Garry's Last Late Summer Reading Series of 2021: The Heart of Business by Hubert Joly

We were trained to lead with our brain, our left brain, to be precise. Today leaders have to lead with all of their body parts, not just their brain but also their heart, and their soul, and their gut, their ears, their eyes.?

It’s been said that leadership is a personal development program wrapped in a career opportunity. Astute leaders of every level, especially those who subscribe to the philosophy of servant leadership, embrace their role in helping their tribe members grow in an environment where they are safe and free to do their best work at their highest potential. In return, their businesses thrive because of the advantages of an engaged community of colleagues all pulling together in service of the same mission. And the leaders themselves achieve new heights and depths of their own self-actualization.

If you stop to think about it, a well-curated leadership career should be a series of “turnarounds,” each episode on one’s CV representing an opportunity to transform an enterprise into an elevated, improved, wiser version of itself. Likewise, the leader’s own personal development CV would do well to reflect similar journeys to a more profound awareness of self and even of the nature of our common desires, drives, sufferings, yearning, as members of the human tribe.

This was the outcome of Hubert Joly’s turnaround story when he assumed the role as CEO of the floundering company, Best Buy. He writes about the corporate journey in his new Wall Street Journal bestselling book,?The Heart of Business . What I found equally compelling, perhaps even more so, were his own revelations around the true gifts and opportunities available to the wise, observant leaders who take the time to notice and cultivate what he calls the?human magic?to be found in any workplace. And how the people you find inside your organization will return the favor and show you what’s possible for you in your own lifelong journey to achieving the person you are truly capable of being.

Garry:??You wrote that the workplace is often the safest place for some employees. There is the story in your book about the employee who had alcoholic parents and was in a same-sex relationship. She told you that, because of the relationships she had with her Best Buy colleagues, for the first time in her life she felt safe and accepted for just being herself.??At a time in human history where there are so many ways people can subdivide themselves into groups that could be in conflict with each other, what is the CEO’s role in creating that workplace culture where everyone can be themselves and still safely belong??

Hubert:??When it comes to bringing disparate groups together in a welcoming and accepting culture, the workplace really can be a mini-United Nations, can’t it??I was first struck by this realization when I was CEO at Carlson Wagonlit Travel – which is a corporate travel management company. Our clients were the GEs, JP Morgans, Accentures of the world, with substantial global presence themselves. And so we would have global teams to serve them.?These teams would often be made up of?people from countries that traditionally were enemies. There would be Japanese team members and Chinese team members, or Russian team members and Polish team members, German and French, Lebanese and Israelis, Pakistanis and Indians. All working together, pursuing the same, shared mission. It was all very natural because it was all focused on pursuing a mission and working together. The world can be divided, but companies can be a place of unity.

As far as the CEO’s role in creating this cultural context is concerned, it is absolutely our responsibility to care for the people in our organization. In this world that has been so disrupted, leaders at all levels, business leaders, need to become truly?human?leaders. Which means understanding where their people are in their life, what drives them, their struggles, and trying to figure how continuing to work at the company can be a source of good for them. And how they can use their association with the company as an opportunity to become the best version of themselves.

There’s an example in the book of a young woman who shared with me that she had been in an abusive relationship with an ex-boyfriend. And that she had been homeless. She told me that Best Buy was her home. Leaders have the opportunity to create an environment where people relate to the company as their family, as a family. This is their?home, this is their?family.

Garry:??There’s a frequently uttered objection in the business world about the inadvisability of CEOs using the word?family?when describing their culture: “Well, if we start talking about the workplace as being a family culture, that’s going to send the implied promise of job security.??Can’t use the word?family.”??What do you say in response to that?

Hubert:??We’re not promising, but what we are giving is a sense of priority. Reducing headcount is the last resort, not the immediate go-to solution.??We look at people as the source of business?solutions, not the source of the?problem.

Note that I do not personally use the word?family?in the context of business. The employees do. I talk about leadership expectations, values, how we’re going to approach our work.?

Garry: How do you set up your company to have that kind of culture that you’ve created so that will last beyond your own tenure?

Hubert:??It’s the question of who you put in positions of power in advance of your own departure. This leads to being particularly clear about leadership expectations, which of course have to, in turn, drive recruitment and promotion decisions.?

When we selected Corie Barry to be the new CEO, we had all agreed about these expectations. And let’s be clear: These were not established as the Joly principles. They were the Best Buy principles.??

Garry:?My assumption of you is that you grew up in a very traditional environment that had a certain sense of structure and hierarchy when it came to the executive career track. Did you have a personal turnaround journey where you thought, “Oh wait a minute, there’s a better way of doing all of this. I need to reimagine, reengineer my own approach to who I am in the corporate world?”

Hubert:??As they say in Minnesota, you betcha.

I grew up with?the model of the leader as the superhero; the leader who is the smartest person in the room, who’s there to save the day, and is driven by power, fame, glory or money. That’s the 20th Century leadership model.??

Over the years it’s been a journey of transforming from the deeply analytic, hard-charging McKinsey consultant trying to optimize shareholder value, to now somebody who believes in?human magic. Work is part of our search for meaning as individuals and an opportunity to make a positive difference in the world.

There was a very pivotal moment when I was at the top of my first mountain, so to speak. I’d been made a partner at McKinsey when I was still very young. I was on the executive team at Vivendi Universal. So, by many measures, I had been successful.??Except what I found on top of that first proverbial mountain was emptiness. It was dry. Uninteresting.??

That led me to step back and search for my calling in life. Which, in turn, led me to do the spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. Later on, another milestone was working with our good mutual friend, Marshall Goldsmith.?

Marshall taught me how to take feedback and how to overcome some of my quirks.??In his book,?What Got You Here Won’t Get You There , he lists 20 quirks of successful people. Well, Garry, I had 13 out of the 20. So I was in deep trouble.?I think Marshall sometimes likes to affectionately refer to me as his “most improved” client.

Garry:??So I guess you became something of a philosopher king on top of that first mountain.??Or at least a philosopher student?

Hubert:??I love philosophy. I also love spirituality. I think that as leaders, one of the big discoveries for me is we were trained to lead with our brain, our left brain, to be precise. Today leaders have to lead with all of their body parts, not just their brain but also their heart, and their soul, and their gut, their ears, their eyes.??

Back when I was interviewing with Marilyn Carlson Nelson to take over her role as CEO of Carlson Companies, we were flying back to Minneapolis from Paris. And she said to me, “Tell me about your soul.” That’s such a powerful question. While I never used that question myself when recruiting or promoting people (that question takes a lot of guts), that moment on the flight inspired me to encourage people around me to explore these questions: What drives you? What’s your purpose in life? What kind of human being do you want to be? How do you want to be remembered??

In the corporate world, we rarely?ask people these questions, and yet they are so important.?

Garry:??I think traditionally hiring managers just tend to assume that the top goal of the human being behind the résumé is simply to land the job. But they don’t take the time to discover what the epic life saga is behind their eyes.

Hubert:??Exactly.??

Garry:??I am concluding each one of these author interviews with a three-part question. The three-part question is: What is the best thing people reading this interview should do???What is the worst thing they could do???And what is the first thing they should do???

Hubert:??These days the best thing to do is remember that your people are in the middle of a great revision of their own lives. Which could lead them into the “great resignation” if you’re not mindful of what’s going on with them individually. So it’s essential to not only take them for granted and to take active steps to re-recruit them.?Because of the upheaval the pandemic created in everyone’s life, people are rethinking their priorities, even considering changing their jobs. What was important to them in the past may not be important to them now. What is their new dream? What can you do to help them fulfill it? This conversation will help renew your bond with them.?

This isn’t a one-and-done proposition. Every interaction must be a form of re-recruitment with the people in your care.

Garry: What is the worst thing someone in your position could do?

Hubert:?The worst thing to do is assume that your position in the hierarchy confers upon you some level of human superiority.

Garry: So now, what is the?first?thing CEOs should do to deepen an authentic bond with their people, especially after they have read your book?

Hubert:?I would start with empathetic listening. Get to know the people in your care on a deeper level, hear what they have to say, but also listen for how they tell you who they are, what their point of view is, even what advice they may have for you. Not just from a business standpoint but also from a human standpoint.?

One of the questions would be, “How are you doing? No, no, no.??How are you doing?really?”??One of the questions my wife, Hortense le Gentil, who is an executive leadership coach and the author of?Aligned, asks her coaching clients is, “What has been your best moment in the last 18 months???What have been your worst moments???How did you deal with it?”??

As people are returning to their workplaces in various configurations, it’s an opportunity to say an even better hello to them for this next phase of your work together. Listen well, with sincere empathy, and enjoy watching what happens as the new culture supports teams truly invested in helping realize dreams and goals. Not only on an organizational level but also on interpersonal levels. That’s where the true, lasting rewards can be found.