"Everything I've done in my career has been new to me," Kendra Scott CEO Tom Nolan tells Fortune's COO Summit.
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00:00Everything I've done in my career has been new to me.
00:03I mean, I was the first person in my family to graduate from high school.
00:05So going to college was new.
00:07When I got into the publishing industry, that was new.
00:10Then going into the apparel industry was new.
00:11The jewelry industry was new.
00:14I ask a lot of questions.
00:15I'm a curious person, I think.
00:17And I don't act like I know everything going into each room.
00:20And I think that that was really important, going in and leading by example,
00:25setting the mark, walking the talk, asking people questions,
00:29then doing what we said.
00:30I mean, it's kind of very simple principles.
00:32I think too often, people are climbing a ladder, and they just want to get to the
00:35top, and if a CEO rolls at the top of it, they get to the top,
00:38and they don't know what to do.
00:40And I think that's okay, you know, being honest with not knowing what to do.
00:44I think CEOs come from all different walks.
00:47You know, some come through the COO pipeline, others come through marketing,
00:51others come through sales.
00:52At the end of the day, you're the head coach.
00:54I look at myself as the head coach of our team, and I want to make sure that we win.
00:58And in order to win, we have to make sure that everybody has exact,
01:01aligned principles and knows where we're going and what the outcome is going to be.
01:04And then we hold people accountable, and we celebrate success.
01:07I mean, to me, it's a pretty easy principle.
01:10And we've had, as a result, you know, 40 months in a row of double-digit growth
01:14in the business, you know, leading through...
01:16The last four years has not been easy, so I'm proud of it.
01:20And I don't think it has anything necessarily to do with me.
01:22I think it's because we put a great team around us, and we've shined a light on
01:26great people, and we allow them to be great, and, you know,
01:28we celebrate the successes together.