Building Empowered Teams Through Inclusive Leadership

Nadine Gieseler, Head of HR - Homewares Sector, Mr Price Group

Nadine Gieseler, Head of HR, Homewares Sector at Mr Price Group, leads strategic people initiatives and brings deep expertise in transforming HR functions across industries. With a strong foundation built at Massdiscounters, she advanced to establish HR strategies from the ground up at Stefanutti Stocks. At Miladys and now at Mr Price Home, she has operated at a strategic level, aligning talent priorities with broader business goals. In her current role, she leads a highperforming HR team and contributes to shaping the Group People strategy. She is committed to unlocking human potential and driving innovative solutions for business growth.

Recognizing Nadine Gieseler’s influence in shaping people strategy across the retail sector, this exclusive feature explores her approach to embedding agility, building inclusive leadership, and aligning HR with long-term business impact.

Defining HR Leadership Across a Multi-Divisional Sector

As the Head of HR for the Homewares sector, I oversee the HR teams across the Homewares trading divisions within the Mr Price Group. While these divisional teams have HR leaders that sit on the divisional leadership teams, I steer the implementation of the Group People strategy and ensure consistent people practices as well as leverage the strength of the teams across the homeware divisions. I also sit on our Group People Exco with fellow People centres of excellence heads and ensure that the trading divisions are represented in this forum while collaborating with the different pillars of the COE to help us collectively deliver our Group People strategy. Another key responsibility is to partner with the divisional leadership teams by offering leadership support and guidance in peoplerelated decisions.

I strongly believe that good leadership is built on a foundation of strong EQ. This also guides the success of developing inclusive leaders who believe in lifelong learning. If you get this right, the other elements of leadership development, such as business acumen and strategic thinking, are easier. Leading teams through change is also a critical leadership competency and very relevant in retail, as it is such a fast-paced and ever-changing environment.

Building Flexible People Strategies That Deliver Results

If your people strategies are well aligned to business strategy, adapting your key actions to meet these goals should be easy and allowing the teams autonomy on how to execute the strategy is critical. Since leading across the sector, I’ve seen how we’ve taken our group people strategy and adapted the actions to achieve this in the different divisions.

“If your people strategies are well aligned to business strategy, adapting your key actions to meet these goals should be easy and allowing the teams autonomy on how to execute the strategy is critical”

This has been critical as each trading division is at a different level of maturity and has subcultures that thrive on differentiated initiatives. It’s never a one-size-fits-all approach. As long as what we do delivers the overarching strategic goals and has the desired impact, then the “how” is less important.

Creating a Culture of Empowerment and Growth

0Developing a workspace where employees feel empowered, valued and heard is always a work in progress and depends on the level of psychological safety created by the leaders. Leadership must be vulnerable, inclusive and trusted. If employees at all levels don’t feel that leaders can be trusted or that communication is not open and transparent, they won’t feel safe to contribute. Introducing regular communication sessions, including all employees and allowing questions to be asked of leaders and two-way discussions to take place, may help with creating this psychological safety. Most employees are hungry for growth and development opportunities, so leaders must also coach and delegate to employees, allowing them to make mistakes while they learn. Developing a pipeline of talent is critical to a leader’s success and helps retain employees when they see the career path opportunities and internal promotions taking place.

While there will always be a level of transactional HR required or Business as Usual, it’s important that every HR team has a positive impact on the business to earn a seat at the table and add true value. This can only be done if HR leaders are proactive and align their strategic initiatives and output to the business strategy, enabling the employees to deliver business imperatives. Consulting with business leaders, getting input from them in terms of their needs and their contribution to the HR strategy, will also gain buy-in and help make the positive step change from transactional to strategic HR felt.

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