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By Gayle Watson

Zappos is a great example of “Off the Wall Leadership.”  There has been a lot of buzz recently about Zappos.  In March 2009 Fast Company named Zappos number 20 in its top 50 most innovative companies.  Not only is Zappos innovative, but it has an impressive performance track record.  In less than ten years CEO Tony Hsieh has grown Zappos into a billion-dollar-a-year retailer.  Zappos’ success has created such a popular demand, that it offers tours of its headquarters every two hours.  So what is the secret to their successful brand?

Hsieh says that Zappos made an early decision to base its brand on its culture.  In a blog post January 3, 2009, Your Culture is Your Brand, he wrote:  “At the end of the day, just remember that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff — including building a great brand — will fall into place on its own.” 

Of course, building and maintaining the culture you want may be easier said than done.  If it were easy, more companies would be doing it successfully.  It takes a focus on core values, leadership, and a commitment to institutionalizing the desired behaviors.  In his blog, Hsieh describes some of the specific things that Zappos has done to ensure its culture is sustained over the long-term.  He says it starts with the hiring process – hiring people who fit the culture.  After hiring, the next step to building the culture is training.  All new employees receive four weeks training.  Employees who do not fit the culture are encouraged to quit.   Any employee who quits before the end of their first four weeks receives $2,000 in addition to their earned wages.

And here is the important part.  Zappos defined its culture in terms of ten core values.  Hsieh says the commitment to values is more than a plaque on the wall – you have to be “willing to hire and fire” based on the values.  Congratulations, Tony Hsieh, for living your corporate values and exemplifying “Off the Wall Leadership!”

 Sources:

Zappos presentation on corporate culture:  Delivering Happiness, by Tony Hsieh, CEO

The Zappos CEO-COO Blog, January 3, 2009:  Your Culture is Your Brand

Fast Company, March, 2009, Special Issue:  The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies. 

Inc. Magazine, May, 2009:  Why Every-body Loves Zappos.

By Ann Rhoades

As a member of the JetBlue Airways board of directors, it was wonderful to see our team given well-deserved recognition by Fortune Magazine this week (Special Feature:  Nothing blue about JetBlue, September 3, 2009) for its successful corporate culture.  Contrary to what we typically hear in the press, this story is a tribute to all JetBlue crewmembers who live and breathe the corporate values everyday.  Having been a member of both the Southwest Airlines and JetBlue teams, I can tell you that each has a unique corporate culture, and both are known for strong values-driven leaders.  It is time to start recognizing leaders who do it right and who mirror the values in their behaviors everyday and in every interaction with their team and their customers. 

Congratulations, JetBlue, for your commitment to getting the right results the right way!  The People Ink team is privileged and blessed to have worked with Dave Barger, JetBlue CEO, and his team to develop a values-centric model for creating a unique culture.  The model is simple, but difficult to execute, because it requires a commitment to a set of core values and associated behaviors.  It also requires a commitment to hire and retain “A” players who mirror your values as well as a systematic method to reward and recognize these players.  It includes creating a model for customer loyalty that exceeds their expectations.  It demands that every member of the team keep a real discipline about the financial metrics.  This sounds so simple, but few have really been able to deliver on this simple-sounding model.  Maybe that is because it starts with having leaders like Dave Barger at Jet Blue.  At the end of the day, success is all about leadership!

For complete Fortune Magazine article, September 3, 2009, go to:

http://money.cnn.com:80/2009/09/03/news/companies/jetblue_airways_airline.fortune/index.htm

For more about People Ink, go to:  http://www.peopleink.com

I just finished reading Jim Collins’ new book, How the Mighty Fall:  And Why Some Companies Never Give In.  Collins’ hopes the book will equip leaders with knowledge about the stages of decline, so that they may reduce their chances of falling all the way to the bottom.  I particularly liked it because Collins’ research provides more evidence that values-based leadership is a differentiating factor between successful companies and those that fail. 

Collins identifies five stages of decline, all important to understand, but I was most interested in the first two stages because each involves leaders who fail to stick with core values in their decisions and behaviors.  In the first stage, Hubris Born of Success, leaders become arrogant and lose sight of the true underlying success factors.  Collins discusses the concept of “arrogant neglect,” where leaders believe success will continue almost automatically and therefore divert their attention from the core business, culture, and values. 

If hubris is not checked, it eventually leads to stage two, Undisciplined Pursuit of More.  In this stage, leaders become obsessed with growth to the point that it is unsustainable.  One of the mistakes leaders make in this stage is to take actions, such as mergers and acquisitions, which are inconsistent with core values.  Another mistake is failing to place enough right people in key seats.  Ultimately, Collins finds the best leaders are those who have humility, recognize the need to build an executive team, and build a culture based on core values.

For more information, go to http://www.jimcollins.com/

Are you consciously creating a corporate culture?   A culture exists in your organization, is it the one you want?  I challenge leaders to examine your corporate culture and to create a culture with intention. 

What is your corporate culture?   Spend some time observing people in your organization.  Listen and watch how employees interact with each other and customers.  What consistencies to you see in the behavior of the people in your organization?  Which of these behaviors are desired and undesired in your culture?

How are things really done around here?   Do formal the operating practices in your organization actually reflect the informal practices – “the way things are really done around here?”   Find the disparities and determine which of the practices are desirable or undesirable in your culture. 

Are you hiring people who fit your culture?  Are you making hiring decisions based on how people fit your corporate culture?   If not, consider adopting a plan to incorporate “culture fit” into your hiring criteria. 

Do leaders reflect your culture?   Do the leaders in your organization consistently reflect the desired culture?  How do you identify, select, and develop leaders who exemplify the desired culture?  

Let us know what you are doing to create your corporate culture!

Off the Wall Leadership gives leaders five essential principles for creating and maintaining a values-centric culture from a practitioner’s point of view.  Many companies have framed values statements hanging on the boardroom wall, but these values are not alive in the organization.  Off the Wall Leadership is a proven and practical model for taking values “Off the Wall” and putting them into action every day for improved results.

Today we are launching our blog.  We want hear from you about leaders who live the values every day.