Leadership - Welcome to Striding Out!

Leadership Lessons from The People's Supermarket

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 09:54:46 +0000

If you’ve been watching the Channel 4 series, The People’s Supermarket, you will have seen Arthur Potts Dawson bringing his leadership mission to bring a sustainable cooperative offering high quality, healthy food at low prices to the high street to support local communities. Inspired by the Park Slope Coop created in the 1970s in Brooklyn, Arthur bases his business on a membership system, where members get reduced prices in return for four hours per month working in the store. The success of the store depends on customers buying in to the concept and investing time and money into the store, but that is almost the easiest part. The store challenges how we shop. There is the obvious difference of size and not only are there less shelves and less aisles, the shelves that are there are not (yet) heaving with produce. More challenging than that, its focus on local produce means that the store emphasises fresh vegetables as the basis to meals as the meat that is offered is locally produced and organic and therefore more expensive and less plentiful. Add to this imperfectly formed fresh produce and The People’s Supermarket is creating a significant challenge for traditional and modern shoppers alike.

This challenge requires more than just making a different choice. It also requires a shift in behaviour. In an episode a couple of weeks ago, a previously reluctant convert left the store and said that there was something about the store that just “felt good”. She had been converted to new ways of shopping, cooking and eating and was keen to spend time in Arthur’s in store kitchen to further learn new ways of preparing food. So not only is Arthur changing the way people shop, he is changing how they feel when they shop and what they do with their shopping once they get home. He is creating significant and ideally sustainable behavioural change.

As managers we are often tasked with making changes. Our role as managers is to ensure that the practicalities of the change happen. Our role as leaders is to empower our teams to step up to the change and learn and grow with that change, creating a deeper cultural shift. With People’s Supermarket, the shop will not succeed without the people, their commitment and their input just as our projects rely on our teams. So what makes the difference between managing people through change and leading them? Here could be the answer. Arthur cannot enforce the changes on the community and with this power removed, he continually demonstrates coaching skills in his approach to his members and his customers. Through his coaching style, he supports customers and members inside and out change process happening in his store. Here are some of the skills he uses:

Curiosity

When faced with resistance or negative responses, Arthur keeps asking questions. He wants to know what his customers needs are so that he can find ways to make his store work for them and therefore, get them on board. By staying curious, he gains insight into where his customers struggle and where they lose interest. B asking questions Arthur works through resistance and instead of giving up or sticking rigidly to his approach, he finds solutions that work for him and the customers. This skill is vital in getting to the core of resistance, doubt and fear and instead find solutions.

Self-Management

Arthur’s task is often thankless. The only feedback he ever gets is what’s not working and what people don’t like. He finds ways of expressing his frustration away from the customers so that when he talks to them he is able self-manage his personal reactions and keep listening and taking what they are saying on board. This lets him stay focused on the customer and curious about what is going on.

Dancing in the moment

No day in the store is without its hitches. What gets Arthur through these ups and downs is his ability to stay with whatever turns up and respond to it. He has respond-ability. As managers, we are often faced with the unexpected, usually from the human elements in our work. It can be easy to revert to familiar ways of responding which do not really serve us or our teams. Rather than getting stuck in doubt, negativity or being right, Arthur recovers quickly and keeps moving forward by being able to respond creatively to what happens.

Take Charge

There are times when customers want to help but genuinely do not know how the supermarket can work for them. Just like there are times when our team members want to perform but honestly do not know how. Its at these times that Arthur provides direction. For example, when customers don’t know how they can use the supermarket to feed themselves regularly, he creates recipes and provides training in the kitchen. There are times when clear direction creates a shift, new learning and ultimately action.

Fiona Monks CPCC is a Certified Coach with Striding Out who specialises in Business and Youth Coaching

Could coaching skills support you in leading your team successfully no matter what the circumstances? Contact [email protected] for more details on our upcoming ILM in Coaching in Business for first line managers or to find out how one to one coaching could help you.

Deadly Workplace Sins to Avoid

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Are Toxic Behaviours Killing Your Teams's Performance?

All interactions within a team either strengthen or weaken the team. Relationships form the connecting threads that hold the team together. When these threads are weak or broken, the team can start to breakdown, get stuck, pull apart or even disintegrate completely. When we strengthen these relationship threads through positive and constructive interactions, we create teams with high positivity and productivity. Find out how you can keep your team in excellent shape as you head into 2011.

Effective Time Management - The choice is yours

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:53:55 +0000

Does your to-do list seem to get longer rather than shorter as the week goes on? Do you struggle with knowing which tasks to tackle first? You're not alone! When we think of time management, we often think about how to fit in all the things we currently have to do in a day as well as how to manage our tasks and commitments more effectively so that we can squeeze more and more into our lives.

Demystifying Coaching

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:44:25 +0000

Demystifying Coaching

The first key element of coaching is AWARENESS.

This is the product of focused attention, concentration and clarity. Awareness is more than observing and hearing in the work place. It is a clear perception of relevant facts and information as well as the ability to determine relevance.

Drama?

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 11:20:00 +0000

No need to be so dramatic!

Having an awareness of the Karpman drama triangle, will empower your leadership and ensure you are communicating as an “Adult” with staff.

When engaging in conversations in the work place (particularly when you are in a position of power and leadership) there can be a tendency for the individuals involved to adopt a default position in the interaction. It’s likely that if you are a team leader or manager then there will be in place an invisible hierarchy, an assumption that you are the boss and what you say goes. This can potentially be a tricky dynamic to be in when it comes to having tough conversations or requesting things of others, especially so if you are new to either the company the role of leadership. So what can help?

Communicating A Hard Truth

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:29:46 +0000

Communicating a Hard Truth – A potential hazard or an opportunity to lead through difficult times?

Communicating can be a challenge in itself at times, but delivering a message that you know will not be easy for your audience to hear presents a whole new set of challenges. It can also be a great opportunity for you to grow as a leader and use difficult messages as a pathway to lead your team through difficult times.

Reduce stress - increase efficiency

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:28:59 +0000

The success of your business relies on you and your team, therefore you need to look after the well-being of yourself and your staff to ensure you are all running on full power.

If you or any of them are stressed, unmotivated or ill they'll underperform or make mistakes, subsequently leading to inefficiency and poor company performance.

To check the well-being of you and your team, ask yourself the following questions:-

Do you or your employees show signs of stress and/or fatigue?
Do you or your employees lack motivation?
Do you or your employees regularly take time off due to illness?
Do you or your employees lack energy and vitality?

Take a Break

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:58:35 +0000

So it’s summer holiday time and you want to think about taking a holiday – or do you?

Many business owners never get a break from their company – and often the reasons are the absence of processes that run the business – and the saboteur driven fear about what you’ll come back to after the break.

In our ‘constant contact’ world of blackberries, iphones, laptops, mobile broadband and 24/7 connectivity, you have the chance to design a way to have a break fron your business in a way that meets your physical needs to relax and recharge your batteries.

So – how can you build a strategy that allows you to have a quality vacation and still have a business to come back to?

Creating High Performance Teams

Mon, 17 May 2010 10:40:19 +0000

There are a few key steps involved when creating a high performance team:

Listen to the Individuals

It is said that people don’t feel part of a team until they know that they are seen and heard as individuals. There is very often little time to really get to know team members within the working day and who people are takes second place to what they do. Yet, by understanding who team members are and what motivates them, not only do we become better managers but we also create more engagement by providing a space where they are seen and heard. By engaging team members in this way and valuing who they are is the first and most powerful step in taking people from a “me” mentality to a “we” culture. This doesn’t have to just be limited to managers and their individual reports, when team members get to know more about each others’ values, aspirations and motivations, authentic team motivation becomes possible and collaborative working a reality that gets results while making the experience of being in the team personally rewarding and genuinely supportive.

Understanding Yourself and Others Using DISC

Tue, 04 May 2010 10:54:43 +0000

Every individual has their own unique personality type and in business it’s important to understand yourself and others, to build effective working relationships and partnerships.

To understand your own profile and others you can use a Personality Profiling Tool called DISC.

DISC identifies your dominant personality traits which can be used to an incredible advantage in the work place. This profiling system can identify how we are motivated and how we communicate with others. It can show us what we are like and how our traits can be used to an advantage.

The personality traits of DISC are: