Corner Office: Kip Tindell: Three Good Workers Equal One Who’s Great
March 13, 2010 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
This interview with Kip Tindell, chief executive of the Container Store, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant
Allison V. Smith for The New York Times
Kip Tindell, chief executive of the Container Store, says that by hiring the best workers and paying well above industry average, it vastly improves productivity.
Corner Office
Every Sunday, Adam Bryant talks with top executives about the challenges of leading and managing.
More âCorner Officeâ Columns »
- Subscribe to Corner Office via RSS »
Q. Tell me about your most important leadership lessons.
A. I studied a lot of philosophy at Jesuit High School in Dallas. One of the things that really struck me was that most people seem to think that there’s a separate code of conduct in business from your personal life. And I always believed they should be the same.
So we have what we call foundation principles. They are talked about and emphasized around here constantly. They’re all almost corny, a little bit Golden Rule-ish, but it causes two things. It causes everybody to act as a unit. Even though we’re sort of liberating everybody to choose the means to the ends, we all agree on the ends, and the foundation principles are what cause us to agree on the ends.
As a result, we have people unshackled to choose any means to those ends, but it’s not mayhem because our foundation principles kind of tie us together.
Q. Talk more about those principles.
A. We preach a lot here that team is one of the most beautiful of all human experiences. You do great things together, and you go home at night feeling wonderful …
Read the original article at NYTimes