Learning Leadership Lessons

David Novak – former CEO of Yum!, longtime PepsiCo leader, and bestselling author of Taking People with You – breaks down the principles of active learning.

Experts and Truth-Tellers.

Actively learning about your personal history and reflecting on it helps determine what kind of person you become.It builds self-awareness, which can give you the gift of insight into your past. Self-aware people use this knowledge to build character. Experiencing hardships in your past can strengthen your will to succeed. 

Focus on opportunities that offer new ideas, new knowledge, and potential collaborators. Eric Gleacher made a decision to “dive in” and be himself. That shaped his career and enabled him to become a Marine Corps officer at only age 23.

When you choose to learn from your upbringing, you learn who you are, your strengths and weaknesses, your unique perspective, and your blind spots.David Novak

When author David Novak became PepsiCo’s COO, he understood that if he identified and discussed the gaps in his expertise, he would be able to approach operations experts and ask intelligent, productive questions. 

Business author Patrick Lencioni, president of The Table Group, lists six “working genius talents” as critical to leadership: wonder, invention, discernment, galvanizing others, enablement, and tenacity. Lencioni felt that he excelled at only two of those talents, so he sought to hire people who possessed the abilities he lacked.

When Novak and his team at Yum! Brands compiled a list of the best practices that led to their success, they enumerated customer focus, belief in people, recognition of good work, accountability, positive energy, teamwork, coaching, and support. However, they learned the hard way that failing also teaches important lessons. In 1993, Novak came up with clear Crystal Pepsi, but it didn’t taste like Pepsi, and it failed. The idea made the list of the “Top 100 Worst Ideas of the Century.” However, Novak found that he learned from this experience, and, he writes, you can’t always play it safe.

Learning through active listening

Novak teaches that success requires the willingness to collaborate and active listening – a practice he emphasizes consistently. For example, when he led the Lead2Feed program through Yum!, he didn’t listen to suggestions to change the name to Lead4Change. Eventually, he changed his mind, and the program thrived and grew.

Active learners are curious. They ask the right questions before they offer advice. By asking questions, you drill down to the essence of the matter at hand and discover what you need to do next.Asking good questions also demands an open mind, but Novak warns that everyone is vulnerable to seeing the world the way they wish it to be, not how it truly is. Clarity requires seeking the truth, even if it is not the truth you prefer.

Truth-tellers are a great source of learning in our lives. But too often, we don’t take advantage of them because we can’t handle the truth.David Novak

Active listeners stay in touch with their values by contemplating life’s meaning and by finding gratitude. This can help you relax mentally enough to free your mind to make random associations that lead to new ideas.

Active learners also practice humility. They know they don’t have all the answers, and they can ask for help. For example, Australia’s KFC –  part of Yum! – came up with more innovations than KFC outlets in any other country. These included such menu items as boneless filets and the Variety Big Box Meal. In line with Novak’s urging leaders to recognize other people’s good ideas, Yum! gave bonuses to the Aussie KFC leaders who embraced such innovations.

Active learners work best when they’re happy. Novak came up against some outdated practices when he took on PepsiCo’s operations. He worked around imbedded customs he saw as “joy blockers” by bringing in an outside advertising agency to create the famous “Do the Dew” campaign for Mountain Dew.

Pursue Joy and Trust

Finding your joy comes from being yourself. Building self-esteem should start at an early age, as exemplified by the Global Game Changers organization, which fosters social-emotional learning in schools and teaches kids how to build confidence and focus on others. Former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi learned to succeed from her mother, who nurtured Nooyi’s self-confidence and competitiveness as a young girl by having her prepare speeches as if she were the prime minister of India. 

If you are trustworthy, and build a reputation for being trustworthy, you’ll never regret your actions. When you face ethical dilemmas, lean into your values and go with your gut. Truth-tellers are honest when others need to hear the facts, no matter how unpleasant the truth may turn out to be.  

In 2015, when Novak won the Horatio Alger Award, which honors people who overcame adversity, he met fellow winner Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos. Novak was initially impressed by Holmes and suggested that she join one of his boards. He was deeply disappointed to learn later that she had deceived Theranos’s investors and clients with a fake product.

Great leaders are great teachers. Share your expertise, so others can learn from you. For example, Novak created a leadership curriculum to help young leaders understand Yum!’s vision, goals, and culture. He has instructed more than 4,000 people on five continents, discussing both his successes and his failures. He turned his curriculum into his first bestselling book Taking People with You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen.

Your capacity to teach is only as great as your capacity to learn, and I can’t think of a person I would call a real active learner who doesn’t spend time teaching.David Novak

Learn from others. Putting people first deepens your personal mastery, empathy, and compassion. Engaging meaningfully with others improves your creativity and your problem-solving skills.

Learning and Faith

David Novak shares his experience leading people in the food and beverage industry. He touches on familiar feel-good themes: people are your greatest resource, listen to others, do right by doing good, and make yourself trustworthy. Novak doesn’t hide his undisguised joy at coming up with great marketing ideas and his genuine desire to improve the world. Sharing advice from other leaders, he reminds you that no matter how high leaders ascend in the corporate world, they always have room to improve.

Novak is a lively pedant, if not always quite as humble as his message urges. He sometimes reverts to clichés, but his fundamental advice is sound and worth following, However, Novak often explains his success and life philosophy through the prism of his sincere devotion to his faith. Your level of identification with his ideas and approaches – while admirable, insightful, and practical – may rest in part on how comfortable you feel bringing spirituality into your personal learning about leadership.