Leaders today require a different playbook to motivate, energise, and engage their teams. They need to find a way to stay connected to a wide spectrum of employees across the organisation and adapt their approach to harness the various work styles of their teams (and not necessarily expect teams to adapt to the leader's style). Conventional leadership was about a directive 'command and control' and a 'carrot-and-stick' approach, which has given way to a more integrated approach to spark the imagination of teams and the need to act with agility in a complex, ever-changing environment.

A leadership skills framework I learned during my management studies in the nineties suggested a holistic approach around inspirational leadership (the heart), strategic leadership (the head), and supervisory leadership (of the hands). This means a leader must possess good business judgment and lead with passion and purpose while not being afraid to roll up one's sleeves and work alongside one's people every day. I find this approach even more relevant thirty years down the line in today's dynamic environment.

Upon taking the leadership role at Spencers and considering the context of the retail business, I realised that while a balanced Heart, Head, and Hands leadership style was desirable, the need of the hour was to emphasize the 'Hands-on' component. This emphasis would help in:

• Understanding the shifts in the dynamic, hyper-competitive grocery retail market in which the organisation operates.
• Developing rapport with all employees and earn their trust and build credibility with the teams.
• Communicating the execution strategy consistently to ensure everyone is on the same page.
• Stepping up the pace of execution by leading from the front.

Spencers' operations are geographically dispersed across seven states, 30+ towns, and 140 locations, and each location brings its own unique context, challenges, and opportunities. Hence, it becomes even more important to stay connected with what's happening on the ground. This cannot be achieved without frequent visits to stores, periodic interactions with frontline teams, and fostering a culture where reverse feedback flows into the corporate office.

I have spent a considerable part of my initial three months visiting all locations where we operate stores. Together with the Leadership Team, we built a cadence of thrice-weekly operations calls and Monday Morning Stand-up calls at the Corporate Office, providing transparent, real-time updates on our performance in the week before and our goals for the week ahead.

Recently, we also organised, for the first time, a Pan India Store Managers Meet. This event provided an opportunity for the entire Leadership team to interact and hear first-hand from all 140 Store Managers about each individual store's execution priorities for the upcoming festive season and the rest of the year.

In a people-driven, operationally intense, geographically dispersed business, the only way for leaders to stay connected, aligned, and build execution agility is to stay 'hands-on and heads-in'.