Category: Training

Three Steps to Increase Employee Engagement

Post author By Gregg Dedrick
Post date 01/06/2020

By: David Novak, Co-Founder & CEO of David Novak Leadership

It’s impossible. I can’t do that. The reason I missed my deadline is because… As a leader, do you get these types of excuses from those on your team? I know it can be frustrating to hear excuses because I’ve heard lots of excuses while leading teams at KFC and Yum! Brands. And while you might be tempted to blame your team for their excuses, I’d like to challenge you to adopt a different mindset when it comes to excuses. Could it be that excuses are rooted in barriers your team needs you, as the leader, to eliminate?

The Power of Eliminating Barriers

When I came into KFC, my goal was to shift the culture to empower our Restaurant General Managers. We knew that having the tools and equipment to do your job increases engagement. We also knew that it was important to equip your team by:

Aligning the team with common goals rather than providing no direction
Noticing the needs of the team and providing resources rather than ignoring needs or assuming all needs are met
Helping the team by eliminating barriers rather than requiring members to fend for themselves

We were passionate about learning how to better equip our managers, so we took action.

Step One: Solicit Feedback from Managers

The first step we took was to solicit feedback from our managers. We wanted to know what resources they needed to be successful and what barriers they faced so we could make changes.

I quickly discovered we were holding the managers accountable for things that were undoable because they didn’t have the tools to do their jobs. The managers described a number of barriers that directly and indirectly hindered their performance, things like:

Too much paperwork
Not enough drive-thru jackets
Not enough labor dollars, which prevented them from covering their shifts

This feedback was eye-opening to the Executive Team and helped us understand that our managers really didn’t have the tools they needed to be successful.

Step Two: Communicate

Step two involved communicating with our managers. We shared our research findings and let them know we not only heard what they said, but we also took action by eliminating barriers. Based on their feedback, we reduced paperwork, provided more drive-thru jackets and increased labor dollars. We also let them know these changes put accountability back in their court and we expected them to achieve better results since the barriers were eliminated.

Step Three: Hold Your Team Accountable

Our decision to give the managers what they needed to do their jobs catapulted performance and morale for those who wanted to be empowered. Our decision was celebrated by some and they embraced receiving resources with accountability.

Not all managers were excited about this change. In fact, the decision to equip the managers exposed those who relied on the barriers to mask their poor performance. We initially experienced substantially higher Restaurant General Manager turnover because those managers who didn’t like the higher goals and accountability quit.

However, long term, the payoff for removing barriers made a positive impact at KFC. We experienced:

Overall higher levels of performance
More engaged and empowered managers
Reduced manager turnover after the initial fallout

Do You Need to Eliminate Barriers?

How often do you hear excuses at work? How often do you make excuses at work? Could it be that you and/or your co-workers don’t have the tools to be successful?

You can uncover barriers to success by taking action. Do your research like I did. Ask questions. Find out what resources are needed and what barriers are keeping your team from achieving results. Then provide the resources and eliminate the barriers while holding your team to higher expectations. Download this guide to learn more about equipping your team by removing barriers.

When you eliminate barriers, you might experience some turnover like we did at KFC, but don’t let that stop you from taking action. As Ben Carson said, “So after a while, if people won’t accept your excuses, you stop looking for them.” You can help your team stop looking for excuses by removing barriers. You can help your team learn to embrace accountability. Are you willing?

Do you know someone who could use help eliminating barriers? If so, pay it forward today and share this blog and guide with them. By sharing this blog and guide, you are equipping them to become a better leader.

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The Two Things You Need To Be a Complete Leader

Post author By David Novak Leadership
Post date 12/16/2019

We want to change the world by creating better leaders and we believe to be the best leader you can be requires that you are both Heartwired® and Hardwired®.

What do we mean by that? Heartwiring® is building passionate commitment in those you lead and Hardwiring is putting the discipline and process around what matters most so you get great results. If you have one without the other you are never going to accomplish BIG things.

There are four categories:

Leaders who are high on Heartwiring® and Hardwiring® are the type of leader others want to follow. They treat others well and care about them while using process and discipline to get consistent results the right way. But even good leaders can get better
Those who are high on Heartwiring® and low on Hardwiring® tend to be well liked by their peers and subordinates, but they often fail to deliver the best results on a consistent basis. Learning how to establish process and discipline around the things that matter most will help them deliver and sustain powerful results.
Individuals who are low on Heartwiring® and high on Hardwiring® tend to value results more than people. People in this quadrant may experience low engagement and high turnover on their team because they tend to get things accomplished through muscle management rather than influence.
People who are low on both Heartwiring® and Hardwiring® might be new leaders who have not received appropriate leadership training. Or they may come from a work environment that focuses only on results. They desire to become the most effective leaders they can be, but, like everyone, they need help.

We must never stop growing as leaders. Most of us lean more towards one or the other, either we are more Heartwired or Hardwired. Determine where you need to grow the most and lean into the learning zone. Take our FREE assessment and find out if you are more Heartwired or Hardwired.

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Be Your Best Self

By: Gregg Dedrick, Co-Founder & President of David Novak Leadership

How often have you been encouraged to just be yourself? You get this coaching from others throughout your life and while it sounds good, and could even be considered helpful, it’s often easier said than done. Fear can creep in. You might feel tempted to conform and fit in rather than be true to yourself. You wrestle. I personally believe that in reality, it’s much harder to be yourself than most people are willing to admit.

But I also know that when you hide your best self to be something that you’re not, it can come across as inauthentic. Others often see right through you and you can lose trust in those relationships.

So how do you learn to be your best self when faced with the reality that it can be really difficult?

I’ve focused on being my best self throughout my career. However, I’m not perfect at it. I even learned about the importance of being my best self through an embarrassing lesson at the age of 43 while President of KFC.

My dream job was to become president of a business, and I was excited about making a positive impact on the KFC brand and people working with me. Since the business had been in a state of decline, I had the opportunity to turn it around while incorporating some fun. Note my emphasis on fun…

After a year as president, the business was improving and I wanted to celebrate this accomplishment with the restaurant general managers that made it happen. More than two thousand managers came to Louisville for this celebration. During the planning process, someone from my team pitched the idea to create a video to play on the bus ride from the hotel to our facilities. My role in the video was to welcome the managers to Louisville and share what they could expect in the days ahead.

Insert the fun here: I was cast as the narrator for a David Letterman spoof, complete with an opening monologue and Letterman-style Top Ten List. The problem with this fun approach is I’m terrible at delivering one-liners. And I prefer handwritten notes, not teleprompters. I know this about myself, yet I went along with the plan. Do you think I came across as my best self? Absolutely not! I still cringe when I watch the video and clearly see how I wasn’t my best self at all. I was stiff, when I’m usually informal. It was evident that I was reading off the teleprompter, which is not how I deliver the best speeches. The only saving grace of the video was when I ditched the script, put on a pair of feathery chicken feet, and did what I naturally do best: I walked through the KFC Headquarters talking to whoever I met along the way about everything from the history of Colonel Sanders to what we do in our research kitchen.

This lesson in being your best self became part of my leadership program. I show the bus video (although sometimes I leave the room because I can’t bear to watch it!), to emphasize how easy it is to tell when someone isn’t being themselves.

While it’s important to be your best self, I must highlight this caveat: As a leader, being your best self does NOT give you permission to treat everyone with a take me as I am or leave mindset. Instead, you have to figure out a way to be true to yourself while broadening your appeal and impact rather than turning people off or unnecessarily clashing with company culture. You engage with all kinds of people as a leader. Consider how you can be yourself while respecting the unique approaches of others too.

Do you lead while being your best self? Do you have a story like mine where you weren’t your best self and it showed? Answer these questions to help you understand how often you lead as your best self:

When have you struggled with being your best self?
Do you tend to conform based on what others want, or do you tend to stay true to yourself? Explain your answer.
What keeps you from being your best self?

Download this guide to dig deeper into how you can become your best self. Let’s unite around the power of being our best selves as we lead others to become their best selves because as Leo Buscaglia says: The easiest thing in the world to be is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don’t let them put you in that position.”

Do you know someone who might find these tips on being your best self helpful? Then pay it forward by sharing this blog and guide with them today. You never know how the simple act of sharing leadership tips with others can inspire them to become a better leader.

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Five Behaviors of Great Leaders

Post author By David Novak
Post date 06/25/2019
1 Comment on Five Behaviors of Great Leaders

When you think of great leaders who comes to mind? Do you think of historical people like Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King or John F. Kennedy? Maybe you think of leaders of powerful companies like Jamie Dimon or Indra Nooyi.

You don’t have to be famous or lead a big company to be a great leader. Think about those leaders that made a real impact in your life like your high school coach, an employer or a manager that invested in your growth and development. These leaders earn trust and respect from their followers, and they lead by example. What makes them different?

Here are 5 behaviors that make a great leader:

1. They are all about their organization’s success. They understand that nothing big is accomplished alone. They care more about the success of the people working for them than their own success.

2. They are successful over a long period of time, and in more than one occasion. Great leaders are adaptable and grow. Because they understand and apply positive leadership principles, they can come into a variety of new situations and circumstances and still be highly effective.

3. They are avid learners. Great leaders are good at what they do, but they don’t stop there. They want to learn new ways to get better at leadership, at their business, and at their craft.

4. They don’t shift blame to their people when faced with setbacks. Great leaders take ownership when problems arise. They focus on what needs to be done to correct the issue then put process and discipline in place to ensure the issue doesn’t happen again.

5. Great Leaders recognize the people that helped them succeed. When success comes, great leaders point to their team – or mentors – as the reason. They give the credit away, rather than hoard it.

Leaders who exemplify these traits are not only admirable, but they leave a lasting impression. Implement these five behaviors and you’ll be sure to leave a lasting impression, too. If you want to continue to grow in your leadership, check out the great resources on our website.

Avid Learner Blog Lead Others Lead Yourself Training

Are You Hirable?

If you think having a great resume and a prestigious qualification makes you hirable, think again. Many employers look at qualities as well as qualifications.

If you want a long career in your field of choice, you need to be the type of candidate people want on their team. So, what kind of candidate is that?

Have you ever wanted to tap into the thoughts of a hiring manager to learn why some people get hired and others don’t? You might be surprised by what you discover. If you think a great resume and prestigious qualifications are enough, think again.

We’ve asked David Novak, former CEO of Yum! Brands, what he looks for when he hires someone, and this is what he told us:

Most leaders will start by verifying that a potential candidate is smart and intelligent. The applying person must have the skills for the job, otherwise it simply won’t work out. Competence is the first qualifier.

The employer will then dig deeper to make sure the candidate is a good fit. During an interview, the hiring manager typically looks for two things:

1. Why will this person be a great addition to our team?

2. Does this person have the ability to learn?

David believes the difference between a good performer and a great performer comes down to a desire to learn. Are you the kind of person who wants to learn from others? Do you seek out best practices in your field? Hiring managers look for the candidates who are curious because they strive to learn throughout their career and, as a result, raise the game for other members in on their team. When interviewing, be prepared to share how you are passionate about learning. This just might set you apart from other candidates.

After interviewing applicants, David determines who to hire by asking himself, “Would I want my daughter to work for this person?” If the answer was no, then that person wouldn’t get the job. However, if David saw someone with a special leadership quality, someone who would invest in his daughter and help her become the best she could be, he would hire that person.

Hirability is the one quality that will help you get through the gates and onto a path towards a successful career. Being a learner and a leader are equally important, and we are committed to helping you develop in those areas. Check out the David Novak Leadership Podcasts and learn from other great leaders at David Novak Leadership.

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Break Through Team Deadlock

Post author By David Novak Leadership
Post date 06/19/2018

One of the toughest spots a leader can find herself in is a deadlock with her team members. Have you ever found yourself in this situation?
Your cross functional team is supposed to make a recommendation to the leadership team on Friday, yet no one seems to be on the same page. Marketing is ready to plow ahead. Finance wants more information before making a decision. The operations and supply chain representatives want to go in completely opposite directions. How do you break through this impasse and get to a unified recommendation?

Why This Tool Will Help You Break Through Team Deadlock

David Novak Leadership co-founder, Gregg Dedrick, commonly uses a tool he calls “beat that.” After listening to the perspectives and rationale from each of the team members, he commonly puts out a straw man recommendation and says “beat that.”
The “beat that” recommendation moves the team’s focus and discussion from defending individual positions to reacting to the recommendation on the table. It challenges people to make the recommendation better, not simply poke holes at it.
By creating a “beat that” recommendation, the team can move past impasse and align on a plan to take to the leadership team. It doesn’t mean the plan can’t evolve over time, but by definition, it is the best recommendation that they have at that time.
The “beat that” tool releases your team from deadlock and often creates the best final solution that everyone can agree on. Try using this tool the next time your team comes to an impasse.
For more leadership insight and techniques to help you become a better leader, check out the leadership resource section at DavidNovakLeadership.com.

Podcast Training

Carol Loomis, Trailblazer in Financial Journalism

Post author By David Novak
Post date 04/26/2018

Today’s guest is Carol Loomis. Carol is one of the best Financial Journalists of our time. Her six-decade career with Fortune Magazine began in 1954 as a researcher until her retirement in 2014 as Fortune Magazine’s senior editor at large. Along the way, she blazed a trail for women journalists, wrote a famous article about Alfred W Jones that coined the term “hedge fund” and became close friends with a little-known Omaha investor named Warren Buffett.
[bctt tweet=”“Learning can never be dismissed as not important…””]

Download this Action Journal

This great resource will help you along the way, during or after you listen to the podcast. Not only will you get to know our guest, you will be asked tough questions to really spearhead your journey to becoming a better leader! And look below for more insights and clips!!

Shareable Insights

From Podcast Action Journal

Carol gives the following advice to aspiring female leaders:
• Run your division or organization with the same rules men use.
• Find a mentor.
• When taking on a new initiative, learn as much as you can.
(29:44-30:30)

Which of these is most important for an aspiring female leader?

Because Carol had a family and a career, balance was really important. Having a great caregiver helped tremendously, but Carol recalls coming home after work and preparing dinner. Summers were more difficult. She went to her boss and asked for 3 months off a year, and fortunately he agreed.
Overall, Carol found a good balance, but juggling work and home was hard. People don’t give enough credit to women who work.
(48:58-51:50)

How does an imbalanced schedule affect you?
What are some ways you find balance in your work and home life? Or do you need to reevaluate your situation and make adjustments?

David Novak Leadership in the News Training

THE INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM: Accidental CEO with David Novak

Post author By David Novak
Post date 03/20/2018

In this Innovative Ecosystem Podcast episode, we are joined by David Novak, former CEO and Founder of Yum! Brands which includes Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC. David is the author of several books including Taking People With You and his biography The Education of An Accidental CEO. Most recently, David has co-founded David Novak Leadership, a digital leadership training platform that aims to change the world by building better leaders.

LISTEN to the PODCAST.

David Novak Leadership in the News Training

David Novak Leadership Launches New Online Leadership Program

Post author By David Novak
Post date 02/22/2018

Toxic Leadership, Rock Bottom Trust and Demand for Leadership Skills in the Workplace Fuels David Novak, Former Yum! Brands Chairman, to Launch David Novak Leadership ‘Heartwiring and Hardwiring Your Leadership™’ Digital Training Program. Novak attacks today’s leadership gap that is reducing employee morale, engagement and the business bottom line by teaching proven, real-world global leadership lessons to help people take control of their careers and become stronger, more successful leaders.

See full press release…

Podcast Training

Fitscript, Founder and CEO, Charles O’Connell

Post author By David Novak
Post date 02/08/2018

In the fall of 2013, Charlie O’Connell opened the Fitscript GLUCOSEZONE Center, a unique facility dedicated to diabetes, exercise, and developing multi-media content related to exercise, diabetes metrics, and integrated data from bio-metric devices.
Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at Yale New Haven Hospital in the fall of 1996, Charlie is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (’02) where he was a two-sport varsity athlete (Football and Track and Field), as well as high school All-American in Track and Field. Before founding Fitscript, Charlie worked in Business development for a successful software startup in the Homeland Security Industry. Charlie is a father, husband, golfer, skier, runner, speaker and entrepreneur. Episode #27 of the David Novak Leadership Leadership Podcast with David Novak and special guest, Charles O’Connell.

Download this Action Journal

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From Podcast Action Journal

Charles became very ill during his senior year of high school. After losing 55 pounds, he had to be admitted to the hospital. He was diagnosed with diabetes, and had a very difficult time with the news.
Charles was defiant about his illness and didn’t want to be held back because of it. He learned to manage his diabetes, and ended up playing on University of Pennsylvania’s basketball team. He persevered and went as far as to qualify for the Olympic trials.
(5:30-8:12)

What obstacles have you faced in trying to reach your goals?
Think about a time you persevered. Did it pay off?

After 6 years with E Team, Charles began to feel both physically and emotionally burnt-out. Charles had just returned from the Hurricane Katrina disaster when his boss sat him down and explained that he was letting him go. Because Charles was so invested in his work, he wouldn’t have resigned on his own. Charles’ boss realized that and released him from the company.
Though it was difficult at the time, being fired turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him—only after that did he realize that his calling was to help those suffering with diabetes.
(13:46-15:59)

Have you ever experienced physical or emotional burn-out?
How do you think leaders should handle burn-out?

David Novak Leadership in the News Training

Global Game Changers Gift

Post author By David Novak
Post date 12/04/2017

Global Game Changers has a breakthrough curriculum for impacting the self-esteem and leadership development of elementary students. Learn more about Global Game Changers and their extraordinary mission.

Click here for more:
https://hubs.ly/H09mF3f0

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Why Great Leaders Need Truth Tellers

Post author By Gregg Dedrick
Post date 08/29/2017
1 Comment on Why Great Leaders Need Truth Tellers

Were your antennae clipped at birth? This is not your typical leadership question, but let’s consider how helpful this question can be. Antennae provide sensory information to insects which helps them better understand their environment. While humans don’t have actual antennae, we use environmental clues to discover how we are perceived by others. Yet not everyone’s antennae work perfectly, and some seem to have had their antennae clipped at birth. Research refers to this as lacking emotional intelligence, but I’ve found that asking if your antennae were clipped gets people’s attention a lot better!

When serving as the Head of Human Resources at Yum! Brands, I frequently got to help people who were stuck in their growth and performance. Have you ever worked with someone who seemed completely unaware of how their attitude and actions impacted others? Me too – and those are the people I describe as having their antennae clipped at birth. For example, consider the person who talks too much in meetings and constantly interrupts others, yet her behavior doesn’t change. Others dread going to meetings and don’t feel heard because she talks all the time. Because her antennae are clipped, she doesn’t realize how her behavior negatively impacts the team. The truth is, some people don’t have antennae to help them navigate their relationships.

We all have blind spots in our lives, even if our antennae work properly. The key to uncovering our blind spots is giving people permission to give us feedback. When we invite people to serve as truth tellers in our lives, we learn and grow. If we don’t have a few truth tellers, we run the risk of staying stuck with behaviors that are ineffective, and possibly destructive, to our success.

I know from personal experience that asking for feedback can be hard because you might be surprised by what you hear. When I was Head of Human Resources at KFC, I was introduced to a feedback exercise and decided to try it out with the Executive Team. We had one minute to complete two statements about each Executive Team Member in a round robin format:

What I appreciate about you
How you can be more effective

I got more feedback from these two questions than I received in an entire year! Some of it was encouraging, some of it was helpful, and one particular piece of feedback was shocking. During this exercise, I found out that one of my peers thought I was going over his head to send him messages. This information shocked me because that was not my intent. Because my relationship with this peer was important to me, I took action to repair our relationship. We started having regular lunch meetings where I shared what was going on and what I was thinking. And over time, we developed a productive relationship because he shared feedback with me and I took action to make changes.

The Executive Team Round Robin opened my eyes to how powerful this feedback tool can be. And once I understood the power of receiving feedback, I recruited a few people to become my truth tellers. I regularly asked them to give me straight feedback, and they agreed to be honest. Seeking out feedback has helped me become a better leader in both my personal and professional life.

Ken Blanchard coined the phrase, – Feedback is the breakfast of champions. I’m a firm believer in the

truth of this phrase. It’s a simple way to remind you that you need to invite people to give you feedback daily, just like you eat breakfast each day. Both breakfast and regular feedback helps you become more

productive.

Were your antennae clipped at birth? Maybe not, but we can all use a few truth tellers in our lives. Who can you invite to be your truth tellers? Once you identify them, use this feedback tool to start the conversation. And remember to seek out that feedback regularly! Building discipline around asking for feedback can help you become a better leader. Who will you ask for feedback today? Download the Truth Tellers Feedback Exercise to help you get started.

David Novak Leadership is all about investing in you and helping you become the best leader you can be. And we invite you to pay it forward by sharing this blog and the feedback tool with others. Who can you share this with today?

Podcast Training

Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Part 1

Post author By David Novak
Post date 07/19/2017
2 Comments on Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Part 1

Listen to PART 1 of this dynamic conversation between David Novak and Jamie Dimon, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., a global financial services firm with assets of $2.5 trillion and operations worldwide. The firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers, small business, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management.

[bctt tweet=”“Listening to what they have to say and fixing it – that’s respect.””]

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Shareable Insights

From Podcast Action Journal

Conflict is tough, and it’s tempting to avoid conflict. But remember, problems don’t age well. Jamie answers these questions on Sunday nights to help him engage in necessary conflict:
(16:33-18:17)

What am I avoiding? What’s tough? What do I have to do?

Big companies can be bureaucratic. Jamie uses these three strategies to shock the system:

Return every email and phone call.
Do it today. Don’t wait. If you see something dumb, fix it.
Let leaders do their thing.

(13:22-14:22)

How well do you apply these strategies?

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From Trailer Park to Corner Office: How My Past Impacts My Present

Post author By David Novak
Post date 07/18/2017
3 Comments on From Trailer Park to Corner Office: How My Past Impacts My Present

back view of programmer sitting with hands behind head at workplace

By: David Novak, Co-Founder & CEO of David Novak Leadership

What do you want to be when you grow up? People are asked this question all the time, especially when they are young. Did you know that only 30% of global workers work in the field of their childhood dream job?¹

I have to confess that I did not end up working in the field of my childhood dream job. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a Major League Baseball player before the reality set in that I couldn’t hit a curve ball. At one time, I saw myself as a sports writer.

Because my dad worked for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, marking latitudes and longitudes for the nation’s mapmakers, we moved every three months from small town to small town. I actually lived in 23 states by the time I was in seventh grade! My dad would hook up our trailer to his government truck and we would move to the next town. We literally took our neighborhood with us as the rest of the surveyors and their families moved together. The largest house I lived in until junior high was 8-foot-wide by 40-foot long. I always tell people I succeeded because of my upbringing, not in spite of it. (This is important to me.) The biggest break I got was having loving parents who wanted me to achieve the American dream.

Who would think that a kid from the trailer parks, whose childhood can best be described as nomadic, would ever have a chance at becoming the CEO of Yum! Brands at the age of 46? Certainly I wouldn’t have. Yet the lessons I learned from my trailer park days actually helped me become a successful CEO. Let me share one particular example about how my past impacts my present.

My dad has always been tremendously supportive, and he worked his tail off to give us a better life. But in many ways my mother was my first mentor. Every time we got to a new place, she would take me to the local school to get me registered and then say to me, “Look, David, you’ve got to take the initiative to make friends. Don’t hang back and wait for the other kids to come to you. We’re only going to be here for a few months, so make them count.”

That’s how I learned how to size people up in a hurry and how to figure out quickly who the good ones were and who I should avoid. As a result, when it comes to assessing people I’ve got a good gut instinct that I still listen to whenever I meet someone new (which, when you’re CEO, is practically all the time) or have to decide whether to hire or promote someone.

Fast forward… Soon after becoming CEO of Yum! Brands, I went to my first meeting of the Business Council. Its members are one hundred twenty-five of the top CEOs in the country, and I was meeting these captains of the industry for the first time. They are the people who run General Electric, Boeing, and General Motors, and they had no idea who I was. It wasn’t all that different from the first day at a new school. I quickly sized everyone up and, remembering that they all put their pants on the same way every morning, worked my way around the room. If it hadn’t been for those early school experiences, I’m not sure this would have come so naturally to me in my later life.

But I’m not the only one with a humble beginning who ended up in a corner office. Brian Cornell, the Chairman and CEO of Target Brands, also had a humble upbringing with many challenges. But he learned from these challenges and now uses what he learned from his early years to lead many as the CEO of Target. I recently interviewed Brian as part of our biweekly Podcasts. Here’s what he shared.

I grew up in a really humble environment. I lost my dad when I was young and my mom had a series of illnesses, so I had to grow up the hard way. I worked for many years as a little kid – mowing lawns, shoveling snow, and washing trucks. So if you look back in time, when I was a kid, you would say there’s no chance that this person, growing up in this kind of environment, ends up doing what he’s doing.

I learned early in life that there’s only three ways that I could put my economic circumstances aside and just move forward:

In school, because when the test is handed out, nobody cared who my dad was or how much money I had.

In sports on the playing field because there, the playing field was level.

At work, because once you showed up, it was all about performance and execution and doing the things that were put in front of you.

I embraced the level playing field idea early. I didn’t feel sorry for myself. I said I’m gonna perform, excel, and take advantage of opportunities. And somehow it all worked out. It wasn’t some magical path. I didn’t grow up in a CEO’s household. I had to work for literally everything I had by finding part-time jobs so I had money baseball cleats and football equipment. But it all worked out because I found what worked for me.

And I was really fortunate to have great mentors and leaders and people who just cared, like my grandparents who raised me. My grandfather was an engineer and he taught me about hard work, great values and the importance of a great attitude. My grandmother was really focused on education, and she talked about working hard in school, learning, and what that was going to bring to me. But most importantly, my grandparents were two individuals who really cared. They showed me how important it was to have people who cared for you – to give you advice and sometimes to give you tough love.

Brian learned how to work hard and care about people from his humble upbringing and he uses that today in his role as Chairman and CEO of Target.

Walt Disney puts a positive spin on the ways adversity from your past can have a positive impact on your future. “All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”

What about you? How does your upbringing or the adversities from your past impact the way you lead today? Download this guide to find out! It provides some questions to help you evaluate your past so you can better understand why you lead the way you do today. Your past can be a powerful tool if you’re willing to revisit it and learn from it. Are you willing?

Maybe you know someone who has a challenging past. Would they be inspired by what you just read? Pay it forward today by sharing this blog and guide with them. By showing you care, you may inspire them to become a better leader. Go Lead!

¹https://qz.com/29058/workers-outside-the-us-are-more-likely-to-pursue-their-dream-jobs/

Blog Inspiring Others Intentional Job Hopping Positive Mindset Recognition Training

Why You Need to Heartwire AND Hardwire Your Leadership

Post author By David Novak
Post date 04/03/2017

By: David Novak, Co-Founder & CEO of David Novak Leadership

Leadership failure is everywhere. I recently did a quick internet search on the topic and you wouldn’t believe the titles that appeared:

Businesses Don’t Fail, Leaders Do
6 Warning Signs of a Leadership Failure
The Key Causes of Failure in Leadership
Why America’s Leadership Fails

These titles only scratch the surface! There were pages and pages of articles on leadership failure. Yet success is totally possible if you know and practice a secret I discovered while serving as Co-founder and CEO of Yum! Brands, one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, operating in over 130 countries. The secret is called Heartwiring™ AND Hardwiring™ your leadership. Lots of leaders talk about how to hardwire success through process and I’m a big supporter of that. But I know that hardwired leadership is much more effective if you combine it with Heartwired leadership™. I’m passionate about heartwiring and hardwiring leaders because I know it works. As CEO of a global company, I’ve invested significant time teaching this leadership style to thousands of leaders around the world… and it showed in the results we shared with Wall Street.

But before I explain what heartwiring and hardwiring means, let me share some of my background with you. I’ll start at the beginning…

I was anything but a born leader but I feel absolutely certain I was born to lead and teach. My early education was far from typical when you consider I grew up in a series of trailer parks and ended up living in 23 states by the time I was in seventh grade. Then, rather than getting an MBA or even majoring in business, I enrolled in the journalism school at the University of Missouri. After graduation, I started my career as a $7,200 a year copywriter with the objective of one day being a creative director. My career didn’t turn out exactly as I planned. In fact, through a series of career “accidents,” I left the world of advertising and ended up in the restaurant industry. Over the course of my career, I’ve held many roles:

Copywriter
Account Executive
Head of Marketing for Pizza Hut
Chief Operating Officer for beverage division of PepsiCo
President of KFC and Pizza Hut
Co-Founder and CEO of Yum! Brands

Along the way, I had the privilege of learning from all kinds of leaders from all around the world, from the likes of Jack Welch, Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon and Howard Schultz. And while I was fortunate enough to learn from Fortune 500 CEOs, I equally loved learning from the restaurant front line managers and franchisees. Through it all, I have been a passionate student of leadership, constantly seeking new techniques and major insights from the smartest and best people I could go see. The lessons I learned and put into practice from this diverse group of leaders shaped me and helped me achieve a fair bit of success. I know I wouldn’t be who I am today without the people who invested in my leadership journey.

Upon retiring from Yum! Brands, I knew there was more work to be done… that my leadership journey was far from over. I became excited about investing in leaders like you by sharing what my team and I learned about leadership over the years, so David Novak Leadership was born.

David Novak Leadership is about Heartwiring Leaders™ and Hardwiring Success™! Let me explain. Early in my career, I had an experience that changed how I thought about my own role as a leader and inspired me to accomplish what, for me, is my greatest example of taking people with me. I was working for PepsiCo and recently became head of operations for Pepsi Bottling. Since I had held mainly marketing positions until then, one of the first things I did was travel to our various plants to meet with the people there and find out how things worked.

While at a plant in St. Louis, I asked what I thought was a pretty straightforward merchandising question to a group of route salesman. I wanted to know what was working and what wasn’t. Right away, someone piped up, “Bob is the expert in that area. He can tell you how it’s done.” Someone else added, “Bob taught me more in one day than I’d learned in two years on the job.” Every single person in the room agreed: Bob was the best there was. I looked over at Bob, thinking he must be thrilled by all this praise. Instead, I saw he had tears running down his face. When I asked him what was wrong, Bob, who had been with the company for over forty years and was about to retire in just two weeks, said, “I never knew anyone felt this way about me.”

I’ve always believed in people, but that experience made me even more determined to be the kind of leader that would never let a person like Bob go through his entire career without being thanked for what he did and encouraged to find out how much more he could do. I wanted the people who worked for me to know that they mattered, and I wanted them to enjoy coming to work each day. I also understood it started with me. It was my job to cast the right leadership shadow, because no one else was going to live up to these principles unless I lived up to them first. This is what heartwiring is all about – becoming a leader who listens to those you lead, cares about them, recognizes them, and acknowledges that every person on your team has value.

Hardwiring Success is all about what you do as a leader: using processes, procedures and discipline to get consistent results.

Heartwiring AND Hardwiring are equally important, because who you are as a leader is just as important as what you do as a leader.

As you join me on my leadership journey to becoming the best leader you can be, I’ll share my personal leadership story – things I did well, as well as my mistakes. I’ll share lessons I learned along the way. I’ll be honest and real, because sometimes the best way to learn is from the success and mistakes of others. I want you to know you’re not alone as a leader. I’ll commit to being one of the most transparent and honest leaders and teachers you’ve ever had.

Let me share what you can expect from David Novak Leadership:

Profound truths, practically applied rather than textbook, theoretical answers to your leadership questions. I’m committed to sharing what I’ve learned through my experiences (the good, bad and ugly). I’ll also introduce you to other leaders because I want you to have a diversity of wisdom and insights to apply throughout your own leadership journey.
Transformational change that sticks rather than checklists that fade quickly. I’ll help you think differently about people and leadership so the changes you make are sustainable. One of the best ways to change your leadership style is by doing something different, and I’ll provide insight on actions you can take to change the way you lead.
Leading by taking people with you rather than the traditional top down, hierarchical leadership style. I am passionate about the importance of taking people with you every step of the way. Top down hierarchies just aren’t as effective, and I want you to have a better way to lead.

John Quincy Adams said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” This is my goal for David Novak Leadership – to inspire you to dream more, do more and become more. Starting this month, you can stay connected with me by signing up to receive our bi-weekly blogs and podcasts. I’ll answer your leadership questions via video each month too. If you’d like to learn more about my leadership journey today, check out my books:

The Education of an Accidental CEO: Lessons Learned from the Trailer Park to the Corner Office tells the story of how I became CEO and the lessons I learned along the way.
Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make BIG Things Happen teaches you how to hardwire success by getting your mindset right, having a plan, and following through to get results.
O Great One! A Little Story about the Awesome Power of Recognition tells the story of a heartwired leader who transformed an organization through the power of recognition.

I’m a firm believer that leadership is about who you are AND what you do. Heartwiring Leaders! Hardwiring Success! That’s what David Novak Leadership is all about. Follow me @DavidNovak on social media, because together, as leaders, we can make a bigger difference! Click here to listen to my podcast with Gregg Dedrick discussing why we began David Novak Leadership.

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