As published in Supermarket News, April 2022
In successful companies, it’s often the leader of the business who jumps out as being the secret sauce. Think about a company that failed and usually the leader sticks out in your mind too.
Whichever way you look at it, if you are going to be successful as a business, it will 99 per cent not happen unless you have a good to great leader running the show as well as strong team leaders below them. How strong is the leadership at your supermarket?
If you’re a business leader or a team leader, you need to ask yourself whether your supermarket is as successful as it could be — and if not, how much of the reason for not reaching your potential is due to your leadership? Tough question but pondering this can be a game-changer.
In my work coaching hundreds of business owners and managers, it’s become clear to me that the best leaders share similar personal traits. I actually have a 20-trait checklist that I share in my online or in-person workshops that leaders can rate themselves against — it’s helpful in determining your strengths and what you could work on improving. Here are five of those traits I see in effective leaders:
Proactive
The best leaders proactively address what needs addressing now. No sticking your head in the sand and hoping it will resolve itself! Good leaders keep a live list of all the things that they are unhappy with and prioritise them, working through each one by one, no matter how challenging that might be.
Sadly, people will not always do what you ask them to do so as a leader you do need to follow up to check that they did it and that the changes have had the expected and desired impact.
Accountable
How many people out there have a job description and perhaps even key performance indicators, but are never held accountable to deliver what they are supposed to? I suggest it’s the majority of us. The best leaders know not just what they are personally accountable for but what their team members are accountable for. They make sure systems are in place so people know how they are tracking against expected levels of performance. Most importantly, when people are not meeting their accountabilities, something is done about it.
Culture focused
Culture starts at the top. Where are you unhappy about your supermarket’s culture? Do your people enjoy coming to work? Do they feel supported to do the best job they can every day? Having a great culture makes the job of a leader so much easier, particularly when you have to have the harder conversations — when it’s clear what the team culture is and what you will and won’t accept, the person receiving the message will already know they are letting the team down. They’ll already be aware that their performance or behaviours are not meeting company expectations or core values, making a correction that much easier.
Good communicator
This is perhaps the most important skill: sharing your vision. Make sure everyone knows where your supermarket business is going. Most employees have no idea. When your team knows what you are truly trying to achieve, it is likely they will engage with the goal and try harder week to week to get to that future state. Being included in this vision makes employees feel like they are part of your supermarket’s success, rather than just an undervalued cog in the wheel.
Supportive
How much effort do you put into developing your managers to be better managers? Fifty percent of people leave their job because of their team leader. Managers can cause a heap of stress to the team below them, from mis-communication, unrealistic productivity targets, micromanaging, being unavailable — the list goes on. To improve your success as a leader, show your support for your managers and help develop them. Many managers are promoted without any training and are just expected to “know” — they need to learn the tools of effective management. How can you tell if your managers need help? Do a leadership 360 feedback or try what I call a ‘skip 1-on-1’ which is where the manager’s manager does a 1-on-1 chat with a team member. Here, you can ask some great questions to ensure the manager is doing well leading their team and identify potential areas of improvement to help the team’s wellbeing and their success. Then, show your support and help the manager to address these areas through training or other means.
If you’d like to develop your leadership skills or that of your managers, check out our upcoming one-day Effective Leadership Workshops on July 28 and November 24. In this workshop, I cover leadership styles and techniques, how to get the best from your people, the importance of a good team culture and how to develop one, the art of prioritisation and delegation, improving performance, the 20 traits of a good leader, and much more. Find the details HERE
Zac de Silva is a strategy and leadership coach at Business Changing. He works with hundreds of businesses of all sizes from all sectors to help get them to the next level of performance and success.
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