[September 18, 2015] The first fast-food hamburger I ever ate was at the original Corpus Christi Texas Whataburger sometime in 1966; my mother took us four kids for a treat after a visit to the beach. Wow … it was wonderful for a child to taste something like that for the first time. Millions of others still enjoy the taste of those burgers and that brings us the story where two police officers were denied service a few days ago by the Whataburger manager in Lewisville, Texas.1 Whataburger officials quickly investigated the incident, fired the manager, and issued an apology; demonstrating good leadership.
The recent fad in the United States of national political and civic leaders demeaning the police has lead to this type behavior by ordinary citizens. From very senior politicians to the many mayors of large cities, like New York City and Baltimore, leaders have allowed their words to be used as an excuse to verbally abuse and attack police. We hear more daily of this type of behavior and of increasing violence as a few police officers have stepped back from enforcing the law in poor neighborhoods.
Whataburger officials did exactly the right thing. First, they confirmed the episode occurred through a fast investigation, terminated the manager’s employment, and issued a quick and sincere apology to the police officers in person and to all police over social media.2 Fortunately, the police officers recognized it for what it was; a bad employee and acknowledged it did not represent the corporate philosophy of Whataburger.
This is what good leadership is about. If there is a problem, get on it immediately and make things right … Whataburger leadership just gave us a textbook example of how to do things the right way.
As many of the followers of theLeaderMaker.com know, I live in Brooklyn, New York and there are no Whataburgers located; nor are there any in the Northeast to my knowledge. But fast forward forty years to 2006 when I was processing through the Fort Bliss Texas mobilization station on my way to combat in Iraq, I again ate at a Whataburger. The taste triggered a flood of memories from those days as a kid in the Deep South. Wow!
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