Restaurant companies must be committed to advancing women into larger leadership roles, executives of four major foodservice chains said Monday at the Women’s Foodservice Forum’s Leadership Development Conference in Dallas.
Development and promotion of women has to be woven into a company’s culture, said Greg Creed, CEO of Louisville, Ky.-based Yum! Brands Inc., parent to the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands, at a WFF panel entitled “Male Champions for Women Leaders.” The panel also included: Howard Behar, retired president of Starbucks Corp.; Steve DeSutter, CEO of Focus Brands Inc.; and Wyman Roberts, president and CEO of Brinker International Inc.
“To be successful, you have to deliver the results, because the shareholders want the results, but you have to deliver them the right way,” Creed said. “You have to live and breathe the culture. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter what your gender, you aren’t going to be successful.” And women leaders have to be a part of any “great culture,” Creed said.
Howard Behar, who retired as Starbucks Corp. president in 2007, said women largely created the Seattle-based coffee company’s culture. “It wasn’t that women fit into the program. Women made the program,” he said.
“Starbucks is a feminine company. That’s what’s driven it all along,” Behar said. “Without women in the organization, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
With more than 22,500 units worldwide, the service model and the design was led by women, Behar said, and half of the leadership team was women. “That made a huge difference in the company,” he added. “It’s been an absolute competitive difference all along.”
DeSutter, the CEO of Atlanta-based Focus Brands Inc., parent to the Auntie Anne’s, Carvel, Cinnabon, McAlister’s Deli, Moe’s Southwest Grill and Schlotzsky’s brands, said entitlement doesn’t work in any gender. “It’s really about the skills and the will that you bring to you organization,” he said.
DeSutter suggested that women looking for executive promotions employ what he called the “Two-Move Rule.”
“Think about the job after the job you’d like to have, and then ask yourself, ‘What are the gaps? What are skills and experiences I need?’ Literally list those out and look for mentors or a champion to work with,” DeSutter said. “That will make you incredibly valuable to the organization and give you an amazing opportunity to move on.”
Roberts, president and CEO of Dallas-based Brinker, said three of seven members on Brinker’s executive committee are women. The company has a program started by Kelli Valade, chief operating officer of Brinker’s Chili’s Grill & Bar division, called “Women Taking the Lead” that champions female leadership.
“It’s really a structured program that identifies the responsibility we have as leaders to create and support women in their career desires,” Roberts said. It also gives women, especially in restaurant operations, “the ability to find mentors, understand work-life-balance issues and really develop their leadership skills.”
Roberts said such a program makes for “smart business.”
“Over 50 percent of our guests are women. Well over 50 percent of the decision-making processes in almost everything are influenced by women,” Roberts said. “To not have that voice at the table doesn’t make sense. It’s bad business.”
Creed of Yum said he looks for three characteristics in any leader.
“The first is you have to be smart,” he said. “I don’t just mean IQ or functional expertise, I also mean your emotional intelligence. The second thing is you also have to have a huge heart. You have to lead from the heart. I fundamentally believe people want to be led by people who are engaged and lead from the heart. The third one today is: You have to be courageous. They need to step up and make the big decisions and have the courage of their convictions.”
Advice for future leaders
Creed said his advice for anyone looking to advance in leadership roles is: “Do the jobs no one else wants to do.” If you succeed, that’s how you get noticed, he said.
DeSutter also suggested those looking for advancement apply extra energy to the efforts. “Energy is kinetic,” he said. “Bring energy to what you are doing, and then just stand back and watch it ripple through your teams and your organizations. You’ll get noticed. You’ll stand out.”
Behar added that identifying leadership opportunities required setting goals and developing skills to prepare for those promotions.
“Developing oneself is a lifelong process,” Behar said. “You have to do it all the time, every day. I’m 72 years old, and I’m still trying to develop myself.”
Behard added that advancement of women is based simply on people supporting other people.
“This is not men vs. women,” he said. “We each need to support each other. At the end of the day, that’s all we have. There’s nothing that any of us will do in our lives that isn’t about serving another human being. Period.
“I don’t care what the title is on your card or what position you have, our roles in life are primarily to serve others,” Behar continued. “That means we have to take responsibility for others. We have own their success; and we have to help them if they are failing. That’s just part of the world in which we live.”
Most organizations have a formal mentoring program, Creed said, but he added that women leaders especially need champions.
“There’s a difference between a champion and a mentor,” he said. “A champion is someone who really has your best interest at heart — who will go to bat for you, who will support you and also will tell you the truth,” he said.
Mentoring future leaders should start early, said Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA, in a presentation immediately preceding the “Male Champions” panel.
She said her commitment to work with the Girl Scouts was based on developing the leaders of tomorrow.
“Girls are worth the investment,” Chávez told the WFF attendees.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless
