General Manager I - CE UK Bicester (40 Hours)

Coach is a global fashion house founded in New York in 1941. Inspired by the vision of Creative Director Stuart Vevers and the inclusive and courageous spirit of our hometown, we make beautiful things, crafted to last—for you to be yourself in.

Coach is part of the Tapestry portfolio – a global house of brands committed to stretching what’s possible.

A member of the Tapestry family, we are part of a global house of brands that has unwavering optimism and is committed to being innovative and wholly inclusive. Visit Our People page to learn more about Tapestry's commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity.

GENERAL MANAGER

Summary / Primary Purpose

The General Manager’s primary responsibility is the creation of strategic business plans that will impact overall store performance metrics, customer service and lead to successful execution of initiatives. The General Manager sets the tone for the store environment through partnership with the Store Manager / Management Team and all store staff. It is the role of General Manager to exemplify excellence with all Coach Standards including Coach Service, operations and visual presentation along with modeling core competencies. The General Manager’s leadership includes mentoring the Store Manager / Management Team through all performance management competencies and behavioral expectations. The General Manager partners with the Area Manager to evaluate store and market opportunities, establish goals, create and implement strategies that will impact store results and profitability.

PROFILE

Management Competencies and Behavioral Expectations: 

SALES ABILITY/SKILLS

• Partners with Store Manager / Management Team to establish sales and productivity goals for the store and associates utilizing current business trends and forecasts
• Recognizes external economic factors/business trends and communicates plans for change to ensure goals are met
• Utilizes resources  to effectively forecast sales plans
• Consistently ensures the execution of sales training programs
• Sets the example through role modeling Coach Service behaviors
• Creates a high energy, sales and service focused environment

SERVICE ORIENTATION

• Evaluates the execution of the Service Leader role and provides coaching and feedback to ensure consistency with all members of management
• Empowers team to solve customer problems and meet customers’ needs
• Ensures Service standards are achieved through appropriate labour scheduling

PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT

• Identifies opportunities and creates action plans for the development of the Store Manager / Management Team; provides consistent coaching and feedback throughout implementation
• Enables Store Manager / Management Team to develop action plans for all levels of employees through shared evaluation of individual strengths and opportunities
• Develops realistic action plans and goals for team members career advancement, and communicates results to Area Manager in order to help fill openings in area / district

SELF DEVELOPMENT

• Consistently asks for, and is open to feedback from supervisor, subordinates and peers
• Establishes sound business relationships with corporate partners, peer group and local village or centre management
• Acts on feedback from others to improve own performance or address development issues
• Manages development plan
• Achieves deadlines even in the face of obstacles or problems
• Adapts to constantly changing environment by changing own plan, schedules etc.
• Aware of own strengths and development needs and communicates them to supervisor
• Seeks out tasks beyond own job description

LEADERSHIP

• Establishes relationships and is viewed as an expert by area/district by providing business insight and offering support
• Acts as advocate for the team
• Approaches challenges in direct and timely manner
• Takes educated risks when necessary, and challenges others as appropriate
• Able to motivate others to achieve results, and inspire team to follow lead
• Able to maintain composure even when faced with tough situations
• Maintains high level of integrity in business and relationships with others
• Consistently establishes and measures expectations for performance
• Maintains a confident and/or commanding floor presence
• Ensures that team understands company vision and business needs
• Takes on leadership role at store openings (per Area Manager request)
• Provide store support within area/district as directed by multi manager

TEAMBUILDING

• Creates a positive, high energy and professional store environment by role modeling behavioral expectations
• Enables Store Manager / Management Team to take on a primary leadership role through consistent support of ideas and expectations
• Fosters environment of inclusion and creates partnerships with team members
• Proactively and consistently utilizes The Network and The Shop to source candidates for store and communicates Top Talent information to Multi Manager
• Able to identify training opportunities and evaluate the store’s overall performance to select Top Talent and fill open positions promptly
• Support On-Boarding of new management team members within area/district (per Area Manger request)

COMMUNICATION

• Demonstrates effective written, verbal, and non-verbal communication
• Communicates professionally with diplomacy and tact, and tailors style to impact specific audience
• Communicates effectively with direct reports, peers, supervisors, and corporate partners
• Demonstrates the ability to influence others and role models skill for the Store Manager / Management Team
• Ensures the team is able to effectively communicate with each other
• Ensures consistent use of Coach communication tools
• Practices effective active listening techniques
• Delivers difficult messages with objectivity while maintaining self-esteem
• Diffuses potential conflict by utilizing situation/behavior/impact model and able to redirect to achieve desired results

STRATEGIC PLANNING/ORGANIZING/EXECUTION

• Anticipates potential obstacles or issues and develops solutions to overcome
• Appropriately allocates and monitors planned payroll hours according to business trends and scheduling needs.
• Creates long term hiring plans to meet forecasted sales plans
• Partners with Area Manager to implement processes that will impact store specific operations
• Works with Area Manager and corporate partners to ensure effective product flow
• Implements plans in a timely manner, and ensures team understanding
• Develops plans to address key business issues, and utilizes plans to impact business and achieve desired results
• Develops systems to achieve goals, and able to redefine goals as appropriate
• Able to influence others to gain support to achieve goals and complete projects
• Effective use of planning and/or time management tools
• Effectively prioritizes business needs
• Delegates and follows-up to ensure key issues are addressed
• Tailors execution of company initiatives to environment

INTEGRITY/PROFESSIONALISM

• Represents the brand appropriately in all situations
• Consistently ensures team compliance to company guidelines
• Appropriately reacts to unethical or unprofessional behavior
• Demonstrates professional ethics and instills them among all team members.
• Maintains professional demeanor even in times of stress
• Maintains objectivity and considers all points of view
• Maintains alignment with company goals and vision

Additional Requirements:

• Experience: 3 to 5 years previous Store Manager experience in a retail service environment
• Education: High School diploma or equivalent, college or university degree preferred
• Technical: Knowledge of, and ability to use Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook
• Physical : Ability to communicate effectively with customers and staff, maneuver sales floor, the ability to meet moderate stockroom lifting requirements, and store climbing requirements
• Schedule: Ability to work flexible schedule to meet the needs of the business, including nights, weekends and holidays

*Note: This document serves only as a sample of job duties and responsibilities and does not include an exhaustive list of all performance requirements

Our Competencies for All Employees

• Courage: Doesn’t hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and “actionable” positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation (not including direct reports) quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.
• Creativity: Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings.
• Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
• Dealing with Ambiguity: Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn’t upset when things are up in the air; doesn’t have to finish things before moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty.
• Drive for Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
• Interpersonal Savvy: Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
• Learning on the Fly: Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything.

Our Competencies for All People Managers

• Strategic Agility: Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
• Developing Direct Reports and Others: Provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each person's career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; pushes people to accept developmental moves; will take on those who need help and further development; cooperates with the developmental system in the organization; is a people builder.
• Building Effective Teams: Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale and spirit in their team; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; lets people finish and be responsible for their work; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging in the team.

Coach is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we pride ourselves on hiring and developing the best people. All employment decisions (including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, training, discipline and termination) are based on the applicant’s or employee’s qualifications as they relate to the requirements of the position under consideration. These decisions are made without regard to age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic characteristics, race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, national origin, alienage, citizenship, disability, marital status, military status, pregnancy, or any other legally-recognized protected basis prohibited by applicable law. Visit Coach at www.coach.com.