The Best Thing I Learned While Working for Danny Meyer
How to build a culture from the outside in.
I’ve now worked for two different leaders who are obsessed with culture in their businesses. Both Danny Meyer and Gary Vaynerchuk have built massively successful organizations, in very different verticals, that pride themselves having a culture that employees rave about. I mean, who doesn’t want to be a part of “Dannyland” or “VaynerNation”. But the funny thing is, both cultures are not built from the inside, as one might think, they’re built from the outside. And that’s the best thing I learned from working for Danny Meyer, and now I see working for Gary — Culture = employees, and careful recruitment of the right employees is the most important thing to focus on when building a business.
Let’s dive in — here’s how Danny does it. Danny and his team preaches to all hiring managers that the most important attribute of a prospective employee is being a “51%er”, loosely defined as someone who cares. Basically, 49% of any job is teachable skills, but 51% of any job is willingness of that employee to care about the job, the company, and the others around them, whether inside or outside the organization. It’s part passion and part kindness, mixed with happiness and inclusion. And, as implied, you can’t teach the 51%, so you must actively seek out and hire people with these attributes for your organization. If you do, a warm, caring culture will follow, where employees go out of there way to help each other and clients feel genuine empathy when dealing with issues. This effect is compounding as well — the more 51%er’s in your company, the more employees will rave about their jobs, the more productive they are, and the more outsiders will want to work for you.
Simple right? In theory yes, in practice it proves difficult. How do you tell if someone is a 51%er? You know your business well — ask yourself if you think the employee would be willing to do the hard, unsexy stuff, but do it with a smile, even when no one is looking. This is a quick and strong yes every time for a 51%er. Tony Hsieh’s culture first Zappos famously offers people $2k to quit once they’ve completed orientation. There’s a lot more to this than I’ll get out in these 1000 words. But start with the concept. Spend a completely disproportionate amount of time on hiring and you will see the impact it has on your culture and business overall. After all, borrowed right from the chalk wall when you enter VaynerMedia:
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