Getting to Know John Menzer

The morning started with a cup of coffee and a seat next to John Menzer, the vice chairman and chief administrative officer of the $350 billion company – Wal-Mart. Thanks to Stacey Mason, senior manager for culture and initiatives implementation, I had a front row view of John as he communicated his key focus areas and shared his heart with several key leaders within Wal-Mart.

Surely the next hour with John would provide some insight on this idea of organizational champions – beyond leadership. It did and I was amazed.

For those of you who slam Wal-Mart without knowing them, you are missing one incredible story. You are missing a great business story, and an even better heart story.

No one doubts that John is intelligent. As a matter of fact, John is said to be at the top of the IQ charts. What seemed to have been missing with John in his leadership was his ability to connect and his ability to be vulnerable. People respected John, but people didn’t necessarily love John. They didn’t love him because they didn’t know him.

That day, they got to know him. They got to know that he can’t sing. They got to know that he tells great jokes. And most importantly, they got to know that Wal-Mart is personal to him. And because it is personal to him, they felt his excitement, his concern and his curiosity. He became inspiring, and therefore, so did Wal-Mart to everyone in attendance. And because the audience was inspired, those leaders in attendance will inspire others. I saw it happen in the breakout groups that followed Menzer’s talk.

It’s not the marching orders that count nearly as much as the person who is giving them.

Menzer still talked retail … a lot of retail. He still talked numbers … a lot of numbers. He still talked performance … and so on. But what’s new. The difference I saw today was John made it personal.

Someone in the audience asked when John got “lit”. “When did I get lit?” he asked cautiously. After a lengthy laugh from the crowd and some contemplation on John’s part, he couldn’t precisely recall. Hmm. This needs to be investigated further. What does it take to get “lit”? I have some ideas here, but want to learn more about John’s story before I share them.

I believe getting “lit” matters for the champion. Because getting “lit” moves people and people move organizations … even $350 billion organizations.

Thanks for the insights John.

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