Short talk (YouTube video) in which Jim Knight argues that hiring the right people is the primary driver of company culture. He emphasizes prioritizing recruiting “rock stars,” retaining and supporting them with empathy rather than fear-based management, and links lower turnover to higher top-line sales across industries.
Chapters
And so I know that if I was to keep all of my awesome people, but change everything, logo, font, corporate sports center, some tools, some process, the employee handbook, elearning, whatever it is, I change all of that. But I kept my people. I really wouldn't make a huge dent in the culture. I'd have exactly what I want versus, let's say that I love all of that infrastructure, I keep all of that stuff, but I kick everybody out in the organization, replace them with a bunch of other people. I've completely revolutionized the culture of mission number one out of all the stuff. And I will talk about a lot of nitty gritty details, but I can't emphasize enough when I'm in front of an audience saying you want to have a fantastic, awesome culture, number one, you got to go find some rock stars. That's got to be your absolute focus more than anything else. Because the rest of the stuff is just you being a very good manager, but you're not thinking like a business owner, like an entrepreneur, like a big brand. That's number one. And then you got to love on them. You got to do everything in your power not to muscle the result and manage through threats and punishment and fear, which I still see out there in a couple industries. I think if you can throw your arm around people and teach them and have a little bit of a heart centered mindset and they stay with you longer. I know there's a direct correlation between turnover and top line sales, not just in hospitality. I'm starting to see that in almost any industry.
