Tag Archives: leadership

Salt & Pepper, Time & Temp

3 Nov

There’s an awarding winning barbecue joint here in Austin. It started out as a trailer and soon graduated into its own building.  The barbecue is so good that you have to line up at 10:30 in the morning, wait an hour until they open the doors at 11:30, and when the meat is gone…they close.  I’m not kidding.

This past summer Bon Appétit magazine called it the Best Barbecue in America.

Aaron Franklin was asked by our local news what his secret was, I’m paraphrasing, but this was his response:

We get the best meat from Montana, and then it’s about salt and pepper, time and temp. That’s it.

Really? No secret sauce? He’s not blending 200 spices together, or using his great grand daddy’s recipe?

How many times have we messed something up, failed at making something better, because we kept piling on all of our little tricks.

How many times have we rushed to decisions, because we didn’t have the patience to just let it be and see it through?

The recipe for success here can easily be translated to your life and your work.  Don’t over season, make sure the basics are being executed, and above all…be patient.

Thanks and Goodbye

12 Oct

I’m out. I’ve written this column/blog for the last 2 years and it’s time to stop. I don’t know why, it just is.  The last few things I’ve written have felt forced. That’s not good.

I’ve enjoyed the time, the sharing, the ideas, and the inspiration. The truth is I’m on to what’s next. There are new responsibilities, new things to do, and my attention is elsewhere.

I’m always here to kick around ideas, and my blog will certainly stay up, but the weekly column is done.

Thanks again for reading; it was appreciated more than you’ll ever know.

Are We Using Our Super Powers?

22 Sep

On the way to work today, I had a couple of different ideas converge with each other, and it’s made me rethink how we look at employees.  We’ve often heard how important it is for people do be doing what they love.  Are they?

Morgan Spurlock’s TED talk in 2011 challenged us to think about what our own personal brand is. The question: What do we stand for? Seth Godin, several years back, suggested that we identify our super power. Rather than introducing ourselves to others by our job title, we introduce ourselves by what we’re good at.

What if we took the time to discover what each of our employees or team members are skilled at?  You’ll need to think about this for a minute, because we don’t want to hear what jobs they are good at, we want to hear what makes them good at their jobs. See the difference?

For example, you might be good at scheduling drivers and managing delivery routes, but what your super power, or skill might be, is solving puzzles.

I think it’s a powerful exercise. Find out what your entire teams’ individual skills are.  Make a map, write down their name, their skill, and then in another column, write down their current job.  Is everybody in the position they should be?

At the very least, you may discover there are people in the building that should be consulted on projects they currently don’t have any input on. You’ll be encouraging employees to “change lanes” once in a while. That’s a lot more interesting than driving in a straight line day after day. It also makes your business more agile and rather than reacting to slower traffic (competitors, economic conditions), you can avoid it.

Stop. Look. Listen.

16 Sep

I made a grocery run last weekend in pursuit of corn on the cob.  Our grocer stages trash barrels so you can do the shucking on-site.  I generally hate this job, but I had help, so my son and I got to work on four ears. After his first one, he looks up at me and says this:

“Can we do more than four? This is cool.”

“Really?” I thought. “You want to just stand here and shuck corn?”

“Totally!”

We kept going, three then two more, than another three. We started handing them to strangers.  We laughed, made fun of ourselves, he kept telling me how great it was.

In the mean time, there was a guy running around in the tomatoes chatting with someone through his Bluetooth ear piece.  He looked like an idiot. Two little ones in tow, he just wanted to get in, get out, and get some work done. He missed an opportunity to engage with his kids.

Connecting with your audience is no different.  Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the transaction, that we miss out on listening and learning from them.  That’s the good stuff, that’s where the great ideas and inspiration come from.

It’s just like crossing the street:

Stop. Look. Listen.

If you don’t do that, you’ll never make it to the other side. If you don’t do that with your customers, you won’t get your brand to the next level either.

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