Yankee Candle Scandal

In 1969, a sixteen year old student named Michael Kittredge made a candle out of melted crayons, a piece of string, and an empty milk carton to give to his mother as a gift on Christmas day. A neighbor loved the candle so much that she convinced Michael to sell her the candle. When Michael sold the candle, he had enough money to purchase additional supplies to make two more candles, and the rest was history. Today, Yankee Candle is the largest candle manufacturer in the world. The company produces over 200 million candles per year. They have annual revenue of an estimated $730 million dollars. There are approximately 550 Yankee Candle stores around the world, employing over 6,400 employees. When the show aired on CBS television, the company
The show introduced Harlan as a leader who comes from a privileged family, a perfectionist, one who is very driven, high-powered, and sets high goals for himself and the company. This undercover boss experience will shed some light at the other end of the candle for Mr. Kent because he will get to explore life as a Yankee Candle employee. This episode takes place at four company locations (i.e., three Yankee Candle stores and the company’s manufacturing plant in Massachusetts). At each location, Harlan is assigned to work closely with an employee to perform certain job tasks. At the end of the show, Harlan meets with each employee to reveal his true identity, discuss observed behaviors (i.e., positive and negative behaviors), performance, and any other issues and or concerns that could impact customer satisfaction or ruin the company
58).
 “The measure of a leader is not the number of people who serve him, but the number of people he serves. Generosity requires putting others first” (p. 62).
2. Investing in Trust / Empathy
Although each employee’s situation was different, Harlan was concerned and very empathetic. He took time to listen and if you watched the show you could tell that he genuinely cared.
• In the book titled “The Leadership Challenge” Kouzes and Posner(2012) points out the following:
 “The concern you show for others is one of the clearest and most unambiguous signals of your trust” (p. 223).
3. Coaching/Mentoring
Instead of Harlan firing Blaze on the spot for inappropriate behavior, he offered to be a remodel and provide coaching/mentoring to Blaze.
• In the book titled “The Leadership Challenge” Kouzes and Posner(2012) points out the following:
 “No one ever got to be the best at anything without the constructive feedback, probing questions, and active teaching of respected coaches” (p.