Dare to Serve: How to Drive Superior Results by Serving Others (My 3 Takeaways)
“Conventional leadership thinking puts the leader in the spotlight,” said Cheryl Bachelder, former CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. in her book, “Dare to Serve.” “Conventional leaders assume the power position and declare a new vision. Grabbing the spotlight, these leaders have all the answers. They are high achievers, though perhaps a bit self-absorbed. We tolerate that, because they are going places that we want to go. If they are successful, we will be successful. So we think,” (2018, p. 2).
“I worked many years in large corporations without ever thinking about my work as ‘service to others,” she said (p. 113).
Bachelder said that many of her own bosses were obsessed with advancing and aggrandizing themselves, while failing to lift up and celebrate others. Like many, Bachelder said, she experienced success as “achieving results, getting rewarded, and being promoted,” centering herself in the spotlight like so many of her own bosses.
In 2003, however, Bachelder was humbled when she was fired from her leadership role at KFC.
“Few things are as clarifying as losing your job,” Bachelder wrote. “My confidence was shaken. This was supposed to be the pinnacle position of my career-my day in the spotlight. Perhaps that was the problem. The spotlight was not where I was supposed to be,” (p. 13).
In the period of time that Bachelder refers to as her “retirement,” she joined the boards of AFC Enterprises, Inc., the parent company of Popeyes, and the True Value Company. Then, in 2007, the CEO of Popeyes left the company, the fourth to do so in just seven years. After interviewing several candidates to be the next CEO, the board asked Bachelder to lead the organization.
Popeyes was struggling, to say the least. Guest traffic, profitability, and same-store sales all were declining, and the stock price had fallen from $34 per share in 2002 to $13 per share in 2007.
“Looking back, this move was providential,” Bachelder remarked. “In my previous role at KFC, I had been humbled. Now I would be given a chance to redeem that experience by leading the people of Popeyes. I had a chance to step out of the spotlight, to lead the people to a daring destination, to serve them well along the journey, and to create the conditions for superior performance,” (p. 14).
Taking the leadership mantle for a mightily struggling organization, Bachelder and her leadership team began by committing to a leadership philosophy that would guide everything they did.
“We quickly agreed that this servant leadership notion would guide us going forward. But there was one more thing. We believed that servant leadership would deliver superior results. The performance of the enterprise would be the evidence that we had served others well,” (p. 18).
The results were as clear as they were dramatic.
Sales had increased by 45 percent, and profits had doubled. Popeyes’ share price rose to $61.31 by the end of 2016, and the company’s stock outpaced the S&P 500 restaurant sector and the overall S&P 500.
As a result, Bachelder proved that servant leadership could drive superior performance, even in a highly competitive environment like the food service industry.
Here are my three biggest takeaways.
Takeaway #1 - First Who
After choosing servant leadership as the philosophy that would guide them, the next decision was whom they would serve. The leadership team at Popeyes had no shortage of options, from investors to employees to customers, but they decided to focus on franchise owners, not because it was expected of them or because they were the easiest to serve, but because they provided the greatest potential impact on every other stakeholder.
“At Popeyes, we chose to serve the franchise owners well as our first priority,” Bachelder said. “This decision was not typical in our industry. Franchisors and franchisees are constantly in conflict-arguing about the contract, the business strategy, the restaurant design, the promotion pricing, or the cost of the food. If the conflict gets particularly bad, threats of lawsuits quickly surface,” (p. 21-22).
In fact, it was this high potential for conflict, which would make franchisees an easy group to avoid, that also was the source of the potential for positive transformation for the struggling company. Bachelder observed that, rather than working around the franchisees, serving the franchise owners well was more productive in the long-term, even when it was less efficient in the short-term.
“Persuading more than three hundred Popeyes franchise owners to agree on a decision was exhausting work, and when it isn’t going well, your self-talk begins to say, What is wrong with these people?,” Bachelder wrote. “The franchising contract gave the company the right to make certain decisions; we could simply say, ‘It’s in the contract.’ That is tempting, but it is not serving. We reminded ourselves that influencing and persuading others is ultimately more effective than exercising authority over them. At Popeyes, we had a contract if we needed it, but we wanted to use it only as a last resort,” (p. 30).
By centering others as a servant leader, Bachelder said Popeyes was positioned to get the best out of its people.
“People who are well served are more likely to give their best to the organization. That gives you the best prospect of getting superior performance results. Consciously decide whom you will serve. Don’t leave this to chance,” (p. 33).
Takeaway #2 - Then What
First Who, Then What is a concept from “Good to Great” by Jim Collins (2001), whose work Bachelder mentions as inspiration for her own leadership style. According to “Good to Great,” leaders who build great organizations make sure they have the right people on the bus and the right people in the key seats before they figure out where to drive the bus. In other words, they first think about who is on the bus, then about what is the destination for the bus. The best strategy is to assemble and empower a great group of people because circumstances and destinations are always subject to change.
In Bachelder’s book, she refers to the “Daring Destination,” or the real problems that, if solved, will deliver superior performance results.
“A leader who is unwilling to tackle the real problems and fix them cripples the organization. If the team is not working on the real problems, they often make up work to justify their existence. They sense that their activities will not yield superior results. They become discouraged by the futility of it all,” (p. 43).
One of the first, and most consequential, tests for this style of leadership was persuading the franchise owners to move from a decentralized marketing strategy (which was controlled by the franchisees in their individual markets) to a national strategy, which asked them to relinquish both their control and their marketing dollars. On top of that, past national campaigns had inconsistent results.
Bachelder and the Popeyes leadership team asked the franchise owners for a nine-week, $12-million commitment, which would deplete all of the monies available to them for the year. The franchisees not only agreed to the plan, but asked for a 31-week plan, which would require an additional $6 million commitment from the national organization.
If Bachelder and her team truly believed in the plan, the franchisees reasoned, it was time to “go big or go home.”
It turned out to be one of the most important decisions they ever made.
“Years later, the franchisees would say that this one decision started the Popeyes brand on a multiyear trajectory of industry-leading performance,” Bachelder wrote. “We made a bold decision together; we both took big risks. We put our money where our mouth was, and the strategy won in the marketplace,” (p. 47).
Bachelder identified five lessons in leading high-performance teams.
Find out the strengths of each team member and assign each to a role that uses those strengths.
Determine the skill gaps on the team and add that capability to the team.
Respect different talents in the team; everyone has something to contribute.
Create both the processes and the environment for success.
The leaders can’t create winning results on their own. The team creates the win.
“If you ask the people what constrains their performance, it is usually not skills; it is the work environment established by the leader. The work environment can inspire boldness, innovation, and excellence, or it can strangle the capability and productivity of the people and the team. This is the work of the leader: to create a work environment that yields superior results,” (p. 48).
Takeaway #3 - Why: The Power of Purpose & Meaning
In Chapter 3, Bachelder makes a passionate case for the need for change in how the general public views those who work in the food service industry, citing that one in ten people in the U.S. currently work in restaurants, one-third find their first jobs in restaurants, and one-half work in a restaurant at some time in their lives. She argues that restaurants are not only core components of our communities, but also important opportunities for leadership development, whether people continue in the food service industry or move on to other types of work.
This perspective makes it essential that leaders create environments that yield positive and powerful results.
Bachelder said, “It is the leader’s responsibility to bring purpose and meaning to the work of the organization. Purpose and meaning are essential to creating a high-performance organization. When people believe their work matters, they contribute differently… Purpose and meaning at work raise the energy level, commitment, and performance of the team,” (p. 62).
For Popeyes, this responsibility manifested through their commitment to discovering the strengths and knowing the motivations and values of the people they work with.
“We believed that every individual is uniquely designed with strengths that they bring to the workplace. If people do not know their own talents and their leader doesn’t know them either, we cannot put people in a position for success. As I often remark, ‘I must know you to grow you,’” (p. 70).
The organization also encouraged people to identify and share their “personal purpose” with others. When they did so, they observed these benefits (p. 76):
They receive positive feedback, encouragement, and suggestions from people who have worked side by side with them. This helps confirm and polish the purpose so that it is genuine and actionable.
Their coworkers gain a deeper understanding of who they are and how they best contribute at work. As a result, the coworkers know when to ask for their help and contribution to the team.
They gain support from their coworkers. A personal purpose helps the team know a person’s strengths and motivations. In turn, the team becomes the person’s advocate more often than becoming their critic.
They feel a part of something greater than themselves and accountable for contributing their best.
Although the benefits were clear, the practice was not mandatory for all employees.
“We had several leaders opt out of the Journey to Personal Purpose. And we let them. This problem takes care of itself over time. Those who have no clear personal purpose are not highly engaged and typically do not contribute their best work. Eventually, they leave or are asked to leave the organization. And the organization becomes stronger,” (p. 79).
To me, this was a great example of the power of culture. Leaders did not have to coerce employees or resort to “command-and-control” techniques. Instead, the “right people” found their way onto the proverbial bus, and those who were not good fits for the organization found their way off the bus.
Bonus Takeaway - Working Together
In Chapter 4, Bachelder underscores the importance of an organization’s culture in achieving results.
“A strategic road map is essential, but it is insufficient to drive superior results. As important as what you decide to do is to decide how you will work together to accomplish the plan. What principles will guide the daily work of the team, enabling them to serve one another, and the business plan, well? What principles, when put into action, will lead to superior results? Some call this the culture of the organization, which is a good word for it, because it means the way we think, behave, and work together to accomplish goals,” (p. 81).
Furthermore, Bachelder emphasizes that these principles need to be “in action,” not merely on plaques or slogans written on the walls, saying that they must “come alive in the daily conversations, decisions, and actions of the team,” (p. 82).
Popeyes’ Six Principles are:
We are passionate about what we do.
We listen carefully and learn continuously.
We are fact-based and planful.
We coach and develop our people.
We are personally accountable.
We value humility.
One example Bachelder shared of how these principles are put “in action” is the commitment and role modeling of leaders who “listen carefully and learn continuously,” even in the midst of heated situations, when it would be easy for a leader to take a “my way or the highway” stance.
“When leaders get mad, listening and learning go out the window. Mad leaders know exactly what they want to say. They cut to the chase and tell you exactly how they feel-which is highly efficient but very ineffective. The unfortunate truth: efficiency with people ruins relationships,” (p. 87).
Bachelder acknowledges this is far from easy, but that the long-term benefits prove it to be the best strategy.
“It’s not a natural instinct, but a Dare-to-Serve leader pauses-listens carefully and learns continuously-before taking action. Invariably, this helps the people reach alignment on the next steps so that they can execute them with excellence. This leads to a better outcome than a leader’s unilateral decision,” (p. 88).
