The Heart Behind In-N-Out Burger

At the Global Leadership Summit this year, I got to hear from Lynsi Snyder, the Owner and President of In-N-Out Burger. In-N-Out’s people-focused values and team-oriented atmosphere have landed the company on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work list for seven years, as well as Forbes’ list as one of the Best Employers in America. Here are some of my notes and takeaways from Snyder’s talk:

• We are a family. We treat our associates like family and we make sure they treat the customers as guests. (Neither are just cogs in a machine – they are people who matter)
• My grandparents set the bar. It’s about not compromising or looking at what everyone else is doing. It’s knowing who we are and who we aren’t.
• Be who you are – not just what other people expect you to be.
• Be real. Faith informs my life and is part of our family business.
• Humility before God and others is important in leadership.
• We say and we believe that the customer is our most important asset. Therefore, we don’t compromise the quality, cleanliness, or friendliness. We make the decision that will be best for our customer.
• Servant leadership is really looking to the best leader who ever walked this earth, Jesus, and asking how we can be more like Him.
• I’m not trying to shove my beliefs in everyone’s face, but I think being part of a family business is having the freedom to share that this is part of our family.

Lynsi’s talk was so refreshingly real and authentic. She knows who she is and she isn’t trying to be someone she’s not. She’s not playing image management games. She knows her purpose and she’s living into it.

So many leaders are trying to copy or live into someone else’s reality or dream instead of their own.

What would it look like for you to be 100% YOU? To be authentically you based on how you are wired, gifted, skilled, and talented?

Lynsi’s focused on being a humble and focused leader of 30K+ people. Her faith informs her daily choices, in life and in leadership. Is there congruency between your faith, your home life, and your work? Or do you feel out of sync in one area of your life? What’s your plan to address this?

Things don’t get better because you hope they will one day. Hope is not a strategy. It takes intentional, purposeful action.

What’s your next step?