In this episode, Brin’na discusses the importance of belief in leadership, especially during the holiday season. She shares personal experiences from her career at Target, emphasizing how recognizing and nurturing potential in team members can lead to remarkable transformations.
Brin’na encourages leaders to give the gift of belief, which can significantly impact individuals' self-perception and performance, especially in high-pressure environments like retail during the holidays.
Takeaways
The best leaders give gifts of belief all year long.
Recognition should not wait for performance reviews.
Belief in others can ignite their inner strength.
Leadership is about seeing what others can't see in themselves.
The gift of belief costs nothing but is invaluable.
Fun and performance can coexist even in challenging times.
if you work in retail, from my heart to yours, a huge digital hug, but an even bigger thank you for all you've done all season long.
Today's episode is the gift of belief. Why the best leaders are Secret Santa all year long. Hey there and welcome back to another episode of the Legacy Lounge. I'm your host, Brin'na And this episode is dropping during the week of Christmas, right after the retail teams everywhere just survived the holiday season. And if that's you, first off, you did it.
And the timing of this feels perfect for what I want to share with you today.
Christmas naturally is a season that makes me think about gifts. Not the wrapped up under the tree kind of gift, but the kind of gift that we give leaders every single day without even realizing it. And the best leaders, they're like Secret Santa all year long. They are constantly giving gifts that people don't even know they need yet. So let me tell you about a gift that changed a lot.
about the entire trajectory of my own career. I was 28 and it was my first season in my dream job as a district senior director for Target. And honestly, I was drowning. And if you are part of my prior team at Target, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I had no idea what I was doing with managing multi-units in tents.
holiday season transitions. I was trying to fake it till I make it all the way through. And my boss, Salam, at the time called me into his office and we had a quick meeting and it was about particularly the brutal Black Friday that my entire district was about to face. And I was convinced I was gonna get fired. But instead he offered a pretty incredible message.
Brin'na, listen, he would say. Brin'na, listen, I see something in you that I don't think you see in yourself yet. You have the ability to make people feel heard and valued, even in the most stressful situations. That's not a skill I can teach, that's a gift. And I think it's going to take you places that you can't even imagine.
Fast forward six years later, sir, you are correct. But in that moment, I teared up because he was right. I didn't see it in myself. I was so focused on what I thought I was lacking that I couldn't see what I actually brought to the table for my team in the position that I was selected to have. And that moment was really a mirror to mirror self-talk.
I, it sits with you type of conversation. Not because he gave me some incredible message that was the first time I ever heard something like that existed, or because he taught me a new skill or gave me the secret sauce on how to win the quarter. But he gave me a gift of seeing myself and in my own potential that I didn't see clearly yet. And when I took that message to heart,
And I took that back to my team and I started to share that style of messaging because that's the belief that I have. It is seeing the potential in people before they see it in themselves. When they're at the bottom of the hill, when they pop a tire on the hardest drive up the hill, when the power goes out and you're supposed to pull off a miracle. It rippled through the entire district territory. And I started seeing
that same fight ignite inside my team that ignited in me that day. And it was during some of the most high pressure moments that people really showed up and they taught me who they were and they were reminded themselves of who they wanted to be. And they started believing in themselves more than I could have even believed in them. The performance was dialed and the retention
maintained and this was after coming into a market that needed to have a turnaround situation. A lot of new leaders were learning. A lot of things were imported and exported and updated and back to best practice. There was a lot of newness on the team. But we had so much fun even though it was one of the hardest Q4s by all aspects of the business.
people still looked forward to having a chat about the craziest things that happened that day and what we were gonna do different tomorrow. And since I left corporate and I'm still very tapped into the retail industry and now coach leaders across multiple industries, it's the same thing in various levels. What I've learned from coaching a ton of individual leaders outside of my home turf of retail,
is that most of us are terrible at giving this gift because we are so focused on what needs to be fixed, what's left on the list. We miss the magic that's already there for you to tap into as a leader. Your team is walking around not knowing their own gifts that they already hold. And as a leader, you have the power to change that in them for themselves. So as we close out this fiscal year,
and head into January where most retail stores are closing out in Q4, you're thinking about your team's performance. But I challenge you to also focus on metrics and improvements, but also the strengths in your people that they don't see for themselves yet. Who handled difficult customer interactions with Grace? And you didn't even know that they had them.
Who stepped up to the plate during the holiday chaos in ways that surprised everybody, including themselves? Maybe they're even the rookie on the team who just showed up with the right leadership in the right moment, enrolled with it. Who has the potential that they're not yet aware of that you already can see? And then go tell them. Don't wait for the performance review to give that kind of recognition and inspiration.
Just tell them, I see you in this and I think it's incredible. You might be the first person to ever say that to them. You might be the voice that changes how they choose to see themselves after a really hard fourth quarter, after a lot of unknown in the retail industry, after a lot of roller coasters of performance from sales and operations. That's the gift of belief and it's free.
And that's where the strongest leaders can thrive. It costs you absolutely nothing to give, but can change somebody's entire trajectory in such a positive way that they will never forget you in that moment that you gave that gift to them. So this week, give the gift of seeing people's potential because sometimes the most life-changing presents don't come wrapped up in paper.
They come wrapped up in the words of somebody else that sees something in you that you either don't see yet or you once saw and you maybe forgot.
You've got this. You're almost to Christmas. And just know, I'm right here beside you. This is Brin'na and I'll catch you on the next episode of the Legacy Lounge. Keep leading with purpose.
