ous female retail leaders, helping them advance in their careers, and ultimately transforming the future of retail by bringing up the next generation of industry leaders.  Her governing philosophy that “the truth is in the stores” neatly complements her advice to always prioritize your customer and team above all else.  Inside Retail spoke to Fenske to unpack her view on managers versus leaders, how her leadership style has evolved with time and experience and why she continues to reinvest in her professional development.  Inside Retail: You have a major role in one of Australia’s largest retailers. Could you share a little bit about the responsibilities of being the director of stores at Woolworths Supermarket?  Jeanette Fenske: I’m accountable for all of the Woolworths Supermarket Stores across Australia, so just over 1000 supermarkets, roughly 130,000 team members. What that really means is I have full P&L accountability for our financials for those stores, but equally for our customer and our team experience. I partner very closely with our supply chain, IT format and renewal and e-commerce colleagues to ensure that our strategy comes together in a way that makes things better for our team and better for our customer.  IR: Being a manager and a leader are two entirely different roles. I would love to know if you have given any thought as to how you define the difference between management and leadership.  JF: I think management for me would be instructing a group of people what to do, and even at times, how to do it. A leader is about inspiring people to believe that they can be part of creating something greater, and want to be part of it, and therefore are going on that journey because they firmly believe they can contribute to making a difference for those around them. IR: How would you explain your current leadership style and do you think your team would use the same words to describe you?  JF: My current leadership style is collaborative, engaging, active listening, and equally, I would say, inspirational, which would probably be the words my team would use to describe me. With a good balance of candor and accountability.  IR: You have decades of experience in retail, how has your approach to leadership style evolved over time as you have progressed throughout your career?  JF: Gosh, that’s a great question. In my early days, I was the manager who instructed a group of people on what to do and how to do it. I think over time, I understood that the people that you work with have some incredible skills and abilities, and they often know way more than you know. And if you actually create a safe space in an environment where people feel that they can speak their mind – they can share the ideas they have, but they can equally fail fast, get up again and move on, and they know that you will have their back – you get a far better outcome. So over time, I have become quite an inclusive leader that sets the outcome that we’re looking for sets the ambition we’re hoping to achieve, along with a compelling why,’ whilst creating a safe environment where everybody feels they can belong and play to their strengths whilst giving them the right level of support and necessary, then get out the way the team just get on and achieve some pretty amazing outcomes. I think that has got me much further than I ever imagined it would.  IR: Do you have any particular soft skills that at one point you may not have placed any value on but now see as a professional asset?  JF: I think the ability to communicate effectively. I’ve had to work very hard to be able to stand up in front of an audience of people and deliver a message that’s clear and succinct, yet compelling and inspiring. If you had asked me in my earlier days if I thought communication and being able to deliver a compelling message with a clear ‘why’ was important, I would have said ‘no’.  It’s one of the things that I’ve had to continue investing in from as far back as the early 2000s when a leader first invested in me to acquire some of those skills: to be able to show up confidently, to believe in myself, to be able to respond in the moment when under pressure or answer a question that you didn’t expect was coming, and to be able to stand up in front of a group of people and tell your story. Communication and storytelling are two components that I hold very, very dear and am constantly working on and evolving.  IR: With that in mind, how does it make you feel now to hear that your team often refers to you as an inspirational leader?  JF: Incredibly humbled, and proud of the journey I’ve been on – but equally incredibly privileged that I have the opportunity to pay it forward and help others to achieve their best success. A lot of people don’t see retail as a chosen career path. They think it’s a second-class career. But our store managers lead larger teams than most people. Some of them have 150, 180, 200 team members that they have to lead. Some of our department managers lead 50 or 60 people. As a leader, regardless of the level you are at, your success lies in the hands of those around you and your ability to bring out the best in your team. Whether it’s what needs to be done today or whether it’s the results you need to achieve for the week or for the month, or whether it’s the vision and the strategy of the organisation, you need to be able to tell that in a very compelling way and convince people why they need to come on the journey with you, or why they need to give you their support.  IR: What are some of the top strategies you employ to keep a team motivated in order to deliver outcomes and drive results?  JF: First and foremost, it’s creating that safe environment where people feel that they can tell you when they think you’ve got it right or when they think you’ve got it wrong, and they’re not afraid to tell you what’s really going on around you. Often, people think leaders want to hear the good – I encourage my team to talk to me about the good, the bad and the ugly. I’m here  to clear the path for them so that they are able to focus on serving their customers and run good retail shops and keep their team safe every day.  Number one would be creating a safe environment where people can speak their minds – the good, the bad, the ugly. Number two would be being really clear. “Clear is kind, unclear is unkind,” in the words of Brene Brown, and I firmly believe that people want nothing more than clarity. That doesn’t mean giving them clarity in the minutiae – it means setting the end result you’re looking for and then leaving them feeling empowered that they have the ability to get to that outcome in a way that they feel will be most efficient and effective while being there to support them. The third one would be, making sure that they have the skills, the capabilities, and all the tools that they might need to be able to deliver.  IR: Are these lessons that you have learned over time or were they passed down to you by a mentor?  JF: They are a combination of lessons I’ve learned over time and the diverse career paths that I’ve had in different parts of the business. I’ve worked in supply chain, store operations, e-commerce, continuous improvement, safety and national support. Being able to transfer your skills from role to role takes effort, and you really need to apply your mind to how you’re going to be successful when you’ve spent many years in store operations and now suddenly you find yourself running distribution centers.  What I started to realise was there are two things that are constant for you as a leader. One is that things will always change, and number two, good leadership is universal. And so I started to invest very heavily in my own development. Every year, I put aside money to invest in my own development, whether that’s a short course, reading material, learning from another leader that I think is best in class or complements my skill set. I’ve also had leaders that have invested in me, and one particular leader early on in my career as an operations manager, took the time to invest in me, and that changed my life.  If you invest in your leadership skills and in understanding how to lead change, for both yourself and others, you can be successful no matter what role you are in.  IR: Is there a standout piece of career advice that you have received in your career that you still carry with you?  JF: I don’t know if it’s a standout piece of advice as much as it is just having learned that in retail, the truth is in the stores. I think it’s true for any business. If you spend enough time with the people that actually do the job every single day, you’ll get to the heart of what is really happening in that business, and where you, as a leader, can make a difference.  Whenever I’ve started in a new role, I’ve always started a new role by listening and working shoulder to shoulder with the team at the rock face to understand what a day in their life looks like. That’s helped me understand how I can clear the way for them to make a real difference. Then, coupled with that, has been what I’ve just explained, which is you can never over-invest in your ability to manage yourself and others through change because change is constant.  IR: And finally, what advice would you offer retail professionals who are aspiring to reach the executive level?  JF: Whatever industry you’re in – previously, for me, it was patients in pharmacy and our customers in the retail shopfront, now it’s just our customers – if you make your decisions with your team and customer and your shareholder at the heart, you can’t go wrong. Invest in your team, and your team will take care of your customer, and that will take care of your business. If you try to put profits ahead of your customers and your team, I think you’re going to get it wrong.  The strategy I set in whatever role I’ve held has been a customer-first, team-first mindset, coupled with the role we play as leaders in the communities in which we live and work. And so I’ve always worked to empower my team to feel that they can, in the moment, make the decision they feel is right for their customer and team, without having to ask anyone for permission and know that they will get the support they need with the decision they make. The second thing is that I’ve always invested very heavily in the development of the team that I lead. I’ve always built a really strong pipeline of talent. But equally, I’ve held my leaders to a very high account, and that would be the way that I pay it forward. Some people are motivated by money. Some people are motivated by recognition. Everyone has different drivers for motivation – recognition, development, rewards. You need to understand what motivates your team, and then you need to apply that to get the best out of everyone.