After 15 years as CEO of Apple, Tim Cook announced in an open letter that he is stepping away from his role at the end of this year to become executive chairman.
In the letter, he also shared the first thing he does every morning—and it’s a habit that all leaders can lean into.
“For the past 15 years I’ve started just about every morning the same way,” Cook wrote in the letter. “I open my email and I read notes I received the day before from Apple’s users all over the world.”
“You share little pieces of your lives with me and tell me things you want me to know about how Apple has touched you,” Cook continued. “About the moment your mom was saved by her Apple Watch. About the perfect selfie you captured at the summit of a mountain that seemed impossible to climb. You thank me for the ways Mac has changed what you can do at work and sometimes give me a hard time because something you care about isn’t working like it should.”
Experts have said that great leaders build trust through active listening, showing genuine care and using empathy to connect with others. Studies also show that employee engagement drives performance outcomes, but those aren’t just important approaches to take with employees. It should extend to customers, too: Last year, a Zurich Insurance Group report that surveyed more than 11,000 people across 11 countries found that three in five consumers only engage with companies that display genuine care.
Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs was also known for reading and responding to customer emails. Leaders of major companies like Bank of America, Toyota, WhatsApp, J. Crew and others have also been known to respond directly to emails from patrons—whether it’s about coupon-related issues or requests for new emojis.
While it’s not a novel concept to engage with customers via email, it does seem to be a unifying habit among leaders with long tenures. Costco’s CEO Ron Vachris also reads his emails and responds to the majority, he recently told Business Insider.
Rumors that Cook would step down from his role started circulating last year, with many criticizing the CEO for being an “ops guy” instead of a “product guy.” Whatever the people may say, it’s no secret that Cook had a wildly successful run at Apple. It was under his leadership that the company’s value grew from around $300 billion to $4 trillion today.
John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, will take over Cook’s role. In the open letter, Cook described Ternus as “a brilliant engineer and thinker who has spent the past 25 years building the Apple products our users love so much.”
Time will tell if he follows his predecessors’ emailing habits.