Soup: A Recipe to Create a Culture of Greatness

Q&A with author, Jon Gordon

1.) What drove you to write a book about SOUP?

I had been thinking, speaking and writing a lot about building a culture of greatness and on the way back from speaking at Campbell’s Soup’s annual sales meeting the idea came to me.  The book has no connection with Campbell’s at all and it’s a fictional story but the inspiration came to me after speaking to them.  

2.) How can someone in a lower level position, use your book to help make a difference in their culture?

Everyone contributes to the culture of their organization. Leadership is responsible for determining the kind of culture they want but it is brought to life by everyone in the organization. So, the ingredients, principles and habits found in the book can be applied by anyone at any level.  I wrote this book with the mindset that it would be read by leaders and their teams. My hope is that people will also use it develop themselves and their careers and enhance their own performance as well.

3.) Explain what you mean by “Leadership is a transfer of belief”.

As a leader you are not just managing people, you are managing their beliefs. Beliefs are contagious. As a leader if you don’t believe you can build a great team or organization than your people won’t believe. To win in the marketplace you must first believe you can win in the marketplace and this belief must be transferred to the people in your organization. Great coaches inspire their teams to believe they can win. Great sales managers get their sales people to believe in their product or service. Great teachers inspire their students to believe in themselves.

4.) There is a fine line between business and love. In Chapter 26, you explain the importance of treating employees with love, as if they were your own family. Explain how best to approach this idea.

Yes, you often don’t hear love and business in the same sentence. It all comes down to showing people you care about them. When employees know they can trust you and that you care about them then they will be more loyal and engaged at work. This is demonstrated in numerous engagement studies and surveys. To me it’s about treating people like family. Let me clarify. Treat them like the family that you actually like. Treat them like a functional family. Functional families have great communication. They have strong bonds of trust. And they care about one another. Sure they fight and have disagreements but their trust and love keeps them together.  Also sometimes you need to treat them with tough love. You have to push them to be their best. You don’t settle for anything less than excellence. You make them better. I do this with my kids often. I see a lot of similarities between parenting and leadership. 

5.) Leaders are often too busy or stressed to make time for their employees, how can they kick this habit?

They must remind themselves every day that it’s not the numbers that drive their people but their people and relationships that drive their numbers. Leaders get so busy trying to achieve success that they forget to take the time to develop the relationships that lead to success. I often encourage leaders to slow down and make time to meet with their people. Schedule to have lunch with an employee/team member a few times a week.  Make “relationship building” a habit. Create an open door policy. Let people know you’re available to talk. Get out of your office and walk the halls. Ask questions. Host town hall meetings. The ideas are endless and many are shared in the book.

6.) What advice can you give someone that is outnumbered by pessimists in their work environment?

First, this must be dealt with at the cultural level. It’s imperative that you hire optimists and create a culture where pessimists do not fit in with your culture. You won’t have to let them off the bus. They will get off themselves.  I believe leaders need to create a culture where each employee has the right to go to work and do what they do best and be their best. They shouldn’t have to deal with negative Nelly next to them. However, if you are in a situation where you are not responsible for hiring and firing, I would say that you lead by your example. You focus every day on working hard and leading with optimism. One person who stirs the pot with optimism can transform teams and organizations. I have seen it happen many times with NFL teams, schools, and businesses.

7.) Lack of money is usually the excuse of why teams aren’t brought together on a regular basis. What can team leaders do more often to bring their teams together without spending the money?

First, I would say that organizations need to spend the money to bring people together. Sure it’s an investment but it’s an investment that enhances engagement, productivity, team work and profits. It’s about making smart investments and making the meeting meaningful and productive.  Bringing people together creates relationships and relationships generate teamwork and teamwork delivers results. Second, I would say that organizations can do more with web conferencing, weekly sales calls and video messaging to enhance communication.

8.)  Companies hire all personality types; explain the importance of hiring possibility thinkers.

If you think your best days are behind you they are. If you believe your best days are ahead of you they are. Possibility thinkers focus on solutions not problems. They get knocked down like everyone but they get back up and armed with optimism and belief in a positive future they create. It’s all about having a locus of control. Possibility thinkers believe they can influence the outcome of their life and their business through their beliefs and actions and so they do. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy.

9.) When uncertainty lingers throughout a company, communication and trust follow. What must leaders do to enhance their communication on all levels?

Leaders must realize that poor communication is responsible for many of their problems in their business. They must enhance communication at the organization level and at the individual level.  Intranet sites, daily briefings via conference calls, one on one meetings with managers and their employees, weekly sales calls, etc. all enhance communication. The key is to make communication a priority. Where there is a void in communication negativity fills it. People assume the worst and act accordingly. When you communicate frequent and often, then you fill the voids with positive communication and you prevent negativity from spreading throughout the organization.

10.) Rumors infect a company’s culture, how do leaders make sure not to succumb to their negativity? 

You solve this by communicating frequently and also with transparency and authenticity. When you do this, then the truth becomes more pervasive than any possible rumor and the rumor fades away. When people know the truth, a rumor can’t survive.