The Trust-First Approach to Leadership & Culture That Led to a Major Company Breakthrough

Nothing breeds success like success. I'm all about celebrating the small wins because it fuels, it builds up and it's a, I think it's a spiral upwards is when people start to believe they have bolder goals, higher aspirations. They aim for the stars. You know, you can get that with the right team and the right mission.

Welcome back to the Happiness Squad podcast. In today's conversation, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Michelle Poole, the former president of Crocs and one of the most human centered, courageous leaders I know. Under Michelle's leadership, Crocs transformed from a brand many had written off to a global cultural icon that was embraced by Gen Z and high fashion alike. But as you'll hear, this wasn't just a product turnaround, it was a people turnaround. We dive into the bold culture moves Michelle made, removing fear from the organization, building trust through transparency, and truly living the company's come as you are ethos from the inside out. Michelle shares openly about what shaped her values, how she protects her well being while leading at the highest levels, and why she believes vulnerability, inclusivity and celebration are non negotiables for modern day leadership. This episode is a masterclass in authentic, feminine powered leadership and a hopeful reminder that you can win in business without losing your soul or burning out. Michelle, it is so lovely to have you on our Happiness Squad podcast and thank you for sharing amazing insights from your leadership journey in the world of footwear and retail and all the amazing things that you've done.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited for this conversation.

So look, before we go to business and leadership, I just want to start with a personal question. I know this is true for me and I know it'll be true for you, which is our definition of happiness evolves. Right? And that's where I want to start with is how has your definition evolved over the course of your life and career?

Yeah, that's actually what I would start with saying. It has definitely changed. I think when I was younger, in my 20s and 30s, I think happiness for me was travel and exploring and sort of tied to that. I think freedom, being free to go places and try new things. And I also got a lot of joy out of creating. Whether that was kind of before I was in the workplace creating kind of art and in that world or creating a business. I would say now, though I'm in my mid to late 50s at this point, I would say that the two most important things to me today are good mental health and good physical health. And I Think we all get to realize this over time with experience with family, friends, et cetera, who, who suffer, you know, and I've seen people close to me suffer with poor mental health and poor physical health. And I believe now that honestly, there's nothing more important if you don't have both of those things in a great place, the rest is unimportant, you know.

Yeah. And isn't. And isn't it interesting that so many today. Right. Especially when we are younger, 30s and 40s, are constantly sacrificing our health and our relationships to pursue wealth, which then we spend all of our later years spending wealth to regain health and relationships, but we can never really quite get them in the way we want when they're broken.

Correct. Right. So I think, yeah, I think it's. You're not asking me for advice at this point in the conversation, but it's definitely, you know, I tell people all the time, younger people, look after yourself and make your family and your relationships a priority because I don't think there's anything more important.

Yeah. And what shifted for you, Michelle, when and what made that shift happen from Michelle A to Michelle B to Michelle C, where this, this is like so important for you now?

Again, I think it's really seeing people in my life struggle and people close to me in my family and friendships. You know, I had a friend's husband drop dead when he was 55. They were having coffee together one morning and he was gone and he left behind. You know, they were just getting ready to be empty nesters and they had this whole list of, you know, one day we're going to do these things. And in a moment it was all taken from my friend. And, you know, there's been, without going through, you know, a long list. There's just been, there has been a number of things and people in my life who have really struggled and man, is it a wake up call. Because you realize, like, you just gotta make the most of it and you've gotta, you've gotta look after yourself. And, you know, if you're in great shape both mentally and physically, you can help your family as well and your friends.

So, you know, and this is so it's given the amount of time we spend at work, you know, that's, that was kind of the shift that I made. You know, I was looking at some of the data from Oxford. I was, you know, this is also research we were doing at McKinsey today. The number of people who are thriving at work is 20%. Yeah, right. 60%. Experience a high degree of stress daily. 20% find meaning in what they're doing in something that they spend more than a third of their lives, 90,000 hours, to be precise. And. And burnout is like 20%, 22% globally, 16% in the U.S. 60% in India, I believe is just, to me, crazy, you know, about how important the role of leadership is in being able to change work, to allow people to be healthy, take care of their mental health and their physical health. You know, I read this stat the other day, this quote the other day, and it was backed by research that says, you know, your boss matters more to your mental health than your therapist.

Yes, I believe that. Yes.

Right. And that's why I'm really excited about this journey, this conversation, Michelle, because you are that type of boss who actually has deeply cared about people. I mean, and I'm not just saying it, you know, look, we did this assessment together, you know, at your prior company, and you could see the results of the type of leader you are. Highly creative, highly relationship focused. And so I want to know what were some of your experiences in your early years as you were growing up in the corporate world that shaped the leader that you are, that the type of leadership style that you, that you engender and lead with?

Yeah, it's interesting because I would say that there were people who influenced me, not because they modeled what I wanted to be, but they modeled the opposite. And I, you know, as someone perhaps working for them, I witnessed the impact of perhaps a lack of empathy, a lack of accessibility, a lack of humility. Not all the time. I've had some amazing mentors, but sometimes it was peers. It wasn't even necessarily someone I reported to. And actually, a fun fact that I haven't shared with you is I have never had a female boss. So I've been working for 32 years. I've never reported to a female. So I had, I think I had this opportunity, particularly in my most recent role when I was a brand president. So, you know, leading a lot of, a lot of people across the organization, I had an opportunity to be really intentional and mindful about the kind of leader that I wanted to be. And I would say it was a combination of probably three things. Modeling things I had seen in a leader that I really responded well to, avoiding things in leaders that shut me down creatively and motivationally. And I would say the third is tapping having the courage, I think, and finding the confidence to really lead as myself. And that meant bringing my whole self to the role, being authentic and having the courage to do that, which I also witnessed that, again, they're not it's not always the case, but I would say often I found female leaders that I saw from afar modeling authenticity in a way that maybe their male counterparts didn't. So I would say those are the three things that shaped me, learning from.

Those, even when they are failing to not do those. Because you personally feel the effect of that inspired by peers and others who model the behaviors, right?

Yep.

And then, and then really tuning and and I think that goes to your core values of showing up authentically and courageously. I agree with you, Michelle. Right. And it's not men and women per se. I'll just use those who are it does tend to be that way. But masculine and feminine energies. I think somehow men in general have more of the masculine.