Which Came First?

When our kids were small, Myrtle Beach was our go-to beach destination. Easy, affordable, convenient oceanfront accommodations. Plus the lazy rivers at all the condos are a tired dad’s best friend.


Back then, Wendy’s were still decent restaurants so we stopped at one on the way down and one on the way back. They couldn’t have been more different. One was remarkably clean, friendly, fresh and fast. The other was remarkably dirty, slow, rude and stale. I’m not one to submit comments at businesses but both of these Wendy’s locations were so remarkable in their own ways that I did look for a way to submit feedback. The remarkably good store had comment cards at the tables, on the wall and a phone number posted near the menuboards. So many ways to give feedback. The other Wendy’s had zero options for submitting feedback. On the way home I was thinking about this.

Was the good one good because it sought feedback? Or, did they seek feedback because they are good? Was the bad one bad because they didn’t listen to customers or do they not listen to customers because they are poorly run? Which came first? Excellence or feedback? The Chicken or the Egg? Who knows?!?!

I started paying more attention to which places make it easy for feedback and noticed that the better run places typically make it easy to get feedback. I still don’t know which causes the other but I’ve learned that if you act like a top performer you tend to perform well. This is before we had the easy access to CFA CARES like we do now. We placed comment cards on every table. I really expected to get alot of feedback on how we could get better (complaints). What I learned is that customers just like being asked. Most of the feedback was positive. It seemed that simply by asking them how it was, customers felt more favorably about their visit. And, yes, we got some constructive feedback as well.

I still don’t know if asking for feedback made us better or if we decided to ask for feedback because we were leading better. What I do know is that top performers crave feedback. If I want to be a top performer, I probably should crave feedback.

Challenge Accepted

I think it was my sophomore year but it could have been my freshman year of HS. There was a guy named Brandon in my grade that sat in front of me in geometry class. I don’t know what I did to get his attention but he must have decided that his purpose in life was to make me miserable. In today’s culture, I’m pretty sure you’d call it bullying. I don’t recall any physical attack but he would just try to provoke me any way he could. Stupid stuff like ketchup packets between pages in my textbook to see if I’d pop them accidentally. If he got to class before me, I knew there would be something awaiting me. Called me every name in the book.

I was a pretty quiet, reserved kid. Not provoked very easily. Plus, I was kinda wimpy. Didn’t lift weights till college. But, one day he met me at my locker and said or did something that ticked me off so I responded. I don’t remember exactly what I did but it provoked him to ask “so you want to fight?” Part of me did. And the sensible part of me said that’s stupid.

The timing of this was key, though. We were right at the beginning of baseball tryouts. We had a big school so lots of guys trying out and it was about a week long process with multiple rounds of cuts. He was also trying out.

I don’t recall exactly my immediate response to his request for a fight but then he made a comment about baseball, implying that he was better. I knew the truth and saw an opportunity. “Brandon, if I get cut, there is no chance of you making the team. How about we settle things on the field?” I wasn’t just returning trash talk. I very objectively knew I was better than him. You know the song “Devil Went Down to Georgia” by Charlie Daniels? The coolest fiddle song ever. Brandon played the part of the devil. I felt like Johnny accepting the challenge. “My name’s Johnny (insert Tony) and it might be a sin but I’ll take your bet and you’re gonna regret, cause I’m the best there’s ever been.” No, I didn’t think I was the best there’s ever been. Just good enough to win this bet.

He took the challenge. That was the last time I ever had to deal with his irritations the rest of my High School days. *Insert some crazy fiddle playing

It's A Beast

The way the Interim Manager program worked back when I was trying to earn a store was you’d go for a few months and then they’d send you to another store. My first stop on that path was University Mall in Bloomington, Indiana. You don’t hear me talk about it much because there weren’t many lessons learned there. It was a very well run store and my role was just to not mess it up. Seriously. That’s what they told me.  Just in between owners. The original guy, Rick Johnson, had opened a store in Indianapolis and the next guy was still in operator training. I had about 2-3 days notice that I was going to Bloomington. And it was a beautiful place right on the edge of the campus for Indiana University.

Fast forward just a bit to the last few weeks of my time in Milwaukee (after Bloomington) which I hope you’ve already read about. I got a call from a friend that was an operator in GA. He was giving me a heads up. “Tony, they are going to ask you to run Memorial Drive FSR. I’m just warning you. It’s a beast.” He was discouraging me from accepting that offer.

Here’s what I knew. I wanted to be back near Atlanta because Kaylyn and I were getting married on Sept 20 and it was August then. I also knew I wanted an FSR as an operator but up till then I’d had no experience in anything but a Mall. I also knew that the worse the store, the easier it is to create a track record of growth. Sure enough, maybe a week later, Chick-fil-A calls and asks if I’d run Memorial Drive. Because I knew what my long term goal was of having an FSR and being in Atlanta during that season, it was an easy decision. Back then, IMs only went to malls. I had never heard of an IM going to an FSR. What an opportunity! YES! I’ll take the Beast.

And it was a beast (another story). I still remember a few friends commenting to me that they thought my decision wasn’t the smartest BUT I knew where I wanted to be and Memorial Drive was a step toward that. I remember running into my travel baseball coach during this time and told him what I was doing. His response in a very heavy NY accent: “Tony, you got a degree from Oglethorpe University and now you are running that restaurant? What a waste.” I liked this coach. Great baseball coach. Fortunately, I knew he was wrong this time.

When you know where you want to be in 3-5 years it makes the tough decisions today a lot easier. Whatever gets you closer to that goal is the right next step. 10/10/10

Real ER: The Bronx

Last night as I was jumping back and forth between a ball game and car building show I stumbled onto a show called Real ER: The Bronx.  As the name implies its a documentary style show of life in the ER at a hospital in The Bronx.

Regan was in the other room studying for her final exam in her EMT class and recognized the sounds and dialogue and came in to see what I was watching.  She was captivated.  I asked her if I was going to cause her to fail her exam.  "Probably" was her response as she settled in to watch (She took the exam today and passed).

As patients were brought into the ER, I'd ask Regan what she knew about their conditions.  I was amazed at how much she knew.  She sounded like a doctor to me.  There was one patient with a collapsed lung and they were inserting a tube into his chest, through the ribs to fix the lung.  They used used words I didn't understand, but she did, and so did all the supporting medical staff that was treating this patient who had been stabbed and was going to die if the staff treat his wound properly.

As I watched the show I saw up to 10-12 people working together to diagnose and treat the patients.  They used a common language.  One they had learned as they grew into medical professionals.  One that was clear and consistent.  One that took a very complex, high stress, situation and simplified it.

Imagine if I stepped onto the scene in that ER.  Could I figure out that the guy had been stabbed and had a collapsed lung?  Probably eventually.  Could I figure out that he needed a tube inserted to revive the lung?  Probably eventually.  I'm very confident that the patient would have been dead for days, maybe weeks before I could solve the problem.  And that was just one case that evening.

Application??  What is our common language?  Everyday we have as many cases come into our store as they do in that ER.  3,000 customers.  30+ team members.  IT.  Fryers.  Corporate.  Food Safety.  Reports...

As leaders, how are we diagnosing each case?  With our own personal language and systems?  With added drama?  Or, with a common language and common tools?  Professionally?

Can a doctor... I mean leader, step in and take the case you've been working on and smoothly proceed?  Or, would there be excessive time spent explaining things?

We have this common language.  We have these common tools.

Values
Toolbox (ESRC, SBI, 3 for 3, 4 Disciplines of Execution...)
Checklists (lots of checklists in the world of medicine)
@CFA
Podcasts

Are you like the doctors in this show that understand their role is to see the next patient, diagnose and begin treating them as efficiently as possible?  Or, are you like me walking into that ER and trying to solve it my way, eventually losing the patient, even if I eventually figured it out, just too slowly?

As leaders, we must control the systems and language we use.  The more consistent we are, the more effectively we will execute our Mission.  Be Remarkable.     

Even if you get uneasy with blood, I encourage you to google the show or find it on TV, or any other documentary of life in the ER.  Pay attention to how professional the medical staff remains.  Pay attention to what they say.  How they say it.  We think our environment can be high stress.  Maybe we are creating a good bit of the stress in how we respond to the cases that are coming in.  What if we approached the cases with the same professional urgency that is demonstrated in this show?  Think stress would be higher or lower?  It's easy to wish others would do this but we can only control one person.  Ourselves.  Let's each do our part to create this professional urgency in our culture.

     

                                   

Pressure Release Valve

Craig and Heath. Two of my managers when I was a teenaged team member. These guys were not small. Their arms were the size of most people’s legs and “barrel chested” fits the description perfectly.

These guys had an agreement. If one of them got angry, they would go out in the back hall (back halls of malls must have all sorts of stories). Whichever one was angry was allowed to punch the other one in the arm. Yep. True story. This wasn’t a rare occurrence. They were managing a bunch of teenagers after all.

What’s the lesson? You are going to get frustrated in life. If you are leading others, you are going to get frustrated even more. What will you do then? What’s your pressure relief valve? I still remember a manager years ago. She wasn’t happy about something and I was walking by the walk-in-cooler. I don’t recall understanding the words but I could hear some yelling. That’s how she “cooled off”.

I’ve had various relief valves over the years. Punching boxes in the stock area (be careful to choose your box wisely. Don’t cost us $$ and don’t break your hand). I’ve taken walks around the block. I’ve gone to sit in my car. Usually now I just go in the back and vent to my brother via texts. Or, if time allows, a trip to the gym, a jog, a bike ride...

Hint: prayer is also advised.

Just have a plan. We all need pressure relief valves ready for when the pressure rises

Grocery Cart = trust

Why do insurance agents put their faces everywhere?? My insurance agent is Andy Jones. We’ve become friends over the years, and neighbors. And a couple of his boys have worked for us.

One day I was in Kroger and I saw Andy. Well, I didn’t see him in person. I saw his picture on the seat of the grocery cart in an add for Andy Jones, State Farm. Is he that stuck on himself that he wants to see his face on the seat of the grocery cart when he needs to buy milk and eggs? He’s already got his head blown up 20 times on a billboard I drive by every day.

I don’t know if he actually enjoyed having his big smile plastered on every surface up and down Roxboro Rd but I did realize this. Insurance is a commodity. There isn’t much difference in policies. What it comes down to is trust. Who will take care of me best when I have a wreck or a tree falls on my house? The guy I feel like I know because I see his face everywhere or Geico? I don’t know for sure but I do know I’ve chosen State Farm in part because I know Andy. I can call Andy. I’m sure Geico is also good. I just don’t know who I’d call.

Just like when I think of State Farm I see Andy’s face, when customers think CFAROX they think of our faces. Each one of us is CFAROX to a customer. They choose CFAROX because they trust the person that comes to their mind when they think of CFAROX. They trust you.

Do You Know How To...?

Around the end of the 2nd year of being a Chick-fil-A team member I walked in to work and my shift leader asked “do you know how to run boards?” Back then, 1 person breaded and 1 person did all the rest. Sandwiches, nuggets, fries…. that’s Boards. I had never done it. I’d been asked before but until that day I’d never done anything but run a register. I guess we didn’t have a good boards person scheduled or maybe the shift leader just didn’t want to run boards or maybe he wanted options down the road. So that night I learned to run boards.

That night the shift leader opened a door for me that ultimately led to owning a Chick-fil-A. For the next 2 years I mostly worked the boards area, and really enjoyed it. A nice break from the front counter.

Now, with a full understanding of the restaurant some of my peers started suggesting I be a team leader (we had 2 levels of leaders. Team leader and manager). I was reluctant but eventually said OK. What I learned as a team leader was that I like when problems are mine. I like responsibility. The more responsibility the better is what I found out.

How can we open doors for more people more often? Who are you developing today? It may just be learning DT or fries. It’s a door. And who knows what opportunities that door can open up to. I’m sure glad that shift leader decided that was the night I was gonna learn boards.