A new year always brings a fresh start and renewed motivation and hope.

Hope for many areas of our lives to get better. Hope that most of the impacts from COVID are behind us. Hope that the employment situation will calm and turn in the right direction. Hope for our businesses to stabilize and we can all begin to build our new norm for chapter 3 in the post COVID years and look to a bright future.

As we have all heard throughout our careers – “Hope is not a strategy”; and I agree on specific company goals and target numbers that must be met that hope is most definitely not a strategy.

I believe that hope in the context of this writing is an attitude. A positive attitude. An attitude that will not be defeated. An attitude that will not cave to bad news. An attitude that will not waver in being resilient.

I also believe that hope in this context as a leader is about the impact you leave in the hearts and minds of the people that are looking to you for guidance and direction. To do that, we really must look back at last month’s leadership article in the Shelby Report on the 5 laws of the harvest. 2024 is over, we need to take notes on what we learned, both positive and negative – but then put 2024 to bed. There isn’t a thing today we can do about last year. We must focus on what we’re going to do in 2025 to set ourselves up for success.

In my book, The 5 Rules, I talk about the three great separators. The three things that I believe separates you from the crowd. One of the three great separators is having a positive attitude. I always say; “Grocery retail is not for the weak”. It’s a tough business and the people in the business must be tough as well. One of my favorite all time quotes is from Dr. Robert H. Schuller and also the title of one of his best books;

A big part of being tough is being positive – no matter what happens. After spending 47 years in the business – I’ve encountered countless people that have allowed all the elements that can wear you down, take their attitudes down with them. Nothing great is ever accomplished by being negative, and besides, who wants to be around negative people, especially when those negative people are on the leadership team! I believe it’s impossible to ever get where you need to go with a negative attitude. You may get short term success – but never will it be long term success.

Here are three things I think should be top of mind for all of us to make sure our hope factor is founded in a positive attitude – and to set ourselves and our teams up for success in the New Year:

1. Growth mindset – if you’re a leader, what are you doing in your daily habits to grow?

 In Liz Wizeman’s book Multipliers, she explains the difference in a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. If you have a growth mindset, there is no limit what you can achieve if you are willing to put in the hard work to learn something new, to get out of your comfort zone and grow in your knowledge and career. If you have a fixed mindset, you believe that you are destined to only go so high in your career and you can’t do anything to change that.

What leadership books, seminars, YouTube channels are you engaged in daily, weekly and monthly to grow in your knowledge and wisdom? Nobody wants to follow a leader that can’t help them grow. You can’t coach/teach/train your team with a limited amount of knowledge. That’s one thing that’s always impressed me about Dr. John C. Maxwell when I see him in the audience of some great speakers and coaches. He’s taking notes like it’s his first leadership conference. And he’s considered to be the world’s authority on leadership. I experienced the very same thing the first conference I ever attended with Harvey Mackay that’s quoted in the beginning of this article. He was taking notes. Amazing that both of these “authorities on leadership” are also “students of leadership”. I think we can all learn a from them on the subject of “Never stop growing”!

2. Are you a driver or a passenger?

In today’s world of people in leadership roles and all kinds of leadership teachings, this is one that’s in my book under Rule #1 – Do YOUR job!

If you’re in a leadership role you must be a driver. You cannot be a passenger. And sadly, across our industry, we have a lot of passengers in the driver seat on the bus and we can’t figure out why we can’t make progress.

If you want to be a driver in a store director role – here’s what helps you look and act like a store director:

• By the way you dress
• By the way you make eye contact
• By the way you walk – with a sense of urgency

Here are your relationship behavior traits:

• You’re engaged with your team (Don’t hide from them)
• You’re engaged with your vendor community (You need great partnerships)
• You’re engaged with your customers (This is a non-negotiable)

Here are the character traits that set you apart as a leader:

• You have charisma and presence with an outgoing personality (you must draw people to you – and not having charisma and presence makes that difficult)
• You listen intently with your eyes and your ears
• You speak confidently

If you want to be a driver in a home office leadership role – here’s what helps you look and act like a professional:

• By the way you dress
• By the way you talk
• By the way you treat everyone in the office

You’re engaged and organized by the way you:

• Are friendly to all departments – not just yours.
• Your office is clean, neat and organized (OUCH)
• Always willing to help where needed (Never use the words, “That’s not my job”)

You know how to conduct a meeting:

• Publish an agenda
• Start and end on time (all meetings don’t have to be an hour)
• Send out recaps of timelines and deliverables

I love what Mike Schumaker, Division SVP at Associated Wholesale Grocers out of Kansas City says about this lesson with his teams:

“I want MACH 1 Drivers”

3. Are you leading your team or are you just taking a walk?

This lesson comes from one of my favorite teachings from Dr. John C. Maxwell. The setup for the comment is how so many leaders are going at such a different pace than their team they aren’t leading anyone.

You have the “idea leader”, that’s always looking for new ideas and just wants to get them implemented ASAP without any real discovery and discussion with the team. This leaves your team in a tailspin and somewhat paralyzed.

Then you have the “don’t talk, just do” leader.

With the five generations in the workplace today – everyone must be lead differently based on the year they entered into this world. Let’s look at that below:

1. Traditionalists (Silent Generation): Born between 1928 and 1945. They value loyalty, respect, and a strong work ethic.
2. Baby Boomers: Born between 1946 and 1964. They are known for their optimism, competitiveness, and team-oriented approach.
3. Generation X: Born between 1965 and 1980. They are flexible, independent, and value work-life balance.
4. Millennials (Gen Y): Born between 1981 and 1996. They prioritize innovation, collaboration, and social responsibility.
5. Generation Z: Born between 1997 and 2012. They are tech-savvy, adaptable, and value diversity and inclusion.

*-source – purdueglobal.edu

In a recent article written by Tim Elmore on this topic he shares a very enlightening comment about how the Gen Z team wants to have a say in how we run our companies without the same years of experience that the Baby Boomers or Gen X folks have. Here was his line, “You can have a voice, but not a vote”. This feels like a great compromise to bring our teams together, so they don’t get frustrated.

My lesson on this topic is as a leader, we can only move at the pace of our team. And as we know – everything rises and falls on leadership – so whatever you do – make sure you’re not just taking a walk!

The hope attitude summary is simple:

1. Grow yourself so that you can help others grow
2. Be a Driver
3. Adjust your speed to take others along with you on your leadership journey

Let’s make 2025 our best year yet!