Benevolent Dictatorship (tradecraft)

I hear stories all the time from retailers who have had their stores hijacked. Perhaps it's the customer using your RPG section and generous return policy as a library. Maybe it's the players who come to your Magic events decked out in your competitor's t-shirts and playmats. Then there are rogue employees who manipulate employee discounts to game your system. How can you possibly manage this chaos of your own creation?

Luckily I have this useful tool for you to use, a magical utterance. It goes something like this: "No." The store is yours. We work with people who enjoy games and gaming systems. They often see reality and your store as a game in itself, a system worth gaming. They like to skirt around the ragged edges of the rules to define their own win conditions. As a gamer yourself, you may feel this is normal behavior. In fact, it is not. You are the benevolent dictator of this banana republic. Policies, procedures, rules and general codes of behavior exist to serve the needs of your business and protect the inhabitants. When the system is being gamed, feel free to flip the table.

This assume you understand your needs. A good benevolent dictator needs a vision. You have to understand what a well functioning benevolent dictatorship looks like. Otherwise you're just insisting on an extra scoop of ice cream because you can. Because benevolent dictator. A solid vision means you're building community, profitability, and have an idea of the unfolding of your plan. There will always be someone who wants to challenge the plan, but that doesn't mean you need to re-write it. The return policy is just fine. There's no need to write a customer dress code because of one jackass. You don't need to re-write your employee manual regarding employee discounts. You just say no.

To balance this, the benevolent dictator has the bonus Feat of being able to say "yes." I never contradict my managers who are following policy, but there are occasionally situations where a simple yes will enhance a customer or employee experience. You want to buy a $200 army bag but you would like to substitute a two inch foam tray for a pre cut one for your army? Yes. You're a well meaning customer and you need to make a return after the return period because of a mix up? Yes. You need to leave work early? You're willing to buy those Age of Sigmar models I can't get rid of at a larger discount? You would like more comfortable work shirts? Yes, yes, yes.

The benevolent Yes and No are why a "4-Hour Work Week" is bogus, why there is really no such thing as a successful absentee store owner. Someone has to say No and Yes and if it's not the owner, it has to be someone with a nearly equal amount of power. That's a rare thing in a dictatorship.