Want to improve your work culture? Try Philotimo

Bob Nelson

Philotimo, literally, “the love of honor,” is a sense of love for family, community and country. It’s a joyful hospitality and sense of nobility enshrined in Greek culture. The notion that we all have an obligation to one another to make things better, to have a sense of right and wrong and the duty to do what’s right. In short, to live with integrity in a way that reflects positively on one’s family, community, organization and society.

Philotimo is a simple yet powerful philosophy that{mprestriction ids="1,3"} can yield valuable business results. Just ask Nicole Mouskondis, co-CEO for Nicholas and Co., a regional food distributor that is based out of Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, that services seven Western states. With over 800 employees and $1 billion in revenues, this third-generation family business uses the Philotimo philosophy as a core company value to help attract, retain and motivate its staff.

“Most people like to do the right thing,” said Mouskondis. “We ask them to be thoughtful about doing that daily in our business operations, whether that is with fellow employees, vendors or our customers. We all are stakeholders of the company and if we can respect each other and harness our collective experience and wisdom, we can better prosper together.”

A key component of Philotimo is “empathy,” that is, to see things through others’ eyes or “walk in another person’s shoes,” she explains. “At Nicholas and Co., we have a program called ‘Walk a Mile’ which encourages employees to spend time with others they work with to better understand that person and the job they are doing.” For example, if a truck driver notices they are having problems delivering customer orders because pallets were not correctly packed, resulting in excessive time and frustration on the part of the driver to find ordered items, he can seek out the “picker” and invite that person to do a shift “ride-along.”

In a recent instance of this, a picker told me, “I ended up delivering the orders I picked and packed on my ride-along and, although nothing I did was technically incorrect, I saw many opportunities for how I could improve how I did my job to better help our drivers’ jobs be more efficient.”

“We use Philotimo in a positive way to debrief problems so we can learn from them to avoid repeating those same problems in the future,” said Mouskondis. “For example, during the pandemic, we hosted a vendor summit in which we asked everyone attending to provide a COVID test in advance to the meeting. After the event, we learned that one employee, although well-intentioned, did not make time to get their COVID test and ultimately was found to have COVID, potentially infecting others at that event. Instead of berating or punishing that employee, we asked, ‘What did we miss?’ and ‘How could we have better handled the situation and expectations to have gotten 100 percent cooperation from our staff?’ A blame-game mentality typically does not do much to help promote teamwork and cooperation.”

Another important company practice that shows the company’s commitment to existing employees is to “promote from within” whenever possible. External hires are only considered after first exploring who internally might be interested in any available opportunity. This often takes the form of leaders encouraging existing employees to apply for open positions and promotions the employees may not have considered. In one recent company-wide meeting, the owners announced 56 internal promotions within the company.

Is Philotimo purely a Greek cultural phenomenon? “There’s Greek in everyone that wants to be,” replied Mouskondis. “Most people would agree that today’s companies need to be more than financially sound. They must also be socially responsible and environmentally sustainable. Philotimo is one way to frame a larger context for the company and everyone associated with it that encourages all of us to strive to be our very best selves.”

Take Aways

Philotimo has been a key value for Nicholas and Co. to prosper over three generations. What strategies help to keep a focus on this core value? Here are several that Nicholas and Co. deploys to help the organization “walk the talk,” not just to have the value in name only:

1. Task Your Leadership. Hold your leadership team accountable about preserving the value, which they can most do through their actions. Co-CEO Peter Mouskondis reminds the company’s leaders to “Bring your face,” that is, to strive to connect with others face-to-face, not just via phone calls, emails and texts. Greater transparency and accountability follow.

2. Share Stories. You help to reinforce any core value of your company if you take time to share stories about that value in action. Nicholas and Co. does this by sharing Philotimo stories in “town hall” meeting of all employees. With the sharing of each story, the definition of Philotomo is expanded and further refined for everyone.

3. Include Families. Wherever possible, Nicholas and Co. strives to include family members and significant others in company activities, even including employee orientation. One of the benefits from doing this is that a significant number of company hires are relatives of existing family members who work for the company, i.e., parents, children and their siblings. Having a family member that already works for the company increases the chances that the new hire will be successful. They will have a better understanding of the culture and practices of the company they are joining and will have a built-in relationship they can go to as needed for questions and context during their tenure with the firm.

Bob Nelson, PhD, an advocate for employee recognition and engagement worldwide, is president of Nelson Motivation Inc. (www.drbobnelson.com) and creator of Employee Appreciation Day. His books have sold over 5 million copies. He frequently presents for management teams, conferences and associations about strategies for motivating employees.{/mprestriction}