Everyone reading this probably has several stories of good and bad experiences with restaurants. I recently spent fifteen minutes parked, waiting for my “drive-through” food. Delays and mistakes happen, but sometimes it feels as though the staff feels no urgency to please me as a customer.

It was tempting to blast that chain on Twitter, to shine a spotlight on the irritation which was mushrooming with each passing moment, but I let that one pass.

Cheryl Bachelder, CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, incorporates spotlights into one of her messages about leadership: the spotlight problem. She says leadership is a lot like being on a Broadway stage. The light hits the stage and we wait for the main actor to come out and start telling the story. Too many leaders hunger for the spotlight, want to stay in the spotlight, and don’t shine the spotlight on others often enough.

Wherever you are on your leadership journey — on stage, in the wings, or in the audience — Cheryl has developed several free resources which can help.

• The Journey To Personal Purpose Self-Assessment is an extremely thorough and thought-provoking exercise that is designed to help you get to know yourself in a deep way by examining the key life events, values, and strengths that define you as a leader. Click here to get started.
• The free 40-Week Leadership Challenge provides a weekly email in which Cheryl guides you to become a Dare To Serve leader. Each email includes a weekly question, inspirational stories, and tips of how to put your learning into practice. Click here to get started.
• The Dare To Serve Discussion Guide is an 8-week discussion guide which can be used by a small group of leaders for a conversation on Dare To Serve™ leadership. The guide facilitates provocative conversations on a leadership approach that serves and performs. (There is also a faith-based version available.) Click here to get started.

Would you like to win a copy of Cheryl’s book, Dare to Serve? Please leave a comment telling us which of the three free resources sounds most useful for you at this point in your leadership journey (hint: it’s okay to say “all three!!”). We will select the winner on Friday, October 2, at noon ET.

As I am composing this post, I am re-listening to the Dare to Serve Webinar from earlier this year. Hearing Cheryl’s explanation of fixing things that are broken, delivering performance results, and helping people believe in each other and their employer again reminds me how much all of us have to gain from Cheryl’s hard-won wisdom (and she’s offering it all for free!).

All that hard-won wisdom has paid off in a pretty special spotlight for Cheryl! She won the Norman Award, which is presented annually by MUFSO to one industry executive whose leadership philosophy and actions have had a significant impact on their industry peers and have also inspired future industry leaders. Each winner is “a sterling example of continuing the legacy of selfless leadership and mentoring that the late Norman Brinker was so highly regarded for in our industry.” Here’s a picture of Cheryl receiving the award – congratulations Cheryl!