The Keys to Kellogg’s #NoMatterWhat Culture During a Time of Change

They’re great! Isn’t just what Tony the Tiger says about Kellogg Company’s Frosted Flakes. It’s how I would describe the #NoMatterWhat culture Kellogg has developed, especially among its retail sales team during a time of some pretty major change. 

I worked with Kellogg Vice President of Retail Sales Rob Mayber to keynote the team’s  latest Retail sales event. And I was so moved by the organizational commitment to their people and culture that I asked to interview him for “the secret sauce” that puts their performance ahead of the rest, amidst some massive changes in the retail industry and for the company… 

In my preparations for any keynote, I do some digging to uncover what’s really going on inside the company or group before I stand on any stage (or appear on any zoom). My real job is to uncover the real challenges team members face – not just what seems like the problem or (worse) what leadership might think it is. What I uncovered at Kellogg blew me away. 

As a company, Kellogg is going through an announced restructuring this year that will spin the company up into three different stand alone companies. It’s a massive unknown as the impact of that on individuals within the organization isn’t yet known. And yet, every single person I talked to felt authentically supported, was deeply encouraged to grow, and truly trusted their leadership to take care of them, #NoMatterWhat was around that next corner of change. My questions for Rob, who has been in the role for coming up on five years, were essentially all focused on: how they created that culture. Here’s what rose to the top… 

People first, #NoMatterWhat. 

A commitment to others is the first commitment of those within Kellogg. A commitment to their safety, of course. But also to their leadership, growth and success. The pandemic became a great proving ground to show how deep that commitment runs. 

Early 2020, the world was in the early stages of the COVID outbreak and a pivotal time for any company. You knew that already. What you probably didn’t know is that the Kellogg sales team came together and reviewed the data, reviewed the news – and on March 7, 2020 – Kellogg  pulled everyone out of the grocery stores, days before the WHO declared a pandemic, the US declared a national emergency, or any other consumer goods company took similar steps. 

The leadership at Kellogg had the plan, the approach and the reason why, which was not only supported by the sales team, but by the CEO – a clear commitment of the company to safety and to his leadership to take the right steps, #NoMatterWhat. #NoMatterWhat in this case meant willingly negatively impacting their bottom line for the sake of their team. 

It didn’t stop there. Rob and team became the first consumer goods company to send their people back into stores. It wasn’t a forced measure; team members could decline – but it was a rally cry internally that people needed food and Kellogg was on the front line of helping to keep stores stocked. Every single person went back to stores, 100% support.

That’s what it looks like to put people first. You put them first through good times and bad times; through challenges and successes; through threats and through opportunities. You put people first, #NoMatterWhat. And that becomes the foundation of growth to build a business. 

Commitments over feelings.

Where results come from is simple: doing what you said you were going to do. Where companies (and all of us) can go off the rails is when 1. We don’t make commitments because we’re afraid we can’t keep them. Or, 2. We make commitments, but have reasons, excuses and circumstances as to why we can’t keep them. 

That’s where Kellogg excels. When hiring, Rob looks for how individuals manage behavior to hit their goals. He’s looking to decipher how an individual deals with the circumstances of the world or of the individual – and supports them to still achieve their goals and metrics, #NoMatterWhat. 

Hiring like that has translated into a culture inside of Kellogg that honors feelings but doesn’t accept them as an excuse. When a regional leader was dealing with poor performance, there were countless reasons for why. But her boss (and HR) supported her to implement new measures in the region that weren’t overly popular. And it didn’t feel good for her to get some of the initial feedback from those impacted. But holding true to performance raised the bar for the entire region.

The integrity of holding commitments over feelings pulls out the potential out of people. Even potential that’s hard (or impossible) to see from where to sit today. But when you do, of course, the results come along with it – for Kellogg and all of us. 

Do as I say AND as I do. 

Leadership isn’t directing people to live and work one way while acting in another. It’s holding yourself to a standard at least as high, if not higher, than those around you. Like many companies, Kellogg has stated values (they call them the K-values). But unlike many companies, they’re not a PR stunt, they’re lived realities of how people engage and interact. 

The consumer goods industry is a busy space to play in, dealing with Wall Street, supply chain, retail customers, consumers and countless other things. It would be easy for Kellogg’s senior leadership to lose touch with stores and consumers. Preaching about how important the customer was without spending any time with them. But they don’t. Regardless of the title or how busy things get, leadership is visiting stores, talking with team members, talking with customers on a scheduled and regular basis. 

Now, I won’t share the details of how Kellogg has executed that plan. What’s important here as a takeaway though is that Kellogg isn’t just saying that the customer is important, but living, operating and working that way. 

You grow, we grow. 

When you’re a part of a larger company it’s inevitable that some are promoted at different times than others. Most would accept that as fact, as would I. What there is to look at though is what happens after someone is passed over for a promotion… 

Left alone, I regularly see it lead to decreased engagement, performance, disenfranchisement, quiet quitting or even outright quitting. I heard a story inside Kellogg that really struck me (and the original inspiration for this post). One of the people I interviewed didn’t get the promotion she was working toward. That very night, a senior leader at the company called her, shared more details as to why she didn’t get it. And right then and there made a plan to work 1:1 with her on a regular basis to get to the performance she needed when another opportunity opened up. 

This leader was taking their own time to support, develop and grow someone – outside of the “responsibilities” or KPIs associated with their job. Not only was the team member in question not upset, disenfranchised or looking for a few role. They were more committed than ever to the company and to reach a higher level of performance. The Kellogg culture knows that if they help others grow and succeed, they will grow and succeed.  

These four cultural elements I’m just sharing are just a small part of what I learned during my work with Kellogg. There’s a lot more there that’s important for them and their results. If you reflect on your business culture are these ideas already a part of them? Or, what would you need to say (or more likely do) to more deeply embed them? I would argue that any company that takes on these 4 things alone would radically transform their results in the face of the questionable economy, changing consumer expectations, instability in the world or anything else. 

I told you, the cereal is great and so is the culture at Kellogg’. I’m grateful to have been a super small part of it and enjoyed every single bit of it. Thanks to Rob and his team for their leadership, partnership and the impact they’re having on their culture, their customers and the world. It truly is #NoMatterWhat.