Everyone knows that starting a new role is hard. Everyone knows that starting a new role at a new organization is even harder. Not everyone knows that starting a new role at a new organization where that role and department, for all intents and purposes, has never existed, is beyond hard. Oh, and throw in the fact that it is in a different segment of retail that you have never operated in—that is beyond hard—it’s brutal. The only way to survive is to embrace the suck.
That’s exactly what I have done. In mid-November 2023, I started a new role with a new organization in a different retail segment, an organization that had never had a true asset protection department in the company’s 70-year history.
Use whatever term or phrase you would like, “tough sledding,” “uphill battle,” etc. This article is not about what I’ve done in my short duration at Denny’s to navigate political waters or how I have started building the foundations of a lasting program. It’s not about the strategy or tactics, so if that is what you are looking for, then stop reading. But if you are looking for something more valuable than that—read on.
This article is a call for everyone reading this to lean into whatever challenges you face and for my fellow loss prevention executives to be mentors and coaches to others in the industry.
Challenges Are a Constant
All of us, regardless of position, face challenges. Those challenges could be closing a difficult investigation, overcoming interviewing anxiety, obtaining funding for a capital project, or adding headcount. It can be dealing with a difficult supervisor, an obnoxious coworker, or being tasked with a million and one KPIs to not only meet but exceed. It could be all of those and more. To some degree, it does not matter. What I have really learned since starting at Denny’s is that no matter where you are, what organization you are with, or what role you are in, you will always have challenges.
Your success or failure and your ability to overcome these challenges depends entirely on you and you alone and your outlook toward them. How you mentally accept those challenges, hurdles, obstacles, and roadblocks (or insert the desired term here) will, with 100 percent certainty, determine whether you succeed or fail.
Lean Into the Suck
For me, I chose to embrace the suck. And looking back on my career and my life, I’ve always done this. At this point, I’m not sure I know or can operate any differently. I chose to lean into everything that my new role entails. I chose to embrace the everyday grind, the slog through the mud, and you know what—I still choose to do so. Everything is a choice, and it’s a choice that has to be made and committed to daily. Are there tasks, meetings, and projects that I absolutely do not want to tackle? Yes. Do those change daily? Yes. But do I stop? Absolutely not! To steal a motto from a role model of mine, Cam Hanes, I “keep hammering.”
So, how are you going to approach whatever difficulty you are facing? Are you going to avoid it? Are you going to run from it? Are you going to let it win? Or are you going to embrace it, fight it, and, in the end, stand in victory over it? In other words—what choice are you going to make?
Push Beyond Your Limits
In my infinite wisdom, I decided to get more involved in the industry I have made a career in and started to give back. I’ve joined numerous committees, councils, and boards recently, which means I have to be extremely dialed in with my time, priorities, and effort. This is a deliberate choice I made that I knew would be a time suck, tax my abilities, and force me to become more efficient. I knew it would challenge my thought process as I am able to connect with other industry leaders who have different ideologies on how to run departments or handle various aspects of the job.
Again, everything is a choice, and this choice forced me to embrace the suck and find ways to be involved while still accomplishing my goals with Denny’s. Are there times when I want to be selfish and focus on myself and not the industry? Yes. Are there times when I don’t want to get on a plane and spend three days learning and connecting because I know it’s going to set me back on departmental objectives? Yes. But do I do it anyway? Yes! It’s a choice I made, and I continue to make daily: to better myself, better our industry, and be a leader who can help those just starting out in our industry or the up-and-coming leaders.
If there is one thing I wish I had available to me as I advanced in my career, it would have been to have mentors from other organizations in the same space to help guide me and teach me how to be successful. Instead, I learned the hard way and failed over and over again. But each and every time I failed, I had a choice to make (at this point, I think you know what I chose), so I chose to get back up, learn from my mistakes, and embrace the suck even more! That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have been nice to have someone help me along the path to avoid those pitfalls or failures, someone to challenge me and push me to better myself, or simply someone I could reach out to for advice on how to crawl through the muck and mire of the valley and begin the arduous journey up the mountain once again.
Now Give Back
That said, I challenge my fellow industry leaders to not be selfish with their time and talents and to make it a point to offer guidance to anyone in our industry who wants to better themselves. I made a deliberate choice to start doing this, and it has been as rewarding, if not more so, than any accolade or certification I have ever received for job performance.
So, are you going to hoard your knowledge? Are you going to remain fearful of losing your time? Or are you going to give back? Are you going to advance our industry? In other words, what choice are you going to make?
Everything. Is. A. Choice. Choose wisely.
Aaron Hancart, CFI, EPS, has over eighteen years of experience in the AP industry. He has held roles in increasing responsibility with retailers such as Target, DICK’S Sporting Goods, JCPenney, Luxottica, Casey’s, and solution provider Protos. He is currently building his third AP department at Denny’s. He is a member of IAI, ASIS, the LPRC Innovate Program Advisory Panel, the NRF LP Council, and the RLPSA board. He can be reached at ahancart@dennys.com.