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Excerpt from Dare to Serve: How to Drive Superior Results by Serving Others Why does work have such a bad reputation? Or is it just my former line of work that has a bad reputation? When you work in the restaurant business, you take a lot of flak for your
Excerpt from Dare to Serve: How to Drive Superior Results by Serving Others Getting the best performance from teams is the subject of countless leadership books. It can be a complex subject, but I suggest you start first with creating a space for success. Dare-to-Serve Leaders create work environments that
Excerpt from Dare to Serve: How to Drive Superior Results by Serving Others Dare-to-Serve leadership is based on the idea of servant leadership. It’s about having the courage to put people first. When I talk about this concept, I often get a question about results- can serving others drive productivity
Full disclosure: I suffer from what psychologists’ call “hurry sickness.” I didn’t know it had a name until recently, but nonetheless, I’ve always known that I suffer from it. I jam-pack my days. I overschedule. I say “yes” way too often. The benefits of my disease include getting a lot
Do you know what an idiom is? It is a collection of words that have a meaning not obvious from the words themselves. Examples in the U.S. include: “Barking up the wrong tree” — looking for answers in the wrong places. “Crying over spilt milk” – complaining about something that’s
If you enjoy watching Wimbledon tennis, you already know this to be true: No athlete who wins Wimbledon made it to the winner’s circle fast. Serena Williams won first place in both singles and doubles in 2016. It was her 22nd Grand Slam title and her 16th Grand Slam doubles
Last month, I attended the first high school graduation at a school my father had helped found nearly 20 years ago, which now serves over 350 students in grades Pre-K through 12. The first graduating class was three young men, who proudly represented the school — its past, present, and
My grandson is 3 years old – and if you’ll allow me to say so – he is really smart. He knows me. He knows my principles. How do I know that? Recently, I was giving him a bath. He started playfully splashing me. I said, “Stop it,” but without
Dear blog readers, This is my first post since leaving my role as CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. Thank you for the the many emails and posts wishing me well in the next adventure. I am grateful for the outpouring of encouraging words and support. Last fall, I planned
How many goals have you set for 2017? Or how long is your list of things you hope to do in 2017? Ten, twenty, thirty? Be honest. It’s January. We’re in our ambitious, we-can–do-it-all, highly motivated state. The excitement level is high. The energy is palpable. And the list is
I get asked often to share my favorite leadership quotes – so I thought I would close out 2016 with some inspiring words for the Dare to Serve leaders working to be a better version of themselves! Here we go: “Consider others more significant than yourselves.” – Ancient Literature This
Leaders have many balls to keep in the air: staffing, profitability, safety. The list goes on and on. But one item that can never be left off the list or ignored is ethics. Companies that don’t make ethics a priority create needless problems and challenges for their businesses, staff, and
Leadership apart from personal accountability is detached superiority. Lack of personal accountability on the part of leaders results in isolation, artificial interactions, and shallow relationships. Leaders who stand aloof from personal accountability: Lean toward authoritarian exclusivity. Practice hypocrisy, if they expect others to be accountable to them. Exude arrogance. Stay
Recent events have once again reminded us of the impact of unethical business practices on a famous, trusted brand and company – this time the name is Wells Fargo. The banking giant was fined $185-million dollars after an investigation determined more than 2-million bank and credit card accounts were opened
A lot of businesses are having a difficult year—and it has raised this question to the top of my list: What does leadership look like in challenging times? What does a servant leader do when facing trials at work? Here are some thoughts and questions to help you when you
Some say that you cannot be humble and confident at the same time. How would you respond to that statement? So much depends on how we think of these two qualities. If humility means being easily dominated, or weak, there’s not much incentive for a leader to be humble. If we
Previously published on BecomingMinimalist.com. “We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.”– Rabindranath Tagore Humility is a funny thing. In fact, my grandfather used to tell us that he won a medal for his humility, but it was taken away when he began to wear it.
One of the more interesting servant leadership questions I am asked is this: can you be humble and confident? This question stems from inaccurate assumptions about these two words. First, the assumption that humility looks weak. Second, the assumption that confidence looks like self-centered pride. Both are wrong. Humility is acknowledging that
“3 Rules to Being a Leader, Give, Give, Give!.” Millennials—currently and most commonly described as lazy, self-interested and entitled—will make up 75% of the workforce over the next decade. The shift is inevitable… but you have the power to really be a leader and influence how millennials will evolve as
Great leaders are transparent. Statements like this, or any others involving the words leader and transparent, have become so common or in vogue by those who write or speak about leadership (in other words, people like me) as to be cliché, and transparency in this context is now seen as
Have you heard about the extreme sport called expedition mountaineering? It is one of the most dangerous activities you can do – attempting to reach the summits of mountains like Mt. Rainier in Washington or Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. Most extreme sports are done alone, like cliff diving and
I’ve enjoyed the recent news coverage about Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. Jeff Bezos has proposed that one day soon our packages will be delivered to our doors by Prime Air drones. This vision has been called audacious. Many critics have implied this idea is laughable. Yet at Amazon, there
In our family, words are a constant source of debate. “When you said that you hated the Caesar salad, what did you mean by that?” Really? Do we need to discuss this? But the conversation will continue: “Did you really mean hate, or did you dislike one of the elements
There is a book series for children 8-12 years of age called Skylanders Universe: The Mask of Power. It is a conventional storyline of good versus evil. The good guys are called Skylanders. The bad guys, called Spell Punks, create a mask of power that uses fire, water, technology and
A few years ago, I was with a group of Popeyes assistant restaurant managers and I asked them, “what happens when one of your friends gets promoted to restaurant manager? Does anything change?” Laughter. Of course it does! “They become ‘the boss.’ It’s different.” “Suddenly act like they own the
Last Friday I had the privilege of speaking with a team of leaders – my favorite thing to do. The owner of a local landscaping company asked me to talk with his team about leadership. Eighteen of us gathered in my living room and, over pizza lunch, we talked about
Dick Lynch is the Global Brand Leader at Popeyes. He tells this remarkable story about his first job out of college: “I had always dreamed of a career in advertising, but could only scrape up enough money to attend a small, rather undistinguished Midwestern college. When I graduated with a
When you ask someone – what is the opposite of humility? – the answers come quickly. Arrogance. Egotism. Pride. Superiority. Haughtiness. But when you ask someone – what is humility? – the answers come much more slowly. Meekness. Quietness. Modesty? So what does humility mean at work? And what would
Anyone working on a jigsaw puzzle this summer? Have you ever worked for hours and hours on a jigsaw puzzle – only to find one piece missing? The frustration of not being able to complete the masterpiece intensifies. The satisfaction and joy of seeing the complete picture evaporates. We walk
I get tired of hearing people refer to people practices as “the soft stuff.” Accessing the full potential of your team? That is the hardest thing you will do as a leader. I love to watch sailboat races. It is thrilling to see the boat tilt to the wind, lean
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