Case 10: Luck Companies: Igniting Human Potential C-119■■Employee Interview Process Overhaul: Managers
began to ask values-based behavior questions to
interviewees.
■■New Officer Incentive Plan: Now 33% of the officers’
bonuses were based on self-development (the mea-
sures of success were 360 assessments).
In 2005, Mark Barth was appointed as the Director
of Values. Others were also appointed as dedicated asso-
ciates in the Values Journey and Vision 2010. At this
point, Luck Companies was allocating between one
and two million dollars of resources to Vision 2010 per
year. However, institutionalizing the values model as the
business grew was no easy feat. A number of managers
could not or did not want to adapt to a more values ori-
ented leadership style, preferring to strictly emphasize
the importance of performance and/or other variables
not aligned with the values. For example, some seasoned
Associates working in the Company were unable to see
the benefit of incorporating values into their leadership
style while some senior leaders’ behaviors conflicted
with the values in which the Senior Leadership Team
believed. Some left, while others were asked to leave.
It took three years, but by 2006, the Values Journey
was really gaining traction and people were truly acting
differently and adopting these values. Associates were
approaching Charlie at company events to tell him how
these values not only benefited their work life, but their
personal and family life as well.
The Values Journey – Vision 2020 –
Phase II: 2007–2008
At this point, Charlie was 46 years old and was thinking
even more deeply at a personal level about what life is
about. He had been through 15 years of annual finan-
cial records, and the Values Journey was working. But,
somehow this didn’t seem to be enough. He was begin-
ning to think that there had to be a bigger purpose in
life. His wife’s brother, Kyle Petty, does an annual charity
ride across the country with a large group of friends and
Charlie joined him. Out in the west, Charlie was riding
due east directly into the sunrise. He had been riding
for about an hour at 100 miles per hour when he looked
over to the right at hundreds of migrant workers picking
strawberries. He questioned, “Why wasn’t I born into a
family of migrant workers?” He thought back to what
his mom told him as a young child, “To whom much is
given, much is expected.”
Charlie returned from his cross-country trip and
began seeing his name on trusts and wills, which made
him think about his own children. He traveled to a
Family Office consultant in Chicago to look into start-
ing a Family Office for the Luck Family. When he arrived,
the consultant asked Charlie about his company. He told
her about his values journey and his thoughts about
a larger purpose in life. They began to talk about this
larger purpose and her curiosity grew. She asked about
the lives that the company had touched and the progress
that the Values Journey had made. He told her stories of
associates coming up and telling him how they have a
better relationship with their children, with their parents,
and with themselves. She stopped him and asked, “How
often does a company get the chance to touch the lives
of three generations?”
He realized that he and his company had the opportu-
nity and ability to positively impact the lives of more people
than he originally thought. Five years of the Values Journey
had made a positive impact on the company overall, but
there was still more to be done to create a company that
could touch the lives of everyone. He came to the realiza-
tion that the higher purpose he sought was for his company
to enrich the lives of the people it touched – from employ-
ees to customers to suppliers and the community. He and
his top associates began to research literature and others’
experiences about doing good as the best path to doing
well. They realized that the model would be built based
on leadership. Values-Based Leadership would serve as the
means to spread these values more effectively throughout
the company and in turn the lives of the people the com-
pany touches. From here Vision 2020 was created, “To be
recognized as one of the top five values based leadership
organizations in the world.”
The values-based leadership model development
process began in the spring of 2007. Another consult-
ing firm was brought in to help facilitate the design and
assessment process. A small team of cross-functional
leaders from the four business units was selected to
build the framework and behavioral components of the
model. This team was led internally by two senior lead-
ers, John Pullen, who at the time was VP of Strategy and
Real Estate, and Jay Coffman, VP of Human Resources.
The development team was given the assignment to
align the mission, values, and Charlie’s 2010 Vision into
a practical inspiring model that would include the essen-
tial behaviors required for success as a leader at Luck
Companies. The model would also provide a framework
for ongoing selection and development of company
leaders, content for leadership training, and behav-
ioral standards for performance management. The pro-
cess used to build the leadership model contained the
following steps.