It took years for David Novak, the former Yum Brands CEO, to realize growing up in 32 trailer parks in 23 states by the time he turned 12 gave him an edge.
As the son of a federal surveyor, his family moved frequently and Novak learned to adjust to new schools. "I learned to size up other kids quickly and know who to avoid and who were the good ones," said Novak who led the restaurant chain behind KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell to stellar results from 2000 to 2016. "Of course, I feared rejection, but in my experience, 90% of the things we fear never actually come to pass. The anxiety was great training for dealing with the daily crises in business and made me a better leader."
Novak, now 69, drove Yum Brands from a failing spinoff of PepsiCo with just over $4 billion market cap to a global enterprise of 41,000 locations and over a million employees. The company's value hit nearly $32 billion when he stepped down. And now he runs the David Novak Leadership digital platform to teach "hardwired and heart-wired leadership skills," he said. Proceeds go to a nonprofit for leadership development.
"David has had the biggest and most profound impact on me both as a person and as a leader, teaching me that one can achieve great things if one has the audacity to dream, the curiosity to learn, and the courage to act," Niren Chaudhary, CEO of Panera Bread, said. Chaudhary previously worked at Yum Brands for more than 20 years.
Novak: Build Joy Into Your Career
Finding what gives your life spark takes trial and error, Novak says. He found this out firsthand.
Novak's family moved to Kansas City, Mo. when he was in sixth grade. Finally settling down, they stayed in the area during his junior high and high school years. There, he found out he was a skilled writer. Putting the talent to use, Novak took over as editor of the high school newspaper. Working on the paper taught him the value of clear communication. And he also found out how to break through the clutter of competing news.
Novak followed this passion further by majoring in journalism at the University of Missouri. But in just two years, he got bored of journalism. That's when he took a course in advertising — which he found much more exciting. After graduation in 1974, he accepted a job at an ad agency in Washington, D.C. He started as a copywriter. And he quickly became an account executive.
But this was just one pivot he'd make on the way to being the Yum Brands CEO.
Take Control Of Your Career Like The Former Yum Brands CEO
Novak moved to an agency in Dallas that worked for Frito-Lay, a unit of PepsiCo. He bristled at his boss' lame creative ideas, though. More importantly, so did the client. Novak knew he needed more responsibility over his work. So, he landed a job as Pizza Hut's senior vice president of marketing. He loved the freedom.
"To grow your career, you really need to build joy into it," Novak and co-author Jason Goldsmith wrote in "Take Charge of You: How Self-Coaching Can Transform Your Life and Career." "Business culture prioritizes our logical side over our emotional one, but I've made most of my big decisions based on things I really cared about and wanted to share with others."
Margaret Duffy, professor of strategic communication at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and executive director of the Novak Leadership Institute there, said, "I've taught David's principles to thousands of students and professionals and have seen how they helped people find a sense of purpose and joy in life and work."
Adversity Is A Learning Opportunity
Novak's enthusiasm for creating products helped double Pizza Hut's sales and profits. And he accepted increasing responsibilities, eventually rising to PepsiCo's chief operating officer in 1992.
Then in 1997, PepsiCo spun off its restaurant division and saddled it with nearly $5 billion in debt. That meant the fledgling Yum started its stand-alone public existence with a junk bond balance sheet and negative shareholder equity. Novak campaigned to be CEO, despite his brief top management experience. So PepsiCo paired him with its former CEO, Andy Pearson, as co-CEOs for the first few years. Pearson handed Novak the reins just as the tech bubble burst and the stock market crashed.
"My first year as CEO was terrible," Novak wrote in his 2007 memoir "The Education Of An Accidental CEO." "Our stock plummeted and each U.S. brand showed sales losses after two years of doing very well. Then AmeriServe, the distribution company responsible for transporting all our food in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy."
But by this time, he had built trust with suppliers and his promises and the terms of the bankruptcy kept the trucks running to the 18,000 restaurants until Yum struck a deal with a new distributor.
Novak had also created a strong culture. He worked to recognize the value of each employee and reward the best performers. He offered coaching and support to all employees. And he showed employees to prioritize excellence, teamwork, and accountability. He ultimately taught these principles to thousands of employees during his tenure, as described in his 2012 book "Taking People With You."
"Every experience you have in life is an opportunity to learn and grow if you choose to look for the lesson," Novak said.
Self-Coach Your Way To Success
Novak says competent coaching is still rare and expensive. He cites surveys showing 75% of employees don't believe their companies even have a leadership development program. But he says career and personal development are too important to delegate.
(The pandemic) "has made coaching even harder to access," he said. Companies should step up to help coach employees. But Novak, too, says employees should take it upon themselves to boost their skills, too.
"Self-coaching doesn't mean you have to go it alone, though. You should seek guidance from colleagues, mentors, and friends," Novak said. "Commit to constant improvement by reminding yourself what really matters ... not being discouraged by setbacks, remembering your wins, and maintaining a flexible mindset."
He says companies are now more eager to help their workforce. Employees need help to cope with the isolation of remote work and to become more accountable. To help, Novak is taking to a podcast, HowLeadersLead.com. He has featured interviews with leaders from NFL legend Tom Brady to Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase. Novak asks them all what they learned to become effective leaders. Shutting off self-doubt is important.
"Self-coaching starts with more self-awareness about how our thinking often stops our ability to move forward," Novak said. "Our brains tend to recall negative thoughts three times more than positive ones, which is a survival mechanism."
Banish Self Doubt Like Novak
How can you do away with self doubt? Novak says to "create a collage to convince yourself you can overcome challenges." Novak calls this collage "a personal highlights reel" and he displays one in his office. What's on Novak's collage? "I have trophies, the picture of an article in Fortune when we were featured for our recognition ... a photo of me doing the podcast, and pictures of my family and favorite places I've visited around the world," he said.
Proper training will create enlightened leaders, Novak said. "You need an uncanny combination of the self-confidence that inspires others and yet the humility to learn from them," he said.
Former Yum! Brands CEO David Novak's Keys
- Former CEO and chairman of restaurant conglomerate Yum Brands.
- Overcame: Being put in charge of debt-burdened restaurant chains with declining sales.
- Lesson: "Connect company goals to employees' personal goals to motivate your staff."
