Taking people with you
David Novak
A BOUT THE AUTHOR David R. Novak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, USA. This essay appeared in the December 2008 issue of Communication Currents and was translated from the scholarly article: Novak, D. R., & Harter, L. M. (2008). Flipping the scripts of poverty and panhandling: Organizing democracy by creating connections. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 36, 391-414. The Journal of Applied Communication Research and Communication Currents are publications of the National Communication Association.
THE BOOK David Novak learned long ago that you can't lead a great organization of any size without getting your people aligned, enthusiastic, and focused relentlessly on the mission. But how do you do that? There are countless leadership books, but how many will actually help a Taco Bell shift manager, a Fortune 500 CEO, a new entrepreneur, or anyone in between? Over his fifteen years at Yum! Brands, Novak has developed a trademarked program he calls Taking People with You. He spends several weeks each year personally teaching it to thousands of managers around the world. He convinces them that they'll never make big things happen until they learn how to get people on their side. No skill in business is more important. And Yum!'s extraordinary success (at least 13 percent growth for each of the last nine years) proves his point. Novak knows that managers don't need leadership platitudes or business school theories. So he cuts right to the chase with a step-by- step guide to setting big goals, getting people to work together, blowing past your targets, and celebrating after you shock the skeptics. And then doing it again and again until consistent excellence becomes a core element of your culture. This book has specific tools at the end of each chapter that will challenge you to reflect on how you're really doing on key aspects of leadership. And if you apply it, you'll immediately start to improve. You'll learn how to . . . • Get inside the heads of your people. You can't convince them of anything until you see the world from their perspective.
• Think big. If your sales growth last year was 3.5 percent, don't aim for 4 percent this year, aim for 15 percent. Even if you fail, you'll probably do better than you would have with a smaller goal. • Practice "extraordinary authenticity." Show occasional vulnerability and admit when you don't have the answers. • Look for good ideas in unexpected places. Novak's team came up with Cool Ranch Doritos for Frito-Lay during a field trip to a grocery store's salad dressing aisle. • Choose a can-do mind-set. There's a huge difference between a boss who says "We can try this" and one who says "We can do this!" • Cheer for first downs, not just touchdowns. Publicly recognizing and rewarding small wins keeps everyone motivated for the long haul. • Get rid of cynics. In many teams one person will reject your values and spread negative energy. Moving that person out will show everyone else you're serious. Get ready to change the way you think about leadership-and more important, the way you practice it every day. Practically every page is highlighted, underlined and with copious notes. I highly recommend it. From Mr. Novak's teachings, great and useful information can be extracted, whether you are a one-person show, a medium-sized firm, or a major international conglomerate. And, I believe this would be an excellent gift to give any college student who might one day be in a position to lead and grow a team in the realworld and can use these tools to do so.
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