Ricardo Belmar: Welcome to our new Retail Razor show, Blade to Greatness,
our new standalone Retail Razor show, where we hear from a retail industry
leader who shares their sharp insights and cuts of wisdom on how to excel in
this dynamic and competitive field.
In this series, we learn about the essential must have skills and qualities
that every retail executive needs to lead their teams and their business to success.
Casey Golden: Whether we're talking about HQ or stores, we'll uncover valuable
tips and advice that every retail leader can apply to their own retail career
path, raising your Blade to Greatness.
Ricardo Belmar: I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.
Casey Golden: And I'm your co host Casey Golden.
Today we're speaking with April Sabral, founder of retailu.ca, an
online leadership development portal for field leaders, and the author of
two books, "The Positive Effect" and her latest "Incurable Positivity."
After three decades running stores for brands like Starbucks, Banana Republic,
Apple, Holt Renfrew, and DavidsTea, April's transitioned into coaching and
training after seeing the impact of leadership firsthand on a retail business.
Her current clients include brands such as Jimmy Choo, L'Oreal, Victoria's
Secret, David's Bridal, and More.
Ricardo Belmar: Today she's here to talk with us about one of the most important
skills every retail leader needs:
how to cultivate a positive culture throughout your organization.
Casey Golden: Welcome, April.
April Sabral: Hi, good morning.
So yeah, today I'm gonna share a little bit more about that.
It's really important.
I don't know anybody who says that they wanna show up and go into work and just
not have a great experience, right?
And there's a lot of people, unfortunately, that are not
having a great experience.
I learned a long time ago, I had a boss that when I was a store manager, he was
a regional director at Banana, and I said to him, how do I get your job one day?
Like, I literally asked him that and he said, when people go home at night, They
spend a lot of time at the dinner table talking about what they've done all day.
And usually they're talking about their work, what they've done,
who they've interacted with, and specifically their boss.
And so he's like, you have a real impact on the way that people go
home and talk about you, the company.
And those ripples go out to their family.
And he said, and I want you to think about that.
When you leave every day, what would they be saying about you
at the dinner table at night?
And that really stuck with me 'cause he said they're either.
Everybody in their family and friends group is either telling them to leave and
get another job 'cause it's not worth it.
Right?
Or they're saying, oh, good for you.
And like that person's coming to work and like actually putting
more effort in the next day because they love what they're doing.
So there is proven facts statistically that when you have a positive culture and
people feel good coming to work, that you get 10% more intrinsic effort out of them
that a pay increase just cannot do, right?
And so when somebody's not feeling great, they just check out, call it quiet
quitting, whatever you wanna call it, but you're just not getting the effort.
So positive culture's so important, and if you're not
working on culture, you have one.
It just might not be the one you want.
HR leader told me that a long time ago, and I was like that's just golden
because how many times do we talk about 'we wanna improve culture?'
I've been at executive tables where we're talking about culture and people,
but we don't have a plan in place to actually do anything about it.
We're just talking about it.
And culture is everybody in the organization the
way you show up every day.
How you make other people feel working for you.
You ignite positive emotions, neutral or negative every day in the way
that you interact, the way that you communicate, where your focus goes.
And so, yeah I'm a big one on like positive culture and what that can
do for you and how you do that.
And I believe it starts with leadership.
It starts with leadership, knowing how to lead, develop, and
inspire those emotions in people.
Casey Golden: Yes, it's a conscious decision, at the top that you have
to plan it, you have to think about it, you have to have a vision for
it, how to execute it, scale it.
Do you think that more you've seen more companies with a culture that they
the culture that they think they have.
April Sabral: Oh, a hundred percent.
Yeah.
People think that they have something, but they don't.
You just read exit interviews, right?
When I was leading stores, I read thousands of exit interviews, and
when somebody would resign, their boss would usually call me and say,
oh, they left, they got another job, they got an opportunity.
If we throw more money at them, I can get them to stay.
And I would get on the phone with store managers, district managers
at the time, and it was never about the pay, it was always about
the person that they worked for.
So, top two reasons why, you know.
People leave companies, specifically right now in retail as well, but
I've only ever worked in retail.
But it's general is number one, the person they work for, and number two, they're
not getting any career development.
Those are the top two reasons.
Pay is always the third.
So, but they're not gonna tell you that in an organization because they don't
want to have that come back at them.
Right.
So if you do internal surveys, a lot of times it doesn't show up.
If you look at the exit interviews though, it always shows up.
But that requires then you as a leader to actually take that feedback.
Take ownership and responsibility for that, and then start
doing something about it.
People just wanna love where they work, who they're working
for, and they wanna be developed.
And development is the number one thing that gets dropped all the time.
When sales are bad, we don't have time, resources are cut.
All that stuff.
And that's why I created retail You, that's just so affordable for
everybody to jump on because it's literally helping you develop your team.
That's it.
Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, it is one of those things where we always hear.
Retailers will say, we it's the year, this year, we need to invest in our people.
But you're right, that you, that's always the first thing that gets cut
when there's a need to cut things because it's seen as a cost, not an investment.
April Sabral: Yeah, but I mean, I've been working with a lot of brands this year,
specifically on positive leadership, right from the Positive Effect, the first
book, and it's being so well received.
Just hearing, like, shifting the mindset, like having those coaching skills to
develop their teams it's a skill at the end of the day, and we need to
provide that for for our leaders to be able to create that culture, right.
Every day.
Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, absolutely.
A hundred percent.
Well, April, thank you so much for sharing these insights.
We're so, so right about the need for that positive culture.
And I think my big takeaway from that is that even when you aren't trying
to build that culture, just the fact that you're not trying is kind of
the culture you're setting, right.
And it shows and is reflected in all of your teams, whether you realize it or not.
So you do have to take control of what you want your culture
to be in, in an organization.
So thank you so much for sharing those insights with us today.
April Sabral: Thank you.
Casey Golden: if you've enjoyed our show, please consider giving
us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts and Goodpods.
Remember to smash that subscribe button in your favorite podcast player and tune
in on YouTube, so you don't miss a minute.
I'm your cohost, Casey Golden.
Ricardo Belmar: Please share your feedback with us on Twitter at Casey
C Golden, Ricardo underscore Belmar, and at RetailRazor, or find us on
LinkedIn, Threads, and Instagram.
For the best highlights from each episode, shipped straight to your inbox, subscribe
to our Substack newsletter for full episode transcripts and bonus content.
I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.
Casey Golden: Thanks for joining us.
Ricardo Belmar: Until next time, keep cutting through
the clutter and stay sharp.
This is the Retail Razor Blade to Greatness.