Happy New Year: Welcome 2022
Happy New Year!
The last couple of years have been…challenging. Interesting. Scary. Frustrating. The list of adjectives could go on and on. However you describe the last two years, we find ourselves on the cusp of a new year and endless possibilities. Much of the external drivers of the previous two years have largely been out of our control. COVID has progressed on COVID’s terms, and we have found ourselves chasing the impact that it has made on all our lives.
The effects of this disease will likely remain in the forefront for the foreseeable future. I believe we have learned a lot in the past two years that better equips us to begin leading through it instead of following the path it pushes us towards.
Almost everyone in retail has experienced supply chain disruptions, hiring obstacles like no other, and the ability to maintain our existing staff grows more challenging by the day. Leadership is at a premium. Success happens where leaders have worked together to redefine the rules and the norms for their business and their teams. Never in the past thirty years have we seen such a rapid need for sweeping changes in how we think, how we engage, and how we go to market for both our customers and employees. Everyone is demanding a new experience for them.
On the one hand, this is difficult and scary. On the other, it presents opportunities that likely have not existed since the middle of last century. There is the potential for new industries and business concepts to emerge and define what the economy and retail landscape will look like for the remainder of this century. To maximize those possibilities, leaders will need to prescribe new ways of working and connecting to people.
As we stand on the edge of the old year and the new year — think about what you can and will need to do differently in the year ahead. We are dawning a new era of how we work, where we work, what drives our businesses, and why people do what they do. We can embrace this and take full advantage for a brighter future.
I want to thank everyone for their support and continued readership in Effective Retail Leadership. I look forward to what will be on the horizon and how I can support the leaders that will make this new future come to life.
Wishing everyone a successful and prosperous 2022 ahead. Happy New Year!
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