Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen Paperback (28 page)

Go back, for a moment, to the tool I introduced to you in
chapter 1
, Picture Step-Change. That tool asks you to think about progress not as a series of small steps, but as potentially big leaps forward. Think about how you might be able to apply that kind of thinking to what you’ve learned in this book. Typically you probably read a business book, take a few nuggets of wisdom from it, and then put it back on the shelf, only to largely forget about it. But what if this time around, things were different? What if you really could make big strides—or step-changes—in your life and career, starting from where you are right now?

If you want that to happen, you’re going to have to set some Big Goals for yourself in terms of what you want to get out of this book. The way I see it, you now have
two
big projects to work on: The first is the Big Goal you set for yourself in
chapter 1
, and the second project is you. You can either take small steps or you can make big leaps forward in both these areas. The choice is entirely up to you.

When working on the project that is you, I encourage you to think about it the same way you would about achieving any goal: Identify what you want to change, make a plan for improving yourself and your skills, set deadlines and benchmarks, and seek out feedback and help.
I think it actually makes perfect sense to work on these two projects in tandem, because doing bigger things and being a better you go hand in hand. You really can’t do one without the other.

There is a story from my career that I think is a perfect metaphor for how being a better you makes you better at what you do. When I was at PepsiCo, we used to work with a lot of celebrities. One of the most memorable was the basketball player Magic Johnson. We were one of his sponsors when he announced to the world that he was HIV positive. The news came as quite a shock, and a number of his sponsors dropped him soon afterward. We got a call from his agent saying that he and Magic wanted to come to New York to talk with Craig Weatherup, the head of PepsiCo at the time, and me. They wanted to know if we were going to hang in there with Magic.

The ease with which Craig and I made the decision was striking to me. We both knew what we believed was the right thing to do, and we did it without looking back. So right up front, we told Magic that we wanted to keep working with him. With that out of the way, we got the rare opportunity to just sit and talk with the guy.

One of the first things I wanted to know was what it was like for him growing up. I mean, he was one of the best athletes in the entire NBA. I could only imagine what it was like when he was playing in high school.

“Well,” he said, “when I first started playing as a kid, we’d win by these huge margins, like 80 to 20. And I’d score like 65 of those points. The problem was, even though we were winning, no one was happy. The other kids weren’t happy, their parents weren’t happy, and as a result, I wasn’t happy either.

“All of a sudden, I realized that the best way to fix things was to get more people involved. So I made the decision to become the best passer that I could possibly be. After that, we didn’t win by as big a margin, but we still won. The score would be more like 70 to 30, and I’d score
only about 40 of those points while the rest of the team scored about 30. But everyone was participating, everyone was making shots, and everyone was happy.”

When Magic went to the NBA, his goal was to have more passing assists than any other player in history. He told his teammate on the Lakers Kareem Abdul Jabbar that he was going to help him become the leading scorer in the league, which he did. He told his teammate James Worthy that he was going to help him make the All-Star team for the first time; that happened too. Teammate Byron Scott ended up with more three-pointers than any other player, and Magic set him up for a bunch of them. When Kareem scored the point that broke the record, making him the leading scorer of all time in the NBA, he went straight over to Magic to hug him. And then he said to him, “You told me you’d do it. You told me.”

“That,” Magic said, “was the greatest thing.”

Afterward, I thought a lot about that story and what it meant from a leadership perspective. Magic, I realized, had learned early the power of taking people with him. He chose the team over himself, and he made things better for everyone, including himself, as a result.

That, essentially, is what leadership is all about. There are really two ways to think of your growth as a leader: You can practice your hook shot over and over again until you can practically make it in your sleep, or you can work on being great at the assist, at setting up others to make their shots alongside you.

That doesn’t mean Magic couldn’t make a shot when he needed to. I vividly remember watching a game in which Kareem was hurt, so Magic took over his position as center. Now Magic was used to playing guard, but he rose to the occasion, making all kinds of shots to lead his team to victory against the Boston Celtics. But Magic was truly at his best when he was supporting his team members and taking them along with him.

I truly believe that taking people with you is
the
job of every leader; it’s not something that can be delegated. I hope I’ve shown in the preceding pages how crucial it is to the success of your business that you think of the people you work with in the same way that Magic Johnson
thought about his teammates. If you’re one person getting big things done, that’s pretty good, but it will take you only so far. If you can help a whole team or organization full of people to reach big goals, then there’s no telling what you can accomplish together. It’s up to you as a leader to make that happen.

As I close this book, I’m reminded of something I witnessed not long ago while traveling. It was Saturday morning, and I was reading the paper outside by the pool at my hotel. I looked up and saw a woman walk over to the pool. She stuck her toe in the cool water and then very gradually started to lower herself in, inch by inch. It was actually pretty funny to watch, because it was taking her so long to make any progress. She shivered and grimaced the whole time even though she was barely making a dent in the pool.

Meanwhile, a young kid ran past her and jumped right in, cannonball-style. He made a huge splash that got everyone’s attention and resulted in ripples that went from one side of the pool to the other. It seems to me that you have a choice. You can take the lessons you’ve learned from this book and dabble with them from time to time, which will probably not make that much difference in your life or in others’. Or you can jump in with abandon, put these lessons to work, and create ripples that will help you and those around you achieve all that you’re capable of. I hope you’ll choose to be a ripple maker and receive all the joy and results that go with it.

The origin of this book stems from the Taking People with You leadership program I’ve had the privilege of teaching to over four thousand Yum! leaders and franchisees. So first, I’d like to thank all of you who have attended the program and followed the road map. Collectively, you have applied the lessons of this program and achieved the kind of results that give this book credibility. I especially want to thank the many of you who asked me at the end of the program, “Why don’t you write a book?,” which inspired me to actually do it.

Speaking of the program, I want to thank Tim Galbraith, who has been my program development partner the past fourteen years. He has helped me constantly improve the seminar and this book with his creative ideas and substantive input. I would also like to thank my current chief people officer, Anne Byerlein, and past human resources leaders, Gregg Dedrick and Peter Hearl, for helping me teach the class. They traveled the globe with me, bringing positive energy and insight to every session.

Now on to the book. It’s been an absolute joy working with Christa Bourg, who has helped me write this book. She attended my program several times, understood exactly what we wanted to communicate, and captured my voice. She added tremendous value and worked tirelessly to get the best possible product. If you liked the book, she deserves much of the credit. I also want to thank my literary agent, Jim Levine, and publisher, Adrian Zackheim, both whom constantly demonstrated why they are acknowledged to be the best in their respective businesses. Jonathan Blum, my partner, friend, and chief public affairs officer, was instrumental in bringing this A-Team to the party and helped me make the book what it is.

I’ve had the incredible blessing of being exposed to the best and brightest, so I once again want to acknowledge the
“cast of experts” and the Yum! Brands board of directors. I truly appreciate how you so willingly shared your know-how with me and now with the readers of this book. I especially want to thank John O’Keeffe for allowing me to share his Business Beyond the Box tools. John’s tools, along with those provided by Larry Senn, help make this book interactive and inspire personal reflection.

I’ve also been fortunate to have worked for a number of world-class coaches: Jim Walczy, Tom James, Howard Davis, Steve Reinemund, Craig Weatherup, Roger Enrico, the late Wayne Calloway, and the late Andrall Pearson. In particular, it was the highlight of my career to be mentored by Andy, who not only passed on his considerable knowledge, but was my very best pal when he passed away at eighty years young.

I want to thank my family. Jean and Charles Novak are the kind of loving and encouraging parents you could only dream of. My wife, Wendy, is an incredible partner and challenged me to make this book better. Last but not least, I want to thank my daughter, Ashley Novak Butler, who read each chapter from the vantage point of an up-and-coming leader, and gave me invaluable input on how to make the book more meaningful and relevant for leaders at every level.

God has blessed me with a life filled with amazing experiences and incredible people. It’s been a true joy to pass on what I’ve learned over the years to you. Thank you for buying this book, all the profits from which are going to the United Nations World Food Programme in our ongoing effort to save the lives of starving kids around the world.

Moataz al-Alfi
—CEO, Egypt Kuwait Holding, and chairman of the board, Americana Group, Egypt

Graham Allan
—CEO, Yum! Restaurants International

Scott Bergren
—CEO of Pizza Hut, United States

Ken Blanchard
—
cofounder and chief spiritual officer, the Ken Blanchard Companies; author

Lawrence Bossidy
—former vice chairman, General Electric; former CEO, AlliedSignal

Jamie Brunner
—founder, Kinetix Nutrition and Fitness

Warren Buffett
—chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

Stephen Burke
—CEO, NBCUniversal

John Calipari
—men’s basketball coach, University of Kentucky

Jim Collins
—
business author (
Built to Last
and
Good to
Great
)

David Cote
—
CEO, Honeywell International

Greg Creed
—CEO, Taco Bell, United States

Jamie Dimon
—chairman, president, and CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

David Dorman
—chairman of the board and presiding director, Motorola, Inc.

Howard C. Draft
—executive chairman, Draftfcb

Roger Eaton
—CEO, KFC, United States

Massimo Ferragamo
—chairman, Ferragamo USA, Inc.

Michael Francis
—executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Target Corp.

David Grissom
—chairman, Mayfair Capital, and chairman, Glenview Trust

Bonnie Hill
—president, B. Hill Enterprises

Bob Holland
—managing director and advisory board member, Essex Lake Group

Jeffrey Immelt
—chairman and CEO, General Electric

Kenneth Langone
—president and CEO, Invemed Associates; cofounder, Home Depot

Jon Linen
—adviser to the chairman, American Express Company

Alan Mulally
—
CEO, Ford Motor Co.

Thomas C. Nelson
—president and CEO, National Gypsum Company

Indra Nooyi
—chairman and CEO, PepsiCo

John O’Keeffe
—creator and author of
Business Beyond the Box

Micky Pant
—president of global branding, Yum! Brands

Andrall Pearson
—late founding chairman and CEO, Yum! Brands

Lee Raymond
—former chairman and CEO, ExxonMobil

Bob Rotella
—sports psychologist and author of
Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect

Thomas Ryan
—former chairman, president, and CEO, Caremark Pharmacy Services, CVS Caremark Corporation

Howard Schultz
—chairman, president, and CEO, Starbucks

Larry Senn
—chairman and founder of Senn Delaney; expert on corporate culture

Jim Stengel
—president and CEO of the Jim Stengel Company; adjunct professor, Anderson School of Management, UCLA

Randall Stephenson
—chairman and CEO, AT&T

Sam Su
—vice chairman of Yum! Brands, chairman and CEO of Yum! China

Noel Tichy
—professor of organizational behavior and human resource management, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

Bob Walter
—former chairman and CEO, Cardinal Health, Inc.

Jack Welch
—former chairman and CEO, General Electric

William Weldon
—
chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson

John Wooden
—late Hall of Fame basketball coach, UCLA