What McDonalds taught me about leading my family
So let me explain how a typical day of running errands goes in our family. You are going to hear a lot of these questions. How much longer? Can I just stay in the car? How many more places do we have to go to? That is not the worst part. Go back and read these questions and do it in your most whiny, annoying voice. The sad thing is that is just me asking all these questions, and believe me, I can be very whiny. I hate to go shopping!
My wife has to put up with all that on top of what the kids bring to the table. Needless to say, my plan of her just saying it is not worth the time and not making me go has not worked as of yet. Yet being the key word.
The other part that is a given is that we will all eventually get hungry and try and decide where we want to grab some lunch. I will ask my wife where she wants to eat. W really means where do you want to eat that has chicken nuggets for the kids. Because that is the only food group they will eat these days. It never fails at about this time we will be driving by those golden arches and the kids happy meal radar goes off. You could say we have a lot of experience going to McDonalds on a Saturday afternoon.
McDonalds is one of the most successful fast food franchises ever. It seems that you can’t drive 10 minutes down the road without passing, at least, one. I even had the chance to take in the golden arches in Argentina. The business model they have works. While we would not want to eat double quarter pounders every day there are parts of their business model that we can take into our homes to find success.
- Consistency
No matter where you go in the country or for the most part in the world as you walk into a McDonalds you are going to get the feeling like you are in the McDonalds around the corner from your house. They do a great job making sure they are consistent in the way the restaurant looks and the menu they have in place in each store. As leaders of our families, we need to make sure we are consistent in what we are teaching our children and how we are behaving inside as well as outside of the home. As we have our families based on the values we have established we are able to be the same person no matter where we are. Are we consistent in how we act with our children no matter where we are? - Adapt to your families needs
Consistency in values is key but that does not mean that we never change. We need to be aware of our families needs but at the same time keep what we do ground in our values. In 1975, McDonalds introduced the radical idea of the drive-through service. It was because at a McDonalds located by a military base needed to adapt to their customer. Soldiers were not allowed to leave their vehicles while wearing fatigues. So in an effort to better serve their customer and the value of customer service they adapted. As our children grow older there is a need to adapt ways that we interact and teach them but keep what we do solid in our values.
- Give Back
McDonalds gives back to the community in a number of different ways. They have various scholarships, mentorship programs, and the Ronald McDonald House which is near and dear to our families heart. They realized that that giving back is just good business. The act and mindset of service starts in the home. How we serve and give back to members of our family teaches us all to think outside ourselves. As a family do a family service project. There may be rumblings but I promise you they will remember how they felt. If you want to teach your children to be leaders later on in life teach them to serve others.
When we look at the process that successful organizations have in place we find principles or values that these organizations have that we can adapt to our family organizations. McDonalds is one of the most successful organizations in their industry and these are just three ways they are able to drive success. These are three aspects that will bring improvement to any organization even our own family organization.