11.13.04

Hey, Pancake Man

Here’s one of those unintentional leadership lessons wrapped up in a great story. I’m sitting at my desk at HD headquarters on a Monday morning. A gal from Harley Owners Group comes into my office, fresh from working at the national H.O.G. rally out in Estes Park, Colorado over the weekend, and I ask how it went. She says something really amazing happened on Sunday morning and proceeds to tell me about it.

(Before I tell you her story, I should preface it by saying that, at any massive gathering of Harley people, when the dinner bell rings, everything had better be battened down and ready to go. Hungry, grumbling Harley riders standing in long, slow chow lines makes for much unpleasantness.)

She said that there was some sort of breakdown with staff from the catering service and there weren’t enough people working in the kitchen to keep the Sunday morning pancake breakfast running smoothly. The line was getting longer and moving slowly, accompanied by very understandable pre-coffee grumbling. So CEO Rich Teerlink grabs his wife, Ann, along with some other members of senior leadership and pulls them back into the kitchen where they put on aprons, start manning the grill and serving up huge trays of grub. This isn’t being done for effect and no cameras are present; this is being done to stave off the possibility of unhappy customers. Other employees not assigned to duties elsewhere see what’s happening, grab aprons and join in. It’s sloppy but effective and everyone gets fed thanks to the make-shift crew. High fives and sweaty laughs all around. My friend was super impressed that the top dogs would roll up their sleeves and get messy, with no one complaining or digging for praise.

But here’s the thing: By the end of that Monday, I’ll hear this story told a dozen different ways by a dozen different people, each more impressed than the last by what Rich and the other top brass did and how others joined in without being asked.

I was talking to Rich at lunch the next day and telling him the story and, as usual, he gave me his patented, smiling, “Is that right?” response. He was touched that people were telling and retelling the tale and that it seemed to mean something to everyone who heard it. And then he told me how much fun the crew had and that he never thought he could manage that many pancakes on a massive griddle at one time but you never know til you try, etc. A grand storyteller is Rich Teerlink.

Fast-forward about three years later. Rich, Jim Ziemer (then CFO, eventually to become CEO, now retired) and I are racing through the San Francisco airport after a meeting with the financial community there. We’re all wearing Harley ties under our suitcoats (hey, sometimes you gotta wear the uniform of the home team). A traveler passes us moving the opposite direction and says, “Hey, nice ties!” Rich notices the guy’s wearing a Harley t-shirt from the annual rally a few years earlier and says, “Hey, nice shirt! I was at that rally, too!” And the guy takes a closer look and says, “Hey! Pancake Man!” and runs over for a quick handshake. You gotta love it.

There’s a bunch of management lessons in there. You don’t need me to spell them out for you.

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