Welcome to How Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world.

I break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple you can apply as you develop into a better leader.

That's what this podcast is all about.

Okay, before we go too far, I got to make a little confession. Back when I was the CEO of Young Brands, my team and I would do what we called

McDonald's immersion days. We just went into McDonald's restaurants for the whole day and observed

all the smart things that they

were doing. Then we'd figure out how we could make those smart ideas work at KFC, Taco Bell,

or Pizza Hut. That's just how much we admired McDonald's. These days, McDonald's is still at the

top of their game, and I'm honored to have McDonald's president and CEO,

Chris Kempchinsky, joining me today. As you'll hear in this conversation, Chris really understands

what's happening in the real world. He's not the kind of guy who's just locked away in an office

lost in data and paperwork and big picture strategies. In fact, he believes that your strategies really don't

count for much unless they're actually showing up in the day-to-day operations of your business.

And when you listen to this conversation, you will learn a lot about how to take a smart

strategy and then actually make it memorable and easy for everyone to implement.

So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Chris Kimchinsky.

So Chris, I understand both you and your wife went to Duke, and I've seen in your office you

actually have a bobblehead of Coach K. I got to ask, have you ever met Coach K? And if so,

what have you learned about leadership just watching him in action? Yeah, well, Coach K, as you know,

is an icon. You can't go to Duke, certainly during my area, without knowing Coach K. And I was

fortunate when I was there in that we went to the final four every year. We won the national

championship my senior year. So Coach K is someone I've always had a ton of respect for. And it's

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