Have you seen the movie “The Founder” yet? If so, do you agree that there are some great leadership lessons embedded in there?

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen the movie , in the below comments, I’ll be referencing events and outcomes that you may not want to read until you do see it. It’s a good movie. Feel free to come back to this after you’ve seen the movie.

The context of this movie is the story of how McDonald’s became one of the most successful franchise’s in the world. As most of you think you know, Ray Kroc was the founder of McDonald’s back in the 1950’s. The movie sheds new light on that “knowledge.” All of the comments below are based on the movie and not the “real life” of Ray Kroc and the McDonald’s brothers. Some liberties with the truth were taken in the movie.

One of the reasons this is a very good movie is that as you watch it, you love/hate/love/hate the main characters! For sure, you go through that with Ray Kroc, but you might also do that with Mac & Dick McDonald too. You want to like all of them, but their actions make you alternately hate one, then the other. That’s pretty good film making!

So, what can we learn from this movie?

Let’s start with Ray Kroc; he mentions multiple times throughout the movie that persistence is the key to success. Clearly, his persistence is the reason McDonald’s is what it is today. Without his vision and his hard work, it would have remained a successful, but only local entity. Ray changed all of that.

That’s the first lesson we learn; we need to have a vision of what can be. Without the vision, we have nothing to fight for.

Then, we need to focus on that vision and be persistent in achieving it. Ray was single-minded about achieving what he thought could be. He simply wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.

It was also this single-mindedness and persistence that cost him his marriage. It was also the reason he took advantage of the McDonald brothers. His ambition was far more important to him than what was right and honorable.

Our single-mindedness and persistence are important factors in our success, but taken too far, can be our downfall. You may view Ray Kroc as a significant success (he certainly was financially), and he and his 3^rd wife certainly did some very good things later in life, but after seeing the movie, you also realize that he was a deceitful man that took advantage of others and his stature will go down a few notches.

Let’s move to the McDonald’s brothers – what do they teach us?

They seemed to be good men who truly wanted to help their employees as well as their customers. They are portrayed as being very concerned about how both are treated. Their employees were hard workers and did their jobs exceptionally. Don’t you wish all of your employees were like that?

According to the movie, the McDonald’s brothers were very adaptive. They tried many different things before coming up with the McDonald’s hamburger idea. In fact, they realized their previous attempt at a fast food restaurant was not working because they were trying to make too many different food items and their menu was attracting the “wrong” kind of clientele (“hoodlums,” I believe the word was). When they focused on one thing that they could do very well (hamburgers, French fries, soft drinks and shakes) and forget the rest, their restaurant took off.

Are you focused on too many things? Do you have too many projects where you can’t do any of them well because you don’t have the resources to support them all? Try to pare down what you to do to what you can do well. It will help you in the long run!

The brothers were very concerned that quality be of the highest standards across all McDonald’s stores. They had tried franchising before, but felt they didn’t have enough control and weren’t going to go down that path again. They understood that a good process that stands the test of time will be good for business.

When Ray came along, they agreed to let him franchise the model, but under very strict guidelines. Now is when their leadership starts to break down.

Ray was an idea guy. The McDonald’s brothers had become so wed to their processes that they didn’t think there was any improvement needed. Even with the building design of the restaurant, they couldn’t conceive why anyone would want a basement in a McDonald’s. (The only reason for thinking that way is that California cannot have basements, but the Midwest almost requires them for your furnace, etc.)

Ray could not get any of his ideas approved by the brothers. Many of his ideas were crazy, but many were very good, too. When you look at how the brothers treated Ray in this respect, you begin to realize and understand why he felt he needed to get control of the company so that it could move forward.

The question for you is how do you treat your employees? Do you always, always, always reject your employee’s ideas? That happens way too often. Not all ideas are great, but some will be. We, as leaders, are not the only people with good ideas. Do whatever you can to let employees try out ideas whenever possible. Don’t bind them to chains until they cannot stand it anymore. Give them opportunities to succeed…and fail. You’ll both learn something from either outcome.

This story was intriguing simply because you want to hate Ray, but you also know you’ve had bosses like he did and how frustrating that was. You also want to like the McDonald’s brothers, but again, you’ve also had bosses like them that had a vice grip on everything that you were allowed to do, no variation in anything.

Watch the movie again and see if you come away with the same feeling you had the first time. And then apply the lessons you learned there to your team.

In June, our topics address two very important themes for leaders. First is How to Improve Workplace Performance. And the second is Increasing Accountability and Responsibility. Aren’t these subjects extremely important to us as individuals as well as to our organization? Register here by June 12. 

If improving your leadership team’s skill set is important to you, let’s talk for 30 minutes to help you figure out what to do about it. To schedule a time to talk, call 720-515-8081 or email john.reeb@crestcom.com.