Company Culture

Last night I had an opportunity to attend the employee Holiday Party for REI, one of Fortune Magazine's Top 100 Companies to Work For "Hall of Fame" (having made the list every year since the list began). In just a few short hours of sharing chicken parmesan from their chafing dishes and watching the drama unfold during their Ugly Sweater Contest, I was able to discern several things about their company culture that could someday prove invaluable.

1) Transparency
It wasn't 10 minutes after we arrived then the Store Manager rose to address the crowd. Having worked in retail before, I was very familiar with the morning pep talk. ("Don't forget to really push credit card sign-ups today! Young women's clothing, you've for to do $64,000 today, so let's get to work! Go team!" and other meaningless managerial babble) But this was different. Instead of opening his speech with the amount of business that still needed to be done, he told the crowd of waiting ears that, in a nationwide company where the Conshohocken store ranks in the 80s in terms of walk-in traffic, they rank in the top ten for sales conversions. They rank in the top five for membership sign ups and individual sale price point. This was all really wonderful, important news, and it was a talking point of this occasion. Later, at the end of the party, we learned that the store needed to do just under $1 million in the next 19 days, but at that point the staff was so amped from a joyful, celebratory evening that it didn't seem like such a mountain to climb.

2) Enjoying a wealth of successes
I read this in a leadership/management book at one point, that successful managers acknowledge that success is not a limited resource. There is not a finite amount of success to be had in this world and if you want to get some, you have to trample those below you to get a greater share. The philosophy is that success is a renewable resource, one that multiplies rapidly and to the greater overall success of the company. Every victory, no matter how big or small, should be celebrated. Not in a "every kid in school gets a trophy just for showing up" kind of way, but in a genuine, results-based way. When they had a dessert baking contest, they awarded not just the top winner, but two runners up. And they had 30 dessert entries. I get the feeling that rewarding as many people as possible all the time and getting their staff truly interested in participating in events that other employees in other places might find to be a chore is definitely indicative of their company culture.

3) Rewarding attitude, not performance
The top award of the evening was called the Anderson Award. I have no idea who Anderson was, but it was the judging criteria that stood out. The winner received peer nominations and was selected based on most greatly exemplifying the core values of the company, which included optimism and authenticity. Coming from a sales position where awards are only doled out to the fastest closer, the highest biller, and, sometimes, the most aggressive asshole (to be frank), I realized how much I would love to be acknowledged for a good attitude (which I ALWAYS have) more so than for a momentary increase in revenue. After all, sales is all about relationships and follow through. You have no control over the market or over business owners' financial hang-ups, but you DO have control over your own attitude.