First of all, a leader must be able to motivate their staff.

Some people are easier to control and some are stubborn and over self-confident like me. Once I see someone’s weakness I lose respect towards them . I refuse to follow decisions made by someone less competent then me. My problem is that I learn incredibly quickly and once I’ve mastered everything my supervisors are capable of I start progressing learning new skills, while they remain in their role. I that case eventually I feel that I know more than my boss and that is the sign it’s either a chance for a promotion, either it’s time for me to move on. I can’t find anything more tedious than being smarter than the management. I lose interest in the job and turn into a miserable creature. I lose motivation to improve because my hard work has not been acknowledged. And who needs a lousy worker?

Second, a leader must acknowledge staff success and failures.

Mistakes aren’t always a bad thing. A Romanian proverb says, “Only the foolish learn from experience — the wise learn from the experience of others,” which actually means the wise learn from the fools. However, the important part is knowing how to deal with the human errors. In most of the cases, faux pas must not be punished – a dedicated employee will understand their mistake immediately and will take full responsibility, however, the error must be acknowledged and explained. It is not enough to point out weaknesses - issues have to be resolved.

At the same time, success has to be greeted with appreciation. When a financial reward is not applicable a few nice words and a simple Thank You will do. It just has to be genuine.

Third, a leader must have a vast amounts of common sense.

In any business there are times when company’s policy needs to be a little bent. The rules are made for masses but a true leader knows how to implicate some common sense in the regulations. The situations differ and often following the book only brings frustration and slows down the growth. The priorities have to be straight forward and the values have to be kept. However, in some cases the manager has to take responsibility to act independently in order to gain more. If you don’t risk, you don’t drink champagne!

The most thrilling feeling is the ability to solve someone else’s problem. We have hundreds of customers come to our shop looking for something particular, something they cannot find in other stores and our job is to help as much as we can. Our team exercises product knowledge every day and our superb customer service lets customers leave happy and satisfied. We work together to understand what customers want, what they need and deliver a successful result.

You can imagine, I do enjoy my work environment. Because, while the pay is not so great, work days seem to pass quite quick. Even though it is not the most glamorous job on earth, I feel I’ve learned fair share new things and improved on my personal skills.

First of all, I’ve learned strict discipline.

At certain point I was worried I might have got stuck in routine but soon I realised that for the first time ever my life was fully organised. I was in control of my time and was able to take up more responsibilities.

Second, I’ve learned to sell and sell myself.

I would always get insecure about boasting my best qualities. Yes, with friends and strangers I would try to show off because I get excited about little things, but I believe I failed most of my job interviews because I didn’t believe I could do the job. Now I’ve promised myself to feel more positive.

Third, I’ve learned about people and stationery.

The company provides training on product knowledge and retail skills and I since my first day I’ve been discovering more and more information I was clueless about. Did you know that tail some of the staplers have can be used as staples remover? Did you know that on average an office worker uses 11 Post-Its a day? (Did I say I get excited about little things?) And at the same time I have bee communicating with such a wide range of customers I’ve learned more about different cultures and characters. Yes, we get a couple of psycho but the vast majority are good people. I’ve even learned a couple new words!

These three are the three main of my achievements but there are more personal qualities I’ve improved on, such as the attention to detail (I’ve spotted a fake £20 note), ability to listen and understand (some customers have no idea how to describe what they are looking for, some just don’t speak English) and professional approach to work (leave your personal worries at home). I believe my current job in retail is an experience gaining exercise. It’s a part of the journey, you know.