Last week I touched on how we need to work on building our relationships to thrive in building and sustaining a great organization. I am so lucky and blessed to be part of such an organization in Culver’s. It’s rare to find a billion dollar company in today’s world that still lives and believes in the values which made its very first location so successful. This week I have been in Chicago meeting with various Culver’s owners. The theme of the week has been, “it starts with heart.”
- When the Culver family started their very first store in 1984, Ruth Culver treated everyone that came in as a long lost friend, as if she was welcoming that person into her own home. She was really the driving force or the secret ingredient if you will to Culver’s reaching the heights it has reached today. Craig Culver will repeatedly say that we are in the people business and we just happen to serve pretty darn good butter burgers and frozen custard. When people taste our food with their heart first, it always tastes just a little bit better. I can still remember the time during my 16 weeks of training in Wisconsin getting ready to open my very first Culver’s when it really hit me and I started to understand what makes Culver’s so special. This is the day when I quit my job and really went to work. Culver’s has become part of my life and living these values everyday have completely changed my life. To really succeed in anything you do you need to have passion. Passion is what gets you ready to plow through the wall every day. Passion starts in the heart and passion is what makes your mind tell your body to act.
- This week we were able to listen to a talk given by Simon T Bailey. This was one of the most inspiring talks I have heard in quite a while. He made a comment about hugging people with your words. When we talk about Culver’s hospitality and the presence that we feel in the dining room with our guests, this statement sums it up perfectly. He also talked about creating, owning and sustaining the moment. This was a very powerful concept to learn about as he points out that the average person can have about 19,000 potential moments a day. Think about our business and how many potential moments that we can “own” when we deal with our guests and our team members every day. Think about how we choose to react in various situations and how those moments are altered either for good or bad based on our reaction. Every time we interact with someone there is a potential moment.
- As leaders we need to lead by example and actively look for those moments every day that we can create and own. As leaders it is up to us to not only own the moment, but then do everything we can do every day to sustain the moment. Sustaining the moment comes back to doing all of the little things perfect every day and “chasing consistency.” Consistency comes back to our leadership and what we do day in and day out in our locations. We need to do the little things right ourselves if we expect others to follow suit.
- A few final thoughts to remember:
- 1. Everyone that chooses Culver’s leaves happy.
- 2. It takes two people to say no but only one person to say yes.
- 3. Details matter and details are the difference between good and great.
- 4. Look for ways every day to “create the wow” and own the moment.
- Here is a link to Simon’s blog for more inspiration:
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