“This holiday season, you’ve probably seen or read about all
the retailers opening their doors as early as 6 pm on Thanksgiving Day. We
have decided not to follow that trend. Instead, we believe family comes
first and you should be at home celebrating with them on this special holiday.
This means none of our stores will be open on Thanksgiving Day. In addition,
none of our stores will be open before 7 am on Black Friday. ” -- Michael
R. MacDonald, CEO, DSW
Shoes
I came across this on Facebook the other day. It rang so
true to me since my wife and a lot of her friends work in retail from the
management end.
A visible expression of company culture
One of the great features of the Internet, for me, is to
read through the comments of others and get a sense of other people’s concerns.
The comments read:
“I like this company even more! I’ll buy all my shoes and
sneakers there from now on.”
“I’ll be shopping at DSW.”
“I wish other stores would follow their lead! Of course if
we, as consumers, refused to shop on Thanksgiving the stores would quit opening
on family holidays.”
He says “family is important to our company” and this is how
we are going to treat it.
It takes courage
Lots of times when the flow is going one way, it takes a
real leader to stand up and say, “No, we are going to be different; we are not
going to go there.” If you Google “leadership,” this is what you should find
for a real leader:
Follow your own compass and not the herd. Not afraid to make
a commitment and to back up the company’s vision and mission by refusing to
follow the stampede.
The pursuit of profits as a “be-all and end-all”
is an in fated strategy, especially in this age and cultured environment. These
companies that have been inching the “Black Friday” process up more and more
are in the final pursuit of their fiscal goals. So the best way for them to compete,
they think, is to open earlier than the next company.
I said years ago as this store opening trend moved forward
is that it would be only a matter of time before they started opening on
Thanksgiving Day. This year, Macy’s announced that, yes, we
are going to open on Thanksgiving but not until 6 pm. I supposed they
thought this was great since they figured that everyone would have eaten by then
and was ready to get out and shop.
Hurry to eat, hurry to work
However, I’m sure that their workers were not overjoyed at
the thought that they would have to eat early and then get mentally ready for
the “Black Friday” madness on a national holiday.
I would suggest that all senior leaders to keep a plaque in
their office or on their desk that can be seen as you look up. Read what your
organization says about your people. You know, the part of the mission
statement that says “people are our greatest asset.” Let that be your North
Star as you sit in meeting or board rooms. Base your decisions on what comes
out of the people filter.
Where is your North Star?
That is
what DSW did in this photo (left). Their filter said that, no, this is not a
good idea for our most important asset. This would not synch up with our
thoughts about that asset.
Using this as a rule of thumb would make the decision-making
process so much easier, and it would serve as a constant reminder that the
culture you build has to be aligned with the foundations of the business.
Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimer, the ultimate sign of
luxury and wealth, decided that they had enough of the stories about their
workers spending vacation time checking email. They decided to offer an
employer generated email
notice that is called Mail
on Holiday.
Their employees can now choose to have all their incoming
emails automatically deleted when they are on holiday so they do not return to
a bulging in-box.
The sender is notified by the “Mail on Holiday” assistant
that the email has not been received and is invited to contact a nominated
substitute instead. Employees can then return from their vacation to an empty
inbox.
The board’s seal of approval
“Our employees should relax on holiday and not read
work-related emails,” said Wilfried
Porth, Daimer’s board member for human resources. “With ‘Mail on Holiday’
they start back after the holidays with a clean desk. There is no traffic jam
in their inbox. That is an emotional relief.”
Yes, culture should be a board-level discussion, and this
shows the effectiveness when it is. When it is a board level issue, it carries
a lot more weight — the kind of weight that culture discussions SHOULD carry.
These type issues are not just HR issues, because they salsa
how the importance of leadership and courage. This brought to mind a discussion
once at a Starbucks quarterly earnings call when someone commented to CEO Howard Schultz that
Starbucks earnings could be stronger if the company stopped offering health
insurance to its part-time employees.
His reply? He talked about how his father got hurt when he
was a child and the family had no insurance. It created a tremendous hardship
on everyone because they did not have any other options to fall back on.
He summed it up by saying that,“if you feel that you can get
a better return with your funds, you can invest them elsewhere.” That’s
because, as far as Schultz was concerned, the
cancel-insurance-for-part-timers-option was off the table.
Supplementing your mission and values
These are examples of what I often call REAL leadership. It
is never built around a slogan or gimmick. Leadership is built on everyday
actions that supplement your mission and values.
If your Missions and Values are true and meaningful, use
that as your North Star and you will exhibit the type of leadership that
attracts and engages your workforce
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