Jann's Blog: Leadership at Timberland

Several of the leadership books I have read continue to mention the same companies as places where employees can bring their minds, bodies, and spirits such as Timberland and Southwest Airlines. Jeff Swartz is an interesting leader because he is committed to being a prophet while making a profit. There was a great article about him in Fast Company last year where he describes his leadership philosophy,

In a recent The New York Times Sunday, there was a Q and A about what he looks for when he hires people. Since I thought the responses reflected how he leads, I am sharing some of them.

Image via CrunchBase

Q: What unusual thing do you do during the hiring process?

A: I go to every new-employee thing, and I do a warm-up exercise. I say to folks: 'Tell me your name and say your favorite place in the outdoors. You can say Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon or anything else you want to say and no one's going to call you on it, so please, there's low pressure on this.' An so you go around the room and people say things ... One woman said, 'I don't belong here. My favorite place is not a hiking trail. It's not a mountain. I love Manhattan. I love the smell of it.'

I told her that it was OK. Then I give a standard speech. 'I asked your name because it wasn't your resume we hired, it was you. The individual matters. Two, I asked you your favorite place in the outdoors. And so I reinforced the fact that it's all about you. But then if you noticed, everybody had someplace to say because we're trying to serve this notion of outdoor spirit ...'

"So in hiring, I'm desperately probing for the human inside the shell because the people who succeed at Timberland show a little leg, meaning they expose themselves ... To go to a company town-hall meeting and call out to question a strategy you don't understand or a deeply felt thing, you've got to show up.

You know the line in "The Godfather ---"Nothing personal. It's just business." At Timberland, I want to make it clear from the beginning it is personal. Not invasion-personal, like I need to know what;s going on in your life. But if you aren't going to play at the level of personal, it's probably not going to be nourishing for either of us.

A willingness to be exposed, a willingness to acknowledge and value the personal dimension--from the beginning, that's what we're after."

Because this seems so unusual, I thought it was worth pointing out. Look at the words he uses such as "nourishing." How fun would it be to work at a company where people had this leadership philosophy. Go to Timberland's website and you will find how they "walk the talk." Swartz is willing to hang in there even when times are tough because he is willing to be a prophet even when it is tough to make a profit.

Comments

Wow, my list of places that I would love to work keeps getting longer. I've seen so many bad things at work that would have gone better if the leadership had just stopped and understood the people involved. And

Posted by: Chrys Bregar | January 11, 2010 at 10:03 AM