The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many convenience retailers and forced leaders to rewrite the rulebook on how they serve their customers, hire employees and lead their teams. According to attendees at the NACS Leadership for Success 2021 program last May, it’s now more important than ever to develop leadership skills and uncover personal strengths.

“Especially with COVID and the hiring opportunities going on right now, if we don’t change and grow, we can’t succeed. I will tell you that going through [the program] has helped me change who I am,” said Jeff Gamm, district manager, Love’s Travel Stops.

The NACS Leadership for Success (LFS) program is an immersive, six-day course, where convenience store district managers, supervisors and other leaders come together to learn leadership skills they can use immediately when they get back into stores. Not only do par- ticipants learn using a variety of engaging instructional methods, they also actively engage with each other to learn from their peers. The program is graciously endowed by The Hershey Company.

The 2021 LFS program took place May 27 at the Virginia Crossings Hotel and Conference Center in Richmond, Virginia, after not being able to meet in 2020 due to the pandemic. Joanne Loce, lead facilitator for the Leadership for Success program, felt a collective comraderie from the 2021 group of attendees having gone through the pandemic.

“This group walked in, and immediately, it felt like we had all been together before, and I think that’s because we all had a shared experience,” said Loce. “There have been times where people have dealt with floods and hurricanes, but we walked in and felt like colleagues knowing we’ve all been through COVID.”

LOOKING WITHIN

According to Loce, one of the most beneficial aspects of the program is the opportunity for c-store employees to take a step back and self-reflect on who they are as a leader.

“[Self-reflection] is not something people get to do in most industries and certainly not in the c-store industry where we’re in a fast-paced environment,” said Loce. “One of the big benefits is to pause and reflect so that [attendees] can be intentional about what they’re doing.”

Gamm agrees. “A takeaway I had was learning who I am as a leader and my communication style,” he said. “There are a lot of things that [leaders] do that we don’t know, and you find out when you’re in [the program].”

Along with traditional coaching methods to self-reflect, attendees take reflection walks through the grounds of the venue with other participants. The walks allow each person to think about and discuss their personal challenges in their businesses. Walking with different attendees allows everyone to obtain a variety of insights and perspectives on their particular challenges back at their workplace.

LOOKING OUTWARD

Learning and understanding their communication style is one of the first lessons. Before attendees arrive on site, they are required to take a DISC assessment, which identifies their personal strengths and leadership skills.

“One of the biggest impacts from the program was looking at how my communication style differs from other styles and really learning how to communicate with different people,” said Gamm. “It’s helped me with my team. Now I try to assess their style and then learn how to communicate with them. Do I need to communicate with more numbers? Do I need to communicate with them in a more positive manner, or do I need to just get straight to the point?

“It’s helped me drive two different metrics within my district based off of just learning how to communicate better,” said Gamm.

Attendees also take an emotional intelligence assessment and look at the 360-degree feedback given ahead of time by their own colleagues before they head to the program.

“Most of the people coming to [the program] are in district manager or general manager types of roles, so they clearly are competent, capable leaders, so [the program] is really about their ability to increase self-awareness about what they’re good at and what they need to learn, and then it’s about focusing on and targeting the skill areas,” said Loce.

One of the big benefits is just to pause and reflect so that [attendees] can be intentional about what they’re doing.

LOOKING TO GROW

Once attendees learn about themselves as leaders and in their businesses, it’s time for application. At the beginning of the program, attendees list areas of opportunities at their workplace and end each day with an action planning activity. They reflect on what they learned and write down goals and actions.

“It’s really about taking a real business issue, using what they’ve learned through the week and learning how to apply some of those concepts,” said Loce. “They’re taking what feels conceptual and putting it into action, and the purpose is to take those leadership skills and learnings and apply them in a practical way to make a business difference.”

After attendees leave the program, the work doesn’t stop. They leave with an action plan to attack a specific issue—and they’re not alone. Attendees are divided into teams of three to five, and the teammates help each other with projects over the summer. Teams have at least three meetings and are assigned a coach who checks in on them to make sure they apply the skills they learned during the program. Then at the NACS Show, each team reports out on their projects and results—and for many, presenting for the first time ever.

Gamm’s group’s theme was leadership and retention. “We looked at the teaching and training of our store teams, how we set expectations and the soft skills that it takes to re- tain people,” said Gamm. “Our group wanted to look at how we communicate on the right level, at the right time, with the right people to make sure that we drive either a culture change, status quo of the culture or whether or not we were even in the right ballpark of how we communicated.”

Gamm’s business opportunity was to accomplish better mystery shop results, specifically improving bathroom survey results and having employees give genuine greetings more often. “I looked at how can I teach my team to think of themselves as a customer instead of a team member. It really helped our metrics because they started asking themselves, ‘Would I use this bathroom?’ ‘Would I eat here?’,” said Gamm. “It helped my team drive better results, and we saw a 50% improvement over my timeline.”

Gamm says he still keeps in touch with his team members, as well as other people he met at the program. “The relationships you build are priceless. I met directors and other district managers. We were able to bounce ideas off each other. And I met people who are the opposite of me in their styles, so I can bounce ideas off them on how to communicate with my own team,” he said.

“A key purpose of the program is for attendees to build their network and build relationships with colleagues at other organizations and use that as an opportunity to continue the learning,” said Loce.