JJ Breakfast Club Presents… Amplifying Talent with Victoria Lockie, Head of Retail at Nisa

Updated: 23 February, 2024

At this week's JJ Breakfast Club, Victoria Lockie, Head of Retail at Nisa, spoke about her incredible story and how to 'Amplify Talent' both personally and within your team.

Victoria has been at Nisa Retail for 11 years and heads up the National Retail Field Sales Team responsible for 2000 stores across the UK & Ireland.

Starting with humble beginnings, she went out and got a job at the age of 16 to contribute to her family's finances. Her efforts weren't unnoticed and within six months she was approached by the Head of Costcutter – the company had only five branches back then, and it was seeking someone who could help it develop an infrastructure to grow.

Along the way, she worked in various roles from IT to Operations for 27 years. She even picked up a few programming qualifications along the way. By the time Victoria left to join Nisa, she had helped scale the business to 1600 stores.

At Nisa she joined as Sales Support Manager and was promoted four times to Head of Retail. Her six top tips for aspiring leaders are…

Victoria Lockie's Six Top Leadership Tips

Put your hand up – Step out of your comfort zone, be inquisitive and volunteer to take part in new projects. Generally, people do need help. When you do step up, you are showing senior leaders that you are a standout person who goes the extra mile.

Know your customers – One of the key drivers of success is knowing your customers. Don’t tell them what to do. Respect them as the entrepreneurs and masters of their own businesses. Always make suggestions, but never enforce.

Make sure you are heard – having your voice heard in board meetings can be difficult. Ideas can be re-spun and presented by someone else. But don’t shy away if you have a good idea. Say it again and again. And if it’s still not heard – call it out.

Don’t try to be an expert – A good leader has lots of experts around them, they don’t need to know everything. Have faith in your team and learn along the way.

Always bring your true self to work – wear your heart on your sleeve. Retailers (and caterers) will respect that and value it.

Be brave enough to stop – Know your strengths. If you genuinely feel something’s not working, press stop. Don’t keep running with something for the sake of it. If it’s not delivering results, you need to accept it and try something different.

Thanks so much to Victoria for taking the time to share her journey and learnings with our team.