Jul 23, 2026 · 25 min · 14 segments
In this episode of the People Agenda Podcast, hosts Debbie Mitchell and Gemma Ryall are joined by Stuart Price, chief people officer at Zenith. Stuart draws on a career spanning food retail…
Stuart PriceGuest
Debbie MitchellHostGemma RyallHost
it's also a bit about how that team operates right because I know we've had some conversations before at executive level about Why are we operating in silos? And part of the reason for that is as you run through the exec agenda or any senior leadership team agenda, it's okay, finance, let's have your update.
Now, ops, let's have, rather than what's the business doing? And to your point, asking curious questions.
So I'm interested just to get the translation of that generic sort of what is a chief people officer into how does that sort of come to life in your current roles? Are there priorities? Are there things that you have to focus on but can deprioritize, for example?
I always start the year thinking about what is the business trying to achieve? What's the business goals and objectives? And then how does the people agenda underpin that? So if it's about we need to enhance performance, what is that? Where is that skills capability gap? Is it skills that we don't have? Do we need to buy them in? Can we develop them? So I always start with this sort of business goals and then think about performance.
But then I also then, as I mentioned earlier, then go to the cultural side of things.
And what are societal expectations? What are the things that our colleagues and communities are wrestling with that will become barriers to them being at their best? And then what do we put in place in the organisation that can help people to do that? So there's a kind of really commercial perspective business element around performance and capability build.
But then there's also what's actually getting in the way of our people doing great work.
And we know that whilst people describe it as a soft agenda in the people space, actually, if our colleagues feel comfortable included, involved, heard, respected, valued, actually, they turn up, they give more discretion, effort, they give more, and they perform better, they have more confidence, they ask more questions, they progress more, all of those things come through.
So I think for me, it is going back to that, what's the performance agenda? What's the cultural piece that sits together? And how do you create a plan that underpins all of that?
it's also a bit about how that team operates right because I know we've had some conversations before at executive level about Why are we operating in silos? And part of the reason for that is as you run through the exec agenda or any senior leadership team agenda, it's okay, finance, let's have your update.
Now, ops, let's have, rather than what's the business doing? And to your point, asking curious questions.
So I'm interested just to get the translation of that generic sort of what is a chief people officer into how does that sort of come to life in your current roles? Are there priorities? Are there things that you have to focus on but can deprioritize, for example?
I always start the year thinking about what is the business trying to achieve? What's the business goals and objectives? And then how does the people agenda underpin that? So if it's about we need to enhance performance, what is that? Where is that skills capability gap? Is it skills that we don't have? Do we need to buy them in? Can we develop them? So I always start with this sort of business goals and then think about performance.
But then I also then, as I mentioned earlier, then go to the cultural side of things.
And what are societal expectations? What are the things that our colleagues and communities are wrestling with that will become barriers to them being at their best? And then what do we put in place in the organisation that can help people to do that? So there's a kind of really commercial perspective business element around performance and capability build.
But then there's also what's actually getting in the way of our people doing great work.
And we know that whilst people describe it as a soft agenda in the people space, actually, if our colleagues feel comfortable included, involved, heard, respected, valued, actually, they turn up, they give more discretion, effort, they give more, and they perform better, they have more confidence, they ask more questions, they progress more, all of those things come through.
So I think for me, it is going back to that, what's the performance agenda? What's the cultural piece that sits together? And how do you create a plan that underpins all of that?
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