When the Leader Leaves

I have been looking to refine my blog to a subject matter I feel comfortable with and my subject matter is Chick-fil-A. It's where I work, it's where I play, and it's where I learn. From that learning I have been encouraged to write document and share. I feel like God has blessed me with the ability to share stories and I want to do that with my professional life using Chick-fil-A and this blog.

Most of you know that a major change is happening in my life, I am leaving home and moving home. I am leaving one home-New Port Richey and am moving to my home state to the town of Athens, GA. This transition has brought back many laughs, stories, and people back into my life in a short period of time. From the moment I found out Alex was relocating, I had six weeks. 

"Everything rises and falls on leadership." John Maxwell. 

The moment Alex told me he was leaving, things changed. We blinked and he said-let's hold off on events. Most of our success has come outside of our restaurant and to hold off on events means for me to change roles in the restaurants. What I have been working on for the past 18 months needed to cease immediately. That's like telling water not to be wet. Good luck with that. 

Since we had that conversation I had to change my behavior professionally. Prior to his announcement my role had been boiled down to three specific things: focus, develop people, grow sales. "Holding off" on events was not what I wanted to hear, but it's something we had to do. We had to slow down. We had to shift our focus. We prepared to shift gears. 

We had schools to contact, we had to reach out to the city of NPR and their staff. We had coupons and flyers with specific promotions in place for individuals. All of that had an end date. One of the most challenging and difficult experiences I endured was to tell a business partner that our relationship is ending. 

That's not fun. 

I didn't/don't like telling people no. I have been trained to tell everyone yes. Yes we can make that happen. Yes we can do that event. Yes you can have the cow at your party. 

And then we had to say no. We had to stop participating. We had to sit this one out. 

In six weeks, our culture has drastically shifted. We have gone from a growth mindset to a "be ready for anything, change is coming" mindset. We have had one purpose with clear goals and incentives to drive us to be the best. And they are no longer a priority. 

My mentor Jim Rohn wrote a fantastic book on the subject that applies to changes in ones life. The Seasons of Life is a phenomenal read. 

The strange thing that kept popping up in my face was "know which season you are in". For the past six weeks I have tried to pull back, I have tried to tone down the activity level at work. It didn't work. We still did events after our cut off date. I'm still bringing in a group of people for milkshakes on my last day of work. 

Change is tough. Change is really tough. 

I feel like I am getting close to the matter but I am not hitting the bullseye. 

Know where you are what season you are in. If you don't, you will have a mell of a hess pushing on something that needs to be pulled. 

How do I know if I am successful?

I have just finished reading Napolean Hill's classic book, "Think and Grow Rich" for the second time.

Books on being a successful are possibly countless. This is just the one I was told about. In it are some "recipes" for success. At the end of the book I was left to ask myself this question-am I successful and how do I know?

I know for some of you similar thoughts have passed through your head about how success has been defined by answering questions like- Am I in the right job? Is this the way my romantic relationship is supposed to go? Could I have better friendships? Am I in the right religion? Am I making smart choices?

If I were to ask you, if you consider yourself successful, how did you get that way? How did you go from being unsuccessful to being successful? I want to use my professional journey as a way to look at what we did and see if we can come to a conclusion about what success looks like and how to attain it.

Professionally, by our company's standards, we have been successful. We have a positive sales trend and most of our customers have positive things to say about us. From a restaurant point of view that is successful.

My friend, Alex had a goal to move back to his home state and take over a restaurant there. He told me his plans for relocation over two years before it happened in a business plan.

By the end of the month we will be in Athens, GA with that goal crossed off our list. This change of scenery was desired, planned, hoped for, prayed about and achieved. Alex has successfully accomplished his goal of relocating. How did we do that?

Did we read a special book? Did we have the right friends? Did we have the ideal business partners? Did we have the perfect training plan? What role did our religion play?

One of the best questions I have ever been asked and have asked others-When was the last time you got angry? My answer was I get angry when I see people's potential not lived out. When people don't even attempt to be better than they are.

When I see an athlete not hustle, when I see an employee not go the second mile for their peer, when I see a church member complain about empty pews and do nothing during the week to change it, I get a little angry.

My next thought nest between that answer and the examination of how my professional life has been labeled successful.

How does one become successful? You choose.

Success is a choice. In "Minute with Maxwell" and I'm sure in other writings of his, John Maxwell says success is determined by our daily agenda. The choices you make today either make you successful or not. 

Napolean Hill said to have a definite major purpose. Alex Clark made up his mind before he even began his plan. Napolean and Alex decided what they wanted, wrote it down, made a plan, and then worked really hard at making it happen. 

Let's take some notes. Let's watch how they do it and then apply it to ourselves.

If you are somewhere between a rock and a hard place and don't know which way is up-take time to decide what you want, focus on it, and then work at becoming your own version of successful.