White Towel Test

D.O. David Ottman. He was one of my first bosses. I can still picture him standing in the
doorway to the front counter, leaning against the doorframe with a clipboard in hand. He was
meticulous. At least by 17 year old standards.

His expectations were very clear. From the time you arrived till the time you clocked out. The
image of a white towel is what always comes to mind when I think of D.O.

At closing time, we each had our areas just like today. At the end of the night, we had to have
D.O. inspect our area before clocking out.

I had dining room one particular night, which included bathrooms. David’s rule was that if he
could wipe a white towel over an area and see anything, you had to do the entire area all over
again. You probably can guess where this is going. I had to do both bathrooms over again that
evening. Thankfully, he didn’t make me redo the dining room as well. I have no memory of
what wasn’t right BUT I can tell you I never had to redo my area again. I learned my lesson.
One that Truett used for the title of his first book. It’s Easier to Succeed Than to Fail.
It’s easier to do it right the first time.

For leaders, this is also a good lesson on setting expectations. Do you think he wanted to stay
later that night while I cleaned the bathrooms again? I doubt it. But, he was wise. He knew
that was time well spent and an investment in future nights.

Do you have a “white towel test?” Are you investing in future excellence?

Milwaukee

In the summer of 1997, I had the “opportunity” to go run a CFA in Milwaukee. It was literally the
worst store in the nation. Northridge Mall. It hadn’t had an actual owner in years. Interim
Managers had come and gone and it had actually gone 6 weeks without an IM before I arrived.
Daily sales around $1,000. Total staff of 12. The mall closed at 7 on Saturdays because of
safety issues (high crime).

I flew in on a Sunday afternoon. The hops from the breweries in Milwaukee create a very
unique smell as you are getting off plane.

One of the 2 operators in Wisconsin (3 stores total in the state) met me and showed me where
the Chick-fil-A and my apartment were. When I got in the apartment, I discovered it was
furnished but had no linens. Had to drive around looking for a Walmart Sunday night (No GPS
back then). My ironing table was the coffee table. Not easy to get wrinkles out.
Monday morning comes and I get a phone call. No cell phones then and I didn’t even know my
phone number at the apartment... But, the manager of the CFA did! She was calling out sick.
OK, guess I get to go open up this store that I’ve not been in with a team I don’t know. I’d been
working in mall stores for 6-7 years so no problem...

We get the store open and as it’s approaching lunch time I decide to get a sandwich to eat. It
resembled a hockey puck. I had gone into this store with the intention of not changing anything
immediately and taking time to get to know the team. Well, that lasted about 3 hours. No way
we could serve food like that.

And the day got better. The health inspector showed up. I didn’t have a clue where half the
stuff was but we survived the visit... I thought. The next week, she comes back. Everywhere
else I had been they leave and then come back 3-6 months later. Up there, they keep coming
back till everything is fixed. Got to know her pretty well over the coming weeks.
The GM had hired 2-3 of her family members so 25% of the staff were her family. One of them
got mad because I sat in the food court just watching the store and she decided that meant I
didn’t trust them. She quit. I had to fire the son of the GM. I had 2-3 threats of lawsuits from
those I let go. I asked CFA if I could close the store for a week and start with a fresh team.
Nope.

The last day I was up there, the employee bathroom, which was up in a loft in the back of the
store, flooded. Water cascading down the steps into the stock area. When I got back to
Atlanta, I discovered my credit card info had been stolen and used in Milwaukee. Pretty sure it
was the GM. “Great timing” because I was right in the middle of the operator application
process and a credit check is one of the first steps. Back then, addressing a fraudulent use of a
credit card wasn’t as quick and easy as it is now. Multiple calls and letters to the various credit
agencies. Probably 6-8 weeks to get my credit reports cleaned up.

I truly loved Milwaukee. Lake Michigan is beautiful. The German food is mmmmm good. They
make the most of their summer with a lakefront festival that makes our state fair look like....
well, a state fair.

It was just the 60+ hours a week at that CFA that were brutal.

If it doesn’t kill you, it will only make you stronger.

Turns out this was a great experience for me because the next store was described to me by a
friend as “a beast”. That’s another story...

Oh, and I just remembered this little gem to round it out. Y’all know I love baseball. I had never
been to Wrigley Field in Chicago, a couple hours away. My consultant and his boss (Todd
Sweatt and David Turner) were coming up for a visit and I found out they were heading to
Wrigley after visiting me. I asked if they’d mind me tagging along and they said sure. Well, the
visit goes well but right as they are wrapping up Todd pulls me aside and says “Tony, we need
to talk some business (confidential personnel issues) while we are at the game. I don’t think it
would be good if you were with us.” So, no game and me left wondering if some of that
conversation was my future...

Ahhhh... Milwaukee. Such fond memories. Any time I think things are tough I just have to
remember Milwaukee. I made it through that. I can make it through this.

TGIM??

For years and years I thought work was an unfortunate result of the fall of man. So, a
necessary evil. I got my timing wrong.

First, God created... He WORKED for 6 days, and it was good. On the 6th day He created
Adam and Eve to manage the garden and the animals (Creation). We were created to work.
Work was good.

It was after Satan stepped on the scene that work became difficult (Yes, he STEPPED onto the
scene but he SLITHERED away). Man and woman wanted more than God had given them and
they ruined a perfect situation. Literally, a perfect situation and we “humans” messed it up.
Work is good. It’s also difficult. There is no getting around this. We can choose which part we
dwell on. Good or difficult. We can accept that it’s good and dwell on the difficult or we can
accept that it’s difficult and dwell on the good. We get to choose every day. Choosing not to
choose is a choice. Choose wisely.

So do you choose TGIF or TGIM?

Check out Genesis 1-3 for more on this.

Also, Tim Keller has a good book on this. Every Good Endeavor.

Click to read a good blog about it here

Pit Stops

You already know I like car racing. Some of my favorite days are spent at a race track and I still
dream of being a race car driver.

In most races a key moment is the pit stop. In NASCAR they can change 4 tires and fill up the
fuel in about 13-14 seconds. In Formula 1, they change 4 tires in about 3 seconds! In
endurance racing, they change tires, add fuel, change drivers and sometimes change the
brakes in under a minute. In each of these series they also make adjustments to the car during
these pit stops so that it will perform better.

Not only is it important that they do it efficiently, but they need to do it completely.
Imagine how well it would work out if they didn’t fuel up the car? Or, didn’t put the brakes on
right? Or, no fresh tires?

Our lives kinda work the same way. We need “pit stops”. We can’t just keep racing around
without refueling. It’s best if we plan these pit stops to optimize our performance and come in
before the tires are worn out or before we run out of gas.

What is your plan for pit stops? How are you ensuring that you’ll be able to finish the race well?
3 For 3 is a good tool for helping you plan these pitstops. The first 3 in particular.

Mental fitness - books, podcasts, mentors
Relational fitness - your peer group
Physical fitness - exercise, rest and nutrition

You can either plan these into your race or you can wait till you run out of gas or hit the wall.
Either way, you’ll end up in the pits.... you get to choose if it’s on the way to victory or after a
crash.

Fat Shortstop

In 1991, I headed into conditioning for the high school varsity baseball team for the first time.
Part of the training included variations of stadium steps. Running, jumping and hopping up the
football stadium steps. Over and over. Well, after one of the climbs to the top my lunch decided
to resurface. If that wasn’t bad enough, one of my coaches was standing right there and his
feet were in the worst possible spot. Right where lunch was heading.

Fast forward to later that season. I’m doing well but coach pulls me aside at some point to talk
about my future. He knew I wanted to play college ball. All I remember from the conversation
was “you are too fat to play shortstop in college. If you want to play college ball you have to
lose weight”. He was right. I had lots of talent but not much discipline. That summer, I injured
my knee (another story) and part of the rehab included jogging in place. Jogging in place led to
jogging a 1⁄2 mile. That’s as far as I could go and not because of my injury. That’s as far as I
could jog because of the rest of my out-of-shape body. But, that eventually led to jogging a
mile. Daily.

By the fall, I had lost 40 lbs and when the baseball team started conditioning I wasn’t tossing my
lunch any more. In fact, I was out front on the distance runs.

I didn’t enjoy my coach telling me I was fat. But, thankfully he was willing to speak the truth and
thankfully I listened. It didn’t just get me in shape for baseball. Turns out, girls started to notice
me. Kaylyn (a cross country runner) and I went out on our first date that November. The
following spring, Oglethorpe University asked me to come play ball there. 4 years after that, in
part because of attending OU, I decided to pursue the role of CFA Operator. In 1997 Kaylyn
and I got married. In 1998 I became a CFA operator. In 1999 we moved to Durham to open
CFAROX. In 2006 I ran a marathon. In 2007 we won Symbol of Success (F-150) the wrong
way (that’s another story). In 2008 we were selected as a test store in Recipe for Service (Core
4 and 2nd Mile Service). In 2015 we won Champions Club (Mustang) the right way. In 2016 we
launched “We Nourish Dreams”.

All because a coach was willing to tell me the truth and I was willing to hear it. Listen to the
truth-tellers around you and commit to the work you need to go after your dreams. Start where
you are and take the next step, even if it is just jogging in place.
And, are you willing to be that coach? The one that changes lives.

Coach?

I think it was my Junior year of college. Back then it wasn’t common to have video used in
baseball training. Other than still shots, I didn‘t know what my baseball swing looked like. You
can only accomplish so much in front of a mirror. Hard to watch the ball AND the mirror at the
same time...

One day our coach brings out a video camera (camcorder) to video our swings and then we set
up times to go meet with him to analyze our swing and find opportunities to get better. I was
really excited about finally getting to do this. While I was good, I wanted to get better.
My time to meet with our coach came and I got to see my swing and hear some suggestions on
how I could get better. Kind of like a performance review (360) on the job. It started off well.
Coach complimented my swing. That made me feel good. But, then he said something I’ll
never forget. “Tony, you have a textbook swing. I can’t find anything to improve.” It was true, I
had been working on my swing for 12-15 years and I had studied the “textbooks” on swings.
BUT, I was still getting out 60-70% of the time and I had zero professional scouts looking at me.
Surely I could have done something better.

A coach exists to enable a team, and the players on the team, to accomplish something they
couldn’t do on their own. He had one job. To help me get better than I could on my own. He
failed.

Remember that HS coach that told me I was fat? The one that changed my life more than just
about any other human? They both had the same position. The same title. Which would you
rather be? The coach that changes lives or the coach that just says “good job”?

In order to be a good coach, you must know what needs to be said AND be willing to say it. My
HS coach knew.

You Are My Favorite

When I got hired as a 16 year old at the Chick-fil-A in Gwinnett Place Mall, I spent the first 2
years on a register followed by the next 2 years on boards (kitchen).

One of our managers was a really tough lady. I loved working for her. You knew what to expect
and you knew everybody was going to do what was expected. Because, if they didn’t do their
job they knew they’d have to answer to her. She was tough. But fair.

Well, one night I was working boards and she comes up to me and says “Tony, you are my
favorite boards person.” Wow! You certainly didn’t take her compliments lightly. So, my head
began to expand. BUT, she solved that almost immediately. “It’s not because you are the
fastest.” This is what most of us took pride in. Who was the fastest? “It’s not because you are
the best.” Well, if I’m not the fastest and not the best, why would I be her favorite??
“Tony, I always know I can count on you AND I know you will ask for help when you need it. If
you aren’t asking for help I know you are OK.” She could trust me.

This has stuck with me for 25 years. And I completely agree with her. Some people are fast.
Some are friendly. Some are the best in their positions. But, when it comes down to it, my
favorites are the ones I can trust.

Even the best have bad days. Even the best can get overwhelmed. Even the best can crash.
The ones that know when to ask for help... those are the ones I trust. Those are my favorites.

Throwing Strikes or Winning?

One of my strengths as a pitcher was my accuracy.  I can hit just about any target any time. When it would rain and practice would go into the gym sometimes we’d throw a football to build arm strength.  Because throwing a ball back and forth can get boring quickly we’d find ways to have fun. One is that we’d see if we could throw the football through the basketball goal from the far end of the court.  No problem. Footballs, acorns, baseballs, .22 calibre ammo, you name it. I can hit the target.

In baseball, you generally want to throw strikes and not walk batters.  BUT, that’s not the most important objective for a pitcher. Ultimately, a pitcher wins when they don’t allow runs… or, allow very few runs.  Looking back on my pitching days, I realize I was too focused on the little goal of throwing strikes and not the ultimate goal of not allowing runs.  

The best pitchers don’t necessarily throw a lot of strikes.  In fact, often the best pitches aren’t strikes. They are pitches that look like strikes but end up out of the strike zone, luring the batter to swing and miss or hit the ball poorly.

Because I threw so many strikes, batters could anticipate and trust the next pitch to be worthy of swinging at.  When you eliminate that doubt, hitting becomes much easier. My senior year of college I led the team in the lowest number of walks per 9 innings.  In fact, I’m still in the top 5 of all pitchers at OU over the last 25 years with that stat. BUT, my ERA was over 4. For those that don’t follow baseball, an ERA in the 2s is solid, 3s is good and 4 is mediocre at best.

I was too focused on a measure that had some value and lost focus of the measure with the most value (earned runs allowed-ERA).  By the way, an example of a pitcher that I could most relate to regarding my pitching style is Greg Maddux. Crazy good control. Not high velocity.  One of the best pitchers of all time. More often than not his target was outside the strike zone to get batters to swing and miss or hit the ball poorly.  The biggest difference between Maddux and me wasn’t our physical ability (he looked like an accountant throwing a ball). It was our mindset. Our focus.

What measures are you focusing on?  Are they the best measures or just good measures?