How Sharing Good News Changes Everything, with James Timpson

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1:49It's something my dad started because he sold the shoe shops in 1987 and then he had this shoe repair business. and I joined him in 94. And it was just a load of bad news. And he was just getting pretty down because it was just more bad news after the other. So he did these little notepads just saying, John, here's some good news. And just sent it to every shop saying, at least I can get some good news. And it all started coming in, which I've had a record week or my daughter's passed a driving test or I'm getting married or whatever. And that formed the basis of the newsletter. So we just need some good news.

2:17So that's why the newsletter is just good news. Welcome to the Essential Habits of High Performance, where we explore the daily practices, the mindsets and the teachable moments that shape extraordinary lives and leaders. I'm Damien Hughes. I've worked as a visiting professor of organisational behaviour. I've been a trusted advisor to dozens of elite leaders who are looking to create high performing cultures where people can thrive. and I've immersed myself in this world for the last 25 years because, above all, I'm someone who just loves exploring how high performance works. Today, we head into the high street, but this isn't just a story about business.

3:01It's about kindness, leadership and the remarkable power of good news in a world which is often dominated by headlines of crisis and conflict. Our guest today has built an empire on something a little bit different, positivity, community and second chances. This is the story of James Timpson, a leader who runs one of the UK's most unique companies and who's built a performance culture with a deceptively simple habit, sharing the good news. I'll be exploring this in detail before we take a look at some of the other key moments from our conversation with him on high performance. As always, there are links in the show notes to the studies and the research I reference.

3:49James Timpson runs the Timpson Group, famous for key cutting, shoe repairs and dry cleaning. But the business is really in people. What makes the Timpson Group extraordinary isn't what they do, it's how they do it. Under James' leadership, Timpson has embraced something called upside-down management. which is exactly what it sounds like. Rather than decisions coming from the top down, James empowers his frontline colleagues, in other words, the people in the shops, to make the calls that matter. In this clip now, listen out for the only two rules that he instills within his business. It amazes me how many organisations try and control everybody and have loads of rules in place.

4:35And I can see how it starts off, but it's all for a good reason because something goes wrong. So when something goes wrong, you've got to have a guideline to stop it going wrong again. But then a guideline becomes a rule. And then there's rules and rules and rules and rules. And then you have an organization where people just turn up. And just as long as you follow the rules, you get paid and you can go home. We have two rules. First one is you put the money in the till, which is an essential part of retail. And the other is you look the part, which is the common sense things, which is you look smart, you open up the shop on time, You're nice to people.

5:10You don't smoke in the shop. You don't eat in the shop. And you don't have your friends hanging around in the shop all day. Apart from that, do whatever you like. Literally, whatever you like. Give things away for free. Order whatever stock you want. Do deals. Do promotions. I don't care. I trust you to run the shop. Let's just go back and listen to those rules again. First one is you put the money in the till, which is an essential part of retail. And the other is you look the part. But listen to the important underlying message, which goes unsaid. he trusts them. When you trust people, they want to conform.

5:44If you give lots of people rules, they want to rebel. So what we do is we're very, very clear on our two golden rules. So if you break our two golden rules, we're not happy. We come down pretty hard, but the rest, you go for it. And what we find is that creates a huge amount of loyalty because people are trusted and people feel that they are running, quite rightly, their own business because they can be innovative and they can do what they like. And here's where it gets really powerful. James is also a champion of second chances. Around 10 % of Timpson's workforce are ex-offenders. He believes that where you've been doesn't have to define where you're going.

6:25I have lots of colleagues who have been through the care system, have been through the prison system, have had lots of different challenges in life and the job with us is the first time they feel successful. And to me, that's the privilege of being a boss, of seeing these people when they join you. They are reserved. They can't look you in the eye. They are probably on the sixth job of the year so far. And you see them a year later and they're a manager and they're proudly wearing all their badges that they've managed to get. And the sales figures are good and the shop looks good. And they are confident.

6:59This belief has built a company culture rooted in dignity, trust and hope. But here's the heart of it. When people feel trusted, they act with ownership. When they're micromanaged, they tend to rebel. Trust isn't a soft skill. It's actually a performance driver. When James joined the family business, internal updates were all bad news. Falling numbers, missed targets, complaints. and it was demoralizing. But perhaps the idea we can all adopt in our own lives is the simplest and most powerful habit which James learned from his dad, John, who sent a note to every store that simply said, tell me some good news.

7:42So it's something my dad started because he sold the shoe shops in 1987 and then he had this shoe repair business. I joined him in 94 and it was just a load of bad news and he was just getting pretty down because it was just more bad news after the other. So he did these little notepads just saying, John, here's some good news. And just sent it to every shop saying, at least I can get some good news. And it all started coming in, which is, I've had a record week, or my daughter's passed a driving test, or I'm getting married, or whatever. And that formed the basis of the newsletter, saying we just need some good news.

8:11So that's why the newsletter is just good news. And just like that, people started sharing. Not just sales wins, but big moments in their lives. My daughter passed the driving test. I'm getting married. We've just had a record week. That habit grew into a weekly good news newsletter. No spin, no fluff, just real positive moments. Now you may be wondering, why does this matter? Well, it's because science tells us that sharing good news isn't just feel good, it's a psychological strategy. Research shows that sharing good news creates stronger teams, deeper trust, and even makes people more generous and optimistic in their own outlook and behaviour.

8:55And here's the thing, it works. Despite recessions, retail decline and economic uncertainty, Timpsons has grown to over 2 ,000 stores across the UK, with profits in the tens of millions. It's one of the most resilient and respected businesses on the high street. They've even expanded into new areas like photo printing and locksmith services, all while holding fast to their values. James Timpson has proved that kindness is a business strategy and that when you treat people well, they tend to pass it on. Your number one thought process isn't what can I get? It seems to be what can I give? Yeah, so let me give you an example.

9:38In our shops, in the Timpson shops, we reckon about 4 % of all of our transactions we do for free. So you may think, commercially, that's stupid. You know, you could be getting money in for doing all these things. But actually, I actually think it's the most profitable thing we do. because you always remember when someone's giving you something for free, because no one really does. I mean, I think Pret are brilliant at it, giving free cups of tea and coffee away. I mean, they are, I think they're on like 5%, 10 % sometimes, because it creates loyalty. And I agree with you, if you give a lot, you end up getting.

10:08So next time you're walking down your high street and you see a Timpson shop, remember, behind that key cutting machine is a culture quietly transforming lives and delivering exceptional results. That honesty and positivity filters through every corner of the company From the top floor to the shop floor And it starts with a habit James inherited from his dad Of sending out notepads to every shop with a simple message Send some good news we can share This tradition has endured for over 30 years within the company Not as a gimmick, but as a deeply intentional habit It's become a cornerstone of the culture Scientifically, sharing good news doesn't just feel good, it does good.

10:54In a study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, researchers found that discussing positive experiences, not just having them, but talking about them, can significantly boost your wellbeing. Let me just re-emphasise that point again. When something good happens, it's not just the event that matters, it's what you do with it afterwards. The researchers found that when people shared their good news with other people, they experienced higher overall well-being, greater life satisfaction and even more energy. That's right. Talking about a win could actually give you more fuel in the tank.

11:36Now that might seem a little counterintuitive. We're often told to stay humble and not to brag or blow our own trumpet, to just get on with it. But this isn't about showing off. It's about reliving the good moment And allowing someone else to celebrate it with you Psychologists call this capitalisation The act of telling someone about a positive event To enhance the benefits of it Think of it like a joy with an echo And that effect increases when the listener responds With what psychologists call an active, constructive response There's a moment that happens all the time And most of us never even really think about it in any depth Someone comes along and shares some good news with you.

12:17They got the job or the kid passed the driving test or they finished the 5K for the first time. And in that moment, you have a choice in how to respond. You can say, wow, that's amazing, tell me more. Or you can nod along politely. That's nice. Or worse, you can downplay it. Oh yeah, we'll see how long that lasts then. Or you can change the subject completely. Oh, that's good. Did you see that email from finance, by the way? Now, here's the thing. How you respond matters more than you might think. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, psychologists call this moment a capitalisation attempt. It's when someone is trying to capitalise on something good that's happened by sharing it with someone else.

13:04And how you respond either deepens that joy or it flattens it. So let's explore this in a bit more detail. The psychologist Shelley Gable along with her colleague Jean Gonzaga and Ashley Strachman wrote a fascinating paper published in 2004 called Will You Be There For Me When Things Go Right? Supportive Responses to Positive Event Disclosures The psychologist ran a series of studies at the University of California Their goal? It was to understand how romantic partners respond to each other's good news and how those reactions subsequently affect the relationship. They identified four distinct response styles.

13:50The first one is, as we've discussed, active-constructive. This is where you're excited, engaged and curious. You might say things like, That's incredible news. How did it happen? I'm so proud of you. The second is, you might be passive-constructive. This is where you're supportive but a little bit muted. Oh, that's really nice, might be a common response. The third style is you can be actively destructive. This is where you become doubtful or dismissive. When you hear somebody's news and you go, oh, that sounds a bit risky, are you sure that's really a good idea? And the fourth response is you can be passive destructive.

14:30This is where you're distracted and just generally disinterested. Oh, cool, anyway, I've got to go and make a phone call. The results? Well, only one of those responses consistently strengthened the relationship As you probably guessed, it's the active constructive one Couples who frequently responded in this way reported they had higher relationship satisfaction stronger emotional intimacy and more trust with their partner But here's where the study gets even more interesting In a follow-up study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, participants were asked to describe to a complete stranger one of the best things that had happened to them in the last few years.

15:15Now, as you might have guessed, the stranger was actually an actor working with the researchers. The actor was trained to respond in one of those four styles we've just discussed. Sometimes they were excited and asked follow-up questions, other times they were distracted or dismissive. afterwards the researchers didn't just measure how the participants felt about their story they also measured how they felt about themselves and about the other person when the actor responded actively and constructively the participants said they felt happier they felt closer to the other person they felt more understood and incredibly they felt more generous because in a subtle twist at the end of the study, participants were given a dollar for their time, but in a deliberate mistake, they were actually handed two dollars.

16:10Those who'd received the enthusiastic response were much more likely to return the extra dollar. So what does all this tell us? Well, the essence is that how we receive good news can shape everything from mood and memory to generosity and trust. In other words, responding well to good news is actually a high-performance superpower. It doesn't just make someone's day, it builds psychological safety, emotional connection and even better behaviour. So here's the teachable habit. The next time someone shares something positive with you, even if it seems small and incidental to you, show up, ask them questions, match their energy, celebrate with them if necessary.

16:56because how we handle the good times is just as important as how we support each other when times are tough. This is the culture James Timpson has nurtured, one where good news is noticed, is shared and is celebrated. And the ripple effect, it shows up everywhere. Timpson stores offer free suit cleaning to people going to do job interviews. They hire hundreds of former prisoners every year, believing in second chances, not permanent punishment. They live by their tagline, quality service by quality people. And you don't get quality people by treating them like numbers on a spreadsheet. James told us that he sometimes gets accused of being overly positive, of running something a little cult-like.

17:46But maybe in a world that's often cynical and transactional, a workplace that leads with such kindness, positivity and trust just feels unfamiliar to the rest of us and maybe that's exactly why it works So what can we learn from James Timpson's simple but powerful habit of gathering and sharing the good news? It's easy to overlook, isn't it? A newsletter, a few kind words, a moment of recognition but under his leadership this small consistent habit has helped shape one of the most distinctive and admired workplace cultures in the whole of the UK. And it's not just a feel-good initiative. It's a deliberate, high-performance strategy.

18:30Because when people feel valued, trusted and connected, they tend to show up differently. They work better, they lead better and they live better. And it all starts with that simple decision to look for what's going well and share it with others. So here are three simple ideas you might choose to take away and try this week. Whether you're leading a company, managing a team, or just trying to be a better colleague or friend to someone. So the first idea is, maybe start a weekly good news ritual. This is James Simpson's big move. When he took over the company newsletter that had become a dumping ground for complaints and bad news, he just flipped it.

19:09He sent notepads to every store asking, what's come well this week? Not just sales figures, but life moments. I've had a record week, or my daughter's passed a driving test, or I'm getting married, or whatever. Small stories with a big impact. You can do the same. It doesn't have to be a newsletter. It could be a Slack channel, a Friday email, or a moment in your team meeting. The format doesn't really matter. What does matter is the ritual, where you build a rhythm of celebration that reminds people that they matter and that their wins are worth sharing. And as the science shows, this stuff works.

19:47As we've heard, studies show that discussing positive experiences leads to greater wellbeing, more energy and higher life satisfaction. It's not just the experience, it's the sharing of it that lights us up. Another idea, practice active constructive listening. As we've seen, it's not about just sharing good news, it's about how we respond to it. Just to remind you that psychologists found that people respond to good news in one of four ways. They can be active-constructive, passive-constructive, active-destructive, or passive-destructive. It's consistently the first type that active-constructive response is which are the most powerful.

20:29They not only make people feel closer and more understood, but they actually change other people's behaviour. So the next time someone shares something good with you, just take a breath. Lean in and ask questions. Be happy with them. because your reaction can literally build trust and energy in real time. The third idea is be honest about the bad, but always lead with the good. Here's something that James Simpson said that stuck with me. This isn't toxic positivity. This is hopeful realism. You're not ignoring problems. You're just choosing not to be defined by them. You're in a culture that says, we're human, we make mistakes, because we don't always get there, but we'll keep moving.

21:15And that mindset doesn't just help morale, it sharpens performance. Because optimism and realism aren't enemies, they're partners. And when you get them working together, your people and the results they can achieve tend to go further. The key point is this, in the end, performance isn't just about profits or productivity. It's always about people. People thrive when they feel seen, heard and hopeful So take a page from James Timpson's book And share the good news Celebrate your wins And then listen to others like it matters Because it does Now after the break I'll highlight the other moments That stuck with me from our chat with James And I'll explain why they might stick with you too Will, our brilliant producer since day one of High Performance Is going to join me to unpack why this episode still resonates.

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24:02Now, actually this was a guest that I was familiar with. And everyone knows Timpsons, and I think you see one going down most high streets. But it left a huge impression on me, just seeing what he was like, his hospitality he gave us, and an insight into how he runs his business. That was reflected when we got there on the day. Oh, wasn't it? I mean, since we've been doing this podcast, I think it's the first time that it's ever taken me two or three minutes to walk up somebody's driveway. and we've been to a few houses where that walk has been required. And this was definitely a house where James welcomed us into, but it actually feels like a de-service scholar house, doesn't it?

24:43It was his estate. It was an estate. A house does not do this justice. I just distinctly remember, like, a lake in his back garden. He had three gardeners working that day, didn't he? So, I mean, it gives you an idea of how opulent it was. but I'd been lucky enough to meet James about 20 years earlier and we'd done some work together. And I remember in the very first meeting I had with him, he described himself to me as a lucky sperm, which I always thought was a brilliant description because it just captured the humour of him, the humility of him, but also the idea that he wasn't getting high on his own supply.

25:21So I dropped him a line because I know how impressive he is and I know that he's a man of real integrity that what he says is exactly matched in his business. People talk about him in exactly the same way. So to me, he's the epitome of a high-performance leader, which is why I was really keen to get him on and shine a light. And I love the fact that years later, people still echo some of the lessons that he shared with us on the podcast and how they've used it in their own life. In fact, there's been a couple of guests that actually wrote to him on the back of it and then spent some time with him.

25:56And definitely after sitting in James's company for, you know, half an hour, an hour, the guy in front of us was the real guy. And you really got a sense that there's no falseness to this person. All that, what some people might see as quite goody-goody, he really meant it. Yeah, definitely. I'll tell you a nice little story about him. A mate of mine runs a catering business called Bob. he grew up near James's workplace in Withenshaw just outside of Manchester and when he started his catering business you know he was doing his best and then Covid hit and so he started doing sort of like private catering events when things came back online and I dropped James a line and told him about Bob, explained a little bit about his background and James invited and gave him a contract to go and do just a small event first of all where he could come and do the catering for his business, James went over to him, made a made time to chat with him, understand a bit about his story, his business.

26:54And he's ended up sort of being one of the main suppliers for Timpsons events. Now, James didn't have to do that. Do you know what I mean? He's a CEO of a successful business. But the fact that he was willing to lean in, explore a little bit about somebody that was doing the best to make a success of their own small business and then lend a helping hand. This guy is genuinely the real deal. You just reminded me of a story, actually. a friend of mine who I know from back home listened to the podcast got in contact with James via I think social media asking for some business advice and he replied to him directly and asked and he had a phone call with him and he spoke on the phone for like an hour and a half just because of what he heard and he reached out to him and he promised to help him which I thought is that is really rare yeah you know there's so many stories like that that I'm I'm sure there's people listening to it that have got their own equivalent stories of leaders or people they've met in their lives that what they say is matched by what they do.

27:56And then think about how they speak about them with such respect. They speak about them with such trust and such fondness, which is exactly what we've covered about in the episode in the first half there around why kindness isn't a cynical move. It's just part of their strategy, but it's no coincidence they've been incredibly successful. and that leads us to go and explore a couple of other insights that James offered us that I want to share I like the one where again he captures his sense of humility by talking about mistakes he makes I feel I probably make more mistakes than most people do but it's it's about being positive and being on the front foot and being honest about when things go wrong but the main message has got to be positive out of those mistakes that you have made then what would you say has been the one that's given you the greatest learning that you still implement today at Timpsons?

28:49It's normally around people it's normally around over promoting people and I always think you know if if I was promoted every year at some point I'd come unstuck we all probably would we'd all get to a point where it's just out of our comfort zone our skills aren't there and I'm really guilty of over promoting some people and I also think it's often easy to promote people who agree with you rather than promote people who challenge you so i've learned over the years i'm much better developing people who will challenge and and and sometimes are pretty difficult because they're the ones that really help me drive the business home isn't over promoting people though until you reach a point where they start to struggle the right thing to do because otherwise the alternative is not over promoting them and not not finding where the limit is for them yeah you're right but when you do over promote someone it's not their fault that they've gone into a position where it's all going wrong it's your fault that you've over promoted them so you've got to help them come back to the position where they were successful that's very delicate how you do that because you're denting someone's pride and it's it needs to be handled really carefully That was a really great clip.

30:06It really showed how, you know, optimism, honesty can really work together and how he's a really distinct leader. What's the next clip you want to talk about, Damo? Well, again, it's a real privilege on this podcast that we almost get into the inner sanctum and James takes us into his board meetings where he talks about when his team comes together. What are the kind of topics they do discuss? So we do our main board meeting, which is we do it six times a year. And my dad always does like a four or five page sort of an essay really about his thoughts. So we have a chat sort of a couple of weeks before he does it about what are the things that are important and what are the things we need to probably need to be working on.

30:47And that's what we talk about. So that's probably like an hour and a half. And then we have like 15 minutes on finance. And then there'll be probably half an hour on just where we're up to on a deal or where we're up to on sorting a problem out. And that's it. So the actual conversation about money is quite a small part of the board meeting. Yeah. I mean, we always run the business conservatively. So we don't need the conversation to be about money. So we always have money in the bank. We don't like debt. and we don't pay out big dividends or crazy bonuses and stuff, like to have money in the business.

31:20So that's not a priority. So you can then talk about the things that are interesting. And I'm not actually financially driven, which probably helps, I don't know. But I think it's more interesting to talk about culture, values, direction of travel. For example, we were talking at the board meeting about technology and how, where are we on technology? we're never going to be an Amazon. We're never going to be a business that has hundreds of coders and all this sort of stuff. But we also don't want to be a business that doesn't embrace technology at all. So we're talking about whereabouts do we pitch it?

31:56And where should we be investing? And how do we invest? What do we do in-house? So I much prefer doing things in-house than contracting out. I just think it works better in our culture when we do things in-house. So we're talking about that. So that's sort of how we talk about things. rather than money. It was fascinating how little they spoke about what you imagine most board meetings would be dominated by, which is kind of profit, money. It goes back to this idea of you're talking about culture, values, the future of the business. You know, remember, this is a guy that has like holiday homes where his staff can go and stay there free of charge for a week when they need a bit of respite.

32:37This is a company that gives people their birthdays off. this is a company that does do things like dry cleaning suits for people that have been unemployed for a while you know it's all about people and if you get that right look at the results that follow it's one of the great sort of puzzles of life that when you hear leaders talk about people who are most important assets and then when results sometimes take a bit of a dip What's the first cost-cutting measure they make? The most important asset. You know, so what they're actually saying is people are our most important asset as long as we're making enough money and our profits are in turn.

33:15But if they're not, they'll also become the most expendable ones. Let's listen to James talk about the happy index. The way we just sort of describe in our business, no one ever leaves us. They just find the happiness elsewhere because they won't be happy within our culture because we don't think they're right for us. They may well be right for someone else, but they're not right for us. And coming back to this point I said before about it's a moral obligation to make sure you only work alongside amazing people. So it's the leader's job to make sure that those who aren't good enough have an opportunity to improve or they go.

33:46But the way we do that is through kindness. So we have bizarrely lots of colleagues who thank us for the way they left because we've helped them leave, we've helped them retrain, we've given them lots of guidance and stuff, but we're honest. And we say, I'm afraid your best isn't good enough for us. and I'm okay with that. You know, I want to run an amazing business and I want to have amazing people and to do that, you've got to be selective. How many staff do you have? We have four and a half thousand. This is what I can't quite get my head around yet. Four and a half thousand staff and it feels to me like at the core of what you do is kindness, right?

34:22Is looking after your staff and empowering your staff. Almost everyone will think to run a business that size, that successfully, you need to be ruthless And you're proving the absolute opposite of that in this conversation. But we're pretty tough when we need to be. Right. But we do it with kindness. And we do it with a lot of training behind the scenes. So our area managers and our teams know how to do it. An area manager for us is like the key role in the business. They basically look after 80 to 100 colleagues, and they run 40 to 50 shops, and they have a little team around them. But they are the key role.

34:59and every year we have a thing called a happy index which is a colleague satisfaction survey and lots of businesses you probably have them in various things hundreds of questions how do you feel about this how do you feel about that all this sort of stuff and we just have one question which is on a scale of one to ten how happy are you with your area manager or your leader and that is the only way we judge how the area manager performs each year i'm not really interested in how much profit their shops make i'm not interested in their sales i'm not interested in their margins or anything like that, I'm interested in the happy index because it's their job to be the best boss their colleagues have ever had.

35:36And I mean, we have, last year, we had nine area managers score over 95%, which is pretty good. And they're tough. These aren't men and women who are pushovers. They are direct and kind, but they know that the motivation for them is they have to perform in the happy index. And to do that, we need to give them all the tools to be kind. That was definitely the clip that stood out for me the most out of all the ones from that podcast now. I remember it was a moment where he's how his staff were reviewed and it was simply by a happy index and a number which feels completely alien to most of the environments I think that I had been in until recently.

36:17It is the opposite of that. So why did it stand out so much for you then? I think it's just such a simple way to rate someone which feels which I think most people's disregard and they don't concentrate on I think you're normally it's all about you know work you've done profit you've made or not or the standard of that it's not really based on how you made people feel it's really made on what you've done whereas he puts all his emphasis on that because he knows that that in turn will make you good at your job, it felt like. And it was kind of revolutionary to hear. Yeah, it reminds me of, I remember I heard Professor Steve Peters once, I was doing some work with him, and he had this great simple line where he said, happy people win.

37:04And what he meant was, if you're happy in what you're doing, you stay behind, you do the extras, you sort of invest in your craft, you want to hang around with people that can help you. Happy people tend to win. and I think sometimes it can sound a bit of a trite word in organisations that prize profits and turnover and success on spreadsheets when actually thinking about creating environments where people are happy is often a really good indicator that success will undoubtedly follow. Yeah, I think you're totally right and I know that personally I've definitely had reviews and bosses where they, niceness and kindness, it's almost like for you to be a leader, for you to do well, you can't be nice and kind.

37:51That's not the way it works. You have to, you know, lay down the law, be, you know, a little bit cruel, be ruthless. And I'm not saying that James didn't or Timpsons have that, but it almost felt like people exited the company in the right way as much as came into the company. Yeah, definitely. And hopefully, if you're listening to this and you've experienced cultures where happiness isn't always given the priority that James does, you can share it with them. Share this episode and hopefully you can start to change the conversation in your own environment. So if you've enjoyed today's essential habits of high performance, share it, literally.

38:31Do pass it on to someone who could use a little bit of good news today. And remember, the best way to create a positive culture is to live it every day. one conversation at a time. Thanks for joining me, and I'll see you next time.

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