When I heard Colin Powell was keynote speaker for the National Retail Federation conference in New York this week I wondered about his retail connections. Sure he was involved in shopping for weapons but what about retail and, in particular, small business retail.
As it turns out, Powell was a terrific keynote speaker. From stories of his years as a teenager working in a New York toy shop through to his thoughts on leadership, he was relevant. Click here for a more complete (and professional) report on the speech.
The point I like the most is one about delegation – giving people parameters and allowing them freedom to operate within the defined parameters. I like this because I see opportunities in newsagencies for more delegation, for giving junior and casual employees authority for parts of the business, to encourage them to take the business places not envisaged by often tired and old-school leaders.
Leadership is a tough gig, especially in this world of faster and more comprehensive change, and a world of more demands from and for employees. Indeed, the changes today around leadership are as considerable as the changes around and in the traditional Australian newsagency model.
From a newsagency channel perspective, the biggest mistake of those claiming to lead through associations is their obsession with leading relating to legacy products and processes. There is no future in that. Powell talked about lading for the future, leading to be relevant to the future.
This is a conference newsagents would have got plenty from.