Mark Miller's Blog, page 7
March 3, 2014
Big Questions Leaders Ask (Part 2)
One of the most valuable activities I’ve done in recent years has been unannounced market visits. On more than one occasion, our leadership team has visited 20+ restaurants in 48 hours – about a third of the stops were at our restaurants and the balance were visits to our competitors. Never in my 35-year career have I been more grounded in reality.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote the first post in this series regarding the most important questions leaders ask. In that initial post, I surfaced T...
February 28, 2014
Today’s Challenge: Making Mentoring Work
Virtually every week, I respond to a question submitted by a reader. I call the series, Today’s Challenge. If you’re interested in past questions, and my responses, I’ve created a category on the sidebar to help you. Today’s question is: How do you make mentoring work?
I am not an expert on mentoring. However, I’ve been on both ends of mentoring relationships for decades. Therefore, I’ll share a few thoughts, not as an expert, rather, as a fellow traveler, who’s also attempting to make the mos...
February 26, 2014
Wake or Wedding?
In a recent meeting, we were discussing an upcoming event, and I was struck by the difference of opinions being shared. I love debate; I love contrarian views; I love outside the box ideas; but this felt different. Were we even talking about the same event? It seemed like some were planning a wake and others a wedding.
After a few questions, I was able to confirm my hunch – we were not on the same page. We thought we were, but our assumptions couldn’t have been more different.As we continued t...
February 24, 2014
Why Leaders Love Catalytic Events
This is one of my favorite weeks of the year in our business. We’re hosting our annual meeting. Yes, the hours are grueling, stress levels do rise, and there is considerable expense – but it’s worth it. Catalytic events can be the spark an organization needs to go to the next level.
Leaders understand the power of events – they also understand, all events are not created equally – I’ll write more about that idea on Wednesday. The event we’re hosting this week is intended to be a catalytic even...
February 21, 2014
Today’s Challenge: Divining Leadership Capacity
As you may know, on Fridays I respond to a question from a reader. Today is another good one. I’ve written previously about how important it is for a leader to find ways to grow his or her capacity. Today’s question is: How do you discern inherent leadership capacity when interviewing a candidate?
As when using divining rods to search for water, the search for leadership capacity can produce unpredictable results. I talked to a leader this week who lamented a new senior leader was not working...
February 19, 2014
It’s Showtime! Preparing for a Big Event
I leave today for our annual meeting. It’s an event I’ve had the privilege to work on for many years. It’s a small, intimate gathering with about 4,000 members of the Chick-fil-A organization. How do you prepare for big events? Here are some of the keys I’ve found helpful over the years.
Clarify the goal – This may sound obvious, but it isn’t always obvious or easy. You have at least two things to clarify: the generic purpose and the specific desired result. Both are critical. Is the event a t...
February 17, 2014
Big Questions Leaders Ask (Part 1)
As I’ve shared several times over the last couple of years, I’m a huge fan of questions. The more questions I ask, the better I lead. This is a journey I’ve been on my entire career – one I’m still on today. I think about this topic a lot. One of my conclusions: all questions are valuable, but they are not all of equal value.
Every time we ask a question, we stimulate the thinking of someone else. That helps them grow. When those around us grow, that’s always good for the organization. However...
February 12, 2014
Bite an Elephant Today
My friend, Elizabeth Dixon, started a website last year entitled, Bite an Elephant. If you don’t know the origin of the phrase, I’m guessing it comes from the old riddle: “How do you eat an elephant?” Answer: “One bite at a time.” Elizabeth is dedicated to helping people be successful, one step at a time. I’ve been exploring my own means of eating the elephant recently – Micro Moves.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with micro moves or not. I’ve tried to find who coined the phrase, but as of ye...
February 10, 2014
The Most Important Part of Leadership… That’s Rarely Discussed
Since releasing The Heart of Leadership, I’ve received a lot of feedback supporting the big idea of the book: If your heart is not right, no one cares about your skills. If this is true, why does leadership character get so little attention?
I’ve been asking others and myself this question. Here’s what I’ve concluded.
Many are unsure what leadership character looks like.
If you can’t define something, or even identify it, it’s unlikely you’ll give it much attention. Unfortunately, not talking ab...
February 7, 2014
Today’s Challenge: Do You Need to Huddle?
How do you keep your team focused and aligned on what’s important in your organization? Unfortunately, there’s no single approach to accomplish this. However, one powerful idea is the team huddle. I first learned about the idea years ago from Horst Schulze, former head of Ritz-Carlton Hotels.
What is a huddle? At the Ritz, and many other organizations, it is a brief pre-shift meeting with the team members who are about to begin their shift. It’s designed to focus, align, calibrate and inform....
