Matt Waller, dean emeritus of the Sam M. Walton College of Business, shares lessons learned from his Leadership & Organizational Behavior course he is teaching this fall in a series for Walton MBA students.
I interviewed Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, on Thursday afternoon at 3pm at the new Walmart Home Office. (It is beautiful. If you have not seen it, I recommend going for a walk around their new campus. To me it seems more like a college campus than a corporate HQ.)
This interview was part of a course I’m co-teaching with Adam Stoverink, Ph.D.. This semester we have two sections of Executive MBA students and two sections of Full Time MBA students. All four sections participated in the discussion with Doug. Doug allowed the students to ask any questions they wanted to ask, and they did. I was very impressed with how well the students conceptualized the questions and then articulated them. (Admissions committee: Well done!)
In my opinion five themes stood out in my mind that align with established leadership research and frameworks. (At the end of this post I provide links to other posts about this interview. Forgive me if I missed some.)
1. Anchor in Purpose and Values, Change Everything Else
“The only thing that’s constant in our company other than our purpose and values is change.” McMillon often reiterates Walmart’s enduring purpose (“Save Money, Live Better”) and four values (Respect for the Individual, Service to the Customer, Strive for Excellence, and Act with Integrity), while keeping all else open to change. This reflects Kotter’s distinction between leadership and management (Kotter, 1990): leadership is about coping with change, while management is about coping with complexity. Purpose and values act as a “north star,” while adaptive strategies keep the organization relevant.
2. Practice Servant Leadership Through Daily Actions
“When we go to visit stores, we park at the back, we grab carts, we pick up trash. Be willing to do what you’d want anybody else to do.” From symbolic actions to everyday humility, McMillon demonstrates that culture is lived, not declared. This echoes Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership theory (Greenleaf, 1977), which emphasizes service to others as foundational to trust and culture. Leaders communicate values through visible, repeated acts.
3. Lead with Humility, Gratitude, and Vulnerability
“I start meetings with gratitude. I don’t want to miss something significant, and I don’t mind saying when I don’t know the answer.” McMillon admits when he’s uncertain and expresses thanks often. Research on Authentic Leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005) highlights vulnerability and transparency as drivers of trust. His approach also illustrates how authenticity fosters psychological safety (Edmondson, 1999), enabling more open collaboration.
4. Embrace Risk, Learn from Failure, and Enable Others
“I once thought my career was over because of a mistake with chili lime chips. A mentor picked me up, told me to get back in the game. I’ve never forgotten that.”
McMillon frames mistakes as learning opportunities and emphasizes lifting others up after failure. This mirrors psychological safety research (Edmondson, 1999) and Weick’s theory of sensemaking (Weick, 1995): organizations thrive when leaders treat errors as opportunities for growth.
5. Serve Boldly in Crisis and Prioritize the Long-Term
“During Katrina, Lee Scott said: do everything you can to help. Don’t worry about the cost. We’ll figure it out later.” Whether during Hurricane Katrina, the COVID-19 pandemic, or wage investments in 2015, McMillon highlights empowering teams to act decisively. This aligns with Transformational Leadership theory (Bass, 1985), where leaders articulate a vision and inspire others to transcend immediate concerns for the long-term good.
Several students and faculty have also shared thoughtful reflections on Doug McMillon’s recent fireside chat with our MBA students:
… and likely others. I’m sure I missed some. Each of these were insightful.
A final note: terms like Transformational Leadership, Servant Leadership, Authentic Leadership can sometimes feel like buzzwords. Yet they provide a shared language for communicating complex ideas with clarity and specificity. Having precise terms allows us to connect practice with theory and to teach, research, and apply these principles more effectively.
Another final note: I have really enjoyed teaching with Adam. He scores highly on the Big 5 (except for neuroticism) and likes rocket ships 🚀. Seriously, he is a blast to work with and does an exceptional job. It is so much fun to work with someone with passion for what we are doing. He should be a good teammate given that he wrote the book on it!
References:
Avolio, Bruce J., and William L. Gardner. "Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership." The leadership quarterly 16.3 (2005): 315-338.
Bass, Bernard M. "Leadership: Good, better, best." Organizational dynamics 13.3 (1985): 26-40.
Edmondson, Amy. "Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams." Administrative science quarterly 44.2 (1999): 350-383.
Greenleaf, Robert K. "What is servant leadership." New York, NY and Mahwah (1970).
Bradley Kirkman and Adam Stoverink, Ph.D.. "Unbreakable: Building and Leading Resilient Teams." Stanford University Press, 2023.
Kotter, John. "P.(1990). What leaders really do." Harvard Business Review 68.3: 103-111.
Weick, Karl E., and Karl E. Weick. Sensemaking in organizations. Vol. 3. No. 10.1002. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications, 1995.
