"I love setting the direction, providing clear guidance and working hard to support each and every one of my Area Managers to deliver in their role and grow their careers."
A typical day in the role can be incredibly varied, but my favourite typical day is when I'm out on my regular store visits. I'll be up bright and early, get set for the day, start the laptop and clear through my morning communications, sharing out key data to the Area Manager team and ensuring that we are on track as a Division for our key things we need to do in order to stay safe, compliant and serve our customers well. I'll then travel in the car, anywhere up to about 4 hours each way as my Division runs from the middle of Manchester, all the way up to Inverness in Scotland.
I'll then meet with one my Area Manager teams and we will visit several stores in a day, this is a great chance to check in directly and hear from my wider team in the Pharmacy and Optical units. I'll talk to them about the challenges they're facing, encourage them in the key areas to improve performance and review compliance elements with them, all of this done alongside the Area Manager to coach and guide them on expectations.
There are normally various calls across the day to join to give strategic input into upcoming projects or feedback from an operational perspective on upcoming or ongoing changes.
It's then back into the car for the journey home and to aim to make it back in time for the kids bedtime! I will often utilise this time to complete calls with key stakeholders both within my team and external to it, or listen to podcasts and audiobooks. Finally, when getting home, it's typically a final clear down of communication that has come in across the day, I like to ensure that I respond to messages (where possible) within 24 hours.
Leading the team. This is the complete team, so I directly lead 5 Area Managers and I really enjoy supporting and coaching them but I also have a combined 144 Optical and Pharmacy units across the country, each one having either a Pharmacy Practice Manager or an Optical Manager alongside other Professionals and our brilliant colleagues teams. I love setting the direction, providing clear guidance and working hard to support each and every one of them to deliver in their role and grow their careers.
Start today and don't stop learning. If you want to lead a large Division and motivate a large team then you need to begin right now. Set yourself clear career goals for growth, and where you want to be in 1, 2, 5 and 10 years. Don't ever stop learning, no matter where you are in your career, there is learning and education to go through, this doesn't have to be formal education, it can simply be reading a self help book with leadership (Personally I recommend the 4 disciplines of execution) or listening to a podcast from someone who has led large teams in the industry you want to work in. Take in as much information as you can and utilise this to grow your career and lead people in the best way possible.
It's a great business overall and the culture is truly unique, we're proud of what we do, have a clear, tangible vision and the diversity of roles are incredible. You could be leading an Asda store, a Warehouse, a Team in Home office or an Area / Region, there's so much opportunity for those who are willing to work hard and put themselves forwards.
What is great about Asda is the culture and teamwork across ALS function, the variation of roles allowed me to build relationships across the network and pick up the phone when I need support.
I have worked for 36 years in Asda, a business where no one ever told me I couldn’t progress, or I couldn’t aim for the next role.
The chance to move forward and progress in your career is very real here, and Asda really invests in helping its people develop.