The Retail Leadership Lens

Feeling like your retail leadership job search is stuck on repeat? You’re not alone. It’s a strange time. You send out applications that feel perfect, you have conversations that seem promising, and then… silence. Or worse, you get feedback that feels so generic it could apply to anyone. The market is crowded, decision-making seems to have slowed to a crawl, and the goalposts for what employers want appear to be shifting daily.

As we hit the halfway mark of 2025, the UK hiring landscape looks noticeably more cautious than it did this time last year.

Hiring a leader is a bit like captaining a ship. You can have the most advanced vessel in the world, equipped with the latest technology, but without a skilled and visionary captain at the helm, you're just drifting aimlessly. You want someone who can navigate turbulent waters, inspire the crew, and ultimately, steer the ship towards its destination. I've seen plenty of retailers hire passengers when they needed a captain. It is time to make a change and hire the best for the

Think about it: what’s the first thing that springs to mind when you consider the success of your organisation? For me, it's people. And those people need to be healthy, happy and engaged. We need to think of employee well-being as an asset.