New Target CEO Michael Fiddelke is putting candor at the center of his turnaround plan

“Candor is one of the things culturally that’s really important for us right now, because you can’t solve problems you’re not talking about,” Fiddelke told me. While that might sound squishy, it does echo the approach taken by Macy’s CEO Tony Spring, who told me the same thing in October and has watched the retailer’s long-awaited turnaround take hold.

Fiddelke, 49, is not kidding about the pace of change at Target: the cheap-chic retailer, which was thrown off its game by a COVID business boom and culture wars over DEI and LGBTQ rights, is overhauling categories it previously “owned” such as home goods, and clothing. It will add more space to its grocery sections, revamp its beauty business, and will ramp up store remodelings and renovations.

A culture that didn’t favor candor in recent years led to boring and off-trend offerings and stores that have lost a lot of their zhuzh, yielding weak sales for three years. (Target expects net sales to be up slightly this year, and shares rose 7% on Tuesday.) 

Fiddelke, who grew up on a farm in Iowa, says he learned early in his career at Target how crucial brutal honesty is to professional and corporate success. He spent his first five years on the retailer’s finance team before doing a tour of duty in stores that he thought would be a breeze. “I thought I had this place figured out. I was full of strong opinions about what Target should and shouldn’t do,” he recalls. It didn’t take long for things to go south. “I didn’t know the first thing about what it really takes to run a store on the front lines.” 

After he confessed to his boss that he was out of his depth, she told him that the admission paved the way for professional growth. “If you’re vulnerable and curious, then candid, now we can do the work to learn,” he recalls her saying. And that’s a lesson he knows he needs to tap as he works to make Target “Tarzhay” again.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

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CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams, Claire Zillman and Lee Clifford.