Leaders today require a different playbook to motivate, energise, and engage their teams. They need to find a way to stay connected to a wide spectrum of employees across the organisation and adapt their approach to harness the various work styles of their teams (and not necessarily expect teams to adapt to the leader's style). Conventional leadership was about a directive 'command and control' and a 'carrot-and-stick' approach, which has given way to a more integrated approach to spark the imagination of teams and the need to act with agility in a complex, ever-changing environment.
A leadership skills framework I learned during my management studies in the nineties suggested a holistic approach around inspirational leadership (the heart), strategic leadership (the head), and supervisory leadership (of the hands). This means a leader must possess good business judgment and lead with passion and purpose while not being afraid to roll up one's sleeves and work alongside one's people every day. I find this approach even more relevant thirty years down the line in today's dynamic environment.
Upon taking the leadership role at Spencers and considering the context of the retail business, I realised that while a balanced Heart, Head, and Hands leadership style was desirable, the need of the hour was to emphasize the 'Hands-on' component. This emphasis would help in:
Spencers' operations are geographically dispersed across seven states, 30+ towns, and 140 locations, and each location brings its own unique context, challenges, and opportunities. Hence, it becomes even more important to stay connected with what's happening on the ground. This cannot be achieved without frequent visits to stores, periodic interactions with frontline teams, and fostering a culture where reverse feedback flows into the corporate office.
I have spent a considerable part of my initial three months visiting all locations where we operate stores. Together with the Leadership Team, we built a cadence of thrice-weekly operations calls and Monday Morning Stand-up calls at the Corporate Office, providing transparent, real-time updates on our performance in the week before and our goals for the week ahead.
Recently, we also organised, for the first time, a Pan India Store Managers Meet. This event provided an opportunity for the entire Leadership team to interact and hear first-hand from all 140 Store Managers about each individual store's execution priorities for the upcoming festive season and the rest of the year.
In a people-driven, operationally intense, geographically dispersed business, the only way for leaders to stay connected, aligned, and build execution agility is to stay 'hands-on and heads-in'.
n our business, weekends, holidays, and festivals are critical sales windows with peak traffic at stores, which means store teams are not only present but also 100% switched on. In this context, the support teams at the Regional and Corporate Office need to be there to guide, support, and react to on-ground situations, rather than appearing disconnected and enjoying their breaks.
While the support teams may not be in the office on weekends and holidays, thanks to technology and having learned the virtues of remote working, we ensure that we remain connected to the operations team through calls on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Additionally, people from the Corporate Office travel to regions and stores prior to and during peak festive seasons, such as the recent Diwali period.
These practices are not just symbolic but convey a powerful message of the entire organisation working together as a team during peak periods, as opposed to one part of the organisation doing the heavy lifting while others enjoy their time off. We also encourage corporate office-based employees to visit stores over the weekend to see firsthand the executions, observe consumer shopping behavior, and support the frontline store teams. Solidarity expressed through being there and working shoulder to shoulder with store teams goes a long way, far more than mere backstage planning and cheering from the sidelines. As leaders, the onus is on us to 'walk the talk'.