Issue No. 490 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting serves up a hot-from-the-oven AMAZING book with 91 lessons from the founder of Texas Roadhouse restaurants. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for almost 500 book reviews, and click here for the Mastering Mistake-Making webpage. (See Mistake #15 below.)
The chapter, “Service With a Heart, Six Feet Apart,” in the new book, Made From Scratch, is an insightful (and yes, out-of-the-box) 30-page playbook/case study detailing how Texas Roadhouse addressed the Covid-19 shutdown.
91 Lessons from Texas Roadhouse
I just read Made From Scratch: The Legendary Success Story of Texas Roadhouse. Written by Kent Taylor (1955-2021), founder, the book was an instant Wall Street Journal bestseller in August. Amazingly, I’ve never dined at a Texas Roadhouse—yet this out-of-the-box company operates over 647 restaurants system-wide in 49 states and 10 foreign countries.
So what should I order next week when I visit my nearest location in Oceanside, California? Hand-cut steak? Fall-off-the-bone ribs? The menu looks amazing: made-from-scratch sides, fresh-baked bread with honey cinnamon butter, and tempting desserts. (Did I mention free peanuts?)
This book is amazing. You’ll underline hundreds of examples from all 20 management buckets—especially the People Bucket, the Team Bucket, the Operations Bucket, and the Hoopla! Bucket. Taylor notes, “We had always said we were a ‘people company that just happened to sell steaks.’”
7 AMAZING MORSELS!
#1. AMAZING! 91 BULLET POINTS! Every chapter concludes with four to eight “What I Learned” bullet points from founder Kent Taylor. (I read those first. And yes, I counted them: 91 takeaways—bite-sized for your weekly staff meeting discussions.) Examples:
• “The best business owners and executives I’ve ever met are voracious readers and students of leadership. Every year at our convention we bring in gurus—like John Wooden—to learn and stretch ourselves.” (With more than 70,000 team members, their annual Managing Partners Conference includes about 1,000 company leaders.)
• “Find yourself a good coach who will give you honest feedback.” (See Mistake #15 below.)
• “If you have a good idea, pitch it. If no one is listening, that tells you something about the culture you are in. You then have three choices: Put your head down and get along, try to change the culture, or get out of Dodge.”
• “Be creative when finding talent. You never know if your next awesome employee will be helping you at the dry cleaner, or if your team’s heart and soul will be discovered rotating your tires. Positive attitude and a willingness to learn new things trumps experience.”
#2. AMAZING! COVID PLAYBOOK. Chapter 19, “Service With a Heart, Six Feet Apart,” is an insightful (and yes, out-of-the-box) 30-page playbook/case study detailing how Texas Roadhouse addressed the Covid-19 shutdown. Inside sales plummeted—and so Taylor reaching out to his “crazies” (the innovative managing partners) to learn what they were doing. Bingo! Creativity and curbside dining mushroomed.
“We had leaders who had been burning it up curbside with these new ideas. I called them our Big Dogs. And we had some managing partners who couldn’t seem to get off the porch, whom we affectionately termed our Puppies. By now [Week 4 of Covid-19], we had paired Big Dogs with the Puppies, and the Puppies started venturing off their porches, having fun, and making sales.”
#3. AMAZING! WILLIE’S CORNER. What’s not to like about a company that partners with Willie Nelson? According to Texas Roadhouse, “Willie’s contributions to country music earned him recognition at each of our locations with Willie’s Corner, which is a dedicated area of the restaurant that celebrates his legendary career. You will even find employees and guests around the world wearing our very own Willie Braids, which serve as a reminder of our laid-back atmosphere and fun with purpose!”
I couldn’t resist. While writing this review, I listened to “Willie’s Roadhouse” on Sirius XM and I also stumbled across this poignant rendition by Willie Nelson, “I Thought About You, Lord.”
Listen to “I Thought About You, Lord,” by Willie Nelson (4 min.).
#4. AMAZING MISTAKES! Founded in 1993, the early years were not without mishaps. Taylor writes, “Prominently displayed on the wall of my office are artifacts from each of the three stores I opened in 1994 and eventually had to close. There’s a fish from Sarasota, a cow skull from Clearwater, and a fish from Cincinnati. Under each is a plaque showing their open and close dates and how much money each lost. I’m proud of those failures because of the lessons learned.”
#5. AMAZING! FOUNDER EXITS FOR A MONTH! Have I mentioned “amazing?” Kent Taylor kept an empty office, next to his, with a sign on the door, “Office of the President.” Finally, in 2000, he hired the president. Taylor’s title became “Founder and CEO.” And get this: “I handed him the keys to our support center and said, ‘This is your playground.’” So they split up Taylor’s duties and the new president had a full plate immediately. (It reminded me of the fill-in-the-blanks organizational chart concept in the book, The E-Myth.)
“I told him I’d see him in a month, and I hit the road,” writes Taylor. “Why a month? Because for anyone in our support center who had issues—not liking someone else, for example—now G.J.’s door was open and my car door was closed as I headed down the highway, a couple hundred miles away. That’s called instant change, deal with it.”
#6. AMAZING! BEST-SELLING AUTHORS AS EDITORS! Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, bestselling authors of The Carrot Principle (2007), Anxiety at Work (2021), and other books, were recruited by Kent Taylor to edit his book! Amazingly—they agreed. (How’d he do that? Taylor must have read Trey Gowdy’s book on persuasion!). Even more amazing—read how Taylor texted hand-written pages of the manuscript every night to Gostick!
In January 2020, the two invited Taylor to a gathering of the Marshall Goldsmith 100, which featured Alan Mulally, the former Boeing and Ford CEO. I’m guessing “Learner” was in Kent Taylor’s Top-5 strengths assessments—because he read a book a week and was a voracious learner from other CEOs like Truett Cathy, Herb Kelleher, and others. He read Nuts! (the Southwest Airlines story) in 1996 and lists his Top-10 takeaways from the book, including:
• “Hire for spirit, spunk, and enthusiasm (and train for skill).”
• And my favorite: “Own mistakes, share mistakes, learn from mistakes (and move on).”
Confession: I skipped to the appendix first and read, “On Leadership.” He paraphrases The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey, and comments on “Mentors and Failures,” and culture. He noted that every book on leadership has their own “top three, five, or ten leadership ideas,” so he “figured why not join the club.” He lists 10 leadership insights.
“Books I Dig,” also in the appendix, features three- and four-line blurbs on 18 valued leadership books, including Built to Last, by Jim Collins, and a book I have not yet read, Leading With Gratitude, by Gostick and Elton.
#7. AMAZINGLY RELEVANT! With top recommendations from leaders I admire, including Marshall Goldsmith, this practical and often irreverent, contrarian, and hilarious book is worth your time.
• My camp director colleagues will quote from this book often. (A camp director’s local influence is similar to how Taylor describes a Texas Roadhouse managing partner—a city’s ad hoc mayor.)
• Business owners will buy it for their managers (read the story about the peanut trail to the next door restrooms at JCPenney!).
• The bias towards people care (especially team members and vendors) will cause church and nonprofit leaders to look in the mirror.
• And the unique sidebars with commentary from more than 65 people (investors, track coaches, co-workers, vendors, and Willie Nelson)—truly out-of-the-box and validating. Brilliant idea.
• Would your team members identify with this testimonial?
“I had worked for Bennigan’s for seven years
prior to Texas Roadhouse
and it was miserable going to work every day.
Whenever you asked for anything, the answer was always,
‘It’s not in our budget.’
With Roadhouse, the answer is,
‘Yes. What’s the question?’”
(Greg Beckel, market partner)
To order from Amazon, click on the title for Made From Scratch: The Legendary Success Story of Texas Roadhouse, by Kent Taylor. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (8 hours, 32 minutes). And thanks to Simon & Schuster and Fortier PR for providing a review copy.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Kent Taylor believed you should “Dance with those who brung you.” That axiom inspired him to identify the unique strengths and core values of Texas Roadhouse that would never change. (Read his list of 15 on page 192, including #13, “First-time-guest focus.”) IDEA: “OK, team…Let’s list at least 15 things we should never change in our organization—and then join me this weekend at Texas Roadhouse for dinner!”)
2) “As soon as you make a profit,” wrote Kent Taylor, “find a way to give back. Cast your bread upon the waters.” Taylor gave up his salary during Covid-19 to help the chain’s frontline workers. He also donated $5 million to the company’s benevolence fund for employees. Would the general public consider us a generous and caring organization?
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Note: Sadly, according to the book’s afterword, “The former high school and collegiate track champion ended his life in March 2021 after struggling with severe and debilitating tinnitus, a result of contracting Covid-19. Despite many medical efforts, the condition—which affected both ears and worsened considerably over time—was one hurdle Kent could not overcome.” He was 65.
Today...I prayed that in his final days, Kent Taylor had found comfort and hope in the Gracious God of Willie Nelson’s song, “I Thought About You, Lord.” Today...I grieve for his family and team members.
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Mistake #15 of 25:
Assuming I Was Good at Getting Feedback
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson
Stephen Covey wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. If he had written The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Mistake Makers, perhaps a chapter would have been titled, “Sharpen the Feedback Saw.”
John’s Mistake #15: “Based on other nonprofit best practices I had observed, I erroneously assumed I was gifted at soliciting frank and fervent feedback from my team. Oops! Wrong assumption! My world was too narrow.” John adds, "The 'sin of niceness' in my nonprofit circles set a very low bar."
John recommends two books by Dennis Bakke that broadened his world:
• The Decision Maker: Unlock the Potential of Everyone in Your Organization One Decision at a Time (read the review)
• Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job (read the review)
Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
"MISTAKES ARE LIKE TUITION." Read the blog by Dr. Richard (Rick) Goossen, Chairman of The Entrepreneurial Leaders Organization (The ELO Network), "Have You Mastered the Craft of Making Mistakes?" And listen to George P. Wood's interview with John Pearson, "“How to Make Mistakes Well” on the Influence Podcast.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Have you aligned your core values and your list of “15 things we will not change”—with your communication strategy? Need help? Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
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