How many times have you heard that during your time at Chick-fil-A. Some of you have probably heard it more times than you’d like to remember. It’s that moment when all eyes immediately drift to the parking lot, and it’s as if time literally stops. Honestly, I love this feeling. It’s quite comical at times. Even our patrons dining in with us at the time sense the anxiety that is soon to follow. Personally, I love it. You know why? Because it gives us an opportunity to really show people what we’re made of. Every single time that bus unloads, whether it’s a sports team or a gaggle of unruly hangry(this word btw was just recently added in to the Oxford English dictionary) teenagers, I get excited. I have the utmost confidence in you all and how you can perform in high pressure situations. We simply have the best team and you knock it out of the park every time this happens.

This past Saturday the proverbial ‘bus’ happened at around 7:30pm when we had the opportunity to serve the entire Syracuse Women’s Lacrosse team. About 50 players and coaches unloaded and after beating our UNC Tarheels 13-11 that day, they were ready for some Chick-fil-A! And you know what? You nailed it! George and Nate showed great composure taking each of their orders on the front counter while James and others quickly and efficiently got all of the food out in a timely manner. Carlos was at the helm in the kitchen making sandwiches with typical Salvadorian lightening speed, but you know what really made the day?

Our very own Comfort Johnson and Jayla Branch kept the drive thru going without practically any help from others. It was awesome. Jayla was on the headset taking orders and bagging at the same time for Comfort. What a sight! And Comfort (who hasn’t been with us very long at all) persistently greeted each guest who came through, repeated their order, and kept things running smoothly. It was quite the spectacle, and I’m really proud of them both.

Sure, tensions were high, and at times, it wasn’t pretty. But we got through it and did our jobs. And at the end of the day we had an opportunity to show those Orange women how us Southern slow-talkers can really turn up the heat when we need to. Jayla and Comfort, I’m proud of you. I really appreciate your hard work and ingenuity when times got tough. Congratulations on a job well done to you all. This is a prime example of who we want to be at Renaissance Village. I’m confident that we showed both those athletes as well as the other guests present just what it means to provide truly REMARKable service. Let’s make it a great week at Chick-fil-A!

Alright team. I have a challenge for you. In the previous two posts we’ve talked about our big buckets for the second quarter of 2017. Bucket one reflects our desire to build a Culture of Excellence at Chick-fil-A Renaissance Village. And Bucket two mentions specifically that we have a goal of becoming one of the top 100 drive thrus in the entire CFA chain. A lot of you might be saying, ‘This is all well and good…but how do we get there?’ I’m glad you asked.

The first step to achieving our goals this quarter and this year is recruiting more people! One of my favorite books of all time on business/leadership is Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins. In that book he talks about how the most successful companies achieve and sustain success over long periods of time by getting the right people on the bus and putting them in the right seat. This is where we are as a company. We’ve got a lot of talented people like yourselves, and we’ve done a pretty good job of placing you in the right seats. But, in order to go further, we simply need to fill a lot of seats that are currently empty!

So here is where you come in. We need you to recruit your friends to join our team. It’s up to you to fill that bus! To be specific, your homework assignment this week is to email or text me five of the most talented people that you know. Some of them might even have a job and some of them might not. Either way, I need you to send me their email address or phone number and I will handle the rest.  You never know, for some of those people Chick-fil-A might be the ideal job for them. All you have to do is get me their info. And the due date for these names is this Saturday, April 15th by 5pm.

One suggestion is to go ahead and take 5 recruitment cards with you when you go into the restaurant next time. You can take them from the poster board in front or just ask one of the leaders to get them for you from the manager’s station. Here is what they look like.

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. And remember, you have the opportunity for a financial reward if we hire one of your recruits. You really have nothing to lose. Some of the best team members we currently have, which is you, were originally brought to us by others who were already serving on the team. I’m incredibly excited to see my inbox fill up by the end of this week with all the names you send. Thanks in advance for you hard work in this. With our powers combined I truly believe we can make this company great!

Here is a question for you. Would you rather have success in just one thing? Or would you rather have the ability to do a whole bunch of things… but only with 50% success? I’m sure the answer is pretty simple when put that way, but here is how I like to think about it.

Have you ever seen one of those old-fashioned plate spinners? You know, those guys who showed up on the old-school late night shows. They come in and entertain the crowd with their ability to keep multiple plates spinning at the same time. They’d start with one or two in their hands, and then set those down as their spinning, start spinning more plates, and pretty soon the whole stage is filled with all these wooden pegs topped with spinning plates. And then what happens? All of the plates inevitably slow down, thus requiring the plate spinner to anxiously run back and forth across the stage maintaining all the spinning, lest they fall and shatter (which is probably more of what the audience wants to see anyway…).

And you know what? Many organizations(including our own) unfortunately operate in the very same way. Without mentioning examples, these teams simply try to do too much. Intentions are good, morale is high, and they really want to see the business improve. They even believe in team work and value a high work ethic, but ultimately, without a more singular focus, they burn out as, one-by-one, each plate stops spinning and falls.

So, what is that singular focus for our team at CFA Renaissance Village? This brings me to Bucket Two. As we continue building a Culture of Excellence, which was bucket one, our goal in quarter two is to become one of the top 100 drive thrus in the entire chain. That’s right! I know this is a pretty lofty goal, but believe me, folks, we can do this. So how do we get there? What does it take to be among the top 100 drive thrus in the kingdom that is Chick-fil-A? More on that in the near future. But for now, get excited about this. Talk about it with your team members  and brainstorm new ideas on your own. How are we going to reach this goal? We are open to any ideas you might have. I’m excited to do this together with you all. It’s going to be a great second quarter!