When Pat Crosby made an early-morning stop at a Kwik Trip in northern Minnesota last year, he was simply looking for a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. He wasn’t expecting to have an “aha moment” that would dramatically shift his leadership philosophy.
“I’d been at another gas station the day before and it was dark inside and the guy behind the counter wasn’t very welcoming,” said Crosby, the owner of CrossFit SISU. “Then, when I went into Kwik Trip, it was totally different. There were people bustling around the store and when I paid and got ready to leave, the person behind the counter looked me in the eye and said ‘see you next time.’”
Normally, Crosby said, he would never think much about a stop at a convenience store but something about his visit to Kwik Trip stuck with him. After telling his wife about it, she did some research and made an interesting discovery.
“She learned that Kwik Trip was a servant leadership company no different than Four Seasons, Southwest Airlines, Nordstrom and Disney,” Crosby said.
For people who are unfamiliar with the term, servant leadership is a philosophy in which the goal of the leader is to serve. Servant leaders share power, put the needs of their employees first and help people develop and perform as highly as possible.
Impressed by the service he received, Crosby became a Kwik Trip regular and when he traveled to and from the CrossFit Games in Wisconsin, he stopped at a number of locations. Each time, his experience was the same – employees telling him they’d “see him tomorrow” or they’d “see him next time.”
Crosby was so fascinated by the level of consistency that he emailed the 80-year-old Kwik Trip founder and CEO to find out his secret.
“I wanted to know how in the world he got his lowest-paid employees at the checkout counter to say the same thing every time,” he said.
He soon received a response.
“The CEO said his philosophy is we treat others like we want to be treated,” Crosby said.
That interaction led Crosby to begin shifting his vision for the culture of CrossFit SISU.
“I would say that before, we were managing based on emotion and the situation with no guiding principle,” he said. “Everything was about taking care of the customer. The customer was the single most important person to me as an owner.”
Coming from the servant leadership mindset, however, Crosby sees things differently.
“Now, what’s most important to me is growing my employee base to serve the customers, to give them what they need versus what they necessarily want,” he said. “If I can grow my team to be good servant leaders, then they’re going to take care of the customers.”
Over the course of the last several months, Crosby has been reading up on servant leadership and sharing the concept with his business partner and his coaches, all of whom have been enthusiastic about it. He also formed a leadership advisory group to provide insight, guidance and accountability as they implement servant leadership into their day-to-day operations.
If you’re thinking about making the shift to servant leadership and need inspiration, here are the core values and cultural principles he and his team have created to guide them both internally and externally:
Do the right thing all the time:
That can mean something as simple as picking up a piece of trash in the parking lot or staying after class to help someone with a movement.
Be your best:
When you show up to class as either an instructor or a student, be prepared to give 100 percent.
Be a servant leader:
This goes back to giving people what they need and holding them accountable so they can achieve their goals.
Respect the gym, the people and the space:
Everyone is human and has his or her own story. By creating an environment that’s free of judgment, all members can feel supported like part of a community.
Word hard, have fun and spread the love:
Before a workout, members will go around the room and fist bump each other. “We call that spreading the love and we’ve done it since day one,” Crosby said. “It’s a big part of our culture.”
Crosby is still early in his journey with servant leadership, but he’s optimistic about what the future holds.
“It’s a big stake in the ground for us,” said Crosby, who recently communicated the new vision and culture to his 500 members. “It’s not just words for us. This is a really serious thing we’re putting into place.”
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