by Steve Black
A new year always brings a fresh start and renewed motivation and hope.
Hope for many areas of our lives to get better. Hope that most of the impacts from COVID-19 are behind us. Hope that the employment situation will calm and turn in the right direction. Hope for our businesses to stabilize, and we can all begin to build our new norm for the third chapter of the post-pandemic years and look to a bright future.
As we have all heard throughout our careers – hope is not a strategy. And I agree. Specific company goals and target numbers must be met.
I believe that hope in the context of this writing is a positive attitude – an attitude that will not be defeated, will not cave to bad news and will not waver.
I also believe that hope in this context as a leader is about the impact we leave in the hearts and minds of the people looking to us for guidance and direction. To do that, we must look back at November’s leadership article in The Shelby Report on the five laws of the harvest.
[RELATED: Thanksgiving Celebration And Laws Of The Harvest]
As 2024 is over, we need to take notes on what we learned – both positive and negative – and then put 2024 to bed. There isn’t a thing today we can do about last year. We must focus on what we’re going to do in 2025 to set ourselves up for success. 
In my book, “The 5 Rules,” I talk about the three great separators. These are the three things I believe separates us from the crowd. One of them is having a positive attitude. I always say: “Grocery retail is not for the weak.” It’s a tough business and the people in it must be tough as well. One of my favorite all-time quotes is from Robert H. Schuller, “Tough times never last – tough people do.”
A big part of being tough is being positive no matter what happens. After spending 47 years in the business, I’ve encountered countless people who have allowed their attitudes to be worn down.
Nothing great is accomplished by being negative. Besides, who wants to be around negative people, especially when they are on the leadership team. I believe it’s impossible to get where we need to go with a negative attitude. We may get short-term success but never long term.
Here are three things that should be top of mind to ensure our hope factor is founded in a positive attitude and to set ourselves and our teams up for success this year.
Growth mindset
In Liz Wizeman’s book “Multipliers,” she explains the difference in a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. If we have a growth mindset, there is no limit what we can achieve if we are willing to put in the hard work to learn something new, to get out of our comfort zone and grow in knowledge.
If we have a fixed mindset, we believe we are destined to only go so high in our careers and can’t do anything to change that.
What leadership books, seminars, YouTube channels are we engaged in daily, weekly and monthly to grow our knowledge and wisdom? Nobody wants to follow a leader who can’t help them grow. We can’t coach/teach/train a team with a limited amount of knowledge.
That’s one thing that’s always impressed me about John C. Maxwell when I see him in the audience listening to a great speaker. He’s taking notes like it’s his first leadership conference. And he’s considered to be the world’s authority on leadership.
I experienced the very same thing the first conference I attended with Harvey Mackay, whose quote appears in box at left. He was taking notes. Amazing that both of these authorities on leadership are also students of it. I think we can all learn from them about how to never stop growing.
Driver or a passenger?
In today’s world of people in leadership roles and all kinds of leadership teachings, this is one that’s in my book under Rule No. 1 – Do your job.
If we’re in a leadership role, we must be a driver. We cannot be a passenger. And sadly, across our industry, we have a lot of passengers. And then we wonder why we can’t make progress.
Here’s what helps us look and act like a store director: The way we dress, making eye contact and walking with a sense of urgency. As for behavior traits, stay engaged with the team, vendor community (great partnerships) and customers (this is non-negotiable). Character traits that set leaders apart include charisma and presence with an outgoing personality, as well as listening intently and speaking confidently.
For those who want to look and act like a professional in a home office leadership role, consider the way you dress, talk and treat everyone in the office. You’re engaged and organized by the way you are friendly to all departments, your office is clean, neat and organized and being always willing to help where needed. To best conduct meetings, publish an agenda, start and end on time and send out recaps of timelines and deliverables.
I love what Mike Schumaker, division SVP at Associated Wholesale Grocers in Kansas City says about this lesson with his teams: “I want Mach 1 drivers.”
Are we leading the team or just taking a walk?
This lesson comes from one of my favorite teachings from John C. Maxwell. The setup for the comment is that so many leaders are going at such a different pace than their team that they aren’t leading anyone. 
“If you think you’re leading your team and turn around and nobody is there, you’re just taking a walk.”
There is the “idea leader,” who’s always looking for new ideas and just wants to get them implemented ASAP without any real discovery and team discussion. This leaves everyone in a tailspin and somewhat paralyzed. There also is the “don’t talk, just do” leader.
With the five generations in the workplace today, everyone must be led differently based on the year they entered into this world. Courtesy of purdueglobal.edu, let’s look at that below:
- Traditionalists (Silent Generation): Born between 1928-45, they value loyalty, respect and a strong work ethic.
- Baby Boomers: Born between 1946-64, they are known for their optimism, competitiveness and team-oriented approach.
- Generation X: Born between 1965-80, they are flexible, independent and value work-life balance.
- Millennials (Gen Y): Born between 1981-96, they prioritize innovation, collaboration and social responsibility.
- Generation Z: Born between 1997-2012, they are tech-savvy, adaptable and value diversity and inclusion.
In a recent article on this topic, Tim Elmore shared a comment about how the Gen Z team wants to have a say in how companies are run without possessing the same years of experience that Baby Boomers or Gen X folks have. Here was his line, “You can have a voice, but not a vote.” This feels like a great compromise to bring teams together.
My lesson on this topic: As a leader, we can only move at the pace of our team. And as we know, everything rises and falls on leadership. So whatever we do, we must make sure we’re not just taking a walk.
Let’s make 2025 our best year yet!
Steve Black is CEO and founder of abrighterday.life, a business and leadership coaching organization devoted to helping people and companies with personal growth and implementing simple leadership principles. A 47-year-veteran of the retail grocery arena, Black is the author of “The 5 Rules” and offers an online Masterclass.
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