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I was in line at KFC last week right next to a man with a big gut, a big mouth, probably in his forties and very little hair.
He was ordering at the register of a mild mannered, not-so-confident teenager.
"Can I get wedges with the meal?" snarled the big man.
"No sir. But you can get fries," answered the teenager.
"I don't want fries! The poster over there shows wedges. So why can't I get wedges?!"
"We don't have those, sir. It's on the poster cause other stores probably carry them."
"Well, maybe I'll go to another store next time," the big man spat back disgustedly. "How can you show wedges, but not have wedges?!"
The man was strangely violent in his tone. It was freakishly uncontrolled, made you feel like he might do anything. The young teenager stayed quiet, rang up the order, took the money and I stepped forward.
As the young man was taking my order, he realized he had run out of receipt paper so went to retrieve some. He was back in a few seconds, replaced the paper and finished my order.
He then turned around, got the big man's to-go order and handed it to him. He didn't know it at that moment, but he was in for a lashing.
Apparently the to-go order had been sitting up completed on the back table during the two minutes or so that the young man replaced the receipt tape and finished my order.
"Do you mean my food was sitting there the whole time you replaced the paper and took his order?!" the bully raised his voice now. "So you made me wait while you did all that other stuff?!"
"Umm," said the teenager.
"No, you replaced the tape and took his order while I stood there waiting and my food was ready the whole time!" the bully repeated his charge.
The teenager could not respond. A deer in headlights would be more comfortable.
"Are you kidding??" he berated the young man. He turned to leave, but suddenly spun back around. "Where's your manager?!" he demanded.
The boy sheepishly pointed as the manager emerged from the back.
"What can I do for you?" she asked.
The bully bellowed out his complaints about this incompetent teenaged boy who wasted his precious time.
And then very calmly the manager said this...wait for it...it couldn't be more perfect:
"It's my fault, sir," she said, "I didn't train him well enough."
Wow!!!! That's leadership!
Here's what she did in that moment:
- She stood up for the boy, took the heat off of him and put it on herself like an excellent leader should.
- She disarmed and shut up the big mouth by calmly and straightforwardly taking the blame. What could he say then? He left.
- She won goodwill and loyalty from her employees for standing up for one of them in the face of a torrent of abuse.
To top it off, they gave me an extra piece of chicken because I had to wait while I listened to all that.
Well done, Miss Manager. Really...well done!
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