No need to pretend to be a jack of all trades to get ahead—a manager’s strength lies in admitting what they don’t know, says Taco Bell’s CEO Sean Tresvant.
Tresvant, who previously held executive positions at Nike and Sports Illustrated, was promoted to the top job at Taco Bell in January, after just three years at the Yum! Brands chain. He became a trailblazer upon his appointment as the first Black CEO to run the Mexican-inspired fast-food eatery.
As a first-time CEO with a background mostly in marketing, Tresvant was given some leadership advice that empowered him to tackle the new job head-on.
“When I transitioned from being the chief brand officer to the CEO, some great advice I got was, don’t try to be a black belt in everything,” Tresvant revealed on LinkedIn’s podcast This Is Working With Daniel Roth, adding that it was the “biggest surprise” during his transition to leadership.
From then on, instead of trying to become an expert on everything, his guiding ethos became: “Be a black belt in marketing and be a brown belt in everything else.”
Good leaders help their employees do what they’re great at
If the first step for new leaders is admitting they don’t know everything, the second is reaching out to those who have the answers. It’s all about “ask[ing] the right questions” and doing what you can to “be able to support your team,” Tresvant said.
Knowing his strengths and weaknesses and going to those who have different skill sets has smoothed out Tresvant’s transition into his new role. “That’s what I think helped me to be successful early on, because I'm not trying to be everything,” he said. “I understand I’m not a CFO, but I have a great CFO who can lead the business.”
When asked if admitting that he doesn’t have all the answers is difficult, Tresvant responded that’s “great leadership,” while adding that teams actually suffer when leaders “try to be everything to everybody and try to be a little bit too micro and don’t empower their teams to lead.”
He’s not the first executive to admit that their true use lies in getting a talented group together and then getting out of their way.
Beth Ford, CEO of Land O’Lakes, explained putting one’s ego aside is essential to succeeding in business. “Folks who are successful understand on a deep level that they don’t know everything, and have the humility and the courage to ask someone else for assistance or input,” she told CNBC’s Make It in 2022.
“Always be a learner," Exelon CEO Calvin Butler echoed to Fortune. “Always surround yourself with people that are more talented and smarter than you and learn from them.”
Indeed, micromanaging tends to backfire on bosses in the long run. Overly tight control drains employee morale, leaving them disempowered, while also wasting the manager's own time and energy, writes psychologist Mark Travers in Forbes. It’s a lose-lose situation, in other words. And Tresvant seems to recognize as much.
“I try to be a leader who understands what I'm good at but also understands what other people are good at and make sure I’m giving them the space to be great,” Tresvant concluded.
