I’ve never worked at a Zappos-like company

I wish…

Tony Hsieh was the founder and CEO of Zappos. A brilliant, nonconformist guy who was often disappointed by humans behaving ‘disappointingly’, he tried to create a culture at Zappos that would surely eliminate poison, toxicity and build a very large family of delighted employees, who would in turn create delighted customers, and all would live happily ever after.

The core of his thesis was this: write your company’s core values such that they create trust, empathy and a profound sense of belonging. Then, hire and fire based on those values. So, any employee who performs extremely well but uses destructive methods to get things done, if they hurt others to achieve their goals, then instead of being recognized and promoted and showered with bonuses, they are fired. Because performance at the sacrifice of trust is not worth it, according to Tony Hsieh, in Delivering Happiness, his much acclaimed book about his Zappos thesis.

It sounds simple doesn’t it? Many companies have their values emblazoned on an expensive piece of sculpture / scripture in the lobby, then proceed to ignore them forever after while they backstab and bite each other in their self-seeking rat races to succeed. Most CEOs encourage this, believing it brings out the best in their people. Others see it as wasteful and dangerous, but lack the courage…