Female Forces From Nordstrom, Foot Locker and DSW On Pulling Up a Seat for the Next Generation + Advice for Their Younger Selves at Women Who Rock 2025
Great wisdom comes from experience.
Three of footwear’s most respected retail leaders took the stage at FN x Two Ten’s annual Women Who Rock event Tuesday evening in New York to share sage advice about career growth, mentoring and the best ways to support the next generation.
Designer Brands‘ Laura Davis, Nordstrom’s Tacey Powers and Foot Locker‘s Kim Waldmann sat down with FN executive editor Katie Abel to talk about some of the unique challenges and opportunities for women in the workplace. And for all three women, it all starts with great teams.
“The teams that I see supercharged and rocking it are ones where [leaders] are coaching and developing the people underneath them to be able to do their job in their absence,” said Waldmann, global chief customer officer and senior vice president of Foot Locker Inc.
Davis, the executive vice president of Designer Brands and president of DSW, offered up perspective on how executives can show up for the women who surround them. “I hold a lot of responsibility being the first female president at DSW,” she said.
Watch on FN
In addition to being real about her own challenges in work and in life, Davis relishes the chance to empower and promote her team, which is almost all women. “Back in the ’80s and ’90s, there weren’t that many chairs [for women]. Now, we have to pull the chair up next to us and really think about how we move people along with us,” she said.
And Powers, the executive vice president and general merchandise manager of shoes, kids’ apparel at Nordstrom, revealed an illuminating conversation she had with some members of her team about what makes a successful leader and mentor.
One team member told her: ‘Make your job look fun, and have fun,’ Powers recalled. She took that advice to heart: Over Christmas, the executive and her team painted portraits of each other. “Sometimes we think a happy hour checks that box. It doesn’t. We all work so hard that we have to block that time out [to do something meaningful],” Powers said.
Some of the panelists’ most personal insights came when Abel asked about the advice they would give their 21-year-old selves. Here’s what they had to say:
Powers: “I could start with wear sunscreen. My mom used to say that all the time, and I really screwed up (laughs). I think the advice I would give to my 21-year-old self is pick the company before you pick the job. It is so important to be part of a company that you love, that you feel invested in, where your values are aligned, and the rest will follow. It’s been really true for me. And then I wish I would have slowed down and educated myself a little bit more. My passion and enthusiasm gets in the way, and it’s not a bad thing, but there are times when I wish I would have maybe stopped and taken in more of what was going on, just to continue to layer on to my learning over time.”
Waldmann: “Just to give you guys a picture of my 21-year-old self: very, very business, very serious. And I think as I’ve learned over my career, let’s inject some humanity in this. What we do is really, really fun. There are a lot of jobs out there that don’t have the dynamism, the inspiration, the beauty, the great people of what we do in footwear and retail. I would just tell myself to chill out a bit and enjoy the journey as much as the destination.”
Davis: “Progress, not perfection. I have perfectionist tendencies. I think being curious and knowing how you’re going to make progress and enjoying the journey. There’s a lot of striving, and you realize at a certain age, ‘You know what? The fun part actually makes it that much more fulfilling.’ So yes, strive, but be curious. And take the jobs that may not be on the surface super fun, but you’ll learn so much more and you’ll be much more diverse in your career.”
