This week I will be traveling to Miami to spend time with some of the most brilliant minds in the industry at Total Retail’s Women in Retail Leadership Summit. This powerful collection of leaders will hear from experts like Cynthia DiPietrantonio of Alex and Ani and Barbara Bradley Baekgaard, specialty retailing pioneer and co-founder of Vera Bradley.
On Thursday and Friday, I will be co-hosting Success Circle sessions on the subject of “Moving Up the Corporate Ladder.” Alongside retail experts and co-moderators, Elizabeth Allison, Senior Vice President of Last Call, The Neiman Marcus Group and Athena Christodoulides, Vice President of Strategy and Operations, Janou Pakter, we will address the fallacy of a linear path to success and the power of authenticity at every career stage. We will work with retail leaders to uncover the path to achieve their next big dreams.
At DynamicAction, I’ve had the opportunity and responsibility of serving with an executive team for a company poised to re-engineer retail at a time when retailers are desperately in need of a better path to profitability and customer satisfaction. I’ve had the chance to learn from great female founders, CMOs and presidents throughout my career, and have received direct and powerful mentorship from both women and men who believed in my abilities and helped foster my career goals.
As we prepared for this week of powerful idea exchange, the event organizers asked what guidance I would now offer to women in retail and retail tech as they seek to achieve their career goals. How can they apply their core strengths and imagine their own paths to reach the pinnacle of their professions?
And the truth is, my guiding principle was instilled in me long before I entered the workforce, and that is a personal code I call, “The Authenticity Rule.” What has been absolutely vital on my own career path is approaching each day, each conversation, each management decision and each strategic plan with genuine authenticity. Great female and male leaders alike are true to themselves, resolute in their guiding principles, and can be counted upon to take ownership of their missteps. They display openness and reliability, dedication and honesty, tenacity and compassion on a daily basis. Bottom line, the most influential and successful women that I know in retail and retail tech are — without exception — also the most authentic.
For me, passion is the central and pivotal point to authentic leadership. You see, passion is fuel. It makes individuals more creative, innovative and productive, and gives teams something to believe in.
Women in retail and throughout the business world can take actionable steps to embrace their own, authentic voice, talents and management style.
- Rather than “climbing the ladder” that was laid out before you, take on projects and roles that inspire you and allow you to use your unique talents to make the biggest impact. Work with your team members to understand their genuine drive and enable them to create their own paths to success.
- Learn from your mentors and great leaders around you. Listen. Ask questions. Be constantly and genuinely curious.
- Create time and space in your own life to examine your goals and passions closely and determine what motivates you personally. Staying true to yourself at each stage of your professional journey will not only positively and effectively impact your path, but those around you.
- Being truly passionate about your role, project or team can sometimes lead to conflict. Know when to take a stand, when to fight the good fight and when to take a deep breath and save that strongly worded email as a draft instead of hitting send. Know when to ask yourself, “Would I rather be right or would I rather be happy?”
Throughout the Total Retail sessions, I will also touch on additional hard-earned insights that will hopefully assist the retail and retail tech leaders in the room to crystallize their next steps to success. We’ll cover topics such as:
- Tribe-building: From hiring, to mentoring, to meeting dynamics — how to be the woman who genuinely enables other women to succeed.
- Mothering the masses: How emotional intelligence bolsters team output and C-suite decision making.
- Knowledge is power: Being a lifelong learner is vital, not just to reach your career goals, but to enjoy yourself along the way.
I look forward to understanding Elizabeth and Athena’s seasoned perspectives throughout our conversation, as well as learning unique insights from all the attendees in Miami this week. When I am not meeting new women leaders and working arm-in-arm with them to create positive change in the industry, I will be Tweeting and sharing key insights at @edisrupt. If you aren’t able to attend this conference but are interested in connecting or attending one of DynamicAction’s future events for women in retail leadership, please reach out to me here on the site or via Twitter.
Fearless, Powerful, Brave, Resilient & Strong — these are the key themes of Total Retail’s Women in Leadership Summit and the messages we want to relay to each incredible woman in Miami week. These are the affirmations we make when we look in our mirrors each morning. And most importantly, they are the concepts we want to impress upon the next generation of women leaders.
As such, we have donated in the event attendees’ honor to Step Up, a nonprofit organization that propels girls from under-resourced communities to fulfill their potential by empowering them to become confident, college-bound, career-focused, and ready to join the next generation of professional women. Through after school programs and mentorship with professional women, this donation in honor of these retail leaders will help girls with dreams become women who lead.
