Chick-fil-A is renowned for an amazing customer + employee experience, but what type of intentional leadership does it take to earn that reputation?

To answer that question for us, I’ve invited on Mark Miller, VP of High-Performance Leadership at Chick-fil-A, and the author of over 8 books on leadership; the most recent being Smart Leadership: Four Simple Choices to Scale Your Impact

We discussed aspects of his book on today’s show.

Mark has spent a large part of his life helping leaders build skills to enable them to reach their highest performance level. In his words, "poor leadership knows no level, neither does great leadership".

Mark On Being an Accidental Author.

Interestingly, while working at Chick-fil-A, Mark stumbled into becoming an author.

“My team and I were trying to figure out how to accelerate leadership development. This is because overexerting the existing leaders would eventually have been disastrous. We worked on this project for a couple of years and just when we were rounding off, we had a crisis of confidence. At this point, we realized that a professional had to be brought on board. I took what we’d put together and showed it to Ken Blanchard, bestselling author and a friend of mine, asking for his input. The first thing he said was "this has got to be a book".

Of course, I brushed off his comment but some years later, I went back, this time asking him to mentor me. That's how I published my first book.”

Mark On Gen Z's Servant Leadership Misinterpretation

One of my questions for Mark was about servant leadership. As a native digital, what I’ve experienced is that some young leaders will exchange courage for “servantheartedness.”

Mark’s response was fascinating.

He said that real leaders must have the basics covered: Courage, strong decision-making, and the ability to drive towards a vision.

But balancing that, servant leaders must also foster humility.

According to Mark, servant leadership is the highest form of leadership, but presently, there is a general misconception that it is inferior to traditional leadership. We must realize that servant leaders are skillful, service-oriented, and resilient. They put others first, they are not weak, and they value relationships and results.

"Leaders should be willing to work with their team and team members should work with their leaders" ~ Mark Miller.

Mark On Performance Reviews and Coaching

The success of every employee is the responsibility of the leaders. While they dedicate their lives to ensuring that the organization grows, the leaders and bosses should put measures in place to ensure employee growth.

Mark says it is very important to treat people as individuals, watch out for their unique personalities and treat them accordingly. Performance reviews are one of the ways to monitor employee progress but organizing periodic coaching sessions and calibrating from time to time would have an effective result on the leaders, employees, clients, and organization. "Leadership at the end of the day is about people," he says.

Speaking On the Defining Leadership Moment of His Career:

Mark learned from one of his supervisors that "your capacity to grow, determines your capacity to lead". To continuously add value to those around you, grow your income and make a difference, commit to love long learning. This doesn't guarantee automatic promotion. He said, "we only control our readiness, the organization controls our opportunity".

"If you are thinking about yourself, you want to walk into a room and take charge, if you are thinking about others, you want to walk into a room and say to yourself, how can I add value?" ~ Mark Miller.

About Mark Miller

Order Mark’s newest book: Smart Leadership

Mark Miller is a leader concerned with adding value.

His career at Chick-fil-A began more than 40 years ago as an hourly team member in one of the local restaurants. Shortly thereafter, he became the 16th corporate employee — his first job: working in the warehouse. Since then, he has worked all across the business, from starting the Corporate Communications group and Quality & Customer Satisfaction Team to leading in Restaurant Operations, Training & Development, Leadership Development, and more currently, serving as Vice President of High-Performance Leadership at Chick-fil-A.

For the last 20 years, he has focused majorly on serving leaders, helping them grow themselves, their teams, and their organizations. In addition to his role at Chick-fil-A, he has also had the privilege to teach and lead non- profit organizations domestically and globally. Although the context is different in every organization, the problems have common roots and so do their solutions. Along the way, he has authored (and co-authored) a few books – nine and counting. Today, more than a million of his books are in print in 25+ languages. His approach to writing has always been to find what is true in principle and figure out how to make it applicable to the real world. He looks forward to your journey together unlocking your full potential as a High-Performance Leader.

Connect with Mark:

Instagram: MarkMillerLeadership

TikTok: MarkMillerLeadership

LinkedIn: click here

Website: click here