University of Minnesota Athletics
Leadership U Speaker Series Continues with Joel Anderson
12/8/2020 10:14:00 AM | Leadership U
Leadership U hosted their second virtual Speaker Series event with staff, coaches, administration, and student-athletes within Gopher Athletics. Joel Anderson, the President and CEO of Five Below, Inc., joined the call with lots of energy and passion to discuss how he has created positive team culture and led his team during the pandemic.
Anderson highlighted three topics: what Five Below is, how he has been leading the company through COVID-19, and his team culture philosophies. Anderson has embraced the idea of presence versus present as a technique to lead his team through recent challenges. He alluded that "being present is about showing up and checking the box." During this time of remote work, Anderson has recognized he does not always need people to be present to be effective, but emphasized his team's presence is needed and can make a big difference in performance.
Anderson believes the three P's are crucial to create a positive team culture - people, passion, and performance. The idea of the three P's is that to achieve long term success you first need to focus on the people, then the passion, and the performance will speak for itself. "When you start with people that have a passion for the customer and purpose of what you are trying to achieve then the performance will come."
Joel Anderson earned a BA in speech and political science from St. Olaf College. After working for a few years he went on to earn his MBA from Harvard Business School. Anderson then started work at Toys R Us where he worked for 14 years in a variety of roles. In his last position at Toys R Us, he was the senior vice president of marketing for Babies R Us. He later worked for Lenox as the president of retail. Following his short stint at Lenox, he joined the Walmart team in various capacities and eventually became the President and CEO of Walmart.com before transitioning to Five Below. Anderson has been featured on Mad Money, Closing Bell, and also serves on the board of Sprouts Market and Nerd Street Gamers.
Anderson highlighted three topics: what Five Below is, how he has been leading the company through COVID-19, and his team culture philosophies. Anderson has embraced the idea of presence versus present as a technique to lead his team through recent challenges. He alluded that "being present is about showing up and checking the box." During this time of remote work, Anderson has recognized he does not always need people to be present to be effective, but emphasized his team's presence is needed and can make a big difference in performance.
Anderson believes the three P's are crucial to create a positive team culture - people, passion, and performance. The idea of the three P's is that to achieve long term success you first need to focus on the people, then the passion, and the performance will speak for itself. "When you start with people that have a passion for the customer and purpose of what you are trying to achieve then the performance will come."
Joel Anderson earned a BA in speech and political science from St. Olaf College. After working for a few years he went on to earn his MBA from Harvard Business School. Anderson then started work at Toys R Us where he worked for 14 years in a variety of roles. In his last position at Toys R Us, he was the senior vice president of marketing for Babies R Us. He later worked for Lenox as the president of retail. Following his short stint at Lenox, he joined the Walmart team in various capacities and eventually became the President and CEO of Walmart.com before transitioning to Five Below. Anderson has been featured on Mad Money, Closing Bell, and also serves on the board of Sprouts Market and Nerd Street Gamers.
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