Resistance Training

"Kmart was opening so may stores it was regarded as the Genghis Khan of the discounting business. Sam [Walton] has always been clear about his attitude: 'Meet them head-on. Competition will make us a better company.'" - Herb Fisher

That's a good point. Part of knowing how good you could become is seeing how good someone else has become.

Expose Yourself

"I think the best executives are those who have touched all the bases and have the best overall concept of the corporation." - Sam Walton

That's a theme I continue to see in business. A person who keeps her eye on the big picture out of natural curiosity - thinking as if she owned the company herself - is driving toward success more quickly than someone who doesn't.

Losses Lead To Wins

During a time of turmoil at Wal-Mart...

"...a bunch more of our managers left. It was a real, bona fide exodus, and by the time it was over, I'll be one third of our senior management was gone. For the first time in a long time, things looked pretty grim. And at that point, I have to admit I wasn't sure myself that we could just keep on going like before...

...most setbacks can be turned into opportunities. And as things turned out, this setback presented us with one of the great opportunities in our company's history." - Sam Walton

Things have been turmoil around here lately. At least three times this week a significant decision has gone opposite of the way I'd preferred. On the bright side, the "Mr. Positivity" log improved slightly in terms of volume of entries. And in one of this week's key decisions, a new idea did emerge that could prove a good solution.

Open Door Policy

"If the associate happens to be right, it's important to overrule their manager, or whoever they're having the problem with because otherwise the open-door policy isn't any good to anybody." - Sam Walton

The ability to appeal a decision is a vital one in American society, in the home, and at work. No one likes to feel like part of a monarchy, where a single ruler's decision always binds. And knowing that people all make mistakes, why would that make sense anyway if the goal is to reach the best conclusion possible? When managers are overruled, it's important to accept it with grace, even thankfulness for those with the best perspective, and continued support of the co-worker. To do any less is to flash ego.

Oldest Friend

"After a visit, everyone in the store has no doubt that he genuinely appreciates our contributions, no matter how insignificant. Every associate feels like he or she does make a difference. It's almost like having your oldest friend come just to see if you're okay. He never lets anyone down." - Andy Sims, on Sam Walton

Is that kind of affection a knack, a skill? The ability to talk with people of all backgrounds is a gift, but the kind of true, honest caring that people buy into comes only from a sincere appreciation of all the things that make a person genuinely likable.

Thanksgiving

"Keeping so many people motivated to do the best job possible involves a lot of the different programs and approaches we've developed at Wal-Mart over the years, but none of them would work at all without one simple thing that puts it all together: appreciation." - Sam Walton

Dena and I took a walk on Thanksgiving, and it's easy to rack up a list of things to be thankful for:

- good health, as I've learned a lot about managing any back pain
- good job, and co-workers who know how to have fun
- good family
- good friends, through LMC and other activities
- good home and neighbors
- freedom to do just about anything at the drop of a hat
- freedom from danger, living in the U.S.A.

Thankfulness is a great exercise of peace, and my favorite form of meditation.

Check Your Work(ers)

"You've got to give folks responsibility, you've got to trust them, and then you've got to check on them." - Sam Walton

People like responsibility, and the freedom to use it as best and creatively as they can. And people have weaknesses. Checking up on people isn't an insult, it's an acknowledgement of human nature.

A Sermon For Managing Expenses

"We didn't pay much. I wasn't that I was intentionally heartless. I wanted everyone to do well for themselves. It's just that in my very early days in the business, I was so doggoned blinded to the most basic truth, really the principle that later became the foundation of Wal-Mart's success. You see, no matter how you slice it in the retail business, payroll is one of the most important parts of overhead, and overhead is one of the most crucial things you have to fight to maintain your profit margin. That was true then, and it's still true today. Back then, though, I was so obsessed with turning in a profit margin of 6 percent or higher that I ignored some of the basic needs of our people, and I feel bad about it.

The larger truth that I failed to see turned out to be another of those paradoxes - like the discounters' principle of the less you charge, the more you'll earn. And here it is: the more you share profits with your associates - whether it's in salaries or incentives or bonuses or stock discounts - the more profit will accrue to the company. Why? Because the way management treats associates is exactly how the associates will then treat the customers. And if the associates treat the customers well, the customers will return again and again, and that is where the real profit in this business lies, not in trying to drag strangers into your stores for one-time purchases based on splashy sales or expensive advertising. Satisfied, loyal, repeat customers are at the heart of Wal-Mart's spectacular profit margins, and those customers are loyal to us because our associates treat them better than salespeople in other stores do. So, in the whole scheme of things, the most important contact ever made is between the associate in the store and the customer." - Sam Walton

Forget About It!

"I guess it could be called management by wearing you down." - David Glass, Wal-Mart employee

"You might call his style: management by looking over your shoulder." - A.L. Johnson, Vice President, Wal-Mart

Okay, so I don't agree with everything that Sam Walton did! There's a line to draw between interest and interference. The former is appreciated, the latter not so much.

Walton's List

"Except for reading my numbers on Saturday morning and going to our regular meetings, I don't have much of a routine for anything else. I always carry my little tape recorder on trips, to record ideas that come up in my conversations with the associates. I usually have my yellow legal pad with me, with a list of ten or fifteen things we need to be working on as a company. My list drives the executives around here crazy, but it's probably one of my more important contributions." - Sam Walton

In recent years I've become a checklist-maker. I carry some type of writing pad with me, and whenever someone gives me a good idea or a task to do, I draw a small rectangular checkbox, and then write the task next to it. When I complete that task, I check the box. In the meantime, it reminds me of what needs doing. I also use that pad to record good ideas like the ones that the LMC class poured out last night during our end-of-day debriefing. We're going to pass that input along to the Steering Committee and see what kind of difference it makes.

Sam Walton described himself as thoroughly unorganized. So if he finds success by list making, how much more might we find who are more organized naturally?

Close Counter

"I've been asked if I was a hands-on manager or an arm's-length type. I think really I'm more of a manager by walking and flying around, and in the process I stick my fingers into everything I can to see how it's coming along. I've let your executives make their decisions - and their mistakes - but I've critiques and advised them. My appreciation for numbers had kept me close to our operational statements, and to all the other information we have pouring in from so many different places. In that sense, I think my style as an executive has been pretty much dictated by my talents. I've played to my strengths and relied on others to make up for my weaknesses." - Sam Walton

I do love so-called "dashboards" of key information as a manager - who wouldn't want to have one when driving a car? - but I haven't arranged them in my new job just yet. As usual, trust has to be built first. In any relationship, it must be proved that you care before much else is taken seriously. At any rate, keeping in the numbers like Sam did is a nice way to show my interest in the work without interfering with it.

And as for strengths - yesterday was a very good day at work. Why? I'm charged with developing the department's annual plan, and since it's a form of writing and facilitating, Hidden Blog readers can understand why it was hardly a problem to power my way through it until 8:00 last night. That type of project fires me up.

Two Great Gifts

"My role has been to pick good people and give them maximum authority and responsibility." - Sam Walton

Forgive And Get Out

"My boss was Ferold Arend, and he told me we were going to set a new record of opening a store in three weeks. I said okay. But he had made a mistake by a week so we really had a target date of two weeks from the day we began. We tried desperately, but we didn't quite make it. We opened on Thanksgiving Day, and the store was horrible. I was standing out in front when Sam [Walton] drove up. He saw the disaster, but he was smart enough to know how hard we'd been working and that if he told the truth we would have just disintegrated. He said, 'The store looks really good, guys.' And he drove away and left us."

In Sam's shoes I probably would have said something more accurate like "Thanks for all your hard work here, fellas," but the point is that you have to appreciate a person who knows when to ease up on the reins.

What's All The Promotion About?

"It really is amazing how much merchandise you can move with just a little promotion." - Sam Walton

In business, promotion is a mixture of placement, wording, and enthusiasm.

In relationships, genuine appreciation is promotion.

Free Speech

"We all loved to find unusual items and store managers had a lot of freedom to try different things." - Sam Walton

"I think a lot of companies would have fired Phil for that one, but we always felt we had to try some of this crazy stuff."

Freedom is my most cherished value. Most of what people call sins are in fact restrictions on others' freedoms - freedom from pain or loss. When we act to preserve virtuous freedoms, we sow happiness. Freedom brings people's creativity to life. It brings failure, and through failure, eventually success.

Shake It Off

"Two things about Sam Walton distinguish him from almost everyone else I know. First, he gets up every day bound and determined to improve something. Second, he is less afraid of being wrong than anyone I've every know. And once he sees he's wrong, he just shakes it off and heads in another direction." - David Glass

Around here (and for a reformed night owl like myself) the sky's dark this time of year when the morning alarm goes off. How much brighter would each day be if two things were true:

1. We were certain that we would improve the world that day.
2. We were as indestructible as Superman?

Isn't "indestructible" more of a physical myth than a mental one? Being mentally strong does take exercise like any other kind of strength, but the right self-image - that we can shake anything off - will in time become our reputation and a living part of us if we can master it.

Mr. Xerox

"Most everything I've done I've copied from someone else." - Sam Walton

Billions of human-years of experience around the planet have resulted in some pretty great ideas. Which is faster, to come up with them ourselves or to read them?

Though imperfectly, through the years I've seen things in my bosses that I try to copy.

Susan Waring - (1) She is results-oriented. During her presentations she offers a half-dozen or so figures that illustrate our progress for the year. Within our mentoring relationship she ends each session by asking what we should talk about next time, to make sure it's worth our while. (2) She's inclusive. She established a series of informal visits with groups of employees (hundreds, ultimately) to hear what was on their minds and to share with them some things that were going on.

Barbara Bellissimo - (1) She's also results-oriented. Under her leadership, our company seemed to become more expressive of its plans with target dates. (2) She's a consistent communicator. There was emphasis on "Completed Staff Work" - i.e. a template for bringing a report to a meeting. Regular, weekly communication structure included a preview of upcoming announcements to leadership.

Joe Monk - (1) The guy always seems to have a smile on his face! (2) He has a little cheerleader in him, in a way that expresses just enough vulnerability to give a "regular guy" quality.

Gerry Brogla - (1) When pressure was at its highest, I've seen him become utterly calm, especially in his tone of voice, in a way that helps keep the peace.

Rusty Hendren - (1) He's extroverted and willing to be silly, which greases the wheels of creativity. (2) He is supportive of work/life balance, including flextime and the "dress for your day" policy. (3) He is eternally thankful and generous with praise, with triple exclamation points. (4) He challenges conclusions, and doesn't settle for groupthink.

Rusty Schopp - (1) He's empowering, even rewarding people who used him little in making decisions. (2) He almost never became angry, and brought humor to almost every conversation. (3) He cares about people's personal lives and is open with his own. (4) He is open-minded. More than once he deferred to the group against his better judgment. (5) At the same time, he questions the reasons behind change, not settling for "I don't know why we do it this way."

Electable

"I learned early on that one of the secrets to campus leadership was the simplest thing of all: speak to people coming down the sidewalk before they speak to you. I did that in college. I did it when I carried my papers. I would always look ahead and speak to the person coming toward me. If I knew them, I would call them by name, but even if I didn't I would still speak to them. Before long, I probably knew more students than anybody in the university, and they recognized me and considered me their friend. I ran for every office that came along. I was elected president of the senior men's honor society, an officer in my fraternity, and president of the senior class." - Sam Walton

Though we can't control whether other people will consider us their friend, we can consider other people to be our friend, and planting that kind of seed gives the greatest chance for growing relationships.

Oh, That's Rich

"If we had enough groceries, a nice place to live, plenty of room to keep and feed my bird dogs, a place to hunt, a place to play tennis, and the means to get the kids good educations - that's rich." - Sam Walton

We've got that... though I choose to shoot hoops rather than animals!

Wal-Man

"If I had to single out one element in my life that has made a difference for me, it would be a passion to compete." - Sam Walton

I appreciate any insight from a self-made multi-billionaire. Competition has a price, namely the risk of excluding other things, which in Walton's case was free time. The man couldn't pass by a competing store without going inside to scout its practices, and that includes on family vacations. Some would read that last sentence and smile, some frown, which testifies to the diversity of people. The point is that if you're deeply passionate about something then in time some people will be drawn to you, and some drawn away. That's not a problem - it's nature. With a few noteworthy exceptions, the problem comes if the passionate person interprets those drawn away to be inferior in any way.

Yesterday I learned that a teammate of mine has determined that he will exercise more control over the team's budget than has been done by prior people in his position. In fact, the rest of the team's input has been reduced to nothing on those matters. Further, that teammate is often not present for discussion. I've learned from other situations that I'm less successful in that type of team dynamic - my particular passion is for empowerment of the team. But I also know people who thrive in that environment. So if I need to move on, I can do so with a light heart, knowing that both parties are better off.