The 3Ps Every eCommerce Leader Needs
When I was an eCommerce Director, I made the mistake of trying to double profitability in one year.
That was always my big gauntlet when I started a new role - look at the P&L and find opportunities to either double revenue or cut costs in half. Any opportunities below this ambition weren't worthy of my or my team's time. #Savage, right?!?
I did this several times, and each time I could identify 1-2 opportunities that were worthy of the challenge: ambitious yet attainable. I would then rally my team and collaborators behind the big goal and off we would go.
What I learned from these experiences was that pursuing profit without connection to people or purpose was soulless, lonely work that rarely produced the bold, audacious goal I had dreamed of.
The most successful, effective executives have cultivated a leadership style that embraces profit, people, and purpose.
I thought about this a lot over the winter break. I considered the different components of leadership, and tried to pinpoint where exactly leadership falls off when one of these pillars is missing. Here's what I came up with:
Does anyone else love to brain dump in Canva? Oh, just me?
Profit, people, & purpose. Mastery of one or two of these principles is not enough to become the most effective and impactful eCommerce leader you can be. We need all three.
Reaching for a promotion, more leadership opportunities, or making the jump to become a founder without mastering the skills of these three pillars is risky.
If you're missing mastery in one pillar, you may or may not be effective. But if you're missing two, you definitely are not.
Don't believe me? Consider this:
Missing profit skills? The work can feel rewarding, and people may like working with you, but without a proven record to deliver business results, you won't get a chance to lead at the highest level in your org. Or you'll never get your startup off the ground.
Missing people skills? Strategy is great, but if you can't move people to action, the results will never happen. As leaders of complex eCommerce businesses, we need to influence and move people, whether it's motivating employees or partnering with a vendor or agency to grow you brand.
Missing purpose skills? You can be effective and grow the business, but it's likely to feel hollow, disconnected from your sense of self. Success will likely come at the expense of self-care.
The good news is that we can develop and master the skills needed to cultivate a leadership style that integrates profit ambition, people relationships, and purpose fulfillment.
I want to offer you three pieces of advice for how to avoid these pitfall imbalances and ensure you're becoming an effective and impactful leader for your company.
#1. Organize feedback within the profit, people, and purpose framework.
You're already have information as to where you have strengths and where there may be imbalances - feedback.
Review your most recent performance review, feedback from a presentation or investor pitch, or conversations with a partner or close friend and organize it into these three buckets.
Keep the feedback that's resonating with you and that you want to address, and let the rest go.
#2. Evaluate your 2024 goals through the lens of profit, people, and purpose.
If I were to take a guess, the business goals you're working towards are probably based on profits or productivity. These are goals like 'grow to $___ million in annual sales', 'achieve ___ KPI metrics', 'hire ___ team members', etc.
To become an effective and impactful leader, also create goals around people and purpose:
What new relationships do you want to create?
How do you want to grow existing relationships?
What experience do you want your customers to have with your business?
What's the work that you do that's within your zone of genius?
How do you want to do more of this work?
What do you want to be known for in the world?
#3. De-prioritize your profit goals.
I know it's radical. But it's also true.
Getting 5%, 10%, 15% better in people and purpose skills will deliver outsized returns to your bottom line. However, focusing on profit skills as the first or only priority does not have the same return on people and purpose - it actually takes away from these areas.
How do your 2024 goals reflect through the three lenses of profit, people, and purpose?
Are you making any shifts to these goals, or are you already balanced, and it's GO time?