Season 2; Episode 4: Leaders Don’t Always Have the Answers with Christina Callas

Christina Callas is a dynamic digital-retail leader who drives rapid, profitable growth for iconic omnichannel retailers. She especially enjoys growing and maximizing the operating performance for challenging business environments. She is currently the EVP and Chief Digital Officer at Total Wine & More which is known as the country’s largest independent retailer of fine wine and spirits operating in over 200 super stores across 23 states – and scaling rapidly. She’s worked previously at Children’s Place, Hudson’s Bay Company and Aeropostale. She has her MBA from Columbia Business School.

Key Takeaways from this Episode:

You Don’t Have All the Answers

· Sometimes you need to acknowledge that you don’t have all the answers. 

· You can give people a path forward without having all the answers. 

Authenticity and Vulnerability 

· People want to be authentic about who they are at work.

· If you are going to ask people to be vulnerable, you must be vulnerable even if it’s not your most comfortable state.

Leading During the Pandemic 

· Learning to respect the ways the pandemic impacts people differently and yet also being fair and equitable across the organization. 

· People have demonstrated tremendous strength as people have navigated their lives during the pandemic. This strength needs to be acknowledged.

· In this environment, leaders need to stop and slow down.

Leadership Lessons

· Ask the next question, listen, let people talk, see what they have to offer. 

· “Be brief, be bright, be gone”; distill the complexity into that big idea, communicate it well and then go make it happen.

· Translate your ideas into a language that the audience can understand. You can’t just do good work you also have to sell that idea too. 

· What's the story; tell the story if you want people to change their behaviors and do business differently. And then model that behavior.

Women in Business 

· We need to ensure that women in businesses are being represented in the workplace, and that everybody has an equal opportunity at mobility within the organization.

· Unconscious bias is real and it's pervasive. Don’t think you’re top of mind for somebody because the work you've done has been great or they complimented you in a meeting. Tell people I'm interested; I want to move up. 

· As you become more comfortable with yourself you will embrace your unique voice and unique point of view.

· When getting feedback that’s not helpful, ask questions, find out what they're really trying to tell you.

Career Guidance 

· Raise your hand and say yes.

· Find out where you can be helpful, think about what motivates you, seek out pockets of opportunity and then figure out how to fill them. 

· Let people know you're there and you’re interested and ready when the opportunity arises. It's all about timing.

· Consider interesting opportunities that pop up even if they might be flawed.

· Don't be afraid of lateral moves. 

· When there's disruptive change in business, some people say, stay the course, we know what we're doing. Other businesses say, the landscape has changed, we've got to go figure out how to meet these new challenges. Think like the second business throughout your career.

To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.  

Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.

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I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!

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