Leadership Lessons from The People's Supermarket
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.
