What are the elements of John Macky’s leadership?

Questions
What are the elements of John Macky’s leadership?

John Macky’s leadership in Whole Foods has been participative wherein the relationship between him and his employees are that of trust, open communication and performance. Macky’s leadership at best is very far from the traditional concept of leadership although he represents the company and his people to the outside world. He expects independence, creativity, performance and quality outputs and because he has given his employees the motivation and the respect and trust in their abilities, the company has grown to be one of the fastest growing stores in the country. He is a role model, the identity of the company is tied to his own personality and he lives by example. He also has encouraged team work and cooperation as well as given the employees the accountability for their decisions and actions thus each employee strives to be at their best because they have the responsibility to fulfill. Moreover, he has respected the team’s decisions and very rarely contradicts it given the limitations.  He also is more of a cheerleader and a facilitator rather than a manager, he observes from a distance but actually is still knowledgeable about the daily operations of the company.

What makes the teams at Whole Foods effective?

Having a self-managed team in an organization actually work and be effective takes a certain amount of commitment, cooperation, collaboration, coordination, open communication and the motivation to be at one’s best. These are all present in the Whole Foods working environment that it has effectively implemented and sustained this organizational set-up for the past years and has proven to be beneficial to the company. The teams are effective because the company actually demands and expects them to be effective by giving them rewards tied to team effort, they have the autonomy and the power to make decisions as long as it does not violate the company vision and goals, the teams are also regularly given the opportunity to have fun at work, to make use of their time in productive ways and professional growth is supported by the company.