Sam’s Club CEO Latriece Watkins has a career resume that most workers would gawk at, working her way up from an intern at Walmart all the way to leader of one of America’s biggest grocery retailers.
But it isn’t the executive titles or career milestones that makes her feel powerful: The greatest source of power comes from watching the peers she’s helped ultimately succeed.
“When I feel most powerful is when I see the people I’ve invested in make moves,” Watkins told Most Powerful Women Editor Emma Hinchliffe onstage at Fortune’s annual MPW Summit in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Tuesday. “When I see them get promoted, I see all of their faces running across memory from very early in my career, or very early in their careers, to where they’ve moved now.”
Solely focusing on one’s own career could leave opportunities for greater impact on the table, according to the Fortune 500 executive. Watkins has made many strides in her own career, becoming the first woman and person of color to serve as Walmart’s chief merchant back in 2023—one of the most influential roles in retail. And in helping others along her three-decade career at the $890 billion parent company (Walmart), she’s leveraged a symbiotic strategy with her peers so that everyone succeeds.
“The contributions we make are more than we could individually do,” she continued. “So power for me is the names of all the people that I can say who [have] benefited from my contributions, and I’ve benefited from being able to either contribute or get feedback from them.”
Watkins said that despite being in the top role, business leaders will always need people—and finding the best way to shepherd them can be a challenge for busy executives. In her eight months as CEO, the 51-year-old has found that understanding the power of workers and delivering clarity are required in leadership. Employees will be looking to the top boss for transparency and a clear vision. To get that clarity, Watkins recommends setting aside time to think things through.
“People look to you for clarity, which means you have to be clear. You don’t think out loud,” she said. “When you’re the leader, people want to know what you think, and if you haven’t cleared it up for yourself and you’re thinking out loud, you’ll confuse them.”
“So take the time—make the time—to create clarity for yourself,” Watkins continued. “It’s one of the hardest things to find this time for yourself. But it’s required, because you can’t get clarity without it.”
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