
10 months ago

That is great and true commentary. With your permission, I will add this to my leadership classes.

Ryan Mathews
Trusted Member
Reply to  Gene Detroyer
10 months ago

Gene,

Please feel free to use it if you find any value in it.

Gene Detroyer
Noble Member
Reply to  Ryan Mathews
10 months ago

Thanks. I will.

Mohammad Ahsen
Active Member
10 months ago

Store managers are the heartbeat of the retail operations and help retail brands get integrated with communities across the country. One of the most important aspects of the retailer’s Manager Academy program is learning how to manage people, and it’s an in-demand skill in not only in the U.S. right but across the globe.

The program comes with multiple benefits as it provides leadership, change management, people & empathy management skills as well as retrain managers on operational efficiencies, help increase store productivity, retail best practices and building relationship with customers. It is a good steps towards building store managers loyalty and ensuring that they stay longer with company.

Bob Phibbs
Trusted Member
10 months ago

Of course. What a ridiculous headline.

Brian Crum
Brian Crum
Reply to  Bob Phibbs
10 months ago

HA! You know… most could think that, but… I’ve worked with a few managers that I’m pretty sure NOBODY could train to be good leaders. The way I see it, it’s less about how good the training program is and more about how teachable the individuals are.

I really enjoyed your statement captured at the end of this article. Great insights, Bob!

Bob Phibbs
Trusted Member
Reply to  Brian Crum
10 months ago

Anyone can be trained to lead. It simply means knowing what success looks like and teaching it. Leading a team still is being shown how to do it, given resources, and given opportunity to fail and learn from it. This idea it means they have to be the next Steven Jobs or the old bhag is ridiculous. This generation thrives on learning, but you have to devote the resources and people to learn it or you just have task masters. Which isn’t managing either.

Shannon
10 months ago

At the beginning and end of the day, we’re all humans and we are inspired by being heard, understood and helped -> sympathy, empathy, compassion. It’s so trite to say happy employees = happy customers, but there is a reason it is…because it’s a truth.

Store Managers have incredibly hard jobs!! Retailers used to have better executive/on-boarding programs. I think a program like this is overdue. So I really appreciate their effort to invest and not only think about the business & customers, but also their associates.