Transformational leadership — leadership that encourages, inspires and motivates employees to perform in ways that create meaningful change — is practiced at Signet Jewelers by everyone from its CEO Gina Drosos to its district managers.

In a panel moderated by Stacey Widlitz of SW Retail Advisors at the recent Women in Retail Leadership Summit in Phoenix, Kecia Caffie, president of Zales; Amy Robinson, president, Banter by Piercing Pagoda; and Mary Liz Finn, chief people officer, Signet (and Women in Retail leadership Circle advisory board member), discussed everything from Signet’s focus on transformational leadership, to the company’s “people-first” strategy, and everything in between. Here are a few highlights from the discussion:

How Signet’s “Path to Brilliance” Helped Transform the Company

Kecia Caffie discussed Signet’s “Path to Brilliance,” a strategy developed and implemented by Drosos, that focused on a customer-first strategy, omnichannel initiatives and cultural transformation toward more agility and greater efficiency.

“The heart of “Path to Brilliance” was to take some costs out that consumers don’t see and also create space for each of the banners,” said Caffie. “So, we spent months working on positioning — looking at the target audience for each of the banners, for example — so each banner would have a banner value proposition.” Caffie said Zales looked at its current customers as well as what customers it wanted to attract to bring that value proposition to life.

Caffie said that the strategy is helpful because it gives structure, “and when you have structure, you have freedom, so it gives everyone in the organization the room to know where they play.”

How Signet Follows a “People-First” Strategy

Finn discussed how part of Signet’s transformation and “path to brilliance” initiative centers on following a “people first” strategy, and why that’s important. “Some companies will say they’re people-first, or they feel deeply about people,” said Finn, “but at Signet it’s not a slogan. It’s how we operate.”

Finn added that the company focuses on having many women in executive positions, in its boardroom, and in its stores. As a result, “you get different results, different conversations, and you have much more empathy. It also brings out the empathy in our male leaders, too.”

 How Signet’s Culture Drew Amy Robinson to Signet

Robinson, who has only been with Signet for a few months, said one of the things that attracted her to the company was that “the people I met were authentic, and you can feel that, because you can tell when someone is not being authentic.” In addition, in all the conversations she had, there was “always a conversation about the culture of the company, and that was very important to me.”

If you would like to hear the full panel discussion — and are a member of  Women in Retail — you can view the entire panel discussion here. If you are not a member and would like to learn more about the organization, please click here.