Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.

Sam Walton (1918–1992), founder of Walmart and Sam’s Club, repeatedly emphasized morale and respect for “associates” as central to Walmart’s culture. The quotation is commonly attributed to Walton in the context of his management philosophy: leaders should actively build employees’ confidence because motivated, self-assured workers perform better and innovate more. It aligns with Walton’s broader insistence on praise, recognition, and sharing credit—practices he presented as practical tools for driving performance in a fast-growing retail organization rather than as abstract ideals. The line circulates widely in leadership literature as a distillation of Walton’s people-first approach to operational excellence.

The quote frames leadership as an enabling role: the leader’s job is not merely to direct tasks but to cultivate the psychological conditions—especially self-belief—that make high performance possible. “Go out of their way” implies intentional, sustained effort, suggesting that confidence-building is not incidental but a core leadership practice. Walton links self-esteem to agency: when people believe they can succeed, they take initiative, persist through setbacks, and exceed baseline expectations. The underlying claim is pragmatic: recognition and respect are not soft extras; they are levers that unlock capability and productivity across an organization.