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David is a highly credentialed and well-regarded retail expert with a background comprising of over 28 years in senior management and advisory roles for multinational retail industry related organisations including 7- Eleven Hong Kong & Australia, Shell Asia Pacific & The Middle East, Dairy Farm International Hong Kong, Franklins Supermarkets, BP Australia, Westfield, Metcash, CSR, Dulux, Swisse, Coles, Priceline and numerous other well known leading brands.

Author's Name

David Ginsberg

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+61 419 508 085

Web Site

https://www.retailgrowthconcepts.com.au

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COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on the Australian economy, no sector has been immune to the fear and disruption that has swept across the nation.

The retail sector has suffered more than most, few sectors of the economy are as immediately exposed by changes to household consumption.

With the Australian retail sector already struggling before COVID-19, the headlines are worrying. Rapid consolidation, store closures, no tourists, rent disputes, consumers moving from bricks to clicks, supply chain meltdowns and in the worst cases, the complete collapse of the retailer.

In amongst all this carnage, CEO’s and their executives attempt to steer the ship and lead teams in a virtual world with no face to face contact.

The corporate retail industry is fast paced and dynamic. It requires rapid decisions and pulling people together often many times a day to pivot and react faster than competitors to customer needs. It’s people intensive and high energy, relying on diverse capabilities and skillsets to deliver solutions.

With team members forced to isolate and work alone from home much of this dynamism and energy is lost. Zoom, Teams and other technologies are helpful, however, none of them replicates the buzz, energy and immediacy of the corporate retail office environment.

With this virtual way of working likely to be with us for some time to come, retail leaders must adapt their approach and be as effective, as role models and leaders within the virtual corporate environment as the physical.

Personal development and coaching support for team members has never been more important, and yet it has taken a back seat as retail businesses focus on cost control and survival due to the threat of becoming obsolete as a result of rapidly changing consumer behaviour.

Effective coaching, whether in the physical and virtual environment, involves the role modelling of skills and capability, active listening, providing non-judgemental feedback and goal setting with clear plans to get there. A great coach can excel in the virtual environment and maximise the potential of their team as individuals or as a group with passion, commitment and by taking a holistic view of career, personal and corporate values.

Here are 5 ‘coaching in lockdown’ ideas that you can use to ensure your team feel supported, engaged and maximise productivity.


1. Be Human – best-selling business and team management author Pat Lencioni suggests “this is not the time for increased professionalism, share your kids, untidy office or dogs”. Creating a virtual environment of trust built on empathy and respect is crucial for team engagement and productivity. It’s perfectly ok, in fact recommended to go off script from time to time and engage with your team in a caring, humorous or real manner. Perhaps start each team meeting by checking in with each person to enquire how they and their family are doing? Balance this with your own personal family experiences of lockdown. Share some lighthearted examples that your team will relate to and in so doing help to build connection and ease the feeling of isolation and disconnectedness.

2. Inspire and Educate – working in isolation is not an excuse to ignore or be lazy with the personal development of your team members. Review their annual objectives and personal development plans, discuss these with your team members and reinforce that they are still in play. If you need to adjust these plans as a result of the lockdown scenario or other business or commercial reason, explain and discuss this with the team member or members. Consider creative ways to pivot, for example if a team member was due to attend a course or program. Can they complete this remotely? Are there online alternatives? Can the commitment be rearranged for a future date? Inspire your team with your own research, listen carefully to their challenges and needs. Spend time researching relevant information that will support them and share this. Identify new ideas and innovation, tech tools, case studies and webinars or podcasts that may be of benefit and share it. Importantly personalise the content with your own explanation of why this information is important or relevant, this will help to inspire your team and create a feeling of connection. Be a role model of positive self-development.

3. Create Routine and Accountability – Being human, inspiring and educating your team are important virtual rhythms to nurture. However, you are running and working in a business, its equally important to ensure that this ball is not dropped as a result of a far more flexible and decentralised working environment. Establish a clear routine that every team member is part of, do not deviate from this routine. Your role modelling at maintaining such discipline will build excellent momentum for your team to emulate a similar disciplined approach. Establish regular weekly virtual meetings on the same day and time, circulate agendas in advance so everyone is clear on what will be discussed. Nominate minute takers and have these circulated with action ownership. Start and finish meetings on time and make an effort to ensure everyone involved has an opportunity to speak. Ensure 1 to 1’s are not overlooked and prepare well for them. Lastly consider some form of shared deliverables dashboard to communicate and create shared accountability. Spending your day from one virtual meeting to the next, it’s easy to lose the discipline and overlook some of these routines, don’t allow this to happen to you and your team, perhaps this could be the number 1 point on your deliverable’s dashboard?

4. Develop a Virtual Team Charter – For most team members, if not all, the idea and reality of working together in isolation will be a very challenging new experience. To quickly overcome differing points of view of what’s normal and courteous in this unusual work setting, it can help to develop a charter. Everyone in the team has the chance to contribute and develop its content. It may include rules of communication such as, no interrupting whilst someone is talking, speakers should ensure they talk clearly and at a reasonable pace. Background noise should be avoided, and when this is unavoidable switch microphones to mute. It could also include clear guidelines on setting lighting and camera position to ensure a consistent image of all team members on screen. It’s also important that the charter evolves as and when the needs and views of the team change.The potential inclusions in your charter are countless, it’s up to you as a team to find a balance of the important points that work for you all.



5. Nurture Team Spirit – Just because you cannot get together physically, it does not mean that you lack the opportunity to grow as a team and have some fun. In the virtual environment, there are no photo copiers or lunchroom to gather and share information or let of some steam. In the virtual environment, team engagement tends to be very task focused resulting in diminished team cohesion. One way to overcome this is to start your weekly team meeting with an exercise that ask’s each member to spend a few minutes articulating what they are working on, what’s going well and what’s not? Also consider how you will celebrate success, sending a small gift and a thank you card to a team members home is a very powerful demonstration of this. Be creative and have some fun, a virtual early Friday finish and a drink can work well, perhaps include a virtual team building session, just Google ‘virtual team building’ and you have access to hundreds of ideas.


The ideas presented are far from exhaustive, the only limits are your imagination in terms of how Retail Coaching In Australia can be demonstrated in the virtual world.
It just requires your motivation as a leader and coach to make it happen.