“It’s a negative, noisy, busy world,” Alex Weber, a host and competitor on American Ninja Warrior, told the audience at the NACS Leadership Forum.
One consequence: C-stores are a “release and a retreat. I, and many Americans, get excited for a break from the intensity and the stress and the anxiousness and the pressure of our day. Let me go into somewhere that feels safe, that feels known, where they want to serve me. They want to give me something that makes my day a little bit better,” Weber said.
“I hope your team members feel that, on the ground, that who they are and what they do, on a human impact level, matters,” he added.
Part of the negativity and noise is internal. The brain “is hardwired for negativity,” Weber said. The antidote, positive energy “has gotten a bad rap,” he said. But according to multiple studies, peak performers maintain a positive outlook.
Weber offered five steps for overcoming the voices of doubt:
- Get clear on what you really want. “There are so many voices in this world … so rarely do we get a chance to … set our big vision.” It’s important to tie in our personal and professional lives in this regard. “We’re the same person” at work and at home, “we just change our shirts,” Weber said.
- “We need to claim it.” Be clear on what you want, and clearly claim it. This can involve a positive—what we stand for—and a negative—what we don’t stand for, what’s not important, what we don’t want.
- Maintain the commitment to yourself. “If there was ever anything to go all in on, can we go all in on you?” asked Weber. “Good things happen when you go all in. You win the gifts of the journey,” Weber said.
- Make it bigger by teaming with amazing people. For Weber, that meant training with the best American Ninja Warriors he could find. For convenience retailers, their team extends all the way to other retailers and finding ways to work in concert as an industry.
- Make a choice. Part of this is choosing what’s around you—what helps you succeed and what brings you down.
Read more coverage of NACS Leadership Forum in Be Kind, Be Kind, Be Kind and How C-Stores Can Become Employers of Choice.