Leaving a Legacy

Earlier this week, our nation was saddened by the death of S. Truett Cathy, the man who started the Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain I raved about here last week. It was a coincidence that I wrote this last week, not knowing that he was sick in the hospital at the time. But I can’t help but think about how timely my post is to reflect on the legacy of this great man.

“I’d like to be remembered as one who kept my priorities in the right order. We live in a changing world, but we need to be reminded that the important things have not changed, and the important things will not change if we keep our priorities in proper order.” – Truett Cathy

The very DNA of the Chick-Fil-A organization, as well as the not-for-profit WinShape Foundation, was shaped by Mr. Cathy’s desire to do good in this world, as a reflection of his Christian values. Scripture charges us as Christ-followers to be a light to the world, in order to give glory to God. Whether it’s in ministry or business, in public or in private, we should live in such a way that the legacy we leave behind when we leave this world would be celebrated.

One of Stephen Covey’s “seven habits” is to “Begin with the end in mind”. This is true on a small scale, like when you’re planning a fixed-term project, but it’s also true on the grand scale. It may be a little morbid to reflect on what the world will be like when we’re gone, but taking some time to really consider how you want to be remembered can and should help shape the decisions you make today.

I don’t think there’s any question, at least from my spectator’s view of his family and company, that Mr. Cathy lived out the priorities he identified above. My heart and prayers are with the extended Cathy and Chick-Fil-A families during this season.

3 lessons learned from the “poultry restaurant”

Since before my children were born, my wife and I have had a strong fondness for Chick-Fil-A. But since we’ve had kids, it’s become one of the food groups, and a frequent choice for family nights out. We even had to give it a code name (“the poultry restaurant”) when we were discussing it to keep the girls from knowing what was being considered; once they knew it was an option, saying no wasn’t a choice without severe drama.

lessons learned from Chick-Fil-A

One day, I started thinking about how this brand has created so much customer loyalty in my family and in my peer group. Here are a few of the valuable business lessons learned from watching this company:

  1. TEAM TRAINING IS CRITICAL. As a young children’s pastor, my target audience for kids workers was frequently the young teens of our church. I noticed that even though Chick-Fil-A was pulling from the same talent pool as most other fast-food chains, their associates just seem to behave differently. And to deliver a higher level of customer service in so many cases. I had an opportunity to sit down with a local restaurant operator regarding this observation and he shared with me their onboarding process for new team members. I believe that they gain a lot of ground due to the amount of time they invest in training new team members, and who handles it (top leadership, not lower level managers).
  2. RELATIONSHIP IS EVERYTHING. Many of the team members at our local store know my whole family’s names and use them. Recently, my family and I were there for dinner and one of the managers asked my wife detailed questions about our vacation and how school was going. All questions based on her observations because she and my wife became friends on Facebook, after having no connection other than the restaurant. She could choose to keep it completely professional, but my experience with this company is the exact opposite. Very few large chains can establish that level of customer connection, but I see this over and over again with this team.
  3. EVERY DETAIL COUNTS. From the bathroom environments to the condiment station to team wardrobes, every Chick-Fil-A I’ve ever walked into delivers a top-notch presentation. In some chains, you may see high quality presented in one store based on a particular manager or operator. But in this chain, my experience has been 100%. (I’m sure there might be a few that aren’t perfect, but I haven’t found them yet.) Company wide, it is clear that this company holds itself to a high standard in this area.

As I identified these principles, I began to ask myself how I could apply these lessons learned in my work in the not-for-profit AND for-profit arenas:

  • Where could our team get better through training?
  • Do I place a high enough premium on relationship with the teams that I lead, both volunteer and paid?
  • Do I think through the details that are necessary to deliver high quality over and over again?

Do you have any lessons learned in unlikely environments?

P.S. I didn’t receive any compensation for doling out this high praise! 🙂

Blogging just stopped being fun…

I have to apologize for my extended hiatus from the blogosphere. It’s been several months since I last put my thoughts out here. And I could say that it’s because family life got so busy or because I had too much going on at the office. Both of those things are true, but the real reason is – it stopped being fun.

When I started blogging a couple of years ago, I was excited. It was really refreshing to find an outlet for the thoughts and strategies that I felt like God had placed inside of me. It felt useful to get them out on the web and to share them with others. And the feedback I got was overwhelmingly positive so it seemed like people were drawing definite value from them. Each week as I’d write, new ideas would come. For the most part.

From time to time, I would find myself in a place where I didn’t feel like I had anything to say. Usually when I was busy with work or family stuff. I would skip a week here and there, but for the most part, I was able to keep the weekly pace. I was generally pleased with how it was working.

But then I decided that I wanted it to be even more effective. I wanted to incorporate some of the techniques that I saw other bloggers doing – adding a picture, paying more attention to my stats, linking to other posts in ways that would drive my traffic up.

So I did. And for a little while, it worked. I got the buzz of additional results, more feedback; I was excited about trying these new techniques and becoming like a “really good blogger”. But then things changed. My need for feedback to make myself feel like what I was doing was valuable drove me to putting more and more effort into my posts. And all of a sudden, the blog became something I had to do each week, rather than something I looked forward to. And then it just wasn’t fun any more.

So I stopped. And it’s been almost 6 months since I wrote anything at all.

I want to go back. I want to go back to when blogging was fun. When I didn’t feel the pressure to get my word count just right, or to find a compelling image or to do whatever was necessary to get more clicks. As soon as I made the decision that this needed to be my next post, I have five ideas for more posts which will follow this one. I will write those over the next few weeks and post them here. And hopefully, they will be valuable to you or to someone. But I won’t be measuring my satisfaction with how many clicks I get. My measure will be – did I have fun doing it? Did I share the thing that I felt like needed to be shared?

I’m hoping that’s what you will find when you come back next time. I’m pretty sure that sharing what’s on my heart will be a lot more effective than not writing anything at all.