A new year gives us a chance to reset and think about how we can improve. Pulling from Women in Retail Leadership Circle’s Top 50 Tips of 2022, below is advice from 10 retail and leadership experts to help guide you toward becoming a stronger leader in 2023. Let us know which one resonated with you.

Manage the Deliverables, Not the Tasks
WFH leadership requires both empathy and flexibility. The risk to employees is that their workday never ends, and the risk to leadership is that they relinquish control of and visibility into work output. Micro-management doesn’t work for remote teams; my best advice is to pivot to managing the deliverables and not the tasks to provide short-term autonomy but stay on course. — Lucille DeHart, Principal, MKT Marketing Services; Founder, Yogassists, “20 Questions With Lucille DeHart, Principal, MKT Marketing Services and Founder, Yogassists”

Be Your Authentic Self
Leaders need to be their authentic selves, lead with empathy, and take the time to really get to know the people that work for them. If you do, you’ll get their best work and they’ll bring their best selves to work.” — Sharon Leite, CEO, The Vitamin Shoppe, “What The Vitamin Shoppe’s Sharon Leite Learned About Leadership on ‘Undercover Boss’”

Motivate By Starting With Context
I find motivation comes from starting with context. Context is king. When people have context and feel as though they’re brought along, they’re more motivated to contribute and put their best work forward. — Katie Belyus, Marketing Director, Qurate Retail Group, “20 Questions With Katie Belyus, Marketing Director, Qurate Retail Group”

Lead With Kindness
Kindness takes intentionality. Beginning a kindness practice for your leadership soul is just the start, of course. This leads me back to your brand’s playbook. Perhaps it’s a good time to take another look at your brand’s DNA and see how and if kindness is an integral part of it. Just how empathetic and compassionate are you with team members and customers? Take a kindness inventory of your corporate practices and customer policies and see where you can add/delete/revise/recalibrate actions to be more generous and big-hearted. — Andrea Syverson, Founder and President, IER Partners, “This Valentine’s Day, Start a Kindness Playbook”

Stretch Your Team
Consistently create an atmosphere of caring, clear expectations and gratitude. Providing the team with stretch assignments also demonstrates that you believe in them, respect their feedback, want them to grow professionally, and are willing to teach them. — Sarah Peters, Director, Franchising, GNC, “20 Questions With Sarah Peters, Director, Franchising, GNC”

Be a Role Model
Start at the top. It’s very important to have women in executive leadership. Women need role models that will inspire them and advocate for them. As a female executive at Poshmark, I actively have conversations with our leadership team on how we’re working with our women employees and giving them additional support at Poshmark and beyond. We’re fortunate at Poshmark to have cultivated a culture that empowers all women. But in the tech industry as a whole, there’s still a long road ahead. — Barkha Saxena, Chief Data Officer, Poshmark, “Top Women in Retail: A Q&A With Barkha Saxena, Chief Data Officer, Poshmark”

Make Time
Schedule and keep weekly touch-bases so you have a dedicated time for each of your direct reports. You may need to adjust the day or the amount of time, but making sure you stay connected with your team and giving them one-to-one time every week is so critical. This is also a great way to ensure everyone is aligned on priorities because things can change so fast. You must make sure you’re all on the same page. — Jamie Martin, Vice President, Merchandise Operations and Inventory Management, mDesign, “20 Questions With Jamie Martin, Vice President, Merchandise Operations and Inventory Management, mDesign”

Advocate for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We value individuality, but also know we’re always stronger together. That togetherness means championing diversity, building equity, and fostering an inclusive experience for all our associates and customers. We’re really focused on building a culture and community of inclusivity and have made a number of commitments that cut across our internal practices, including hiring, training, marketing and people development, among others. Furthermore, we’re working to ensure our customers and associates feel seen, safe and heard. I’m also proud of how engaged we are with our local communities and local organizations that I know are working tirelessly to advance these principles everywhere. The work is never really done, but I think staying committed to the process and continuing to build on your efforts is so important. — Libby Wadle, CEO, J.Crew Group, “Top Women in Retail: A Q and A With Libby Wadle, CEO, J.Crew Group”

Empower Employees to Bring Their Whole Selves to Work
Sometimes we tell people, “Come to work and leave yourself outside the door.” Except that anybody who comes to work is still a mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, whatever. And all the issues that you have at home, you can’t forget them. I think you can do both. Performance comes first because we have numbers to deliver, a company to run. At the same time, the way to get the best out of people is to acknowledge that they have issues beyond the numbers and the company. And it’s better to talk about that to get the best out of them for the company. So it’s how you straddle the two. — Indra Nooyi, former CEO, PepsiCo, “Indra Nooyi on Empowering Employees to Bring Their Whole Selves to Work”

Dare to Be Different
Don’t be afraid to be different. Many women leaders have tried to be the hard-charging type we see in many male executives. I consistently see women leaders who lack confidence because their views aren’t traditional. However, this different outlook is necessary to create these new models. The emphasis should be on human-centric design and collaboration — i.e., human dynamics. It will take leaders with confidence to develop this hybrid co-leading system. — Dorothy Spence, Founder, Imaginal Ventures Inc. and The Purpose Led Business School, “The New Path of Female Leadership”