What has 'state of mind' got to do with the changing landscape of retailing?

It is reported that UK retailer Dunelm is buying Kiddicare as part of a rescue deal for the UK online shopping group Worldstores, in a push to boost its own online offering. It is not news to any of us that fierce competition from online retailers, changes to the way people shop on the High Street, along with shifts in supply chain and market consolidation are all are forcing traditional retailers to adapt and evolve. How retailers choose to adapt to these external changes will depend on many variables, but the question is how can retailers be confident that they are making the right decisions? And once they have, what is it that determines the ease, success and effectiveness of the way in which retailers are implementing these changes?

In whatever way retailers choose to transform, one thing for certain is that what lies behind every decision and subsequent action, is a human element. Whether it’s strategic discussions in the boardroom or new activities in sourcing, design, buying or merchandising, the common denominator is the effectiveness of the people that both individually and collectively, are powering the success or failure of the changes.

During times of uncertainty, transition and complexity, it is even more important for retailers to recognise and respond to the single biggest variable that will determine the success of the change – its people. As well as looking outwards to what is happening in the marketplace, retailers must look inwards, towards their people and their leaders.

In times of change, the human variable becomes even more important.

This may seem obvious and probably not particularly ground breaking. “I’ve heard this all before” I hear you say… BUT before you decide you know enough and move on, pause, there is something new and different to realise here. What’s new, is the way in which we get people to perform at their best. We are talking about unlocking a new level of personal and operational potential. How?

Through understanding the principles behind Quality of Mind.

What is Quality of Mind?

Quality of Mind is the key variable that influences the level at which people perform and therefore all other factors that directly and indirectly impact the bottom line.

In a high quality, clear state of mind, people have greater access to their resourcefulness, creativity, resilience and innate well-being, which leads to clearer, quicker thinking, better communication and decision making and ultimately, higher levels of performance, both individually and organisationally.

Conversely, when in a low Quality of Mind, we are reactive, lack motivation, demonstrate poor judgement, feel disconnected from ourselves and our colleagues and find it difficult to perform at our best.

In the fast paced, ever changing world of retail where high price tag decisions are being made every minute of the day, the impact of low Quality of Mind decisions can be costly – whether it be an everyday decision about allocation quantities, or a strategic decision about how to adapt to changing market conditions, if the people and leaders taking those decisions are in a low Quality of Mind, the impact to the bottom line (not to mention our stress and well-being) can be phenomenal.

How can understanding Quality of Mind help?

By understanding the principles behind Quality of Mind you will gain insight into what creates your state of mind in any given moment and how to therefore work with it in order to unlock resourcefulness, well-being and productivity.

• Learn to know when you’re in a high or low quality of mind

• Understand what creates your quality of mind in any given moment

• Gain a competitive advantage by learning how to leverage and work with Quality of Mind

How is this approach different?

The traditional focus of change and enabling higher performance is often on behaviours, skill sets, personalities and beliefs. And whilst coaching and training around these areas can be useful, they are often not looking in quite the right direction, i.e. towards the hidden variable of Quality of Mind, which is the single most important factor that influences human performance.

Conventional interventions tend to focus on and address the symptoms of Quality of Mind not the principles behind it.

Don’t I know this already? Of course, we aren’t blind to the fact that our state of mind makes a difference.

Two things most of us misunderstand about state of mind, that have huge consequences:

a) The size of the potential of the state of mind variable - we think a better state of mind might make about 10% difference i.e. it just re-frames a difficult problem. We don’t see that our Quality of Mind creates what we see as a problem in the first place, and blocks or amplifies our resourcefulness

b) Where state of mind is recognised as an important variable, what is often misunderstood, is its source. We think our state of mind is created by our circumstances, and situations, actually, it is the other way around; our Quality of Mind creates our experience of our situation and circumstances. So, we look in the wrong place to ‘fix it’.

What is fundamentally new and different here, is the understanding that Quality of Mind is NOT created from events, people, circumstances or situations that are external to us, but instead, is a direct reflection of the quality of the thinking we are having in any given moment.

How does realising this help?

When we start to realise this fact, we can work with this understanding and the principles behind it to unlock new levels of personal and organisational potential. This will enable retailers who sit up and pay attention to this, to respond and adapt to both internal and external changes in a way that will ultimately have the greatest positive impact to the bottom line and to the people and leaders who are making the decisions and implementing the changes.

Now what?

If something in what you have read here has resonated, drop me a line and we can arrange a conversation.

1-1 coaching programmes, open 3 day executive workshops, and in house programmes can all enable people to have shifts in their Quality of Mind understanding.

If you are curious to discover for yourself how simple it can be to enable transformative shifts and to have a higher Quality of Mind in your communication, come on our next open executive retreat in January 2017.