There’s something I wish I had understood earlier in my leadership career, and it’s an important lesson for everyone in retail to learn.
Like most leaders, I focused heavily on results. That might mean sales results, performance reviews, or customer experience feedback. If the results weren’t where they needed to be, I would talk with the staff about improving them.
Over time, I learned something that changed how I led. Most leaders expect better results. Better leaders focus on the specific behaviours and actions that create those results.
Said another way, results are lagging indicators while behaviours are leading indicators.
Here’s a simple way to know which one you’re doing. If your conversations sound like “We need to do better with customers,” or “We need to improve our margins,” you’re focusing on results.
If your conversations sound like “We need to learn at least three things about every customer,” or “We need to find three new lines with higher margins in the next thirty days,” you’re focusing on behaviours.
When leaders get clearer about the behaviours and actions they expect, performance starts to change. Indeed, attentiveness is not a personality trait. It is a leadership discipline.
In fast-moving environments, leaders are rewarded for decisiveness and speed; however, when speed consistently overrides attention, trust erodes. Staff begin to feel unheard, and conversations shorten.
Soon, performance follows a similar path.
Being attentive and receptive does not mean being passive. It means choosing to fully engage before moving to action.
Here are five practical ways to strengthen that discipline.
1. Finish listening before forming your answer: Many leaders begin solving before the other person finishes speaking. Make it a rule to let them complete their thought. You will hear more than you expect.
2. Ask one clarifying question before offering a solution: Instead of responding immediately, ask, “What do you think is really driving this?” or “What outcome are you hoping for?” Curiosity often surfaces better solutions than speed.
3. Remove visible distractions: Put the phone down and close the laptop. Turn your body toward the person. Attention is communicated physically before it is communicated verbally.
4. Reflect what you heard: A simple, “So what I’m hearing is…” ensures alignment and signals respect. It prevents misinterpretation and reduces unnecessary friction.
5. Separate urgency from importance: Not every issue requires an instant answer - some require understanding. Train yourself to pause long enough to determine which is which.
The leaders who consistently widen their perspective before reacting create stronger teams and better outcomes. Attention builds trust, and receptiveness builds engagement.
Small shifts in how you show up during conversations can shape the entire tone of your leadership.
Being more attentive and receptive is not dramatic; however, when practised daily, it becomes a quiet competitive advantage.
Where will you take your business?
Right now, a lot is happening in the world. War dominates headlines with real-world impact. Gas prices are soaring, and economic uncertainty grows. Unemployment moves in the wrong direction.
None of us controls those things; however, business leaders still control something incredibly important. They determine where they lead their staff next.
In difficult environments, many leaders fall into a common pattern of thinking. They spend time explaining the environment.
They might say that sales may be softer due to an uncertain economy. They might argue that customers are cautious because prices are rising. It might be suggested that traffic is down because people are worried about the future.
Those explanations may be true; however, they don’t move the business or results forward. With that said, leaders need to interrupt that line of thinking. They acknowledge the environment, but they don’t stay there. Instead, they quickly redirect their focus to something far more important: Where do I lead my staff despite these challenges?
That shift can happen immediately, and no grand plan is needed.
The environment hasn’t changed; however, the leader’s direction has.
And the moment direction becomes clear; a higher level of leadership becomes visible.
This is a skill. One that leaders can learn and practice. Instead of allowing difficult conditions to dominate their thinking, strong leaders learn to interrupt that pattern and quickly refocus the staff on what still matters.
Here are three ways leaders do that.
1. Separate the environment from the expectation: Difficult environments are real. Leaders should acknowledge them openly. Ignoring reality rarely builds trust with a team.
Strong leaders also ensure the environment doesn’t quietly lower standards. Results may become harder to achieve; however, expectations around effort, service, communication, and leadership should remain clear.
The environment may influence results. It should not determine the standard.
2. Focus the team on what is still controllable: When the outside world becomes uncertain, staff naturally focus on what they cannot control. News cycles, prices, policies, competitors, and economic conditions can easily dominate conversations.
Leadership shifts the focus back to what is still within reach. How the staff serves customers and supports one another becomes more important. How well they execute the expected standards rises in consideration.
The environment shapes the challenge; however, execution still shapes the outcome.
3. Increase clarity and presence: Difficult environments rarely improve with less leadership. They require more of it.
Teams need clearer priorities and expectations. Clearer communication about what matters most right now must be spread.
They also need to see leadership showing up with calm confidence. Not pretending the challenges don’t exist, but demonstrating that progress is still possible.
Clarity and presence give businesses direction when the environment feels uncertain. These shifts may sound simple; however, they are powerful leadership practices.
The ability to interrupt unproductive thinking and quickly redirect a team is something leaders can learn. It’s also one of the core skills we practice in my new leadership development program, The Better Leader Now, which focuses on creating immediate change in how leaders think and respond in real leadership moments.
Remember, difficult environments don’t decide where a business goes next - leaders do.
Want to be a better leader? Start here
Most leadership advice tells you to be patient—that expansion, confidence, and results all take time. They’re not wrong; however, they’re incomplete.
When I began working on Start With What If, I was trying to understand how real change begins. When I looked back at the big and small shifts in my life, I saw a pattern.
They all started with an interruption. Years ago, someone asked me a simple question: “What if you went one day without a drink or a drug?” That question interrupted my thinking. My life did not transform overnight; however, I made an immediate decision. The direction of my life changed in that moment. The growth that followed took discipline. The shift did not.
I have seen the same pattern in leadership. Whether I’m working with a business owner, an executive, a front-line manager, or someone leading a department.
I once worked with a manager who was close to losing his job -performance was slipping. His staff was disengaged, and he was on probation. What changed was not time; it was the interruption. He stopped defending, and he started listening. He stopped blaming, and he started owning his numbers and his staff.
He changed how he showed up immediately. Over time, he became one of the strongest leaders in the organisation. The results did not change in a day; however, the direction did.
That is the pattern. Immediate change begins with interruption. Interruption creates space. Space allows reframing. Reframing allows for different actions. Action, repeated, creates growth.
Most leaders wait for life to interrupt them. It might be a tough review or a missed target. It could be a frustrated employee walking out on the business.
But interruption is not reserved for a crisis. It is a capability. A leader I work with was dreading a conversation with her top performer. She had been avoiding it for two weeks. Before walking in, she paused and asked herself one question. She walked in differently. The conversation she feared became the one that saved the relationship.
She did not wait for a crisis. She interrupted herself. The next time you feel stuck, pause, and ask a different question. Doing this once is powerful and practising it daily changes how you lead.
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