Area Manager - Pennsylvania

Barnes & Noble•Philadelphia, PA

14h•Hybrid

About The Position

As an area manager (AM), your excitement, passion and understanding of bookselling inspires a team of store managers (SM) and cluster leaders (CL). You leverage your expertise to ensure SMs deliver a first-class customer experience by delivering commercially relevant, clean and well merchandised stores that run smoothly and profitably. You communicate initiatives and ensure consistent execution in every one of your stores, to exceed sales goals, deliver profitable businesses, maximize operational efficiency and protect assets. An AM identifies issues at area level, leverages support partners, communicating and recommending solutions to Regional Director (RD) for betterment of the company. You work through your CLs and business partners appropriately to remove obstacles and resolve situations. As a leader you motivate and empower your teams through consistent feedback and accountability conversations as you model our core values. In your role, you ensure the development of your direct reports and in turn, the development of their teams who are ready for the next assignment. You manage change well and provide clear communication that encourages the team to adopt new solutions and direction to deliver consistent and expected results.

Requirements

Strong commercial acumen, a proven track record of achieving performance and profit results.
Demonstrate ability to run an excellent bookstore, ensuring all elements of bookstore basics are consistently delivered.
Leverage and work through cluster support structure with proven results.
Experience in coaching teams to deliver performance.
Proven ability to manage performance issues respectfully and timely.
Able to plan and prioritize in the short and medium term, while maintaining flexibility.
Adept at building effective relationships with diverse stake holders.
Demonstrate an empathy for and understanding of the qualities of a good bookstore.

Responsibilities

Monitor performance levels of area and stores against agreed goal, giving necessary direction, support and coaching to positively influence performance levels.
Assess the stores in the area from a customer’s perspective and partners with SMs and commercial support.
Ensure bookselling team delivers first-class customer experience through handselling in each store to deliver sales and margin results consistently.
Leverage the cluster and team strengths to manage efficiencies through continuous improvement and communicate to RD on how these findings can improve our operations as a company.
Drive sales across the area by effective implementation of operating standards.
Deliver excellent bookselling culture across the area in which commercial opportunities are exploited and merchandising compiles with company best practice, ensuring a profitable store.
Ensure all stores in the area have an efficient logistical operation for goods in place.
Embrace and use the cluster support structure to impact your area as intended and to provide regular feedback on improvements and opportunities to support the growth of sales and the company.
Work with Loss Prevention to consistently achieve company required standards.
Own the development and succession plans for SMs and CLs in the area.
Ensure employee reviews are regular, consistent and rigorous to support a fair and effective pay and rewards process.
Develop and support the key supporting roles.
Support the café operations in the area.
Use remote working technology (Teams, Outlook 365, etc.) to support area stores while working in your home store, with selective in person travel.