Sam’s Club CEO Latriece Watkins says her definition of power is tied less to title than to outcomes.
Speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Santa Barbara, Calif., Watkins said she feels most powerful when 'I see the people I’ve invested in make moves.' She said that means watching peers get promoted and seeing the path from their early careers to where they are now.
Watkins, who worked her way up from an intern at Walmart to leader of Sam’s Club, said the payoff is broader than individual advancement. 'The contributions we make are more than we could individually do,' she said. In her telling, leadership works best when people contribute to one another and everyone benefits from the exchange of feedback, experience, and responsibility.
She also pointed to clarity as a core requirement for any boss. According to Watkins, employees look to the top for transparency and direction, and leaders should not 'think out loud' before they have organized their own thinking. 'People look to you for clarity, which means you have to be clear,' she said. 'When you’re the leader, people want to know what you think.'
Watkins said leaders should 'take the time—make the time—to create clarity for yourself.' She called that one of the hardest parts of the job, but said it is required.
The comments fit a simple business truth: productivity rises when leadership develops people instead of just collecting titles. Capital rewards clear rules, and organizations move faster when responsibility is matched with discipline.
That matters in retail, where margins depend on execution and the taxpayer should not be asked to subsidize weak management. A company built on people, clarity, and merit is usually the one that keeps winning after the speeches end.
