Sunday Story: Threading Needles with Leadership Lessons

This week’s Sunday Story is about something small but meaningful: a sewing kit, specifically the one pictured below. We’re giving out this little kit at the upcoming RLPA event next week, where we are incredibly honoured to be delivering the Professional Development for student housing professionals across Western Canada. Every year, they do a gear swap, so of course we were going to participate, and we chose to donate the sewing kits - it’s a bit of a playful idea; the sewing kit helps you fix your clothes. Authentik helps you fix your organization. Clever, right?

Beyond our borderline criminal corporate pun, if you look closely at the sewing kit, you’ll notice what brand it is - it’s Patagonia, or “Patagucci”, as it’s sometimes called. You may also notice that our other corporate logo wear is the Patagonia brand. It’s not an accident, and it’s not just because we like the gear or desire fancy things (quite the opposite actually - we do live full time on Van Island, which is a literal rain forest, and so we're more keen on the fact that the gear does what it says on the label and keeps us warm and dry!). Beyond the practical application of it, we constantly preach the benefit of values based leadership, and so when we were looking for corporate swag, we decided to start by purchasing from a company that would align with our values, and Patagonia is one of those companies; they, like us, are about a lot more than just profit - largely because of the leadership of a person name Yvon Chouinard, their founder, and that’s who today’s Sunday Story is about.

Yvon Chouinard didn’t begin with a business plan. He was a climber, an adventurer, and a person who came alive in the outdoors. He was also a craftsman, and his experience climbing meant he was also someone who saw a problem: the pitons (metal climbing tools) he used were damaging the rock faces he loved. Sure, one person could traverse the face and the impact would be negligible, but human impact on the environment is a cumulative problem that we all share responsibility for, and Yvon knew this to be true - in fact, environmental protection is one of his core values. So he started making his own climbing gear that would avoid this problem. He built steel-pitons and hand-forged gear, from his own backyard workshop.

That simple act of noticing a problem, taking responsibility, crafting a solution that reflects what you feel is most important is the heart of all leadership.

Over time, the little workshop became a company: Patagonia. They sold gear and turned a tidy profit, but Yvon kept asking bigger questions: “What is our responsibility to the earth? To the community? To what comes after us?”

So, Yvon started making sure Patagonia embedded as much responsibility as he could into their products. They began using recycled materials, and offer their customers a legendary warranty on the basis of repairing gear rather than discarding it. Their core value was environmental activism and protection, and they made sure this value showed up in their operational decisions.

It’s not perfect - nothing is; no doubt there are many ways Patagonia could be better. But perfect is the enemy of good; Patagonia, by leading from their values, ensured that those values came to life in a far more real way than most other companies.

More recently, Yvon was presented with another leadership challenge. He was aging, and it was time to decide what to do with the company. Most business people would sell to an eager venture capitalist or similar, sailing off into the sunset with millions or billions in the bank as the business they built changed into something almost unrecognizable. Not Yvon, though - Yvon did something extraordinary. He reorganized the company so that its future profits would be used to protect the planet.

Essentially, he gave the company away — to the earth herself, as Earth is now Patagonia's only shareholder. Indeed, after a fashion, he gave it away to all of us, if you consider the fact that we’ll all benefit from environmental protection that this multi-billion-dollar company will provide. Specifically, Yvon turned over every share of Patagonia to two non-profits dedicated to environmental protection and preservation; the dividends that in a traditional business line the pockets of shareholders will instead be used to protect the planet. That decision wasn’t flashy in the usual business sense. It was rooted in staying true to values, even as the company grew.

Yvon Chouinard’s story teaches us that leadership isn’t about being the loudest in the room. It’s about being consistent, asking what it is you truly value, and then making decisions based on those values.

And so, yes - we are giving away a couple of Patagonia sewing kits. When you see that sewing kit in your hand next week, I want you to recognize what we’re trying to do here at Authentik: We use Patagonia gear not because it’s trendy (though it does look good and work well!) but because the company was run in such a way that says: “This matters.”

That's what we believe too. Leadership matters. Integrity matters. Responsibility matters. And our choices matter.

We sincerely hope you’ve made the choice to join us at the RLPA next week, where we’ll be ready to connect with you, ready to fix what needs fixing - with our sewing kits or otherwise - and ready to lead with purpose.

See you next Sunday - hopefully in person!