The Mary Kay Way E-Book

Mary Kay Ash

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 331

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

The Mary Kay Way: Timeless Principles from America's Greatest Woman Entrepreneur is back in print and updated to reflect developments in today's business environment for the modern entrepreneur. You will find inspiration and real, proven success principles that represents the forty-five year old success story of Mary Kay Ash, founder Mary Kay, Inc., the cosmetics company that provides women with unlimited opportunities for success. A foreword by Mary Kay's grandson, also a company executive, introduces her timeless guide to entrepreneurial success.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Acknowledgements

THE MARY KAY WAY

EDITOR’S PREFACE

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Golden Rule Leadership

Following the Golden Rule Can Bring Success

The Adoptee Program

Treat People Fairly

Chapter 2 - You Build with People

A Company Is Only as Good as Its People

Good People Are Worth Hanging On To

Chapter 3 - The Invisible Sign

Make People Feel Important—They Are

Responsibility without Authority Can Be Destructive

Let People Know You Appreciate Them

Chapter 4 - Praise People to Success

Little Successes Pave the Way to Bigger Successes

Applause Is a Powerful Form of Praise

Give as Much Recognition as Possible

Chapter 5 - The Art of Listening

Don’t Undervalue the Ability to Listen

Your Own Organization Can Be an Invaluable Resource for Ideas

Encourage Feedback

Chapter 6 - Sandwich Every Bit of Criticism between Two Heavy Layers of Praise

Be Tender and Tough

Never Give Criticism without Praise

Never Give Criticism in Front of Others

Chapter 7 - Be a Follow-Through Person

Nothing Great Is Ever Accomplished without Follow-Through

The Best Kind of Follow-Through Is Immediate

Never Make a Promise You Can’t Keep

Follow-Through Requires Discipline and Planning

Do Your Homework

As a People Manager, You, Too, Have a Constant Selling Job

Chapter 8 - Enthusiasm ... Moves Mountains!

A Good Leader Arouses Enthusiasm

The Power of One-on-One Enthusiasm Works

Chapter 9 - The Speed of the Leader Is the Speed of the Gang

Lead by Example

Operate from Experience

Showing Works Better Than Telling

Chapter 10 - People Will Support That Which They Help to Create

People Naturally Resist Change

Seek Support from All Those Affected

Seek Support from Above and Below

Women and Change

Chapter 11 - An Open-Door Philosophy

Doors Open Both Ways

A Good Leader Should Be Part of a Team

Chapter 12 - Help Other People Get What They Want—and You’ll Get What You Want

Nice Guys Finish First

A Good Leader’s Success Is Reflected in the Success of Her People

Chapter 13 - Stick to Your Principles

A Good Leader Should Be an Example to Others

Treating People Fairly Makes Them Feel Secure

Putting Family before Career

Make Product Excellence a Top Priority

Chapter 14 - A Matter of Pride

Take Pride in Your Image

Pride Contributes to Morale

It’s a Grand Old Flag

The American Dream Comes True

Make Opportunities Happen

Chapter 15 - You Can’t Rest on Your Laurels

Know Your Business Thoroughly

Learn from the Successes of Others

Share Valid Ideas with Others

Chapter 16 - Be a Risk-Taker

People Fail Forward to Success

Not Every Idea Will Be a Winner

Chapter 17 - Work and Enjoy It

The More People Enjoy Their Work, the More Energy They Give It

A Good Product, an Interested Audience, the Unknown

A Good Leader Tries to Match the Person to the Appropriate Job

Enthusiasm Is Contagious, But So Is Negativism

Chapter 18 - Nothing Happens Until Somebody Sells Something!

The Entire Company Should Be Sales-Oriented

The Company’s Attitude Can Make or Break the Sales Force

Build Self-Esteem and Confidence

Chapter 19 - Never Hide behind Policy or Pomposity

Don’t State Company Policy without Giving the Reason for the Policy

Don’t Let Success on the Corporate Ladder Go to Your Head

Success Depends on Total Team Effort

Don’t Create an Atmosphere of “Haves” and “Have-Nots”

A Leader’s Success Depends on the Ability to Develop and Motivate Others

Chapter 20 - Be a Problem-Solver

The First Step in Problem Solving Is to Admit That a Problem Exists

Determine Whether the Problem Is Valid

A Good Leader Listens Attentively for the Real Problem

A Leader Must Recognize When Home Problems Cause Work Problems

Discover Possible Solutions to the Problem

Chapter 21 - Less Stress

A Friendly, Productive Environment Begins with You, the Leader

An Indecisive Leader Causes Stress in Others

A Good Leader Provides Direction

Change Can Bring on Stress

Chapter 22 - Develop People from Within

A Good Leader Trains Her Replacement

Seek Out Assistance at Every Level

Build with People from Within the Organization

Chapter 23 - Live by the Golden Rule On and Off the Job

Afterword

Index

Copyright © 2008 by Mary Kay Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Ash, Mary Kay.

The Mary Kay way: timeless principles from America’s greatest woman entrepreneur/ Mary Kay Ash, with Yvonne Pendleton. p. cm.

eISBN : 978-0-470-62322-0

1. Management. 2. Success in business. 3. Ash, Mary Kay. I. Pendleton, Yvonne. II. Title.

HD31.A74 2008

658-dc22

2008012239

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Mary Kay dedicated the original version of this book to “all those who still believe that people and pride are the two foremost assets in building a successful business.”

This new book is dedicated to all those people at the Company and in the independent sales force who have helped—with great pride—to forge a successful corporation and millions of small businesses around the world according to The Mary Kay Way.

—YVONNE PENDLETON Executive Editor

THE MARY KAY WAY

This book is the life’s work of an extraordinary woman I had the great fortune to call “Grandmother Mary Kay.” She lived her life by these principles and philosophies, and raised her family by them. Now that I’m older I can clearly see how she was teaching them to me throughout my childhood. She knew they would make a difference in my life.

In 1963, when she began her “dream company,” she adopted the values that shaped her business. Over the course of the past 45 years, they’ve changed millions of lives for the better within our independent sales force. And they’re still the guiding beacons we use to manage the business today. They always will be. My grandmother started it, my father nourished it, and I will perpetuate it; it’s The Mary Kay Way.

Grandmother Mary Kay had already received the Hall of Fame Award in the Direct Selling Industry by the time I was born. And at the age of one, I was too young to understand what it meant for her to be selected a Horatio Alger Distinguished American Citizen. At age two, I was still too young to remember when she was profiled on 60 Minutes—the interview where Morley Safer asked, “ . . . don’t you think in a sense you’re using God?” To which Mary Kay replied, “I hope not. I sincerely hope not. I hope He’s using me instead.” But I do recall how important she always made me feel. As the years passed, I began to understand how much importance Mary Kay placed on the art of listening, on treating people like she would want to be treated, on doing well by doing good. She practiced all these things on her family as well as everyone she did business with.

I was seven years old when this book was first published in 1984 and she autographed a copy for me. I still have it and treasure it because the words in the book ring so true with what I saw in her life. She said, “Learn all of this to use when you are President of Mary Kay.”

Twenty-four years later, I’m still heeding her advice. This book is something all of us in leadership at Mary Kay Inc. refer to constantly—not only for how to do things The Mary Kay Way, but also, as she shares in the introduction, so that we continue to exercise a “sensitivity for the needs of others.” I always knew who my grandmother was, and what she did, but it wasn’t until after I joined Mary Kay Inc. in 2000 that I began to fully appreciate how much she had meant to so many others. At our headquarters, I would see candid photos of my grandmother—like precious family—framed prominently on people’s desks in their offices and cubicles. As I attended Company events with our independent sales force, they would relate their most treasured stories and memories about Mary Kay. At the time of her death, I witnessed firsthand the great outpouring of love for my grandmother. The heartfelt thoughts, the letters, and interviews deepened my sense of how much she had contributed.

Several years ago we hosted, for the first time, a global business conference in Dallas for all the leaders of our Mary Kay subsidiaries around the world. I’ll never forget one of our executives holding up a copy of this book and asking the group if everyone had read it.

To those who raised their hands indicating yes, he said, “Great. Read it again.”

To the ones who hadn’t yet read it, he said, “Get a copy before you leave. Read it.” Then he went on to say, “If you find you can’t or don’t agree with the principles in this book, just go ahead and find the door.”

As I began traveling to our world markets, to places like China, Mexico, and Russia, I was surprised to find how well people understood the Mary Kay principles. It didn’t matter where I was, there were people practicing The Mary Kay Way, making others feel important, and treating others the way they would want to be treated. I would come home and marvel to my dad, Richard Rogers, who helped Grandmother start the company, that the Mary Kay culture is an amazing international language. It works everywhere.

Today women who live in countries where my grandmother never traveled are building Mary Kay businesses based on her beliefs. The anecdotal evidence of the difference Mary Kay made in so many lives can at times be downright humbling. Whether it’s a woman in Russia who told me she thought her life was over when she was widowed at a young age, an Asian scientist who grappled with giving up a promising career to sell cosmetics, an American woman who grew up in foster care thinking no one cared about her, or a woman in Mexico who sold chickens in the marketplace until finding a better way to feed her family—the life-changing experiences of these women confirm to me that my grandmother had it right.

In 2003, two years after my grandmother’s death, I was honored to accept an award accorded her as a result of an academic study by Baylor University to determine the Greatest Entrepreneurs in American History. Henry Ford’s great-grandson accepted his award; the late John H. Johnson was there to accept his as Greatest Minority Entrepreneur; and Mary Kay Ash was named Greatest Female Entrepreneur in American History. I said then that the greatest thing my grandmother did for the world was to tap into the minds and hearts of its women.

In 2004 my dad was interviewed by the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania after Mary Kay had been named one of the 25 greatest business leaders of our time in a Wharton/PBS study. This book, Lasting Leadership, was notable as one of the few times since her death that my father has spoken publicly about my grandmother, whom he had worked with from the age of 20 to build her Company. In a book filled with 23 stories of male leaders like Grove, Gates, Buffett, Walton, Green-span, and Welch, my Dad talked about one of only two women in the book. He explained how at Mary Kay “relationship building is ingrained as a business model.” Nothing illustrates the power of her legacy to build relationships better than our sales force of 1.8 million.

We decided, as this new edition was being planned to celebrate our 45th anniversary, that it would be interesting to add new material showing how the principles in the book have affected the 500 women leaders around the world who used them to build the most successful of Mary Kay businesses—the Independent National Sales Directors. This group cuts across every generation, as well as background, language, and culture. Some have advanced degrees, and some had never worked outside the home prior to Mary Kay.

If there is one thing they agree upon wholeheartedly, it is that these words of Mary Kay Ash are timeless. They say Grandmother’s principles resonate magnificently in building a business, in building a life. As they responded to our questions about the significance of this book for them, they urged us to teach these principles to future generations of Mary Kay leaders in the independent sales force and at the Company.

As much as any time in our history, The Mary Kay Way governs and fuels our global enterprise as it works to better the lives of untold millions of families around the world. And, it will continue.

—RYAN ROGERS

EDITOR’S PREFACE

When Mary Kay Ash first published this book in 1984, her cosmetics company had recently celebrated its 20thanniversary. She described annual sales exceeding $300 million and an independent sales force of more than 200,000. This new edition comes at the 45thanniversary, with wholesale sales exceeding $2.4 billion and a worldwide independent sales force of 1.8 million. Mary Kay®consistently ranks among the top U. S. brands. We at Mary Kay Inc. are very proud of her legacy and excited to share it with you in this new edition of her most important book. The principles in this book are the foundation for everything we do, and are responsible for the dramatic growth of the business and its worldwide reputation in the years since Mary Kay Ash founded what she called her “dream” company in 1963.

We know that the Mary Kay culture is respected in business circles, and that it is studied at some of the most prestigious academic institutions.

Recently, we asked Mary Kay’s Independent National Sales Directors, the highest-achieving women in the sales force, to share principles from this book that had the most profound impact on their businesses and their lives. One hundred seventy-five of them, from throughout the world, eagerly responded. As their comments were translated and collated, a consensus emerged. All of these remarkable women believed this book to be instrumental in their success. Today, they teach from it, make speeches centered upon it, and discuss leadership examples with their vastly diverse teams based on these principles. They also continue to be inspired by the messages. Many suggest The Mary Kay Way be mandatory reading for anyone aspiring to build and be successful in a business. All endorse it as the way to build a life. As National Sales Director Svetlana Kisurkina of Ukraine said, “I know for sure that in critical moments I can find in this book answers for all my questions.”

For one National Sales Director in the United States, it had been a few years since she’d picked up her beloved, dog-eared copy of the first edition of this book. Sherril Steinman took the occasion of responding to the survey to reread it from cover-to-cover. Upon completing it, she did three things. In her words:

1. I cried and cried at the genius of Mary Kay Ash.

2. I called the leader of the sales group at the Company and suggested we make this mandatory reading for everyone.

3. I wrote a letter to Helen McVoy [one of the first two women ever to become a National Sales Director in 1971] to express to her my gratitude for everything she taught me and for being the role model I wanted to emulate in my work.

Many among the National Sales Directors had the extraordinary experience of working alongside Mary Kay Ash. But whether they learned of her wisdom firsthand or through a mentor, all of them have taken Mary Kay’s philosophies to heart. They speak convincingly about perpetuating Mary Kay principles for future generations, as the company founder introduced them.

INTRODUCTION

Most books on leadership have been written by men—and for men. Although I believe women can learn a great deal from such books, I also believe it isn’t possible for us to clone ourselves from our male counterparts, because we are different. Women can no more duplicate the male style of management than American businessmen can exactly reproduce the Japanese style. This is not to suggest that Americans and Japanese cannot learn from one another—they can and do. Similarly women can gain considerable leadership know-how from men. By the same token, men can also learn much from women. To me, P and L doesn’t only mean profit and loss—it also means people and love.