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Young, fresh-faced graduates stepping into offices for the first time probably don\u2019t expect the top boss to pay them much mind while they\u2019re at the bottom of the totem pole. But the opposite was true for billionaire Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings\u2014when he was just a newcomer to the workforce, his boss would even secretly wash his huge pile of dirty coffee cups for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was my first job out of graduate school,\u201d Hastings recently said in an interview with Graham Bensinger. \u201cI was a programmer in a 30 person startup, and working hard and doing all nighters and drinking lots of coffee. And then my coffee cups would pile up. And every week or so the janitor would clean them all, and I\u2019d have 20 new cups, and [the] cycle would go on.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time, Hastings was 28 years old, working at Coherent Thought under its CEO Barry Plotkin. He was writing code every day, programming into the night and stacking up dirty coffee cups on his desk, which were always cleaned eventually. However, about a year into his habit, he found out his hoard of cups weren\u2019t being scrubbed by the janitor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne morning I came in very early to the office [at] like 4:30 [a.m.], and I went into the bathroom, and there was my CEO. And he\u2019s washing coffee cups,\u201d Hastings explained. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018Barry, are you washing my coffee cups?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Yes.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Have you been doing that all year?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said \u2018Yes.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Why?\u2019\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd he said, \u2018Well, you do so much for us and this is the one thing I can do for you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That routine, unspoken gesture from Hasting\u2019s former boss has stuck with the self-made billionaire throughout the rest of his near four-decade career, founding billion-dollar companies like Pure Software and Netflix. In that early programming job, he said that Plotkin\u2019s leadership style convinced employees to \u201cfollow him anywhere,\u201d even if it meant the company was heading towards bankruptcy. But the Netflix founder has still taken a page from his book, bringing coffee \u201cfor everybody\u201d he works with.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI realized, wow, you not only have to be like this servant leader, you also have to be this strategy person,\u201d Hastings said, adding that the coffee cup experience \u201cFormed such an impression upon me that I\u2019ve tried to emulate that aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CEOs who stay humble by eating lunch with staffers and writing appreciation notes<\/p>\n
The CEO of First Watch, Chris Tomasso, also stays connected to his staffers through good old-fashioned notes of appreciation.<\/p>\n
Similar to Hastings, the leader of the breakfast chain reeling in $1 billion in revenue yearly was inspired by a handwritten thank-you note from his CEO at Hard Rock Caf\u00e9 when he was just 26. Now, he carves out time every month to handwrite letters to workers, like cooks and dishwashers, who are celebrating major career milestones. Tomasso has penned hundreds of notes so far. Plus, he still grubs alongside First Watch staffers instead of eating in his office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to minimize the [CEO] title as best I can when I\u2019m interacting with people,\u201d Tomasso told Fortune last year. \u201cI eat lunch in the break room with everybody, which always, for whatever reason, blows new employees away\u2014that I just sit down next to them and bring my lunch and have lunch with them. I think it\u2019s a shame that there\u2019s that feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mary Barra, the CEO of iconic car company General Motors, also stays connected to her staffers and customers by responding to \u201cevery single letter\u201d that comes her way. Whether it\u2019s a negative note from a kid worried about their family\u2019s future after the closure of a General Motors plant, or a loyal Chevrolet driver sharing their car\u2019s nickname, Barra puts pen to paper to show that she cares about the people supporting the business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the chairman and CEO of $428 billion energy giant Chevron, Mike Wirth, also believes in the power of meaningful gestures. Just like Tomasso and Barra, he sends out dozens of \u201cold-school, on paper\u201d notes each time he visits Chevron employees around the world. By the time he\u2019s done rounds on a trip, he\u2019s already written 60 to 80 letters, Wirth estimated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think back to when I was early in my career, and if a CEO had sent me a letter and actually knew what I was doing, it would have been a really big deal for me,\u201d Wirth said on the How Leaders Lead podcast in 2024. \u201cAnd so I try to remember what it was like to be in the jobs that I\u2019m visiting and that I had those jobs myself one time. And I want to make sure that people know that I appreciate them.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Netflix #cofounder #Reed #Hastings #boss #washed #coffee #cups #a.m<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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