Page 154 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Dare to Dare 135

“It can’t be done here” mentality, support employees who challenge those
rules that threaten creativity and stifle imagination.
Sometimes, however, that creativity can turn sour. Several years ago, the
vice president of stores at Men’s Wearhouse fired an employee for stealing a
suit and tie. As soon as George Zimmer learned the details of this situation,
he told his vice president to rehire the young man. When the baffled V.P.
inquired as to the reason his company needed a thief working among their
loyal team members, George provided a rationale that is most uncommon in
corporate human resource practice.
First of all, the employee had stolen a suit and tie in his own size, George
had explained, so he wasn’t selling it on the street. George honestly believed that
the employee likely needed the suit and couldn’t afford to buy one. Second, the
store where the employee had worked was touted as a top-performing Men’s
Wearhouse for a number of years. And third, the vice president told us that
George reminded him that the next person hired to replace this employee might
be someone totally incapable of running the business.
According to the written corporate philosophy of Men’s Wearhouse,
“When mistakes are made, leaders focus first on their coaching role, not their
umpire role. Mistakes are opportunities for both mentoring and learning—not
for instilling fear into the workplace. Reducing fear draws out our employee’s
best efforts and most positive attitudes.”
George Zimmer isn’t blind to people’s faults. Within the walls of Men’s
Wearhouse, it is widely understood just how strongly George believes in giv-
ing his team members second and third chances, and that he chooses to focus
on the positive aspects of their personalities.
The leader who dares to take risks is often an outsider who doesn’t feel
constricted by the establishment’s rules. Such divergence from the established
norm is typical in the arts, and art history is full of examples of innovation
prompting outrage among the mainstream. The French Impressionist Claude
Monet, for instance, was ridiculed by the art establishment early in his career
because his daring experimentation with bright color violated traditional
artistic conventions.
It may seem odd to describe Walt Disney as an outsider, yet that is exactly
what he was for many years in Hollywood. As the producer of cartoons, he was
looked upon as small time, the supplier of filler material shown by movie houses
before the “real” feature presentation came on. Even the special awards given
him by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the early 1930s