By Dr. Kevin Dougherty

 “Glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and have a positive influence on all who come into contact with Chick-fil-A.”[1]

In 1946 Truett Cathy and his brother Ben opened a diner in Atlanta called The Dwarf House.  Ben died in 1947, but Truett built on the success of The Dwarf House to open the first Chick-Fil-A restaurant in 1967.  When Cathy died in 2014, there were some 2,000 Chick-Fil-A locations with an annual sales volume of $4 billion.[2]  This remarkable success occurred in spite of the fact that Chick-Fil-A restaurants are closed on Sundays (a time in the fast service industry that normally generates twenty percent of the revenue[3]) as a result of Cathy’s decision to follow the command in Exodus 20:9 that “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God.”[4]  Chick-Fil-A’s operating hours are pretty common knowledge, so the intent here is not to rehash that old news.  Instead, the intent is to explore how Cathy’s decision can help us as leaders and as individuals emulate such principled behavior through the technique of “pre-commitment.”

James Kouzes and Barry Posner write that options contrary to a leader’s core values “are seldom considered or acted on; and if they are, it’s done with a sense of compliance rather than commitment.”[5]  Such a stance is useful in a situation which pressures the leader to deviate from his principles.  Cathy describes such an event in early 1982 when he received a letter from a developer whose mall was among the largest shopping centers in the US.  The developer paid Cathy and Chick-Fil-A many compliments and laid out his reasons for requesting that Cathy keep his restaurant open on Sunday.  He even offered to make a contribution of $5,000 to “the churches or organizations of your choice” if Cathy could be persuaded.[6]

Cathy’s response to the offer reflected his deep pre-commitment to his principle.  He began by noting that he became a Christian at age twelve.  Then he described how he had followed the “closed on Sunday” policy since his beginning days with The Dwarf House.  He concluded by thanking the developer for his “well received” thoughts, but, Cathy said, “please understand, we cannot compromise on certain principles.”[7]

Cathy’s decision is consistent with the theories of economist Thomas Schelling who discovered that he and many others “spend a good part of our time trying to get ourselves to do what we already decided to do.”[8]  He then went on to describe several “little tricks” such as not carrying cigarettes if you are trying to quit smoking that “we play on ourselves to make us do the things we ought to do or to keep us from the things we ought to foreswear.”[9]  To reduce the cognitive dissonance between the desires of our old self and the actions of our future selves, Schelling suggested “pre-committing” as a paradoxical means of a person improving their chances of success by limiting their options. 

The decision of conquistador Hernando Cortes in 1519 to burn his ships to prevent his faint-hearted crew members from abandoning his expedition in Mexico and fleeing to Cuba is an oft-cited example of pre-commitment.  Fans of the Christian band For King & Country may recognize that allusion in their hit song “Burn the Ships.”  Cathy’s version was based on his belief that “the Lord has blessed us because we recognize him on this special day we call Sunday.”  “Since establishing that policy in the beginning of my business life,” Cathy explained to the developer, “we have not varied—and dare not.”[10]

Cathy’s adherence to the principle of the Fourth Commandant helped him personally make decisions as a leader, but by its very definition, leadership is about influencing others.[11]  To that end, one of the corporate purposes of Chick-Fil-A is “to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-Fil-A.”[12]  Cathy wrote that “I have always wanted to influence the people in our organization, not by pressing anything on them, but by my attitude, my lifestyle.”[13]  He claimed that he “never… intended to make a big issue out of being closed on Sunday” and that “it amazes me that other people bring up the subject so often.”[14]  Instead, he believed “influence is what we do.”  Bill George writes that “principles are values translated into action.”[15]  By being closed on Sunday, Cathy influenced by his actions.[16] 

Cathy believed that being closed on Sunday influences a certain type of person to seek employment at Chick-Fil-A.  These are people who live by their convictions and feel value having “a day of rest to worship the Lord and to refresh themselves spiritually and physically.”  Such people, Cathy said, “are the kind of associates we seek.”[17]  “The fact that we have Sunday closing,” he continued, “helps attract quality… employees.”[18]  Cathy was very proud that sixty-five percent of Chick-fil-A’s franchise owners “grew up in Chick-fil-A.  We raised them.”[19]

Cathy also saw the dangers of negative influence if he were to violate his principle.  “How could I teach the thirteen-year-old boys in my Sunday school class to observe the Lord’s Day if my cash registers were jingling at my restaurants?”, he asked.[20]  Instead, Cathy reported that “fifteen boys I had in my Sunday school class over a period of years made a career at Chick-fil-A.”[21]

Cathy also encouraged his franchise operators to be a positive influence in the lives of the teenagers who work there.  He saw his restaurants as venues that create the opportunity to serve God for the good of others.  As an example, in 1973, Chick-Fil-A established the “Team Member Scholarship” program to encourage employees to continue their education.  In 1996, the “Leadership Scholarship” succeeded this program with a greater emphasis on community service and further development of leadership.  By 2014, the year Cathy died, Chick-fil-A had given out nearly $30 million in scholarships.[22]  Cathy said he liked to think of these scholarships as “planting good seeds that will bear future fruit.”[23]

Steve Robinson, former Chief Marketing Officer at Chick-fil-A, in reviewing the company’s financial records, noticed that some ten percent of the profits were directed to charity.  “As sole owner of Chick-fil-A,” Robinson reports, Cathy “might have directed that portion of income to his personal bank account or reinvested it in the company.”[24]  Instead, Cathy was determined to follow the Biblical admonition to tithe.[25]  His pre-commitment to this principle eliminated options such as those Robinson suggests might have been alternatives to tithing.

Cathy pre-committed to running his business according to Christian principles.  Having made this resolution, options that would violate those principles were automatically voided from consideration.  Thus, when the developer made an economic argument for Cathy to open a Chick-fil-A on Sunday, Cathy did not have to weigh it.  That option had already been eliminated.  Likewise, when it came time to decide what to do with his money, Cathy knew that ten percent of it was already set aside as a tithe.  He would still have to decide on the specific charitable cause, but he had already allocated that money to some means of helping others rather than himself.

When applied to leadership, Schelling’s idea of pre-commitment removes from the decision maker the temptation to select a momentarily pleasing alternative that violates deep standing principles.  It facilitates the discipline required to subordinate impulses to values.[26]  By pre-commiting to practice behaviors that were consistent with his Christian principles and disqualify those that were not, Cathy guarded against the weakness born of rationalization and opportunism.