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12
I
Nonprofit
Performance
Magazine
Making LeadershipWork
If I am the smartest person in the room, I am
doomed as a leader, because a leader needs
other people. I don’t need other people if I am
the smartest person in the room. The effect
that I desire as a leader is when I am not
present and they are implementing. There is
a real art to bonding with another person in a
moment where you feel like you are both part
of something bigger; then that person will
implement well in your absence, better than I
would.The people out in the stores of Dollar
General understood retailing a lot better than
I did as CEO.They understood the customer
better. We might create a grand program in
corporate that wouldn’t resonate with the
customer, never understanding why unless
the employees and our customers explained
it to us so that we could undo it or tweak it
to make it work.The problem-solving genius
exists alongside the problem.The people who
are in the midst of the problem are often the
best ones to tell you what is wrong.
My dad, founder of our company, was from
the old generation of management. When
something went wrong he wanted to know
who did it. But there is never one single
person who was responsible. We don’t ask
who did it. We ask what happened and who
needs help to fix it. You can talk about the
various persons who were involved, but focus
on what happened, not who did it. It’s a very
subtle change of focus that is powerful in its
effect. Focus blame away from the person
and to the true gap, what happened, and how
we can all come together. There can be some
major development and learning from that
mistake, but first you have to get over the all-
too-human tendency of guilt and blame so
that you can get on with the good stuff.
Our first step in strategic planning wasn’t
mission; it was our values and looking at the
statement by which we run the company.One
value that we were most proud of was that
we believe in developing human potential in
an atmosphere free of guilt or blame, where
performance gaps are acknowledged and
processed in a way that helps individuals
and teams learn and develop and grow. We
acknowledge that a blame-free environment
is an ideal that is hard to attain, but we
work hard to have that environment in our
company.
We got there in two steps. The first step was
the value statement.Then, over the next three
years in between planning cycles, a lot of
people were having issues and, when we tried
to discipline them, they pointed out that this
is the guilt-free environment. So, we had to
say we believe in the guilt-free environment,
but we also believe in acknowledging
problems when they occur in a way that can
help us to get on with human development.
We were too naive when we started, and it
was getting thrown back too much.
We are confused about what is little and
what is big in leadership. At the end of one
leadership meeting, we went around the table
talking about what we’d discovered. One
person said he had been with this company
for 13 years, and this was why: 12 years
before while he was unloading a truck in the
warehouse, I came through. I asked him how
he was and I actually waited for his answer.
That’s why he’s still here. How important
is it in the grand scheme of things that one
person asked another how he was and paused
to hear the answer? To him, it defined his
commitment to the organization because the
guy who was supposedly the top guy in the
company actually wanted to know how the
guy with the entry-level job in the warehouse
was. Doesn’t that make this an organization
that I want to be a part of and stay with? I’m
not perfect. I’m sure there are times when
I asked someone how they were and didn’t
wait for the answer, but this time I did. I was
always moving fast, but for some reason God
helped me to pause in my question to that
man unloading the truck.
I go through life preaching to myself and if
anyone else wants to listen, they are welcome.
Cal Turner, Jr. is Chairman of the Cal Turner Family
Foundation and former Chairman and CEO of Dollar
General, succeeded his father in 1988 in the family
business founded in 1939. At his 2003 retirement,
Dollar General had more than 6,000 stores in 27 states,
with annual sales of $6 billion. Cal has served on the
boards of many organizations including Easter Seal
Society of Tennessee, Inc., Fisk University, PENCIL
Foundation, and YMCA of Middle Tennessee. He
mentors and guides corporate leaders through the Cal
Turner Program for Moral Leadership in Professions at
Vanderbilt University.