Leaders should include others in their learning adventures, Cathy said. “A leader should never go anywhere by themselves and forfeit the opportunity of sharing the knowledge, the learning, that can be gained by being well traveled.”
Using an analogy of a symphony orchestra, Cathy related it to successful leadership.
“An orchestra is a team. Not everybody plays the same instrument…But why do they work together,” he said. “They work together because there’s a conductor at the front of the room who’s got a score. [They’ve] got a baton in their hand, and they realize that if they could sync everybody up, if they can all play off the same piece of music, if they could follow the notes that have been scripted out, and so forth, they can create an incredibly beautiful experience by all of them being together. Great orchestras are reading off a score led by a conductor.”
RELATED: East Texas Franchisees Build Their Chick-fil-A on the Bible—Literally
Cathy emphasized that “it’s the composer who was the first one to hear the music between their ears…My challenge is to make sure that I never dumb down the music to fit the orchestra, but that I upgrade the orchestra, and the talent, to play the music. As leaders, be incredibly clear about the music that you want to hear.”
“My father was crystal clear regarding his vision for Chick-fil-A and drilled into our minds for 10 years that he wanted people to hear ‘my pleasure’ when they say ‘thank you,’” Cathy said.
“He never wavered in that,” Cathy concluded. “We actually picked up the sound bites and the video clips of him saying that for 10 consecutive years. Let’s make sure we as leaders are really, really clear as to what we want that music to sound like.”
