Focus on your employees
When a new store is opening, Chavez spends an entire week of his time working with the new employees. He talks to them about the vision of Mi Pueblo and about personal development, leadership, how they, too, can become leaders and how he wants to help them in life.
“The first reaction that these people express is how come this guy — the founder of Mi Pueblo — who doesn’t have the need to do this, is making this personal investment in us,” he says. “I can see people crying, and I can see people asking me very, very personal questions. I can see people totally committed by the second day.”
He gets that commitment from people because he takes the time to come down to their level.
“If you allow your own position to trap you, you can lose the sense of yourself,” he says. “You can lose the essence of what brought you to where you are today. … You have to realize that you are not perfect and that you are vulnerable and that you need others for you to succeed. Tell them that.”
He also takes this approach because he sees himself as more than just a CEO — he’s trying to build character into each employee and improve their lives.
“The basic values and the basic vision and philosophy of the company is not changing,” he says. “It’s what’s making us successful in the past, and it’s what’s making us successful today, and the same values will make us successful in the future, so we have to make sure we are teaching most of the people.”
The key is to take the servant leadership approach.
“We’re here to serve others,” he says. “We’re not here to direct. We’re not here with a position of power or a title. We’re here with a position of responsibility of leadership to help others achieve great things in life.”
Because of this respect and care for employees, word spreads fast, and jobs are in high demand when the next store opens.
“We go through anywhere from 3,500 to 5,000 applicants to hire a couple hundred employees,” he says. “Really, in that process, you are hand-picking your people.”
It’s nice to have that many people wanting to work for you, and it allows him to pick people who will buy in to Mi Pueblo’s values and be receptive to his message and leadership approach.
Employees walk through three or four screenings so he and his team can identify if there’s a values match, and Chavez himself asks many questions of potential employees.
“‘Tell me about you. I want to know you. My intention here is to know about you,’” he says. “That’s one of the questions I ask.”
But then he goes deeper. He asks the person, “If I were to talk to your mother, husband, wife or other close relation, how would they describe you? What three or four attributes would they say embody who you are?” Then he asks the converse — “What one or two things about you would that same person want to see changed in you?”
He also strives to understand what makes them tick.
“What gives you the passion, the hope, the joy?” he says. “You lose your mood, you lose your temperament, you lose your posture — what do you do in order to recover yourself?”
He also asks how they got to where they are now in life and what makes them a successful person today.
“What values?” he says. “What practices? What disciplines? What education? Also, I ask them, ‘Why should I hire you? If you were me, interviewing you, why should I hire you? Tell me about it.’
“Those are most certainly simplistic questions, but they are very tough questions, and I always allow room for them to ask me any questions. I usually tell them, ‘I’ve been asking a lot of questions, and my intention was to get to know you — do you have any question for me?’ I always leave room for that.”
And if they ever doubt their worth, Chavez is quick to reassure them as part of his corporate family.
“I tell them, ‘Do you have any doubts about why you’re here? Forget them. We hand-picked you. You’re here because you’re a successful person. You are here because you are part of something big in here. You may not have the skills in your hands today, and you may not have all the solutions to the situations you are dealing with today, but in a few weeks, you will have confidence and the skills in your hand, and you are the one producing the results we look to you to produce, but the values are more important to us.’”
As employees start in their actual day-to-day jobs, he continues encouraging them to stretch beyond what they see on the surface. For example, if a customer asks them something and if Chavez asks why they responded the way they did or why they weren’t able to help them, they often tell him it’s because they’re new.
“I tell them, ‘Think for a moment. No one asks if you’re new, and nobody knows you’re new. Smile. Be yourself. Be present. Be in here ready to open. Don’t let the customer know you’re new in that way. Try to impress the customer in a different positive way so you can give that positive impression,’” he says.
Those encouraging words can go a long way.
“It’s about giving counsel, trust and providing an environment to get ordinary people to be themselves,” Chavez says. “Once you give them the space and once you provide the environment and believe in them, they grow miles trying to fulfill and even, perhaps, exceed your own expectations.”
How to reach: Mi Pueblo Foods, (888) 997-7717 or www.mipueblofoods.com
