A Conversation with Kathy Thomas, President of Half Price Books
What does great leadership look like? My conversation with Kathy explores her leadership philosophy, values, and approach to accomplishing great things by doing right by your people. This post—full video interview included at the end—unfolds her leadership journey and the insights she has so generously shared to set other leaders up for success, exemplifying what great leadership looks like.
As someone who loves the book and music industry, Kathy Thomas, President of Half Price Books, has been with the company for over 30 years.
Based out of Dallas, Texas, and having 125 stores in 19 states with almost 3,000 employees, Kathy says communication is key to having everyone moving in the same direction. Half Price Books works hard to keep the bridge between field and corporate as small as possible whether it be through an app for the field to submit bright ideas or in-person receptions for store managers to ask questions and share their suggestions.
They strive to communicate more, easier and better to their employees and their customers. “How you communicate with your customers, how you email them, what you say to them, how we do it with our employees, I think that communication is key. It’s all key for leadership.”
For Kathy, communication is about respecting your people through listening, being genuine in your communication, and explaining the why. Noting that the more people understand the why, the more they feel part of the decision-making process, or at least understand it, leading to more acceptance of decisions that are made.
“Sometimes our words need to give a little bit more explanation.”
Kathy believes that if you love what you do, and if you do right by your people, you can accomplish great things, that morale is what keeps everyone going, and is what allows challenges to be overcome.
“Being a good leader is listening, knowing your people, asking about them, and really caring.”
She views leadership as taking action, understanding how to communicate with different personalities, and coordinating outcomes. She acknowledges that leadership is hard, but that you keep going and keep growing. “Being a leader is hard,” says Kathy, “You just keep doing it, and you keep growing.”
Kathy believes that leadership is something that evolves over time, that as the size and financial commitments of projects increase and the number of people reporting to you increases, so does your ownership.
When reflecting on the transition from being part of a team to managing a team she says, “I had to take more ownership of everyone else’s work, and their attitude, or the way they handled a situation.”
She recalled that every time she took on more people, more responsibility, more projects, she gave a bigger piece of herself and, in doing so, continued to get better, looking for opportunities to take something to the next level, to make something bigger and better, or to save the company money.
Leadership is hard.
Keep going, keep growing.
She recalls certain leaders who were quite tough on her early on, who she still has lunch with to this day, and that she grew from these experiences because she didn’t want to let them down. “I grew because I didn’t want to disappoint them.”
Her dad, a surgeon with high expectations of himself and everyone else around him, was an early influence in her life for being so driven. She says she’s very much like him and that it’s both good and bad, that she herself probably drove certain people too hard.
She shared that it was the leadership at Half Price Books that helped give balance to herself. A work-life balance she didn’t realize how much she needed. “They nurtured me personally, and they supported me personally.” Adding, “So that actually, in a weird sort of way, was very impactful for me.”
“They nurtured me personally, and they supported me personally.”
Kathy always knew she wanted to excel professionally but didn’t realize how much hard work it would be as a working mom. Kathy shared that she and her husband have three fabulous children, and that the hardest thing was questioning if she was doing a good job as a mom, and that if she could talk to her younger self she would tell herself that her kids were going to be okay.
That yes, they will learn to read. Yes, they will pass their spelling test. Yes, they can get into college. Yes, they can be successful and happy and find a good life partner. “I know I did a good job professionally, because you get feedback, you get feedback every year, saying, yes, you’re doing it, or else you’re quoted in the newspaper doing a horrible job at something.” But she wishes she had known her kids would be okay. To that, she adds for working parents, “The kids are okay, they’re okay, and you’ll do a good job.”
“I wish I knew that my kids were going to be okay.”
Kathy values a strong work ethic, intelligence, thoughtfulness, and compassion. “If you’re not compassionate, then people that work for you won’t be.” She also values being organized, “People want to know you have a plan. They want to know you have goals.” She believes it’s important to have open lines of communication, giving people security about what’s going on in the company, setting goals and setting expectations.
Kathy emphasizes that when it comes to setting goals, it’s something everyone needs to do together and that this is critical for a leader because there are so many outside issues that affect goals. “Goals have to be made together, because you need to have really good information.” Working together on goals allows people to be part of the discussion, which is critical for buy-in. “They want to know that you’re thinking about them, and they’re part of the communication, and they’re part of the solution.”
She challenges leaders to slow down, that sometimes there’s this expectation that everything has to be done immediately, that you have to react immediately, instead she says, “Take five minutes, or ten, or twenty, re-read your email before you send it, and just take a breath.”
Throughout her years, she thought if she didn’t respond right away, then others would think she’s not working, that she didn’t get it. Instead, she suggests being thoughtful in your response, taking the time to get your thoughts together, to make a decision, and then respond, rather than sending messages during your kid’s soccer game, or while in another meeting and then your message not coming through the way you intended because you responded in haste.
Take the time to get your thoughts together.
She says as a good leader, you have to watch yourself sometimes because it’s easy to get wrapped up in the work and jump in immediately. That taking five minutes to get caught up with everybody doesn’t stop the work from getting done or being ready. To remember that not everyone will have your personality or your temperament, and that this is something to pay attention to. That remaining calm really is a better way to be.
Kathy believes it’s the leader’s job to help employees feel good about what they contribute to the company. Rather than putting the worries and pressures of a leader on their teams, make sure your teams know what the expectations are, keeping them focused on their responsibilities to help the company grow, to help save money, to help make the hard decisions. To manage their budgets, improve what needs to get better, and lead their teams.
Great leaders create focus not worry.
Kathy’s advice for newer leaders is to be present and learn everything you can, and to establish both personal and professional goals. When you have teams that report to you, she says to be conscious of their lives, of personal boundaries. Establish expectations with each other and sit down and really understand how you can help them be a better employee. And to remember that the people who work for you, they need to know that they’re doing a good job.
“The people that work for you, they need to know that they’re doing a good job.”
She reminds leaders to let their employees enjoy why they came to work for you, and for the company in the first place, that ultimately, people stay for people. That the happier your employees are, the more they’ll produce, the more money you will make and save, and the better off the company will be.
“People stay for people.”