Jeff Henderson & Cheryl Bachelor - ReThink Leadership 2016

Today’s next speaker was Cheryl A. Bachelder. Cheryl is the CEO of Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. As a proponent of servant leadership, she builds highly collaborative teams with big ambitions for the enterprise, not themselves.

Jeff Henderson Introduced Cheryl Bachelor, but had a few good things to say before her talk...
  • Never tell God you’re never going to do anything.
  • Business is full-time ministry.
  • You have ministers in your church who just work in the marketplace.

Cheryl Bachelder is passionate about two things: leadership and fried chicken. The 56-year-old CEO of Atlanta, Ga.-based AFC Enterprises, franchisor of New Orleans inspired fast-food chain Popeyes, oversees 2000 restaurants in 25 countries with system-wide revenues of nearly $2 billion. Since coming to Popeyes in 2007 from rival KFC, shes helped the chain outpace competitors in the chicken segment for 18 consecutive quarters, dramatically increase its stock price and rapidly grow its footprint.
  • I love serving food for a living. Business is full-time ministry. There is tons of ministry opportunity in the workplace.
  • What are the convictions that you have about leadership that are evident to those around you?
  • Why do you work? What is the purpose of your work? 85% of people don’t have a clue why they work.
  • Why do we lead?
  • Where are you taking the people you're leading? Where are you taking the people entrusted to your care?
  • How do you think about the people you lead?
  • How do you measure the impact of your leadership?

There - Lead to a daring, bold destination.
Serve - we chose to love the people we lead.
Perform - We delivered results.
  • A leader with the courage to take people to a daring destination but the humility to care for them during the journey.
  • We chose to lead the people to a daring destination.
  • We made a Roadmap To Results.
  • We chose to love the people we lead.
  • The day we decided to love them is when the business started to turn.
  • Franchisees now rate their satisfaction with Popeye’s at 95%.
  • We had to deliver results. The results are the only reason we can talk about our convictions.
  • No one wants to hear your convictions if you don’t deliver the results.
  • There’s no serving the enterprise well if you don’t perform.
  • Leaders always think they have the biggest and best ideas.
  • Alignment is a powerful thing.
  • The big idea was a longer wait period to get to the destination but the impact was greater than we imagined.
  • Investing into an economic downturn was a big part of the turnaround because everyone retreats.
  • Part of being a servant leader is not assuming you know what is wrong and what to do.
  • Trust is the foundation of everything in business or any leadership role.
  • In turnarounds, look for people who share your values and will come alongside you.
  • Trust was a competitive advantage.
  • You have to declare that talking bad about your team is no longer allowed.
  • Every conviction I have about leadership came out of a brutal wrestling match.
  • Your convictions come from trials, not successes.
  • But only one thing matters in parenting, to bring those kids into a relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.