To Lead Is Human – Episode 51
Cultivating Authentic Leadership in Dynamic Work Environments (Jonathan Weathington)
Sharon Richmond: Mirasee.
Jonathan Weathington: I don’t ever want to leave people wondering where they stand. And that’s something that maybe was partially innate within me, but also something that I learned, serving under other leaders is your worst employee and your best employee should say the exact same things about you.
Sharon: I’m Sharon Richmond and this is to Lead as human. For nearly 40 years I’ve run a business called Leading large. I coach C level execs to 10x their impact, clarifying priorities, energizing organizations, adapting their personal behaviors, and through this, building cultures of accountability and respect. In this podcast, we help you envision how to supercharge your leadership by introducing you to executives who lead with intention. These business leaders from businesses small or large exemplify the principles of Leading Large. They know that as leaders, the positional power they have comes with an equal measure of personal responsibility. These leaders not only deliver stellar value to their customers and clients and their stakeholders, they also prioritize building organizations that offer purpose, meaning, and a healthy work environment for their employees. We are lucky to learn from the challenges and successes they have experienced on their own human leadership journey.
Joining me on the show today is Jonathan Weathington. Jonathan is the CEO of Shuckin Shack Oyster Bar, a fresh seafood and cold beer concept headquartered in my home state of North Carolina. Shuckin Shack has 18 locations in the Southeast, Mid Atlantic and Midwest regions of the US and they have six more locations under development. Jonathan’s been quoted or featured in quite a number of media outlets of all sizes, from local publications and industry magazines to the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Good Morning America, so you’ll have no problem learning about his business background.
Jonathan earned his Master’s degree from North Carolina State University, go Wolfpack. And his bachelor’s from University of North Carolina in Wilmington. And true to his business concept, Jonathan’s known for his no nonsense approach to true hospitality and leadership, which I look forward to exploring. Hey Jonathan, welcome to the show.
Jonathan: Thanks for having me.
Sharon: It’s my pleasure. As with many CEOs, there’s plenty of thought leadership that you’ve offered online regarding your industry and so we can obviously all search for that. What I want us to do today in this podcast is look inward and learn more about you and your journey to becoming the leader you are today. So with that in mind, I’ll start with a nice little question. How would you summarize your leadership philosophy?
Jonathan: I believe leaders are meant to serve the people that they lead, not the other way around, and so I view my leadership style, I don’t know that I would step out on a limb and say that I’m a servant leader, because I think that serving your team is intrinsic to leadership, and I wouldn’t want to label it its own style.
Sharon: That makes sense. In the restaurant business, I know that we focus a lot on customer experience. It’s really important. So if you were to think of your employees as customers, what’s the customer experience you create for them as a leader?
Jonathan: Well, being a customer generally dictates that you’re exchanging or you’re receiving a product, good or service in exchange for something, usually payment. And so if we look at that from our side of it is that our employees can in some way shape or form be our customers in which we’re paying them, and they expect some sort of experience through their workmanship. And so I would describe our customer experience being our employees. It’s a fun place to work. You get to be yourself. I believe so much in authenticity and bringing people into an organization that make it not just culturally diverse, but thought diverse and approach diversity is kind of big in what I believe in a workplace.
I’m not really big on assimilation of every person into one box. I don’t believe that you should interview people and then ask them to put all of that aside now, follow the rules. I just don’t believe in that at all. I never have. And so our customer experience, I would say, is unique, authentic, and it’s real.
Sharon: That sounds like a fun restaurant environment to work in.
Jonathan: It is. We have a good time. We. We try to take away all the encumbrances and barriers that so many people coming into our industry, in the restaurant industry or retail, if you group customer services, restaurant and retail, and that you interview someone and you ask them their strengths and weaknesses, and then on day one of training, you ask them to forget all of that and just follow the rules and just read the employee handbook and just show up on time and don’t clock in early. And you should follow this script.
And I think that’s garbage. And so we’ve tried to create an environment where people are allowed to be themselves. And naturally speaking, the people that want to stick around, stick around. The people who don’t feel like they’re a great fit because maybe they need more structure, tend to whittle themselves out. So it works out pretty well.
Sharon: That sounds really great. If we were to ask your employees to say what characterizes how you lead, what do you think they might say? What’s the tone or mood of your leadership?
Jonathan: I think the tone or mood of my leadership would be shoulder to shoulder, I guess you could say. I don’t believe that anything that any of our employees do is something that I wouldn’t do myself. And there’s plenty of C levels that’ll get onto podcasts or talk in articles about, you know, oh, I would go clean the toilets or I would take out the trash. And I think that’s probably the case for many of them. But I have literally done those things. And if I’m in one of our restaurants, regardless of which state or city it’s in, and I see trash on the ground, I’ll pick it up.
I’m not going to go grab a manager to pick it up. If I see a table that needs to be cleared, I’ll clear it. If I see that the fry station is behind in the kitchen, I’ll jump on fryer. If I see that a customer is without whatever beverage they had, then I’ll make sure that it gets refilled. That just kind of the way I approach things.
Sharon: I think it’s wonderful. I also grew up kind of in the retail industry. I was very, very young when I first managed like 120 part time employees. I was maybe 23.
Jonathan: Wow.
Sharon: Maybe.
Jonathan: Wow.
Sharon: And then I also worked for quite a while in the food service industry, Both front of counter and also kind of in the managerial ranks. And something I’ve noticed that stayed with me forever since those is if I see a paperclip on the floor, I pick it up.
Jonathan: That’s right.
Sharon: Literally, if I’m in a shop and things are out of order in the sizes, I will refold it and move it and then I catch myself and I’m like, girl, you don’t work here. But it’s just the way I was brought up, that if something’s out of place, you just fix it. So I really do totally relate to what you’re saying about cleaning a table, mopping the floor, emptying the trash, whatever.
Jonathan: I started in retail and have worked in both big and small box retail and anywhere from electronics to clothing. And I’ll still go into a clothing store to try something on and I’ll make sure that whenever it goes back on the hanger that I button every button, that it’s hung correctly, that it’s in the correct size, I’ll recover a shelf. If I see that it’s a mess and I’m looking to find something, it’s just in your blood.
Sharon: It is. And I think that’s something I don’t know. For folks out there who have never worked in retail or food service. I would love to hear if you pick this up anywhere along the way, too. So somebody shoot us a note and let us know. So back to you though. A couple of years ago you were featured in a cover story in a magazine called FSR magazine, which I think stands for full service restaurant.
Jonathan: Correct.
Sharon: And you were quoted there that at Shuckin Shack. I’m going to read the quote. Personality and cultural fit are far more important than operational background. So it’s a great thing to say. And what I wonder is, can you tell us how do you do it, how do you interview and how do you select for personality and culture?
Jonathan: Sure. So I think whenever we’re listing a job, and some of this has changed since COVID with the different employment rates and all of those things in the more competitive market, especially on the restaurant side and even in the retail side, I’ve always considered when I’m looking to hire someone or listing a job, I’m taking into consideration the current pieces that we have in place. Because you know, you said you manage 120 different part time employees at 23 years old. And that kind of gives me a little bit of nightmares.
But that being said, I think that perhaps if you were listing a job at that time, you would think, who are my key holders in this building? Who really takes care, who really runs the business not just from a managerial standpoint, but who’s pulling the hours, who’s doing the actual work, who has the great relationship with the customers? And this person that I’m intending to interview, how are they going to fit along with those other people, assuming that those employees are in good standing? And so always keeping that in mind is important. And you know, on my side, now that you know I’m not in the restaurants every day we have on the franchising side a little bit smaller of a staff that kind of cascades down I suppose. When we look at bringing anyone into our corporate headquarters or our support center, wvery single person that I interview or bring into the office to interview, one of the first things I say to them is that every single person that interviews here can do this job.
Let’s be very clear, you wouldn’t be sitting here if you couldn’t do this job. Meaning if you couldn’t do the mechanical things of the job, if you couldn’t push the button or pull the lever or make this decision, you would not be sitting here. The the primary purpose of this interview is to assure that you’re a great fit for our team and you can take that into restaurant, into retail, whatever it may be. You can do the exact same thing because everyone knows or has worked with someone who comes in and disrupts things, not in a good way, who just doesn’t get along with anyone, who wants to start drama, who has a problem with everything, who you know, it could be something as very simple, who is always 15 minutes late and you’re always waiting on them to get there because there are things to do in every restaurant on the planet almost all the time.
And so that creates this kind of erosion of trust and erosion of culture within a restaurant whenever there’s one person that’s kind of disrupting everything. So when I say that culture and fit is the most important thing to all of our restaurants and to even my staff, it’s the 100% truth. I would rather take someone that I can train to do the job, that I can talk about the mechanics of the position. This is what the schedule will look like. These are the things that you’ll be responsible for. This is who you report to. I think those things are very binary for the most part. What’s not binary is the cultural aspect and is the personality aspect. And so that’s what we target.
Sharon: So what are some of the things you look for in the personality or culture? Like, what characteristics are you screening for and how do you surface those?
Jonathan: The characteristics that I primarily look for when I bring someone into my team, I want someone that’s not afraid to say what they’re thinking. That’s extremely important. We don’t know what we don’t know. And generally speaking, at our stage, yes, certainly there have been times where we’re replacing positions where people leave or they retire or they terminated or whatever it may be. But we’re definitely in growth phase, meaning, you know, we may list a job that’s never had anyone sitting in it before.
And so when I’m bringing someone in, I want someone that is not afraid to speak their mind about the things that they believe in. I want them to bring their expertise or honestly, I want them to bring whatever command of anything that they have into that position so that they can be a contributor from day one. That’s what I’m looking for.
Sharon: And how do you retain those folks through that culture? I know in this industry it’s particularly difficult. Retention is always a key metric. So what are your tricks and I guess, secrets of the trade, if you could share them?
Jonathan: Sure. You know, the restaurant industry, we’re talking specifically about the restaurants. It’s particularly a brutal industry. We’re open 363 days a year over 12 hours a day. If you had prep time on and cleanup time on either of those, we’re open about 14 hours a day, 363 days a year. And you’re dealing with the general public and you’re dealing with the whims, wants, desires and shortcomings of the general public. And so when that happens naturally, everyone has a burn rate. I think that’s totally normal. That is totally normal.
Some people are short termers, meaning they do it during college or for extra money in high school, or maybe they pick up a second job during the summer or whatever it may be. And those people understand that there’s a finite end to their employment. That’s not what they want to do forever. And then you have the long termers who say, you know, I love this industry, I really love this industry. I want to stick around, I want to find a great fit. I like making people happy. I think the job is fun. Is it hard? Yes, it’s hard. But I really enjoy making people happy. I enjoy the mechanics of the job. I enjoy the people that I work with. I like kind of having a, not a 9 to 5 job.
So I think the retention method for both is very similar. It’s almost identical as a matter of fact, in that you have to talk to people. And I think that’s the most important thing that you can do, especially when you’re talking about restaurant and retail, is that everyone wants to get paid more. There’s no question. Let’s just take that out of the way right away. Let’s not assume that every conversation has to end in a pay raise. Let’s not assume that, that every review has to go there because everyone wants to get paid for. Let’s use that as the control group and operate into that understanding. I think the next thing is everyone has a life outside of what they’re doing in that job.
And I think it’s important that we’re speaking with our employees. And practically speaking, is that possible on an everyday basis to ask an employee how they’re doing? Tell me about your life, tell me what’s going on. No, practically speaking, that’s not possible. However, we’re also all humans and I think that we also have this sense of understanding that not everyone’s life goes the way they want it to go all the time. And so identifying those, I would say, disruption moments within a person’s life and having that conversation with them, they’re just, maybe they’re not performing to the standard that they’ve set because you’ve seen them perform that way before. Maybe they’re being more quiet than normal. You know, maybe they’re just not getting along with everyone when they traditionally would.
I believe it’s your job as a leader and as a manager to approach that person not in a vindictive or aggressive tone. You don’t have to push em up against the wall and say, you know, what the heck is wrong with you? You can say, hey, what’s going on? Like, tell me what’s going on. I’m gonna let you talk, I’m gonna listen. And so speaking with people and talking about their lives and understanding where they’re coming from, everybody has a different path and a different story that’s going on at that one time. And I think that’s really important.
Sharon: Yeah, it’s so interesting. I was watching a some kind of show with my adult daughter the other day. I say adult cuz, you know, not a little kid. And we were watching something and that partway through whatever it was, there was like some big reveal and we both remarked, oh, gosh, you just never know what somebody’s backstory is if you don’t make some space to let them talk if they want to, or just to say, hey, I see you’re not really yourself today. What can I do? Is there anything you need? So I appreciate that.
Jonathan: That’s right. That’s all it takes. I mean, people internalize things. Some people externalize things and you just got to give them the space. And sometimes they don’t want to say anything and that’s okay too. You just have to let them know that you’re noticing what’s going on and that’s totally fine as well.
Sharon: So our listeners always tell us that they really love hearing about those pivotal, difficult moments in a leader’s growth where they realize, oh, what I thought I should be doing here was not the right thing to do. I need to do something different. And it brings a change of vulnerability in us. I’m wondering, what do you think is your current biggest learning challenge?
Jonathan: I think the current biggest learning challenge is everyone speaks a different language. And sometimes deciphering those languages can be quite difficult. In that, you know, now we’re looking at a workforce of, for the first time, perhaps in history, of almost five generations. Right? We’re talking about a massive workforce and age range of folks well into their 80s, all the way into teenagers. And so everyone kind of speaks their own language and figuring out what people want and what people desire and the way in which they want to be approached and what’s going to reach them the best is probably my biggest learning challenge and has been for quite some time.
My style of learning may not be yours, and it certainly is not someone that I’m bringing in fresh for their first job. And so differentiated messaging is incredibly critical to reaching your workforce because they may be of all different ages, histories, race, creed, color, class, religion and background. And so when you take all of that into account, you really have to differentiate your messaging, figure out what people want. And so for me, it’s almost like several different languages that you have to learn to speak at different times to different people.
Sharon: Tell me a little bit about what those different languages seem like to you and how did you develop that capacity?
Jonathan: So I think for the most part, I would say that a lot of my generation, I’m 40, I’m a millennial, I know we got knocked on, but it seems like that’s just a pattern, that really now it’s the Gen Z that gets knocked on and then whatever the new generation is called. And my generation, we had an analog childhood, but a digital adulthood. So we remember things very vividly, what it was like before the Internet. I remember it very vividly. So I still have very, very close friends who I met in childhood, who we still maintain our friendship in adulthood. But we don’t talk about playing video games together or chatting online or any of those things. We talk about riding our bikes to Burger King. We talk about going out all day long on a baseball field. We talk about these very, I guess, experiential things.
And I think that my generation in particular, when we’re talking about differentiating your message, we have developed this idea that there’s a level of authenticity there. And I think that partially it’s because we didn’t have to deal with social media in high school and that for the most part, we could pretty much be who we wanted to be. And it was important for us to be authentic for many people. And we value hard work because we saw our parents who worked very hard, and certainly our grandparents, you know, the great generation that worked extremely hard. And so we have this high value of hard work. And perhaps we weren’t raised with the most up to date parenting standards or the softest hands or anything like that, but I think that’s okay. We have a shared experience.
And then when you’re talking about an older generation, I’ve managed people 30 or 40 years my senior, and that’s an entirely different conversation. They value hard work, they want to know they’re appreciated very much and many of them are perhaps in the twilight of their career. And so the conversations are vastly different. They should be at the point in their career where they’re potentially making the most money and putting it away because they have to think about their life after work. And then the younger generation is about, at least what I’ve noticed is about time.
This is somewhere that I clock in. This is not my life. I do this so that I can afford to do other things. And so the younger generation, I think is. And there’s nothing wrong with that, by the way. It’s just a generation of convenience. I work here because I want to save up enough money to go buy this thing or to go have that experience or whatever it may be. And so I can’t have the same conversation with an 18 year old that I would have with a 58 year old. Those are entirely two different conversations.
Sharon: Yeah. Have you ever used any kind of personality profiling or anything like that in the way that you develop employees, work with them?
Jonathan: We’ve used some disc profiling before and then of course, Myers Briggs and several other things. We find it fairly valuable. I think it, it’s I, I view it as more value in the communication tool and this is something that’s really going to speak to this person if you approach this conversation this way. So I find it fairly valuable.
Sharon: I’ve worked with the Myers Briggs type indicator just as an example, a bunch of other ones as well. But I have used that instrument a long time and I love the way of thinking about differences between people, noticing that some people have to, for example, think something through out loud to figure out what they think. And some people, they need you to leave them alone until they can think up what they want to say. And they’re both fine and they’re both normal, but as you say, really different needs and recognizing that this one isn’t just a live wire and this one isn’t withdrawn, but recognizing these different. Just as one very small example, I too have found that a really helpful lens through which to see people’s differences in a very positive and nonjudgmental way.
Jonathan: That’s right. And that’s one of the toughest parts of leadership, is that not everyone is going to be like you. And I think for me as a young leader, you know, becoming a CEO fairly early on in life, that was one of the things that I struggled with at first, is that generally speaking, I’m a very direct person. I tell you what I want, I tell you what my expectations are, if I don’t like something, I tell you that, and it’s never personal, I’ll just say, sharon, I didn’t like the way you did that. And it doesn’t mean I don’t like you. It just means I didn’t like the way you did that thing. And I’ve learned that not everyone can be spoken to that way. Everyone will receive it in a different manner.
Sharon: It’s such a great example, Jonathan, because I would receive that as, oh, what did I do that you want me to do differently? And how should I do it next time? Whereas I know there are a lot of people would be, like, really hurt and feel embarrassed or feel ashamed. And I guess one thing I noticed in the organizations where I’ve been an executive, blame and shame just don’t help.
Jonathan: It accomplishes nothing.
Sharon: They just don’t help. They kind of take you backwards.
Jonathan: I think it erodes trust, for sure.
Sharon: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. So you know that I think language is really important because we talked about that and I named this podcast very carefully, To Lead Is Human. I love to ask each guest, what does that mean to you? How do you hear that?
Jonathan: I view it as kind of an axiomatic element or intrinsic element of everyone’s lives. Everyone leads something as a part of what they’re doing. And leadership also happens to me by being my vocation. But I also lead other parts of my life. I make decisions every day, which is, I think, is a core component of leadership. And so I think it’s definitely in your DNA. It may be replicated more often in others than in some, but I just think it’s probably pretty much a normal part of being a human being.
Sharon: It does seem like, as human beings, we’re just kind of wired to work in groups. And leadership does emerge, sometimes with intention and sometimes by accident. I think, at least in my experience, pretty much anybody can lead if they choose to. And that’s what I love to remind people is it’s a choice. You get to pick how you spend your time and what you do. So does that show up in the restaurant environment, too?
Jonathan: Absolutely. I can only speak about myself, but I knew very early on in life, maybe from the time I was 4 or 5, that I was supposed to lead. I’ve always known that it has felt like an innate characteristic as a part of who I am. Not everyone has that. That doesn’t preclude them from being a good leader. I think there are certain portions of leadership that can be innate and certain portions that are learned. And perhaps your leadership journey required more learning and I was able to lean on some of my more innate characteristics and others, but I’m still constantly learning. I’ve seen people go from part time servers to GMs of our restaurants in, you know, four or five years who had never stepped foot as an employee in a restaurant before.
And if you had asked them on day one as a part time server, in four years you’re going to be running this place, they would have thought you were crazy. They would have no desire to do it, just no understanding of holistically of what’s happening within the restaurant on a day to day basis. But you look at them in year eight or year nine after running the restaurant for that long, and it was a learner’s journey for them. Whereas other people that we hire, they’re leaders in the restaurant from day one. Neither is more effective, by the way. I think they can both be equally effective. It’s just a different journey for that person.
Sharon: Do you find that your own leadership is a similar style whether you’re leading in the restaurant or leading in your community or in your family?
Jonathan: It definitely is. I’m pretty, no nonsense about most everything, about 95% of the things in my life. And sometimes that can come off as though I’m a little brash at times or I won’t say heartless. I’m definitely not heartless, but that’s where I feel comfortable and that I don’t ever want to leave people wondering where they stand. And that’s something that maybe was partially innate within me, but also something that I learned serving under other leaders is your worst employee and your best employee should say the exact same things about you.
And so for me, that really hit home because I want the worst employee, so to speak. Say they’re even, they’re fair, they do the right thing when the right thing is required, they want to do the right thing, they act with integrity, they’re appreciative and respectful. And I want my best employee to say the exact same thing.
Sharon: I was talking to someone not too long ago who said the way you do one thing is the way you do everything.
Jonathan: I think that’s probably accurate for me, for the most part, I think that one of the things that I really value in bringing people into our company and as a part of my leadership style is that I want people to make mistakes. And I know that may sound really foreign, but I want people to make mistakes. I think making mistakes is an important part of growing. It’s important Part of learning, it’s an important part of becoming a leader. Because if I prescribe everything to you, Sharon, and say on Monday you take this pill, on Tuesday you take this pill, on Wednesday you take this pill, there’s no variation whatsoever. You’re not learning anything. You’re just following directions.
And there are certain elements of that that are management, not leadership. And I believe people should make their own mistakes. And I actually think I have more patience professionally than I do personally. And I think that’s probably my personality type. And I know my Myers Briggs, and it’s. I’m hard on myself because I expect the best out of myself. And I have less patience with myself than I have with others.
Sharon: Thank you for that. And I really appreciate the like peek inside. I think it’s good for our listeners to know that nobody’s perfect at this. It is natural for us to lead, but also it is natural for us to lead imperfectly and to be imperfect.
Jonathan: It’s the best way to lead. No one’s infallible.
Sharon: I read you recently wrote a really lovely post on Jimmy Carter, and I really appreciate it. Would you sum up kind of your key point for the audience in case they missed it?
Jonathan: Sure. I think my key point, especially looking at President Carter, was that, you know, regardless of how you swing politically, it, quite frankly, it doesn’t matter to me. What matters is that he was a person of action and he sought to eradicate diseases during his presidency. Was his presidency perfect? No, absolutely not. There are a lot of mistakes. And then as soon as he was done with his only term in office, nearly immediately went to work for Habitat for Humanity and for just human centric causes. And it was very little fanfare. Certainly there’s going to be a fanfare when at one point you were the most powerful person on earth, but very little fanfare. And he did that well into his 90s. And I think that, you know, my point of the post was less noise, more purpose. And really, you don’t have to tell people that you’re awesome if you’re doing awesome things.
Sharon: This is great. This is, to me, it’s almost Jonathan, like you are pre answering the next question. So I’ll ask it so you can really answer it.
Jonathan: Okay, sure.
Sharon: When you look out at the broader business world, what do you think needs the most attention in terms of leadership? Like, what do we need more of and less of?
Jonathan: Not everyone is an expert on everything, and your business is far different than mine. And so I’m not going to pretend for one second that I’m in any place to give you advice on doing what you are doing. Sure, I may contribute if you ask me a question, but I think there is so much noise in the thought leadership landscape that it is bewildering. I mean, you could go scroll LinkedIn right now or go on YouTube and search leadership and you’re going to find person A telling you you have to get up at 4am every morning and take an ice bath and go to the gym and then into the sauna and eat a balanced breakfast and be at the office by 7:30, be out by 8:30 at night because it’s grind, grind, grind, grind, grind.
And then you’re going to have person B tell you the exact opposite. And so who do you listen to? Well, you listen to yourself. You listen to yourself. What works for person A may not work for you. What works for person B may not work for you. What works for you is yourself. And so you got to figure out that. And so I think that there is so much noise and so much BS in thought leadership that I can’t take it. Anything that doesn’t find a human centered approach and the understanding that literally no one makes it on their own, I have no time, patience or interest in.
Sharon: So I think I’m hearing behind what you’re saying that some of the sort of public ego, egoistic behaviors are maybe a little counterproductive. You didn’t say those words. But was that in the background?
Jonathan: I won’t even say counterproductive. I’ll say comedic is the better scene.
Sharon: Comedic. I’ll join you in a nice belly laugh about that. Well, as we wrap up today, Jonathan, we have a lot of entrepreneurial listeners, people that are trying to build businesses or build second, third, fourth businesses. What’s a piece of experience you could share that you think might help them be more successful with that humanistic leadership?
Jonathan: Sure. I think number one is that you should consistently be seeking to learn. And I think that’s a really, really important part of leadership. I think it’s a critical component of building a really good team in that you should be bringing people onto your team that complements the entire team. Not that just fits well with you. I think that’s really important. I would never hire someone like me. I want someone that’s different than me. I want someone that challenges my thought process. I want someone that asks questions that may call into question something I said or something I believe is a part of the business.
And in that aspect it’s do only what only you can do. I think it’s a really, really important thing. Are there a number of things that I could be doing? Sure. But where’s my effort? Time, energy, most valuable. And I should do that thing.
Sharon: Oh, I really appreciate that. Thank you so much, Jonathan, for sharing your personal experiences and stories about the restaurant industry. And I really appreciate the perspectives that you’ve attained as you’ve grown. I’m going to guess people would want to know how to find out more about you, more about Shuckin Shack. If they’re anywhere nearby, I bet they want to come by for a cold one. So how do people find you and keep up with your own perspective on leadership?
Jonathan: You can find all about Shuckin Shack at theshuckinshack.com and we’re also active on LinkedIn and basically every social channel. We have a lot of fun on social media. Personally, I’m on LinkedIn. I respond to every message, even the salesy ones. So you can reach out there and we’ll chat.
Sharon: That’s lovely. Well, thanks Jonathan. I’m so grateful for your time with me today and I look forward to visiting Shuckin Shack myself next time I’m in North Carolina.
Jonathan: Please do. Thanks for having me.
Sharon: Please stay with us for a moment and I’ll share some takeaways from my conversation with Jonathan and a few coaching tips to help you up level your own leadership starting today.
Jonathan’s priorities as a leader are very clear to me. I hope to you as well. He talks about how important it is to him to be authentic, to be direct, and to stay humble. He also pointed out how important it’s been to him to learn how to tailor his communications to each person so he can build relationships that honor the differences not just in where people come from or what they look like, but in how they think and work. And he also pointed out he wants to be able to identify and adapt to the different needs and priorities of folks from all five generations that are in his workforce. So Jonathan is really focused on being able to adapt his communication style to the needs of different people.
And one of the ways he’s worked on this is to leverage a couple of different personality profilers, mainly to help him understand himself and his own natural ways, as well as to learn how to value the differences that show up among his team members. And doing this has helped him gain skill at communicating to each person in a way that they can hear. This was especially helpful to Jonathan when as a young leader, he realized that it was just as important, maybe more important, how he communicated to people as what he was communicating to them, and Jonathan graciously identifies it as his ongoing growth edge and something that he works on all the time. So if this is something you’ve thought about and you also are wanting to make sure that trust and openness in your organization, here’s a couple of tips that you can try.
The first one, and Jonathan is a beautiful example of this Walk your talk don’t just say you wouldn’t ask others to do something that you wouldn’t do. Show it. Whether at Shuckin Shack or at Disney World, executives always say they learn so much by taking a little time to be face to face with a customer or at the front line. So spend a few hours in your own organization, in customer service or in a frontline role and see what you can learn about where the walk doesn’t quite match the talk.
Second, learn to value the inherent differences in what each person is bringing to the table. It’s not just cultural or demographic differences that matter, but communication style, work style, learning style. If you’re interested in exploring one such tool that helped Jonathan and might help you as well, the MBTI, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator is a wonderful vehicle for illuminating and understanding these differences. And if you’d like to understand how, just shoot me a note sharon@leadinglarge.com and I would be happy to chat with you about it.
The third tip is get personal talk with people. Spend time understanding their backstory and context so that you, as their leader, will be better able to interpret their behavior. The task to try, show your care by asking an employee if you notice some kind of unexplained behavior difference. Support them in achieving their own goals and help them see how their work with your company is on the path to their own goals.
I’m Sharon Richmond and this has been To Lead Is Human. You can find out more about me atleadinglarge.com. That’s L E A D I N G large dot com. To lead Is Human is part of the Mirasee FM Podcast network, which also features such shows as Once Upon a Business and Making It. This episode is part produced by Andrew Chapman. Danny Iny is our Executive producer and Marvin Del Rosario is our audio editor. So you don’t miss upcoming episodes, do follow us on Mirasee FM’s YouTube channel or on your own favorite podcast player.
If you learned anything interesting today, take a minute, leave us a starred review, and tell folks what you learned. The more leaders we can reach, the better for everyone Thank you so much for listening and I’ll see you the next time on To Lead Is human.