“It was a terrible goal,” he said now. “We call them ‘looking-good goals.’ Looking-good goals are goals that are created out of ego.”

But Lululemon encourages employees to embrace failure, and Mr. Ogle did. “I learned something even with my looking-good goal,” he said. “It’s that I love leadership, and as I grow and develop as a human being, it comes back to a conversation of legacy: What is every moment of my life creating and generating that will lead me to where I see myself in years?”

Now Mr. Ogle’s goals include having “completed an education in leadership/neuroscience” by 2018 and becoming “an influencer in the realm of masculine leadership” by 2024.

Mr. Stump, meanwhile, said the company has helped stretch the contours of his masculine leadership, previously honed as a student at Choate Rosemary Hall and with jobs at Nike and Seventh Generation. “I’ve learned that what can appear to be really irrational thought can be beautifully rational,” he said. “I’ve learned that creating a culture of trust creates beautiful magic in abundance.”

He admitted that when he took the job with Lululemon less than a year ago, he was skeptical. The company’s reputation had been battered along with the stock price, and Mr. Stump was prepared for gloom.

“I thought for sure I was going to walk in and it was going to be a morgue,” he said. “And I walked in and it was like walking into Oz. I thought, ‘Do these people not know that Rome is burning?’ But everyone here seemed so vibrant and happy and positive.”