Leading by Example
John Agwunobi, Chairman and CEO of Herbalife Nutrition believes fostering a diverse and inclusive organization begins at the leadership level.
Q: Why is an effective relationship between a CEO and the board of directors important?
A: As CEO, you are the voice of the company to the outside world. You must
always consider all angles, all points of view and the potential impact on every stakeholder – including a board of directors.
Although it can be challenging to be the balance between a board and executives, it is essential for a CEO and board to establish a relationship built on mutual trust, accountability, and strategic priorities. It takes time, effort, and commitment to make the relationship strong and productive. But, when both a CEO and board are committed to ensuring an organization’s success, and to the organization’s mission, they can accomplish many things together.
Q: What have you learned since COVID-19? How have you engaged with your board?
A: The big lesson I’ll take away from 2020 is the importance of communication, teamwork and leadership. From the moment the world began to grasp the full impact of COVID-19, we came together to rethink, react and respond. We kept our board of directors informed every step of the way as decisions were being made. But engagement and building relationships with the board, as with employees and customers has to come before crisis happens, not as a result of crisis.
We find that if you keep the board well informed and assure them you have the right motivations at the forefront of every decision – in this case, the safety and wellbeing of our employees, our distributors and our communities – they will support you 100 percent.
When crises erupt, it is natural to spend a lot of time with your senior leadership team and board to determine the right thing to do. As a leader, you want to confirm there is buy-in at the top, and everyone has clear march- ing orders. But, while leadership teams are grappling with the path forward, your most valuable audience – your employees – need to hear from you im- mediately. You don’t have to have every answer to reach out to your team and tell them that you understand that this time is hard, that everyone is feeling the pain and that we are here to support one another and most of all, that their health and safety is your top priority. This message is critical to convey as soon as possible, even while supply chains are examined, and critical decisions are made. Once a plan is created – in this case – from where our employees would be working, to adapting to increased demand, to being deemed an essential service – key audiences must be communicated with frequently and transparently.
Everyone looks to leaders to get their cues – even your senior team and board. Having served as a senior vice president of health and wellness for the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, leading a team of over 65,000, I grew adept at communicating clearly and ensuring that when emotions were running high, I was the one who maintained composure. I found that my confidence had a direct impact on those around me. Never forget that everyone looks to the person at the top to set the tone, and in a challenging situation, leaders need to lead by example.
Q: What is your view on the importance of diversity and inclusion as a foundation of corporate culture?
A: Our company was founded more than 40 years ago based on a number of core principles including equality, inclusion, and love for humanity — foundational principles that continue to shape who we are as a company. We have always been a company that opened our arms to welcome and embrace people from every race, gender, religion or culture. We each come to Herbalife Nutrition from diverse backgrounds and walks of life; but once we arrive, we are each responsible for our shared values. Diversity is imperative to ensure business success, enabling us to better serve our distributors, stakeholders and communities through our employees.
Q: How do you build an effective and engaged board?
A: Boards need to look for people who bring multiple perspectives to the mix, multiple layers of diversity. Each board seat has to play multiple roles; you build your ‘diversity lay- er cake’ and each slice has to represent various components, but always more than just one element.
Herbalife Nutrition’s board is made up of people who bring different life and professional experiences, different backgrounds, different perspectives with diversity representation from across numerous segments including age, sex and race. Latino leaders on our board represent 45% of the board, including Dr. Richard Carmona, the 17th Surgeon General of the U.S. who lends his knowledge of public health; Michael Montelongo, former CFO and acting secretary of the U.S. Air Force, provides leadership guidance; Juan Miguel Mendoza, a leading independent distributor of more than 25 years, shares insights that are representative of the company’s distributors and customers; Margarita Paláu-Hernández, an attorney and entrepreneur, brings community engagement and international entrepreneurship experience to the board; and Maria Otero, appointed by three U.S. presidents to roles overseeing issues of democracy and human rights, brings expansive experience on empowering those less fortunate around the world and microfinance to help Herbalife Nutrition deliver on its mission to help people live healthy active lifestyles.
Knowing and understanding people’s backgrounds is important. You won’t be able to leverage a board if you haven’t started with the basics. Consider the diversity of a board over time, working to ensure that each new board member adds a layer of diversity that hadn’t existed on the board previously. This ‘rotation’ view will result in more diverse perspectives being brought to the organization over time.