Page 38 - #200 June/July 2025

RLI Retail Insight

Areas of Focus to Accelerate Success

As we move through 2025, there are two key areas leaders must focus on to be
successful - adapting to new trends and optimising current delivery. Both are key to
future success. This is the viewpoint of Chris Roebuck, Global Leadership Speaker PARIS RETAIL WEEK IS NOW
who in this month’s Retail Insight highlights the areas of focus for leaders that will
accelerate success.

FUTURE TRENDS ACCELERATE YOUR collaboration and external awareness, RETAIL’S
These trends are reshaping work and our SUCCESS FRAMEWORK providing further competitive edge.
organisations must adapt to them: To overcome these challenges, leaders must Getting these three steps in place then BIG SHOW
1. Technological Integration: deliver on three critical areas: creates extra time and bandwidth for the
Leveraging AI and machine learning to fourth key step:
enable data-driven decision-making. 1. OPTIMISE TASK DELIVERY
2. Hybrid and Remote Work: Leaders must be competent at: 4. ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP:
Maintaining work-life balance while – Prioritisation: Ensure alignment with SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES
fostering engagement and inclusivity. strategic objectives As well as delivering operational excellence,
3. Purpose-Driven Leadership: – Time Management and Planning: leaders must develop an entrepreneurial
Inspiring teams via a meaningful organi- Deliver consistently and on time mindset to seize opportunities. They need to
sational vision. – Delegation: Empower and develop team enable everyone to be:
members while freeing leaders to focus – Focused on delivering success not just their job
OPTIMISING CURRENT DELIVERY on high-value tasks plus gaining half a – Focused on the end customer PARIS EXPO
The challenge for leaders is in responding day a week. – Understanding and leveraging the whole PORTE DE VERSAILLES
to these trends while delivering “business- – Effective Communication: So people organisation RETAIL PAV. 4 & 6
as-usual” at the same time. This remains know what to do, why and the benefit – Optimising risk not minimising it
the core leadership test. – Constructive Feedback: Regular input – Always looking for new ways to do
However there is a major problem to inspire and develop skills. things better TOGETHER
preventing leaders from doing this effec- Research shows there is significant room – Looking outside to seize opportunities
tively, one that is hidden, but which has for improvement, Gallup found only 45 per – Being a proactive brand ambassador
massive negative impacts every day in cent of employees know what is expected of – Keeping it simple and efficient
every organisation. them at work. Entrepreneurial Leadership can be devel-
It is the lack of foundational leadership oped by enabling corporate leaders to
skills development. As a result many lead- 2. GET THE BEST FROM PEOPLE collaborate with entrepreneurs to develop
ers suffer the “too much work, not enough To get the best from people, leaders need entrepreneurial thinking.
time” vicious circle. According to the to focus on them as human beings, not just
Chartered Management Institute and my employees, by: PRACTICAL STEPS TO DEVELOP
research - 82 per cent of leaders lack the – Building trust, inspiration and belief LEADERS FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS
critical management skills to do their jobs. – Listening, offering praise and supporting 1. Training Programmes: Organisations
As a result: career development should mandate foundational leadership
– About 80 per cent of leaders haven’t – Acting with integrity and fairness skills training, especially for new leaders.
been taught to delegate effectively - These actions can boost effort by up to 30 A one-day program can provide a solid
losing them half a working day a week per cent from 60 per cent of employees. base and even a one-hour intense keynote
extra time they could use to inspire From their own experience every leader can start the journey.
people knows what actions get the best from 2. Simple Actions: Ensure leaders regularly
– Over 80 per cent of employees aren’t people, but don’t know how to use them implement the actions above via perfor-
inspired to give their best most effectively. This can be learnt in just an mance management, regular communica-
– Organisational performance is more hour, delivering significant impact. tion and team meetings.
than 23 per cent lower than it should be 3. Mindset Shift: Encourage entrepreneur-
– Your best employees are 50 per cent 3. FOCUS ON STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT ial and diverse thinking.
more likely to leave Leaders must check operational activities
– You could be losing out on more than 10 align with strategic objectives by: CONCLUSION

per cent of additional profit you could be – Clarifying “line of sight” from individual By filling the foundational skill gaps via
getting tasks to organisational goals Accelerate Your Success leaders can reach

This is a long-standing problem. Despite the – Reinforcing alignment through team their full potential quickly to deliver busi-
billions being spent on leadership develop- discussions and regular feedback ness-as-usual at an excellent level and have
ment annually the percentage of employees Connecting employees work to the organ- bandwidth to build the future.
giving their best has only risen by five per isational vision they can get up to 35 per Leaders who do this will be more success-
cent since 2005! cent more effort. The big picture also boosts ful for the rest of 2025 and beyond.

38 RETAIL & LEISURE INTERNATIONAL JUNE/JULY 2025

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