The Experts Are Here

During this month at Fayetteville Street, I asked every employee to choose one area of the store to master. After mastering their skill, I challenged them to share their expertise with their fellow team members. We now have quite a few Recipe for Service experts, a biscuit connoisseur and a breading guru! What amazes me most is how each team member has taken ownership of their area and takes pride in their new knowledge. I was hoping to create experts. What we now have are ambassadors, focused on the part they can play in making our store awesome.

A Change Will Do You Good!

Over the past week, I have made some changes to the store’s layout. My intention was to improve the flow of customers during our very busy, crowded, cramped and confusing lunch hour when everyone in Downtown Raleigh needs to eat and run back to work.

So far we've been successful…people seem to fly through the line and now spend more time making that crucial drink decision than waiting for their meal. Here's a look at the 'new' design.

Our counter space has become a long selection of delicious drinks...customers
just slide down to make selections. Lemonade is now just behind the registers. The sauces have also been moved- the cashiers distribute them now-saving time and our supplies!

Check out this beautiful condiment counter. It's visible to all customers and easily accessible from the drink station. Plus the counter creates more private seating at the window.

The old lemonade area is now a salad condiment and display area...our fastest improvement thus far!

More improvements to come.......

Where's My Circle?

Currently, I’m reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, by Stephen Covey. I’m impressed with the book as a whole (in fact I've heard the 8th habbit is reading his book), however I've especially focused on implementing the first habbit which is entitled “Be Proactive”. Covey explains here that everyone has a range of concerns in their lives: relationships, family, finances or where to go out for dinner. He dubs this the "circle of concern". Within this circle, though, we find a much smaller circle where we actually have influence over our concerns, thus called our "circle of influence". Successful people don't dwell on or attempt to influence areas beyond their control; rather, they focus the majority of their efforts and energy on their area of influence. This concept has really resonated with me and the way I think about all areas of life, especially at work.

One simple example where this mindset has helped me is my handling of the broken ice machine. Not running out of ice has become a major "concern" for me. My natural reaction would probably be to focus on getting the new ice machine in . Unfortunately the amount of time I could spend thinking and worrying about the arrival of the new ice machine will not, in any way shape or form, influence how fast it will get here. It would be wasted energy. It would be easy for me to resign myself to the fact that I’d have to let my accountant and business consultant know that I’ve had to purchase hundreds of dollars worth of ice over the next few weeks to keep us afloat. However, within my circle of influence I realized I had other options... (imagine a light bulb turning on over my head)... other Chick-fil-A’s have ice... I could borrow... maybe even for free. For the past week we've been transporting hundreds of pounds of ice in sanitized food safe coolers to our store multiple times a day. It's not easy, but it's a much better option than purchasing bags of ice at $2.58 a pop. I can’t influence when our ice machine gets here, but I can influence how we handle the situation here at the store. This is just one example of many about how it pays to stay focused on my circle of influence. (Let's just hope getting the new ice machine here is in the circle of influence for the guys at the ice machine company!)

"This could be the beginning of a beautiful...leadership team."

During this month, one of my core goals is to begin developing leaders who will effectively guide this amazing crew towards higher and more excellent goals. Not only is this a major need, but I've realized this tough but amazing process is one of the reasons I'm with Chick-fil-A in the first place and makes me love my job.

Yesterday I spent an incredible three hours with Michael and Mauricio. I had penciled in a 45 minute meeting into my planner! These guys were brimming with ideas, thoughts and were able to open up about their struggles and lack of knowledge. We bounced ideas off each other, discussed roles, and I shared where I envisioned the store for the next month and then in the long term. It took a few minutes... and mostly fueled by me asking them many questions (Erick, thanks for modeling this to me).... but finally the guys grasped the reality that we must first be consistently excellent in the basics of food, continue the development of each team member, and improve customer service if the store is going to continue to grow. Then they made it their own! Mauricio's chief goal is to get the breading right in the store and Michael is focusing on finding ways to be more proactive within his circle of influence and relationship building. I'm proud of these guys and am looking forward to our meeting next week!