Taking on challenges from mentors, building a strong team and valuing work-life flexibility is what motivates two leaders from Casey's every day.
These strategies have helped teamwork thrive at Casey's, said Annie Alabaugh, southwest division vice president, and Steph Hoppe, vice president of omnichannel marketing.
Alabaugh's mentors gave her tasks that were beyond her experience at the time, but it forced her to learn new things and practice stepping up to challenges. Her own leadership style now involves recognizing strengths in her teammates that they might not see in themselves, while Hoppe emphasized that a positive work-life balance is what leads to the best work.
The pair shared these strategies on stage at the second-annual Convenience-Store Women (CSW) Event this week in Charleston, South Carolina. They spoke during a session that was brought back from last year’s CSW event in Napa, California, called Power Pairings, which included an executive and an emerging leader from four convenience-store chains: Casey's, Royal Farms, RaceTrac and Parker's Kitchen.
Casey’s General Stores Inc. is No. 3 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of convenience-store chains by store count.
Alabaugh has been at Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey's for 24 years. She emphasized her admiration for colleagues who believed in her and helped her grow.
“I had opportunities to go out and help other store managers and just really extend kind of that leadership part that I have,” she said. “I had leaders at the time that believed in me and gave me these stretch assignments. Not only did I get to serve my community in that capacity, but then I got to go out and help other people.”
She learned from her mentors and takes after them.
“I feel like I have that obligation to pay it forward for people that have believed in me,” Alabaugh said. “If I see something in somebody that maybe they don't see in themselves, I love to pull that out and absolutely develop them to be the best that they can be.”
With the new team that she leads, Alabaugh’s first goal was to ask a lot of questions and figure out what they needed as a team and as individuals.
“It was about just really listening to my team and what they needed for me as their leader, so I just went in and asked a lot of questions and did a lot of listening,” she said.
Steph Hoppe didn’t think she would ever return home to Iowa, she said. That is, until an opportunity at Casey’s arose. She moved back and has been in her current role for a year.
The marketing team has undergone a major restructuring, Hoppe said, noting that now the team is more cohesive and relationships are stronger.
“They're spending more time together, and they're excited about the future,” she said. “They're excited about what they're working on. That's why I go to work.”
She focuses on how to inspire her team and cultivate both their careers and their lives.
When teams can find work-life flexibility, that’s when performance comes, said Alabaugh. Building a team on trust drives results.
“It's really just being able to understand how you need to flex for the situation to get the desired result that you need,” said Hoppe.
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