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From being accountable and prioritising support to communicating efficiently and frequently, Spencer Stuart’s Sally Elliot and Susan Hart reveal five personality traits the best bosses across the sector share
Retail chief executives have experienced quite the rollercoaster in recent years. The continued growth of technology and ecommerce is expanding competition across industry lines in areas such as innovation and customer experience.
To succeed in this landscape, retail CEOs must champion new ideas and approach challenges with determination and optimism.
But how can they do so successfully?
To answer this question, we spoke with 10 current and former retail chief executives globally, most of whom are advisory board members of World Retail Congress. From those discussions, five insights emerged that highlight what it means to be a high-performing CEO.
Prioritise support and accountability
Influential leaders publicly support their teams and understand when and how to generate accountability.
“The CEO must know how to modulate the pressure on the team,” said Jaume Miquel Naudi, president and CEO of Tendam. “Pressure and continued change have to be part of the culture, and part of the teamwork shared by all of the organisation; they cannot be only one-way.”
Practice effective and frequent communication
High-performing retail CEOs are excellent communicators and they do so consistently through email, in-person and other channels.
Leaders who model good communication set the expectations for those who follow them.
“Be as transparent and frank as you can,” said Judith McKenna, former CEO and president of Walmart International. “People should understand why resources are pointing in one area.”
See the bigger picture
“Future CEOs should understand broader systemic dynamics and be alert to technological trends,” said Frederico Trajano, boss of Magalu.
Indeed, the most effective retail CEOs are systems thinkers who can strategise, decipher key trends and understand how different ideas and decisions are interconnected. Systems thinkers are good at problem solving, adaptable and can extract critical insights from volumes of information.
Be open-minded and curious
Chief executives should be hungry for different perspectives. “The leader must question everything and every day,” said Julian Diaz, chair of Telepizza.
High-performing retail leaders seek perspectives from people across business functions. While open-mindedness is an underdeveloped skill in most leaders, CEOs can challenge themselves to ask more questions and ask questions that encourage healthy debate.
Strengthen culture through shared values
Effective retail leaders create a culture grounded in shared values which helps their organisations quickly adapt and respond to change.
Pandora CEO and president Alexander Lacik said the retailer’s leadership team gathered input from employees across functions and then synthesised those insights into company values. Having a common value system helps leadership teams approach strategic decisions quickly without too much back and forth.
It’s a lot to ask of one person to have all these traits and skills but high-performing CEOs do not operate in isolation. Leaders can leverage their internal and external resources — stakeholders, customers, workforce and communities — to achieve high performance and successfully lead their retail organisations.
Sally Elliott and Susan Hart co-lead Spencer Stuart’s global retail practice.
