By: Jenn Troke and Kristen Card
The Premier Path to Leadership – or Why rent-to-own needs more transformative hedgehogs
Trooper Earle is a businessman – President & CEO of Virginia-based The Premier Companies, Inc. and Premier Rental-Purchase, Inc. Trooper Earle is a leader – a franchisor who has built up 42 locations in 15 states over the past 27 years.
And Trooper Earle is a hedgehog – metaphorically, anyway.
Stay with us here: The Hedgehog Concept was originally based on an ancient Greek parable, The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. In his 1953 essay, The Hedgehog and the Fox, philosopher Isaiah Berlin applied the parable to the modern business world, dividing people into two groups – foxes and hedgehogs, of course. Foxes pursue many interests and goals simultaneously, resulting in scattered, unfocused thinking and very little achievement. Hedgehogs, on the other hand, simplify the world into a single overarching vision, which they ultimately achieve.
Business researcher and consultant Jim Collins – author of 2001’s business bible Good to Great – developed this idea further, claiming that organizations are more likely to succeed when they can identify the one thing that they do best – their Hedgehog Concept.
“All good-to-great leaders, it turns out, are hedgehogs,” Collins wrote “They know how to simplify a complex world into a single, organizing idea – the kind of basic principle that unifies, organizes, and guides all decisions.”
According to Collins, organizations like Premier – hedgehog companies that understand what they’re best at, what they’re most passionate about, and what drives their economic engine – will be the most successful.
Becoming a hedgehog isn’t easy; years of experience, failures, and triumphs shape a leader like Trooper Earle. Earle began in the RTO industry in 1982 as a management trainee with ColorTyme. He ran a store for a year, then four stores, and as years passed, Earle continued to gain rent-to-own knowledge. As he learned and grew, so did his independence, responsibilities, and success; by 2008, he was running 80 locations with several brands under the Premier label, including Premier Rental-Purchase, Premier Wheel Rental, and Premier Home Furnishings. Just before the 2008 financial crisis hit, Premier was named the fifth fastest-growing franchise nationwide by Franchise Times magazine.
The next few years were financially parched, but Earle has worked hard to reinvest in the company in recent years – establishing franchise fees, writing policy manuals, and investing over $1 million to build a world-class training program and Development Center in Texas City, Texas. And his efforts are paying off, with more than half of all Premier stores experiencing their highest revenues ever – and still growing.
Earle’s empowering approach, known as transformational leadership, is shared and used by a mighty team of franchise owners and leaders within the Premier family. Introduced by researcher James McGregor Burns, transformational leadership is a theory in which a leader works with teams to identify needed organizational change beyond their immediate self-interests, then create a vision to guide and execute that change through teaching, training, influence, inspiration, and tandem work with committed team members.
“It’s a leadership style that empowers people to achieve positive change through big vision, inspiration, and a call to action,” Earle explains. “Leaders enable change by emotionally connecting with their audience and moving them to accomplish something greater than themselves.”
Earle and his leadership team embody the four defining concepts of transformational leadership:
1. Idealized Influence: They serve as role models and demonstrate established organizational values, so that personnel understand expectations. Leaders who connect with others through respect and trust can create such influence easily.
2. Inspiring Leadership: Transformational leaders passionately communicate an exciting vision of the future, inspiring people to action. They also encourage employees to keep pursuing the overall objective, no matter what challenges arise.
3. Intellectual Stimulation: Leaders always support workers’ learning, development, and growth. They firmly believe it’s their duty to help others become the best version of themselves.
4. Individualized Consideration: When transformational leaders act, they work one-on-one with individuals, expressing concern for the team member’s progress as a person. Leaders serve as a mentor or coach who is genuinely interested in every person in the group.
All good-to-great leaders, it turns out, are hedgehogs. They know how to simplify a complex world into a single, organizing idea – the kind of basic principle that unifies, organizes, and guides all decisions.
Idealized Influence
Again and again, Premier team members share the importance of trust and respect among their team, and how essential it is to surround yourself with good people who are passionate about what they do.
“‘Together, we succeed’ is a Premier core value,” says Human Resources Director Laura Emerson. “My ultimate goal is to be in a strong group that works toward common goals. We should all think of ourselves as leaders, and lead from wherever we are in the organization.”
“We share a deep understanding about building a business with people who think about the experience and not the money,” Angelo Gughiocello, a Premier franchisee, adds. “And we all feel that the little things matter with your employees and your customers.”
“My father taught me that you are who you hang out with,” agrees fellow Premier franchisee Mike Shuler. “You have to listen to good people and let them influence you.”
Other key themes among Premier leaders are showing rather than telling, and leading rather than managing. A transformational leader models the behavior they want to see in their team, working to spur members’ development, rather than doing it for them.
Trooper Earle says trust is built by bringing the quiet conversation at the back of the room to the front, bringing issues out in the open so that solutions can be identified as a team.
“I have deep respect for that approach, so I strive to be straightforward and honest,” Earle says. “I want to focus on finding solutions no one else has thought of.”
Premier leaders also work to influence others by staying humble, listening to their team members, understanding how quickly the world can change, not taking their success for granted, and embracing their differences with pride.
Inspiring Leadership
All of the Premier leaders we talked with told tales of difficult days as they rose through the ranks to the top of the organization.
“It was hard raising three kids on my own; they grew up in a rent-to-own store,” Gughiocello remembers. “My family understands fully the future I’m working to build for them.”
“I was a single parent, going through a divorce, a move, and financial issues,” recalls Shuler. “Balancing life as an RTO District Manager was a struggle. But it definitely helped me understand what other people are going through, so I can help them figure things out, and try to help them pull up their boots and get on with it.”
Such obstacles have only served to strengthen these leaders’ capabilities and to offer them the opportunity to continue to grow. They all agree keeping a growth mindset and accepting failure as part of success is crucial.
“There’s never just one way to do things – everyone is not the same,” Shuler says. “You can’t be boxed off and think your way is the only way. You have to be open to listening to other people. Good mentors should teach not only about what has gone well, but also about their errors, so others can learn from them and improve at a faster pace. We can’t be afraid to own our mistakes and to be honest with our people, so they know all of us are making mistakes.”
“Learning comes from taking action, so the only true solution is to act – just take fear out of your vocabulary,” counsels Emerson. “Don’t be afraid; just be you.”
Another common theme among Premier leaders is an openness to input and a willingness to accept suggestions. Gughiocello noted an occasion when he had a 7k-square-foot showroom and a meager 30 products out on the floor.
“A fellow rental dealer recommended I turn the living rooms at a diagonal to fill up the showroom,” he reminisces.
“He helped me buy displays, too, and the next week I sent him an email with photos of my newly arranged showroom. He was so happy I took his suggestion. I wasn’t afraid to accept his help, and I wasn’t afraid to change. I consider other dealers as part of my success – in purchasing, finance, and personally.”
Premier takes care of franchisees’ back-office work – like payroll, accounts payable, and other administrative tasks – providing them with the time and space to continue to learn, develop, and grow as owner/operators. Premier has never been a cookie-cutter franchisor – and never will be, according to Trooper Earle.
“Premier is more focused on being great RTO coaches, rather than typical franchisors,” confirms Earle. “I’m not afraid to go to someone from another rent-to-own operation and say, ‘Maybe try it this way.’ As a result, we’ve experienced a cross-pollination of RTO wisdom among a lot of fiercely independent folks in the industry.”
Intellectual Stimulation
Premier team leaders are equally committed to learning from each other.
“Learning never ends – if you’re not afraid to fail, then you’re OK with learning,” Trooper Earle says. “You’ve got to ask yourself the right questions: How can we draw more people to the website? How can we make the viewer’s experience better? How do we recruit and retain employees? Be curious – ask those questions and work on the answers to one of them every day.”
“For me, I’m always learning from the team,” attests Emerson. “I learn from their feedback, input, suggestions, and recommendations. It’s like, ‘Oh, I could have done this,’ or ‘I didn’t know that,’ or ‘I see it now – wow!’”
Premier franchisees are leaders who don’t walk in front of their people, but rather side-by-side with them.
“The role I play is as an equal member of the team,” Emerson continues. “My intent is to create the best connections I can – my members’ success is my success.”
“You build these relationships with people because you want to see them succeed,” says Shuler. “When someone leaves and launches their own business, when you witness that kind of growth and development of other people, then you feel proud. You’re proud to have been by their side and proud that they’re doing so, so well.”
“I’m currently searching for some really tech-savvy team members whom I can learn from and who can help advance our organization,” Gughiocello notes. “Everything is moving at the speed of light, and we have to keep up. We must find people who can teach us how the business will evolve into the future.”
“I love rent-to-own, and I’m good at it,” affirms Earle. “I’ve worked with a lot of entrepreneurs from various backgrounds, I understand the numbers, and I’ve faced the challenges of being an owner/operator. I enjoy the challenges of continuous improvement, and I love learning from people around me who aren’t ‘yes’ people, and who think differently than I do.”
“Most franchises discourage sharing notes, because you might mess up the company recipe,” he continues. “But at Premier, we bring our collective wisdom together and openly share ideas and solutions, and we don’t care where they come from because we’re all working on the recipe together.”
Individualized Consideration
As with all successful hedgehogs, Trooper Earle’s leadership centers around quality time spent one-on-one with his team members.
“Over the past few years, Premier has changed dramatically because of two things we made happen,” reveals Earle. “We opened up our Development Center in Texas City, and we bought a corporate house close to it; the two together offer an immersive experience for visitors, so they can deeply focus on what they’re working toward. We have full days of training at the Center, then at the house, we give them a chance to reflect and discuss all that information in a more casual, relaxed environment.
“Facilitating and witnessing the growth and transformation of our franchisees is absolutely magical,” he concludes. “At Premier’s Development Center, we talk to the head, and at the company house, we talk from the heart. That combination at this destination is really something special. You can give folks information and data points all day long, but you have to provide them with the opportunity to process and internalize all that in order to see true transformation – because true transformation comes from the heart.”
The heart of a hedgehog.
What’s in My Leadership Toolkit?
- The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard, PhD, and Spencer Johnson, MD
- RTO World Educational Sessions
- Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
- A Corporate House of Your Own
- Strictly Business: Body Language by Jan Latiolais-Hargrave
- A Motivational Guru
- The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
Are You a Transformational Leader?
Currently, only about 35% of employees say that working at their organization always or almost always inspires them to give their best effort. Transformational leaders possess the following attributes –how many do you have?
- Do you have integrity?
Transformational leaders are open, honest, and consistent. They are leadership role models. - Are you concerned for others?
Transformational leaders show genuine concern for their team members. They listen, and they encourage. They help everyone through periods of change. - How do you influence stakeholders?
Transformational leaders are sensitive to the needs and aspirations of stakeholders. They also have good political skills and engage stakeholders to create a platform for change. - Do you lead with vision?
Transformational leaders have imagination, and they know how to turn ideas into vision. They also encourage others to fashion the vision and make it reality. - Do you make yourself available?
Transformational leaders make themselves available to their team. They are approachable, accessible, and sensitive to others. They listen with presence. - Can you make effective decisions?
Transformational leaders are decisive. They are confident, resilient, and determined to get the right results. - Do you inspire strategic thinking?
Transformational leaders encourage critical and strategic thinking. They accept ambiguity and uncertainty, and still press on to make change happen. - Are you versatile?
Transformational leaders understand the issues and the goal, and will take the uncharted route when needed to make change happen. - Can you manage change with skill?
Transformational leaders manage business change with sensitivity and skill. They get to the heart of change and know how to make it happen. - Do you take risks?
Transformational leaders take risks. They show entrepreneurial flare, and they understand making mistakes is part of being human and how we learn. Every mistake gets us closer to making change happen.
Quiz courtesy of thelazyleader.com.
