Whole Foods Leadership Paper

Leadership is not about personality; it’s about behavior. According to Kouzes and Posner, leadership is an observable set of skills and abilities. Leadership is a learned, not innate ability according to Fred Manske in Secrets of Effective Leadership. This paper is a look into Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey characteristics and his fresh approach to leadership. Kouzes and Posner found that “we expect our leaders to be enthusiastic, energetic, and positive about the future....a bit of a cheerleader.” Challenge the process looks at how leaders seek opportunities to improve operational effectiveness and develop innovative methods. Inspire a vision finds our common values and addresses our purpose and ties us to our hopes and dreams for a

Whole Foods Market was founded in Austin, Texas, when four local businesspeople decided the natural foods industry was ready for a supermarket format. Our founders were John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, owners of Safer Way Natural Foods, and Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, owners of Clarksville Natural Grocery. The original Whole Foods Market opened in 1980 with a staff of only 19 people.
The Whole Foods Market workplace is based on the ideals of respect for the individual and self-empowerment. The company honors a strict pay cap (currently 19 times the average wage for Team Members) for all of its executives, which reflects Whole Foods Market’s commitment to “internal equity” between all Team Members. John cut his salary to $1 annually in 2006 and forgoes stock options and

This is an element of his leadership that allowed Whole Foods Market to dominate the organic food market. John Mackey capped managers’ salaries at 19 times the average full-time salary. He states that he has “never lost anyone he wanted to keep” and emphasized that “people work for things other than financial compensations.” According to Mackey, there are two views of compensation within an organization, external equity and internal equity. External equity focuses on the competition and what compensation packages it offers employees. Internal equity is looking at what everyone within the organization is paid. Internal equity requires transparency and therefore the company needs to be able to justify to its own employees the varying levels of compensation. John Mackey knows humility. He frequently visits stores in shorts and hiking boots to assess strengthens and weaknesses and to communicate with employees in an egalitarian manner. Whole Foods Market offers full health care for all employee because John Mackey feels it is his responsibility. He travels on commercial airlines and uses rental cars. He continuously empowers workers to do their best by utilizing profit and gain sharing. John Mackey shared his unique vision of conscious