Category: Leadership

Five Simple Steps to Achieving Clarity as a Team

Accountability requires clarity in tasks.

1. Identify a platform for recording all action items (e.g. dry erase board, a Google doc, etc).

2. Create a column in that platform called “What,” where you list out every action item that needs to be executed.

3. Create a “Who” column where you show who is responsible for each action item.

4. Determine “When” each task must be completed by.

5. Create a recurring follow-up schedule.

Four Steps to Setting Goals to Keep Your Business Focused

1. Set a “thematic” goal (e.g. for a quarter, for each month, processes, systems, etc). Work it out with your team so everyone has buy-in.

2. Set 4-6 action items in order for the entire team to realize the thematic goal.

3. Set your ongoing objectives (e.g. revenue, team development, operational goals for a quarter, year, etc.)

4. Have a check-in mechanism, such as a weekly scoreboard so everyone knows how well the team is advancing towards the thematic goal.

Five Secrets to Successful Leadership for Small Business

1. Lead by example.

2. Get in the trenches…share the struggle!

3. Do the the things that you say you’ll do, and that you have committed to doing.

4. Make each person that you talk to on your team feel like they are the most important person in the room.

5. Have a good attitude, and view the events that occur as opportunities for growth.

How to Lead Better

Mark Sanborn shares how managers and business leaders can improve their leadership skills to drive better results, boost sales or profits, and truly inspire teams. Learn a few tips for developing MVPs, your most valuable and profitable activities– it’s easier than you think!

“The height of arrogance is believing your product, service, or your idea is so good it doesn’t need to be sold.”

“Selling is helping people make a decision that is good for them….and if you believe that what you offer is good for the buyer, you owe it to them to sell it well.”

“…or you run the risk of letting your customer go elsewhere for an inferior … product or service.”

Four Ways to Elevate the Guest Experience

Here’s a short video of Mark Sanborn, at a speaking engagement for Buffalo Wildwings.  Interestingly, he speaks to “Four Ingredients of an Elevated Experience:”

1. The Guest Always Receives Value.  This means the Guest gets what they expect, even if their expectations aren’t right.

2. Surprise the Guest. If something was “as expected,” then its just “value.” However, if the Guest receives service or product that was not expected (in a pleasant way), then the guest is pleasantly surprised (and they will tell stories about your organization).

3. Your Job as a GM, Franchisee, or Manager is the Management of Guest Emotion.  The question is: “Did the Guest leave happier than when they came into your restaurant?” If they did, they’ll promote you (i.e. become a net promoter). THIS is the lifeblood of a brand…because Guests won’t simply tell bullet points about you, they’ll tell a (positive) story about you, and usually along the lines of “You MUST try this…” or “You MUST go there….”.

4. Guests Want to be Insiders! So know them. Know and use their names. Know and mention their “usuals.” Guests want credit for their loyalty!

Driving Customer (Guest) Experience Transformation

A short but informative video. Please note in particular, the “4 Customer (Guest) Experience Core Competencies.” They are described here as:

1. Purposeful Leadership: happens when leaders create a clear vision and act accordingly

2. Compelling Brand Values: having a strong sense of your brand’s values, which drives “who you are”

3. Employee Engagement: disengaged employees cannot create engaged customers (Guests); if you want employees to consistently deliver a great customer (Guest) experience, then they need to be valued, supported, and buy into your mission

4. Customer (Guest) Connectedness: in order to deliver on the needs of the customers (Guests), you must first understand those needs, Customer (Guest) Connectedness is about ensuring that all of your decisions are based on a deep understanding of what customers (Guests) are doing, thinking, and feeling. This takes a lot more than just using surveys

Customer Experience is not a veneer, but a reflection of the company’s culture and its operating processes (“Brilliant at the Basics!”)

If a company wants to build sustainable differentiation (from its competitors), then it will need to create a customer (Guest) centric organization.

Joe Folkman: The Extraordinary Leader

For those of you who may be familiar with our Introduction to Operational Excellence program, you will recognize the name of the author and the book. We use the concepts within this book as the basis of our instruction on leadership in IOE 102. In this brief presentation, Joe Folkman discusses strengths based leadership, and it is well worth the view.

A Look at How Chipotle Cultivates Its Future Leaders

Here’s an interesting look at how a leader in the QSR industry capitalizes on its organizational culture to grow, and select, future restauranteurs. If you doubt the value of organizational culture to the success of not just the organization, but its people, then take a look at how Chipotle uses it.

Leadership- Engage Your Team- Create a Culture of Engagement

People will forget what you say; they’ll forget what you do — but they’ll never forget how you made them feel. 

~ Carl Buechner

This is a nice short video on building engagement within your team by finding the Engagement Sweet Spot.

The Five Levels of Leadership

We recognize organizations with outstanding leadership and learning (or training) programs when we see them, and among the best in this field is Chick-fil-A. In this video, New York Times Best-Selling Author, Dr. John C. Maxwell, speaking at a Chick-fil-A leadercast, explains the Five Levels of Leadership.

Dr Maxwell presents valuable examples and raises a lot of points that could be immediately applied to many of the situations we face on a daily basis. Please share your thoughts on Dr Maxwell’s description of the Five Levels of Leadership, and how understanding them might be helpful to you and your crew(s).

The Marco’s University L&D Team