What’s Your Natural Leadership Style?
Foundations of Excellence
A lot has happened since my last blog. Charlotte "Lottie" Eloise Thomas was born on Super Bowl Sunday and we remodeled the restaurant. I wouldn't recommend having a baby and a remodel in the same week on my worst enemy...it was a little stressful. But things have...
Self-Reflection
One of the most important things about being a leader is to know yourself. Over the years I have taken all sorts of personality and strengths tests like DISC, Myers-Briggs - MBTI, Strength-Finder, Right-Path (my favorite), and many more. I absolutely love this...
Cull, Cultivate and Plant
New Year's is kind of like Spring for the farmer. It's time to start planning what crops you want to grow this year. Where are you going to focus your energy and efforts? To develop a quick personal growth plan, start by thinking about what you grew (or tried to do)...
Christmas is for Givers
For the most part, there are two types of people in this world, givers and takers. Everyone falls somewhere on what I call the "giver and taker scale." Usually people operate out of their perspective on life, takers have been "taken from" and givers have been "given...
Replace Yourself
One of the hardest shifts for a young leader to make is from leading others to developing others. As the old adage goes, "what got you here, won't get you there." I'm able to identify those with leadership potential fairly early, usually even before I hire them. I...
Mentorship
Prior to becoming a Chick-fil-A franchisee, I worked with Andy Christiansen at Life Impact Ministries for about 6 months. In this short time, Andy and I spent a lot of time talking about mentorship, discipleship and where the institutional church was failing with...
Thankfulness
It's really easy to get caught up in complaining! I'm often surrounded by negativity and later find myself being negative. However, one of the easiest ways to overcome negativity is to reflect on the things that you are thankful for. I challenge you this week to...
Honor Dignity and Respect
"Honestly, I don't care who you voted for, I just expect you to show up to work and treat everyone with honor, dignity, and respect." Anyone that works for me can tell you that the most important thing to me is that customers and fellow team members, are treated with...
Culture of Accountability
Creating a culture of accountability where team members and leaders take responsibility for their actions is not an easy task. Most organizations use fear-based leadership to get results from their employees. If they don't perform, some form of discipline is used...
Emulate or Elude
During our last Chick-fil-A Leader Academy meeting, I was approached by the assistant principal of McEachern High School about co-creating a compelling reason for seniors to come to school on what is traditionally "senior skip day." I am proud to say that this past...