Soup: A Recipe to Nourish Your Team and Culture

Chapter 47. Hot Soup

Over the next 30 days, the soup wasn't just hot—it was smoking. Nancy's memo was very well received, and people responded by working with more passion than ever. What she said was the truth, and everyone knew it. Also, because Nancy had been walking the walk and sharing her own passion, she had moral authority. She wasn't viewed as a hypocrite who said one thing and did another. She lived and breathed everything she said. Most of all, because she and all her leaders and managers had spent so much time communicating and building relationships and investing in their people, their people trusted them. When they practiced tough love, people knew it was because they cared about the company, not because they were out for their own interests. Because they had developed engaged relationships, people were more likely to follow their rules. Nancy realized that trust and likability were funny things, because two leaders could mandate the same exact rules, and yet people would be more likely to follow and accept the rules of the leader they liked and trusted most.

Although everyone trusted and liked Nancy, not everyone stayed at Soup, Inc. Some people (Tom, Claire, and about 20 other employees) left, and that was okay. They were obviously meant to find their passion somewhere else and were just taking up space. "It's the benefit of building a culture of greatness," Nancy told Brenda. "When you build the right culture, you don't have to kick people off the bus. They will ...