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You think you know Patagonia, the apparel brand beloved by crunchy hikers and finance bros alike. But the company is more than half a century old, and it has taken many unconventional turns to become an icon of sustainable business. [Cover Image: Simon & Schuster] A new book digs into this history, offering lots of untold moments about the company that even die-hard Patagonia fans may not know. In Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away, author David Gelles provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Patagonia was built. Through in-depth interviews with Chouinard, we learn about the many conflicting pressures the Patagonia founder faced as he tried to create an apparel brand that does more good than harm in the world. Here are three surprising things that happened along that journey. Patagonia Once Partnered with the Pentagon In the 1970s, the U.S. military was one of Patagonia’s biggest fans. It began with climbing gear. Chouinard, an avid rock climber, first came up with the idea of starting his company because he wanted to make better climbing gear. He couldn’t find metal spikes that he liked for wall climbing, or ice axes for ice climbing, so he developed them himself. When the military got wind of these functional climbing tools, they began buying them for soldiers who would need to scale walls during military missions. In the decades that followed, Patagonia introduced innovative new fabrics that were moisture wicking and thermoregulating. By the 1980s, the military was buying off-the-shelf Patagonia base layers and fleeces for enlisted personnel working in cold climates. “The [A]rmy’s 3rd Infantry Division was soon handing out full kits of Patagonia off-the-shelf long underwear and dark blue pile suits to its long-range surveillance teams to ward off the cold,” Gelles writes. Then, Patagonia was enlisted to create a custom cold-weather layering system for soldiers. Today a close partnership between Patagonia and the U.S. military seems odd: Patagonia is associated with hippies and environmentalists, and yet the gear was being used to train soldiers for combat. And indeed, over the years, the brand’s antiwar employees and fans often criticized Patagonia for this collaboration. But Chouinard wasn’t bothered by the complaints, Gelles says, partly because he was a veteran of the Korean War and understood how hard life was for soldiers. In the end, Chouinard argued that Patagonia wasn’t making weapons or ammunition. “Bras don’t kill people,” Chouinard told Gelles. “People kill people.” Patgonia and Walmart Were Once Unlikely Bedfellows In 2005, Walmart invited Chouinard to speak to its top executives at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Rob Walton, Walmart’s then CEO, had been connected with a sustainability expert who had worked closely with Patagonia, and he was intrigued by how Walmart could potentially be a force for good. Chouinard, in turn, was intrigued by the invitation: He believed that if he could convince a company of Walmart’s scale to improve its practices, this could create enormous impact. Chouinard and his wife, Malinda, traveled to Arkansas from their home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on a private jet sent by Walmart. In the book, Gelles paints a picture of what happened when Chouinard took the stage wearing a ratty wool jacket with leather elbow patches. He didnt mince words. He accused Walmart of not using its influence for good. In a striking example, Chouinard pulled out an enormous pair of jeans, designed for a morbidly obese person, with billows of fabric. According to Gelles, Chouinard said, “I have to hand it to you. How do you sell something like this for $8.99? The fabric alone must cost that much!” Despite the confrontational nature of Chouinards talk, Walmart executives were eager to learn more. So they started making regular visits to Patagonia HQ to learn what they could. The two companies collaborated to create the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to develop a common set of standards called the Higg Index for fashion brands to sign on to. But after the index launched, the partnership petered out. Chouinard believed Walmart execs were willing to do a few easy things to improve the companys supply chain, but not what was required to actually clean up the entirety of that supply chain. Patagonia accidentally sickened its Boston store employees In the late 1980s, Patagonia opened a store in Boston. But after a few days in operation, Gelles writes, workers began complaining of headachesand the symptoms didn’t go away. So Patagonia brought in an expert to see what was going on. The determination was that the companys new clothes were covered in formaldehyde. As workers unboxed the merchandise, they were breathing in toxic fumes. (Formaldehyde is a carcinogen.) The expert recommended a better HVAC system as a solution. Instead, Chouinard wanted to rid his product of toxic chemical treatments. Over a long process aimed at getting rid of toxins that harm both people and the planet throughout the supply chain, Patagonia eventually landed on cotton farms that often use large amounts of pesticides. Cancer rates in regions where cotton is grown were 10 times higher than normal. So Chouinard asked his team to explore sourcing organic cotton. By the mid-1990s, Patagonia was among the first apparel brands to use organic cotton. By the time Walmart’s executives partnered with Patagonia in the early 2000s, they too became interested in organic cotton, and began placing large orders with farmers. Some Patagonia employees worried that the relationship would harm the formers business, since organic cotton was part of what differentiated Patagonia from Walmart and other competitors. But over time, Patagonia grew into its leadership role in the apparel industry and realized that when other brands followed its lead, it was a win for all.
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E-Commerce
Fawning is a survival mechanism that develops in response to traumaa fourth response alongside the better-known fight, flight, and freeze reactions. Psychotherapist Pete Walker defines fawning as “a response to a threat by becoming more appealing to the threat.” When we fawn, we mirror others’ desires, suppress our own needs, and prioritize external validation to maintain safety. This isn’t simply people-pleasing or codependencyit’s a physiological trauma response that develops when fight or flight aren’t viable options. Recognizing the signs: are you fawning at work? For some fawners, it’s hard to identify their fawning because they’re just “meeting expectations” and in that context, fawning looks an awful lot like success. We pursue these paths, in part, because success is safety. It’s a shield. It brings us titles and money and all the things. At least that’s what we are told and sold. Working at a law firm is the perfect environment for a compulsive fawner. Administrative assistants fawn over lawyers. Associates fawn over partners. Partners fawn over clients. It’s a very clear hierarchy, and self-abandonment is expected. The more hours you bill, the more the firm makes. So, while my client Anthony was at the top of his game, he was also just like the rest of us, at the mercy of the culture he was inavoiding conflict to gain financial security and access to a secure life. Anthony was referred to me when his 20-year-old son went to rehab. On paper, Anthony was impressive: Harvard grad, law school, partner in a global powerhouse firmdetails that could’ve intimidated me. But I’ve never felt intimidated by Anthony. He is one of the most loving and loyal fathers Ive ever encountered as a therapist or otherwise. But also, Anthony is a fawner, and fawners want to be liked. With his black tee and salt-and-pepper beard, he logs onto every Zoom session with a cheerful smile that evokes one of my own. Early in our sessions, Anthony remarked, “I think I’m trying to win therapy.” We both laughed before he continued, “It’s like I’m implementing insights from our work so you can tell me all the progress I’m making. It’s all about the pat on the head.” How your family dynamics followed you to work While Anthony’s parents never told him to go to an Ivy League school or to become a lawyer, he always felt he needed to do those things. In a way, it was their lack of interesthe never got approval for anythingthat led to his endless quest for validation. As the stakes of achievement kept getting higher, he thought, how can my parents deny me approval now? And yet, they did. Any time I brought up his parents, he would defend them. Anytime he started to speak about how they hurt him, he would backpedal. “I can’t speak badly about my parents. I’m making them sound like monsters.” He stuck with the party line he had learned over the years: “We are a close and happy family.” But then, a couple of years into our work together, Anthony received a voicemail that altered his life. He was in a period of real transformation, beginning to advocate for himself in personal and professional relationships, setting boundaries, and leaning into new interests. He was trying to communicate differently with his parents, expressing apprehension about an upcoming family wedding. It would be the first time his son would be exposed to both extended family and that much drinking since his time in rehab. So, he made himself vulnerable, telling his parents his concerns about his son and how they both might react to this potentially stressful event. His parent’s reaction to his son’s addiction recovery had always been, “He’s all better by now, right?” Their avoidance made Anthony’s skin crawl. But he dug in, trying to be in real relationship, giving them the benefit of the doubt. “I know you guys are really excited about the wedding, and I am too for a lot of reasons, but I’m also nervous . . .” It soon became clear that they didn’t want to talk about his genuine concerns, so Anthony just got off the phone. Two hours later, he saw his mom calling back and he let it go to voicemail. When he listened to the message, his stomach dropped. It was a mistaken dial. His parents had accidentally recorded a two-minute, vicious snippet of their private conversation about Anthony and left it as a message on his phone. “Does he think he has to protect his son forever? He just needs to suck it up and get in line for this wedding! And how do we even believe him in this fight with his sister-in-law, when he’s always exaggerated everything?” Unfawning and breaking the cycle As Anthony shared what happened, I saw his devastation. “Deep down, I knew all of this was true,” he said to me. “But maybe I needed to hear it. Now I know I wasn’t making it all up.” After that day, Anthony made a conscious choice to stop living for his parents’ approval. He saw that he couldn’t fawn enough to ever get it. This was all deeply painful, but ultimately freeing. Grief unlocked necessary anger about how long he’d lived his life with a diminished sense of self. And that anger led to change. I call that behavior change “unfawning”and it’s a powerful, healing step in our recovery journey. When we learn to unfawn, we learn to detach from our old ways of people-pleasing and tune in to the self we had to abandon long ago. Anthony’s parents didn’t change. Knowing they’d never take personal responsibility; he never confronted them. The culture at his firm didn’t change, and he didn’t have to retire early or find a new career. His son was living his own life, in a new relationship, starting to find his own way. Anthony was doing the same, changing the way he showed up in every area of his life. One way he took back his power: He started to lean into the “weird stuff” his family had made fun of, but that he had always been drawn to. Battling a lifetime of messaging, this is not what a man does, he spent a week at a men’s wellness retreat. While some guys swapped the more vulnerable activities for golf and networking, Anthony immersed himself in all the taboos he’d avoided out of ridicule for 50 years. Anthony’s life is a testament to what happens when we stop fawning. Something finally turned. He dropped the script he’d been reading forever, and in letting it go, he found a life that feels unique, creative, and expansive. Unfawning is a kind of growing up. Especially for those who relied on this safety strategy since childhood, we inadvertently stayed small and childlike and we didn’t know it. We were stuck in time. Unfawning means getting reacquainted with the self we tucked awayto discover who we truly are. Adapted from Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves and How to Find Our Way Back by Dr. Ingrid Clayton, published by Putnam, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
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E-Commerce
When Stephen, the SVP of sales at a SaaS company, sat down with his top-performing manager, he expected a routine check-in. Instead, Todd admitted that he felt disengaged and unsupported. With 13 direct reports and responsibility for major clients, Stephen saw firsthand how disengagement at the manager level could cascade into risks for client retention, team morale, and overall performance. This isnt an isolated case. Motivation is slipping at a historic pace. Gallup reports global engagement dropped to 21% in 2024, just the second decline in over a decade, draining $438 billion in lost productivity. This time, managers themselves are at the center of the decline. They drive 70% of team engagement, yet they are being squeezed harder than everexpected to deliver more with less while navigating AI training, role replacement, reorganizations, leaner teams, multigenerational friction, and relentless productivity pressure. The result is burnout, resignations, or hanging-on managers, those who cant quit in a tough job market but are already mentally checked out. At the same time, expectations are rising. Deloittes 2025 Global Human Capital Trends found that 36% of managers lack confidence in their people management skills, even as employees increasingly expect personalized support tailored to their needs. Others experience quiet cracking, where they stay in a role but emotionally withdraw, leading to a disengagement that spreads quickly across organizations. Traditional motivational levers are no longer enough. We have seen it firsthand. Kathryn, as an executive coach and keynote speaker, and Jenny, as an executive adviser and learning & development expert, bring frontline insights from coaching senior leaders and building systems that scale. The five strategies that follow demonstrate how leaders can reignite manager motivation, enabling companies to stay focused and compete at the pace of change. 1. Create the Conditions for WinningStarting with Managers Motivation collapses when people feel set up to fail. Managers are often overloaded with unclear priorities, competing demands, and insufficient resources. To reignite engagement, leaders must remove barriers and clarify what winning looks like. Gallup research highlights three levers with outsized impact: Invest in manager training and development. Equip managers with coaching skills. Redefine managerial roles with clear expectations and adequate support. When leaders invest in these conditions, they address managers most immediate concerns. The implicit message is that managers are valued enough to be adequately equipped for impact, not just held accountable for outcomes. Tools like the Organizational Mattering Scale and Organizational Mattering Map (introduced by Positive Psychology experts) make these linkages visible. The Scale measures whether employees feel their work contributes to recognition and meaningful achievement. The Map highlights connections between individual tasks, team collaboration, organizational values, and company outcomes. When leaders spotlight these connections, managers see their impact more clearly, strengthening engagement and fostering a culture where employees feel both effective and valued. 2. Fuel Effort with Personalized Meaning Motivation isnt one-size-fits-all. Employees want personalized support, and so do managers. Leaders can spark motivation by connecting daily work not only to the companys mission but also to a managers individual values. Thats exactly what Stephen did with Todd. He codified the conditions that would restore Todds confidence: a larger travel budget to strengthen client relationships, continued presence at key industry trade shows, resources for pilot projects, flexibility after heavy travel weeks, and a dedicated training budget for his team to upskill in AI and leadership. He also reframed Todds role around his core value of client impactsharing customer feedback that credited Todds leadership with strengthening their business. That simple shift helped Todd reconnect to why the work mattered and reignited his energy. Conditions for winning go beyond resources and clarity; managers also need growth opportunities, advancement pathways, and visible signals that the company values their long-term potential. Across the companies we advise, leaders who codify a consistent set of Essential Engagement Conditionsclarity, recognition, development, autonomy, fairness, and well-beingsee stronger performance at scale. Meaning fuels persistence. When impact feels tangible, managers push forward not because they have to, but because they want to. 3. Reinforce Progress Through Recognition Nothing drains motivation faster than feeling invisible. If meaning connects managers to why their work matters, recognition ensures their contributions dont go unnoticed. Its not only about celebrating big wins, but also about making progress visible. Research on the progress principle shows that small wins fuel motivation and creativity, while the absence of visible progress accelerates disengagement. The risk of quiet cracking increases when managers feel their efforts go unseen. Thats why recognition should extend beyond outcomes to include effort, growth, and problem-solving under pressure. And it shouldnt come only from senior leaders. Peer forums, cross-functional huddles, and manager roundtables where colleagues acknowledge each others wins reduce isolation and normalize the challenges of leadership. For Stephen, that meant recognizing Todd not just for results, but for the steady progresspiloting new approaches, building his teams skills, and strengthening client relationships. By valuing effort and learning as much as outcomes, Stephen reinforced that what mattered was progress, not perfection. Recognition is one of the lowest-cost, highest-return levers leaders have. Use it generously, consistently, and strategically. 4. Empower Autonomy and TrustWihout Slipping into Micromanagement Few things demotivate faster than being micromanaged. Autonomy is central to motivation yet return-to-office mandates and monitoring tools like AI dashboards tempt leaders to over-control, sending a signal of distrust that corrodes engagement. Managers thrive when theyre trusted to exercise judgment. At a fintech firm we advised, the COO shifted from detailed weekly reports to a principle-based system: clear outcomes with freedom to decide the how. Productivity rose, and morale followed. This approach taps two motivational drivers. Self-efficacy, the belief in ones own ability to succeed, grows when managers are trusted to make decisions and learn from experience. Value-expectancy theory shows people are most motivated when they believe their effort leads to valued outcomes. Setting clear goals while allowing flexibility reinforces both confidence and commitment. Trust itself is a motivator. When leaders empower autonomy, they signal confidence in managers abilities, and managers rise to meet that expectation. 5. Support Well-Being and Resilience Motivation and well-being are inseparable. Gallup finds that managers report the highest rates of burnout, and when they burn out, their direct reports are 62% more likely to do the same. Stress and exhaustion dont just drain energy; they accelerate quiet cracking and leave organizations vulnerable to turnover and lost capacity. Leaders must go beyond surface-level wellness perks. The World Economic Forum highlights resilience and mental health as core leadership capabilities, not add-ons. Real support means modeling boundaries, encouraging recovery, and equipping managers with tools to sustain energy. One global bank we coach instituted no-meeting Fridays for its management layer, creating protected space for reflection, deep work, or recovery. The move signaled that well-being wasnt optional; it was part of performance. Resilient managers dont just sustain themselves; they set the tone for resilient teams. When leaders prioritize well-being, they preserve individual and organizational capacity. Stephens quick action with Todd underscored this point: when managers feel supported, they stay motivated and so do their teams. Because managers are the single biggest driver of employee engagement, their energy is a force multiplier and the foundation of performance. Motivated managers are the difference between organizations that struggle and those that thrive. Invest in them, and you invest in your companys future.
Category:
E-Commerce
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