Reflections on my first year at Lincolnshire Co-op

By Alison Hands Chief Executive Officer

Today marks my first ?year anniversary at Lincolnshire Co-op and I’m proud of what my colleagues and I have achieved together over the past 12 months? – and there’s so much more to come.

I’m the type of person who always asks ‘What’s next?’ ‘What if?” and ‘Why do we do it like that?’ I’m intrinsically curious, so since my appointment, I’ve been challenging the team at Lincolnshire Co-op on the shape of our business going forward.

I have introduced ‘Talk to Alison’ sessions for me to sit down in person with colleagues from across our trading areas and Support Centre to give them a direct route to me. I’ve asked them about their motivations, about their day-to-day working lives, and have gathered their feedback on what we can learn and what opportunities we have in the future.

I strongly believe that listening makes me a better leader and even though some of the team had challenging feedback, knowing that I was getting their honest views made me thankful because without it, we wouldn’t be able to move forward.

I was also inspired by my colleagues. Bar none, everyone I have met on those sessions has been passionate about the valued services they provide and doing their best for their customers and for each other.

Talk to Alison sessions, as well as our Strategy?SWOTs and introducing Curious Friends analysis with all our business areas, as well as many more conversations with colleagues, members and stakeholders have helped us shape a new strategy called Purpose Beyond Profit 2030.

We want to drive onwards and invest further in our purpose - which remains integral to our DNA as an organisation.

It’s clear we’ve accomplished some great things - growing the local economy with our large-scale property developments, caring for health and wellbeing and our environment through community work, and providing valued services through all our outlets.

And now we’re going to focus on strengthening and modernising the foundations of our business, to push forward sustainably.

As our foundations are laid, we’ll be driving our trading performance harder through new outlets and services to continually meet the needs of changing communities. Improved trading performance will help us grow and invest in not only our core businesses, but where real community need is – in healthcare and housing.

Our new strategy is something we can stand behind collectively, and be proud to be a part of delivering. It will shore up our long-term future, making sure Lincolnshire Co-op is here for another 160 years and beyond, as well as giving our communities a real breadth of services which will help people live fuller and more enriched lives.

It’s an exciting time – and with the support of our dedicated team at Lincolnshire Co-op, I can’t wait to see how we drive the new strategy forward.

If this sounds like something you’d like to be part of, we’ve got lots of great opportunities for more forward-thinking and motivated people to be part of Lincolnshire Co-op. Take a look at our latest roles here: Welcome to - Lincolnshire Co-op

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