The Surprising Way Nike CEO John Donahoe Starts His Day

Early in his career, Nike President and CEO John Donahoe heard a speaker at a Bain & Company training program make an observation that immediately clicked with him: Elite athletes tend to view getting help as a sign of strength. “He was talking about [how] Michael Jordan didn’t only have Phil Jackson as his bench coach, but he had a personal chef; he had a psychological coach,” says Donahoe, 61. “And he said, ‘You people in business, you act like getting help is a sign of weakness. You act like you have all the answers. If you want to perform at a world-class level, you’ve got to feel comfortable consuming help.’ ” In the decades since, Donahoe has worked with multiple leadership coaches; seen his therapist, Jill Mellick, for 30 years; and established his own board of personal directors—trusted friends he turns to for advice.

Donahoe, who was born in Evanston, Illinois, is both a father of four with his wife, Eileen, and a four-time CEO, having led Bain & Company, eBay and the digital workflow company ServiceNow. In January 2020, after having been on Nike’s board of directors since 2014, he moved to Oregon when he became the company’s fourth chief executive, following co-founder Phil Knight, William Perez and Mark Parker.

Since taking Nike’s top job, Donahoe has had his work cut out for him. Before he became CEO, there had been negative reports in the media on Nike’s treatment of female employees and female athlete partners. Donahoe has set a target of filling 45 percent of roles at the vice president level and higher with women by 2025. He also aims to have 30 percent representation of racial and ethnic minorities at the director level and above in Nike’s U.S. workforce. He had planned to go on a 100-day global “listening tour” that, due to the pandemic, he had to complete virtually. This past week, Nike closed its corporate offices around the world to give employees time off to rest and recharge.

“In many ways, Nike’s viewed as a real leader in advocating for diversity externally,” he says. “We want to make sure we’re also a leader internally.”

What time do you usually wake up on Mondays?

I’m a creature of habit. I wake up at 5:45 every weekday morning. The first thing I do is drink 33 ounces (approx. 1-litre) of water and two cups of coffee, and then I stretch using the Hyperice Hypervolt [a massage recovery device]. I meditate for 10 minutes and then I have a Nike personal trainer—his name’s JC Cook. I work out from 7 to 8, four mornings a week with him.

What day do you take off?

That varies. I have learned a lot from a guy we have at Nike, Ryan Flaherty, who is an elite trainer and has looked at the data about what elite athletes do. And he talks about the five facets of sport, which are movement, sleep, nutrition, mindset and recovery, recovery being really important. So we just kind of gauge how my body’s feeling any given week, or sometimes I have early meetings—that tends to dictate it too.

How many hours of sleep do you get per night?

I’ve accepted that I need sleep. Earlier in my career, I told myself I don’t really need that much sleep. And the reality is sleep’s really important. And so I target getting seven-plus hours a night. Sometimes that’s unrealistic, so I target getting 70 hours every 10 days.

What do you eat for breakfast to start the week off right?

I have a protein shake, and then once I get to the office I’ll have a Chobani yogurt and a banana.

Is there a time of day or the week that you’re most creative?

The morning would be my best time. There are some mornings where I’ll stay home for the first couple of hours with no meetings, either to reflect or to collect my thoughts or if I have to write something. On a Monday morning, you have to have a plan for the week, so usually on Sunday, I’ll sit down and look at my week and try to just for a few moments reflect on what are the most important things I want to get done for the week. I’ve learned over my career to be more conscious of where are the moments I’m going to prepare for things, and schedule those in, legitimize those things—including the times I want to be creative.

When you’re reflecting, what does that look like for you?

I took a year off, a sabbatical so to speak, in 2015, and I did a 10-day silent Buddhist retreat up at Spirit Rock [a meditation centre in Woodacre, California] with [author and Buddhist practitioner] Jack Kornfield. Jack’s been a wonderful spiritual counsellor and adviser. What I’ve been doing a lot lately is gratitude practice. What we know from brain sciences and Buddhism teachings is you can, in fact, train your brain. Your brain becomes more negative over time because negative experiences stick in our brains. So you can counteract that by being more conscious of things you’re appreciative of, of the good things in your life. And so I just think, What am I grateful for in the broad sense of my life? What am I grateful for in the previous day? What am I looking forward to that I’m going to enjoy in the coming day? It’s a good exercise. For so many years, I was very diligent about physical working out. But what I’ve learned in my sort of later years, the last five to 10, is the importance of what you might call a workout of the mind. It’s that notion of mindfulness, and it needs the same kind of discipline and focus that the physical side needs.

What changes have you made as Nike CEO so far?

Digital is infusing every element of our consumers’ lives. So whether it’s a Nike Training Club, Nike Run Club, our activity apps or the SNKRS app or the Nike mobile app, consumers have led us to that and we’ve tried to make sure we’re right there with them in all aspects of their lives.

Do you have a guiding philosophy?

I’m an advocate of servant leadership. When I understand that everything I’m doing is in service to a purpose, in service to others, I have a wellspring of motivation and inspiration even through periods of adversity. Just staying connected with this notion of, we’re on earth to serve others. My leadership role models have always been head coaches—you think about Phil Jackson, Coach K [Mike Krzyzewski], John Thompson, Tara [VanDerveer], who just won the NCAA [women’s basketball] championship—they’re leaders that lead from almost behind, serving their players, serving their programs, serving a broader cause. The power of service has been a recurring lesson throughout my life, my career.

What lessons did you learn about running a company during the pandemic?

I think change and uncertainty are the new normal…so just accepting and then dealing with continuous change and uncertainty. Second, the importance of being really clear on your values, because you need a rudder. At Nike, early on in the pandemic, we reflected on our values, and that’s what drove our decision to provide pay continuity to all of our store athletes [retail employees]. Even in the months when all of our stores were closed, it was a no-brainer for us. It was an investment of [around] $500 million, but it was absolutely the right thing to do. The third thing is the importance of communication and transparency. While leading a Zoom life is taxing in many ways, what Zoom has been able to do is, I’m in front of 25,000 people once a month on Zoom. And then the last thing it’s reinforced for me as a leader is the power of authenticity and vulnerability, because I don’t have the answers many times, whether it’s around the pandemic or racial and social injustice issues or geopolitical issues. But I think there’s a real power and a real need to just show up and be authentic, be vulnerable and be present.

How does Nike think about appealing to a Gen Z audience?

We talk about our consumer muse being the young person who’s 16 to 24 years old. This generation, they want their individuality. They want to be understood and respected for who they are, and that can vary across race, gender, point of view, background. They don’t want to be labelled, and yet they also want to be part of a community. They want diversity, equity and inclusiveness; they want that to be their world. It’s such an interesting time to both try to understand the unique qualities of each individual but have that not be divisive, have that be community building…. I come away with a great deal of hope when we listen to Gen Z because they’re stepping up in ways where they’ll be responsible leaders of this world in the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

5 Monday Must-Haves

Hyperice Hypervolt

“Every morning, I stretch using the Hyperice for 20 minutes.”

Insight Timer

“I have an app on my phone…even commuting into work, I’ll just do gratitude practice, which in this moment in time is a really helpful and useful thing.”

Nike Space Hippie Shoes

“The Space Hippie takes trash (literally!) and transforms it into a great shoe with a unique aesthetic.”

Vitamins

“A multivitamin, vitamin B, vitamin D or curcumin…. I almost don’t even know what’s in the handful of things I take; I’m willing to try anything.”

HO

“A Monday morning, it’s not that different than many others: Start with 33 ounces of water.”

The idea of wallpaper elicits so much apprehension in homeowners, New York designer Francis Toumbakaris purposely uses the term “wallcovering” when speaking to clients about it. Yet decorating websites and media accounts teem with instances of the stuff. “It transforms a room and gives it personality,” said Casey Keasler, founder of design studio Casework, in Portland, Ore.

So what keeps folks from hanging the gorgeous material, and how do homeowners get over these wallpaper willies? Here, some case studies of conversions.

Hangup: It’s too pricey.

Budget concerns can hamstring homeowners. Home-services company Angi estimates that wallpaper can cost as much as $12 a square foot for labor and materials, while painting tops out at $6. “If the wall surface needs work beforehand, prices go up,” said Bethany Adams, an interior designer in Louisville, Ky. And Keasler notes that paper can cost as much as $400 a roll.

Antidote: Baby steps

New York designer Tara McCauley says homeowners can get more hang for their buck by using paper strategically. In an apartment in Brooklyn whose homeowners sweated the bottom line, she coated only the hallway with a dark-blue pattern inspired by Portuguese tiles. “It added so much impact,” McCauley said of the modest use. The designer adds that another way to save money is by hanging what she calls the gateway drug to wallpaper: patternless grass cloth. With no need to align a motif, the material goes up quickly and costs less to install, she says, “but it adds visual depth in a way plain paint never could.”

Hangup: I’ll get sick of it

A fear of commitment stops many would-be wall paperers, who worry about having a change of heart later. Erik Perez, a design publicist with his own firm in Los Angeles, campaigned hard for what he thought was the perfect old-Hollywood look for his and his husband’s dining room—a maximalist, leafy green wallpaper made famous by the mid-20th-century decoration of the Beverly Hills Hotel. His husband, Paul Hardoin, a voice-over actor, resisted. “Is it going to go out of style? Will I tire of it? Will it affect resale value?” he worried.

Erik Perez, right, and his husband, Paul Hardoin, in their Los Angeles dining room, clad in CW Stockwell’s Martinique paper. Photo: Julie Goldstone for WSJ

Antidote: Low-use spaces

Infrequently used rooms can carry a bold choice long-term. Of the Brooklyn hallway she wrapped in blue, McCauley noted, “It’s a pass-through, so you don’t get overwhelmed by a bold pattern.” Ditto powder and dining rooms, like that of Perez, who said, “We only used that room when we were entertaining and it was too cold to be outside.”

It took three years, but Hardoin caved when the banana-leaf pattern became available in blue. “I thought it looked cool,” Hardoin said. He took the leap, knowing his sister Annette Moran (a wallpaper enthusiast) would be their DIY installer. “Now it’s the happiest room in the house,” he said.

Hangup: It’s dated

When Sarah and Nate Simon bought a historic home in Louisville, Ky., the walls sported oppressively dark patterns, including big, repeating medallions set in a grid. Sarah recalls thinking, “ ‘Not this! What’s the opposite of this?’ In my mind that would be paint.” Even for folks who haven’t pulled down awful examples, “the word ‘wallpaper’ can take them back to flowery patterns of the ’50s and ’60s that feel very dated,” said Toumbakaris.

Antidote: Modernity

“Wallpaper does not mean what it used to. It can be meandering, abstract, ombre or sisal,” said Simon’s interior designer, Bethany Adams. She suggested a sophisticated Chinoiserie that New York designer Miles Redd, in a collaboration with Schumacher, updated with an aqua colorway. Adams explains that like most Chinoiseries, this pattern doesn’t repeat for more than 8 feet. “You get a peripatetic design that keeps the eye engaged,” she said. “It’s looser.” Said Simon of her dining room today, “It’s a complete transformation, like art on my walls.”

Stereotypes of fusty florals and pitiless patterns fall away when designers present homeowners with contemporary picks. Still, sometimes the conversion takes time. One of Keasler’s clients, gun-shy after removing old paper, came back a year later, ready. “We chose a clean classic style that was graphic and minimal for a modern edge in the bathroom,” said the designer.