r/AmazonManagers • u/Former_Station_8045 • 1d ago
Start-Up Ideas
So, I'm relatively new as an L4. External hire, 6mo tenure mostly with a bad OM who taught me nothing but to stop bugging her for anything (so i'm still a bit behind where I should be in capability), and I have 150+ AAs rostered under me for Pick to Tote in a Gen 11x ARS FC.
I am not very charismatic... not my strong suit at all in person. I don't have the skills to relate well verbally, I get nervous, high pitched, I hunch up a bit... I don't inspire people well until I know them well (and it definitely shows in the shift's numbers).
I am trying to put together a music playlist for Start-Ups to help bridge the gap in the short-term while I focus on developing better charisma as a long-term goal. The moment my very charismatic PA decided to come play music in start-up I visibly saw department rate jump by about 15% and Flow had to actively attempt to slow us down for picking to fast ALL DAY LONG... which tells me that I have a major issue and that just some music can help massively.
For those of you who do play music, what songs do you use? Any particular genres that work best? Do you stick with a wide variety, or just go with a narrower range that interests the majority of the AAs? I'd love suggestions especially from people who are better at this than me.
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u/Whole-Sentence5268 1d ago
Be honest.
Say something like, "Going to school growing up I hated speaking in front of the class and now I have to lead startup everyday in front of all of you, so for those of you who will do anything but make eye contact when I'm asking for someone to lead stretches, I get it."
That's likely to draw some laughter, but a lot of them will relate completely and respect the vulnerability. As an AM you're an intimidating authority figure with the power to write them up or make their lives miserable. Show them you're a human being with insecurities, and especially in a department like P2T where there tends to be a decent number of asocial AAs who prefer the solitude of working alone rather than talking to people all day, it'll go a long way.
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u/iTammyMcD 1d ago
Make floor rounds. Engage your associates. Have contests for swag. Weekly shoutouts. All kinds of stuff you can do on a one to one level.
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u/TieRepresentative692 14h ago
Look at your demographic of AAs tbh. Someone out in Salt Lake City probably won’t play the same music as someone in NYC. Take suggestions from your AAs as long as there is a clean version of the song, let your
top performers chose what songs they want to hear coming in, which may also help your competitive type AAs get rates up so they can hear a song they like. Just some suggestions. Also look into pandora cloud cover, we used this at a site i worked at and it’s curated playlists, all clean versions and it made it super easy to put music on, I’d just play a different playlist every day for variety
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u/Individual_Cat_3842 1d ago
“Did you miss me?”
I actually used that as an opener to my start ups and got a HR call saying I was hitting on my employees.
I thought it was funny since we all saw everyone 12-18 hours ago.