Chick-fil-A’s CEO Dan Cathy

This August, my LodeStar Universal monthly newsletter was all about the importance of leadership being more attuned to customer service. We tend to give it more lip service than genuine attention.

As luck would have it, SMU invited me this week to the Executive Center to hear Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy. I was swamped Wednesday, just returned from a week-long conference in Vegas, still having dreams processing the sensory overload of the Bellagio’s ballrooms and Vegas life. I barely got out the door in time to hear him, and I am so glad I did.  Cathy is a terrific speaker, funny, insightful, and inspiring.

And guess what? His comments were all about customer service. Of course, I loved the fact that what he had to say dovetailed precisely with my philosophies.

In a nutshell or should I say eggshell, Cathy built his talk around a Biblical quote, “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”

According to Cathy, “Jesus wasn’t talking to Sunday school. He was talking to the Chamber of Commerce, too. This is for Monday morning, not just Sunday morning.” He feels so strongly about the wisdom of this concept that the company made a brief video, which he showed us, to illustrate how it is so important.  During orientations, all new employees view it.

Basically, what Cathy advocates, that he feels the quote teaches,  is a generosity of spirit, a lack of ego, a willingness to serve, and the idea of being willing to “go the extra mile.”

I don’t care what religion you follow, or even if you follow no religion, if more CEO’s and leaders embraced this idea, what an entirely different world we’d live in. I loved his willingness to stand up for a principle. By the way, Cathy ‘s blog is no rooster strut. Check it out, since it’s filled with good ideas and humor. You might learn a thing or two about a sharp leader and a great business model.