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When Howard Schultz returned to Starbucks in 2008, the company was falling apart. But he made ONE wild decision to bring it back to life. Here's what he did: Starbucks was becoming bloated, stale, and forgettable. Wall Street expected pain. Layoffs. And store closures. - Same-store sales were down. - Stock price had dropped nearly 50%. - Customer satisfaction was sinking fast. But nobody expected what Schultz would do. He did something that made headlines for how 'unstrategic' it looked: He shut down 7,100 stores for 3 hours to retrain baristas. But train them to do what? To make a proper espresso! The cost was huge... Starbucks bled around $6 million in lost revenue (in ONE evening). The message he sent was clear: We don’t sell coffee. We serve humans. Culture > capital. Pride > process. This wasn’t just a symbolic act. Schultz was correcting a strategic mistake he had made. Years earlier, in an effort to scale quickly, Starbucks had automated espresso machines. They had introduced pre-packaged pastries, and let go of the sensory experience that made it special. But it was always about the smell, the grind, the pour, and the pause. He admitted it diluted the soul of the brand. So when he came back, he did what most CEOs don’t have the guts to do: He publicly owned his mistake, and he chose to slow down to fix it. This is what Servant Leadership looks like: - He didn’t run to consultants—he got his hands dirty in the day-to-day. - He didn’t blame the frontline staff—he retrained them. - He didn’t cut people—he reinvested in them. And it worked. In 2009, just a year later: - Starbucks’ stock rebounded by 143%. - Customer satisfaction increased. - Profits doubled. Most leaders chase efficiency. But Schultz chased excellence. Most leaders optimize the system. But he rebuilt the standard. You don’t turn a company around with tactics. You do it by fixing the belief system behind the tactics. Here’s the takeaway for anyone leading a team, a business, or a brand: 1. Culture is strategy. If your people don’t care, your customers will feel it. 2. You can’t outsource pride. If standards are slipping, leadership is leaking. Sometimes the fastest way to move forward is to pause and reset. So instead of asking how to grow faster. Ask: “What have we stopped doing well?” Your culture is your horsepower. Fix that first. Everything else will follow. Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, repost for your network ♻️ - I'm Russ Hill: • Leadership coach transforming how teams deliver results • Author of "Decide to Lead" & creator of The 3rd LeaderTM framework • Trusted advisor to leaders at Amazon, Walmart, Lockheed Martin & more Want more on becoming a leader others love to follow? Check out the comments ⬇️

Netflix's 125-page culture deck was called "the most important document in Silicon Valley." But they still didn’t ask employees to hide it. Here's why they wanted the world to see it: They said things most companies would never dare to say: “We’re a team, not a family.” “We don’t measure effort. We measure impact.” “Adequate performance gets a generous severance.” They were brutally honest about who thrives at Netflix—and who doesn't. This wasn’t an internal memo. They knew it might get leaked. In fact, they hoped it would. Why? Because you need trust before you can expect performance. Netflix believed that if you treat people like adults by: - Giving them freedom - Expecting responsibility - And backing it up with radical honesty You will make them work harder and be happier. And they proved it by: Removing vacation policies entirely. Take as much time off as you want. Removing all expense approvals. As long as it’s in the company’s interest, do what you want. Removing performance improvement plans. If you're not a good fit, they'll tell you straight and part ways. Stopping all micromanagement. Leaders set the context, not the control. It wasn’t about being nice or being harsh. It was about being real. True to their vision. And it worked. Today, that culture deck has been viewed over 20 MILLION times. Reed Hastings called it their 'most important product'. Sheryl Sandberg said it “may be the most important document to come out of Silicon Valley.” It didn't just help Netflix build a great team. It helped them build a system of greatness that doesn't need babysitting. So, here are some takeaways from it for you: - Your culture scales with your standards. - Freedom without responsibility is chaos. - Responsibility without freedom is prison. - People don’t need more perks. They need trust, autonomy, and consequences. That’s how you build a high-performance team without losing your soul. Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, repost for your network ♻️ I'm Russ Hill: • Leadership coach transforming how teams deliver results • Author of "Decide to Lead" & creator of The 3rd LeaderTM framework • Trusted advisor to leaders at Amazon, Walmart, Lockheed Martin & more Want more on becoming a leader others love to follow? Check out the comments ⬇️

In 2008, Ford made a desperate bet to stay alive: They put everything on the line (including their logo) to borrow $23.5B. Here's how this ONE risky move saved the company: In 2008, Ford was in deep trouble. Car sales tanked, losses hit $14.8B, and their stock dropped to $1.01. Most people expected them to ask for a bailout like GM and Chrysler. Instead, CEO Alan Mulally bet the entire company. He mortgaged everything—factories, patents, even the iconic Ford logo—to raise $23.5B in cash before the credit markets froze. If they failed, they’d lose their name. For the next 5 years, every Ford car had a logo technically owned by creditors. But the bet worked—they stayed independent while GM and Chrysler needed $81B in government support. But there were problems... And money wasn’t the only thing that needed fixing. When Mulally joined in 2006, Ford was broken from the inside: - Teams fought each other. - Employee morale was under 40%. - Meetings were just blame games. Mulally introduced a new mindset: One Team. One Plan. One Goal. He made leaders report progress weekly using a simple system: - Green = good. - Yellow = issues. - Red = serious problems. At first, no one dared admit problems. Then one exec did—and got support instead of backlash. That one moment changed everything. The culture shifted: - Silos disappeared. - People stopped hiding problems. - Teams started solving issues together. Ford also stopped building different cars for every region. They moved to global platforms—one core design, adapted locally. That change saved billions and created consistency. The numbers speak for themselves: - $6.6B profit in 2010. - Reclaimed their logo in 2012. - Employee engagement jumped to over 90%. - Profitable by 2009 after losing $30B in three years. Ford didn’t just survive—they rebuilt themselves from the inside out. But the takeaway has nothing to do with cars. The lesson is this: 1. Alignment matters more than talent or money. 2. Transparency beats fear-based leadership. Culture is what drives performance—every single time. Forget strategy decks. Ask yourself: Is your team aligned? Because if they are, you can survive anything. Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, repost for your network ♻️ I'm Russ Hill: • Leadership coach transforming how teams deliver results • Author of "Decide to Lead" & creator of The 3rd LeaderTM framework • Trusted advisor to leaders at Amazon, Walmart, Lockheed Martin & more Want more on becoming a leader others love to follow? Check out the comments ⬇️

75% of leaders are hiring for "culture fit." But culture fit is killing creativity and team growth. Here's what top leaders and companies are doing instead: When you hire people who think, act, and look like your current team, you create a dangerous space. And there's evidence to prove this. One company reduced turnover from 35% to 10% while growing revenue from $1.6 million to $2 billion by asking ONE simple question: "How will this person CONTRIBUTE to our culture?" instead of "Will they FIT our culture?" According to Deloitte, organizations with inclusive cultures are: • 6x more likely to be innovative • 3x more likely to outperform competitors And Frank Niles identified 4 dangers in prioritizing culture fit: 1. Groupthink 2. Echo chambers 3. Lack of innovation 4. Exclusionary practices Steve Jobs wouldn't have scored high on traditional "culture fit" assessments. Yet his challenging personality and boundary-pushing created one of the world's most valuable companies. When Patagonia ran their "Don't Buy This Jacket" campaign – actively discouraging purchases – their revenue climbed 20% in the following years. This shows the power of challenging conventional thinking. As I coach leaders at Amazon, Walmart, and Lockheed Martin, I've seen this repeatedly: Teams that embrace diversity of thought consistently outperform those that prioritize comfort and similarity. Instead of asking "Does this person fit our culture?" start asking: "What unique perspectives will this person bring that will strengthen our culture?" The Humane Society Silicon Valley suggests 5 reflection questions: 1. Can they make a positive contribution to our future culture? 2. Do their values align with our organization? 3. What can we learn from this person? 4. What unique perspective will they bring? 5. How will they help address our blind spots? The greatest leaders don't build teams of clones. They build teams of contributors. Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, repost for your network ♻️ I'm Russ Hill: • Leadership coach transforming how teams deliver results • Author of "Decide to Lead" & creator of The 3rd LeaderTM framework • Trusted advisor to leaders at Amazon, Walmart, Lockheed Martin & more Want more on becoming a leader others love to follow? Check out the comments ⬇️

Culture isn't about ping pong tables—it's how you treat people when they fail. 20 years coaching leaders at Amazon, Walmart, etc. Taught me this powerful idea: Creativity dies when leaders punish mistakes. I’ve done over 10,000 coaching sessions. Here are the 5 key principles I teach about building truly innovative teams: 1. Most execs say they want innovation. But the moment someone fails, everything changes. The pattern is obvious: companies throw money at innovation programs but create a culture where people are too scared to take risks. Then they act confused when the only ideas they get are safe and boring. Your team is always watching how you react when things go wrong. I once worked with a senior leader who praised "failing forward" in public. But he’d rip into anyone who missed a target behind closed doors. His team caught on fast: innovation was just lip-service. A buzzword. 2. We talk about “culture” like it’s a product you can buy. But culture shows itself when things fall apart—when a project flops, when goals aren’t hit, when someone screws up. In weak cultures, failure can ruin your career. People hide mistakes. Blame spreads. And innovation dies quietly. They say “fail fast” but really mean “fail silently.” I’ve worked with execs who couldn’t figure out why their teams stopped taking risks. At one Fortune 500 company, I asked the team, “What happens when someone makes a mistake here?” The awkward silence said everything. 3. Success isn’t the test. Failure is. In our workshops, we’ve found three things that show a team has a strong culture: • Ask questions before judging • Focus on learning instead of blaming • Look for solutions, not punishment This builds psychological safety. And that’s the foundation for innovation. I’ve seen it turn struggling teams around at Lockheed Martin and Cigna. Once leaders changed how they handled failure, innovation took off. 4. Strong cultures treat failure as a lesson. Leaders ask “What did we learn?” instead of “Who messed up?” The truth about innovation? It’s built on small failures. Every misstep is progress—if you let it be. Your ping pong table doesn’t define your culture. How you handled the last failure does. 5. The best leaders aren’t always the smartest or most experienced. They’re the ones willing to create psychological safety. We’ve built a system that helps teams do that in 30 days. If you're an HR leader trying to build high-performing, innovative teams, click on the link in the comments ⬇️ Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, repost for your network ♻️