Articles

One of the hats I have the privilege of wearing is Partner at Roam Innovative Workplace. Offering convenience and flexibility for both corporations and remote professionals alike, Roam serves the Metro Atlanta area with five (soon to be six) shared workspaces located in the city’s most prominent economic hubs.

This month we’re featuring an incredible interview with my good friend, Jeff Henderson, who has a new book out called Know What You’re FOR. There are some remarkable insights in here… enjoy!

I have always been drawn to startups, even as a young child. In fact, I'm involved in three for-profit startups currently, and almost every nonprofit I am a part of, I joined in their startup phase whether that’s Eagle Ranch, Davar Partners International, Northpoint Church, or ReThink and Orange Conference. But the question is, why am I drawn to them? We’ll get back to that.

Hiring for culture fit is one of the most impactful things you will ever do as a leader. The ultimate question I ask myself when interviewing a candidate is, will they be able to look me in the eye when their career is over and tell me that the least important thing they ever got from Chick-fil-A was a paycheck?

I often say that culture is the ultimate competitive advantage. That’s because your organization could hire the exact same level of person but end up with entirely different results depending on the health of your culture.

A friend of mine, Scott Beck, is a serial entrepreneur behind the rise of Boston Market, Einstein Brothers Bagels, and more. He said something to me on a number of occasions that really didn't make sense until I started thinking of it in light of what we're talking about here.

Truett Cathy, the Founder of Chick-fil-A, used to talk about the fact that sometimes 10% more effort yields a 100% better result. While I don’t know if that’s true in every area of business, it certainly is true in some aspects, and we discovered one of those for Chick-fil-A when we developed what we call the Second Mile Service program.

I once attended a leadership conference early in my career and heard a speaker that blew my mind about everything I knew about leadership. He instructed us to take out a sheet of paper and draw a circle with two lines (one North to South, and one East to West), like a compass.

I'm so glad to be joining you on this journey to Spark a Revolution in organizations across every industry. Each month, you will receive a newsletter with some thoughts on culture and leadership in the form of an interview with my team. I hope it inspires you to Spark a Revolution in your own organization.

It was the privilege of a lifetime to serve as one of the original two marketing executives at Chick-fil-A, where just a few months ago I took early retirement after 37 years, and most recently served as the Vice President of Growth & Hospitality.