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Last week I was in Austin, TX with leaders in the convenience store industry. Later in the week, I was with a couple hundred bankers in Charlotte.
On the surface, you couldn’t pick two more different rooms.
In Austin, they talked about fuel margins, food programs, labor turnover, and the constant motion of high-volume retail. Convenience is fast, high traffic, and nonstop customer interaction.
In Charlotte, the conversations centered on regulation, risk, trust, digital transformation, and long-term relationships. Banking feels more formal. The pace is different. The scrutiny is intense.
Convenience runs on speed and simplicity.
Banking runs on precision and trust.
Different industries. Different pressures. Different languages.
So you might assume they need completely different leadership messages? They don’t.
Because if you lead a customer-facing, geographically dispersed workforce, whether in convenience, restaurant, retail, grocery, banking, hospitality, healthcare, or education, you’re solving the same core challenges.
You’re trying to align thousands of human interactions, across multiple (sometimes hundreds) of locations, around one shared objective.
And that always comes back to three things.
1. Connect People to Purpose
Frontline work can easily become transactional.
Scan the item.
Process the deposit.
Turn the room.
Move to the next patient.
But when people believe their work matters, performance changes.
The cashier isn’t just selling coffee, they’re starting someone’s day.
The banker isn’t just opening accounts, they’re creating stability.
You can’t force people to care. But you can consistently connect their daily tasks to a bigger why. Purpose fuels resilience when the shift is long and the customer is difficult.
2. Communicate the Goals of the Leader in the Language of the Learner
Senior leaders speak in strategy. Frontline teams live in moments.
If growth goals, service standards, or efficiency metrics aren’t translated into clear, practical expectations, they die in the middle layer. This is one of the key reasons that people hire ADDO to improve their guest experiences.
The question isn’t “Did we communicate it?”
The question is “Can the person at the counter explain it and act on it?”
Clarity wins in dispersed organizations.
3. Balance Skill, Will, and Thrill
Alignment breaks down when one of these is missing:
- Skill: Can they do the job?
- Will: Do they push through when it’s hard?
- Thrill: Do they come alive while doing it?
Most organizations train skill. Fewer cultivate will. Even fewer think about thrill.
But sustainable performance requires all three.
High skill without will leads to disengagement.
Will without skill leads to frustration.
Skill and will without thrill eventually lead to burnout.
The best leaders develop competence, connection, and energy together.
Here’s what struck me moving from Austin to Charlotte:
The industries look different. The terminology changes. The pressure points shift. But the fundamentals don’t.
If you can connect people to purpose, translate strategy clearly, and build skill, will, and thrill, you can create alignment in any organization, in any industry, where people are working together toward a common goal.
