Leadership - Management

Great Leadership Means Original Thinking

By Steven C. Anderson, IOM, CAE
President and Chief Executive Officer
National Restaurant Association

To quote Walter Lippman, “When everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking.”

Having a personal philosophy is the best leadership tool of all. Mine has always been to look at outside perspectives to stay innovative. Our industry is filled with entrepreneurial professionals who thrive on new ideas and practices that are the driving forces of growth and inspiration. To be a great leader in the restaurant business – and any other business – one has to be a free and original thinker.

As an association executive, I incorporate leadership characteristics of individuals outside the association community to complement current practices and use a wide-angle lens while dealing with specific issues. As an avid student of philosophy, I often build on the kinds of thinking exhibited by the classic Greek masters. For example, Aristotle holds that the purpose of life is to flourish and lead a full life, that you succeed by failing and that you have to try certain things and break the mold to get to where you want to go.

Many leaders today, both in associations and other organizations, often rely heavily on best practices and don’t consider other options and new concepts. Looking at leaders outside your field and applying your overall life philosophy to the business world can help inspire and motivate innovative thinking. Developing a philosophy of leadership that incorporates a wide variety of schools of thought is the optimum approach to help move you and your organization forward.

I have a passion for what I do and consider trade associations as vital to the democratic process as the legislative, executive and judicial branches of our government, and the media. These instruments of our democracy have been referred to as the “Four Estates.” Associations are the “Fifth Estate.” Associations, like the National Restaurant Association, provide a check and balance to the other Four Estates. The National Restaurant Association represents, educates and promotes our $476 billion industry to highlight its importance to the U.S. economy, workforce and local communities.

I believe that one of the best examples of original and creative thinking is when the National Restaurant Association launched its Cornerstone Initiative® in 2000. Through our Cornerstone Initiative, we communicate these messages to opinion leaders, elected officials, the media and the general public. We have built great momentum with this umbrella message for other Association programs and initiatives that highlight the restaurant industry’s role as the cornerstone of the nation’s economy, career and employment opportunities and community involvement. This innovative initiative has helped focus the Association’s communication and strategic planning.

The National Restaurant Association is also on the forefront of new strategic thinking in trade group lobbying practices. Traditionally, industry-specific organizations have focused efforts on specific topics and legislation. Now, the tide is turning to support broader issues and build relationships with a wider business community and the current decision-makers in Congress and the Bush Administration. This new creative and imaginative leadership makes the National Restaurant Association the go-to source for administration support and creates a restaurant industry-friendly climate in government.

These are a few examples of what original thinking and willingness to work with new ideas have done for the National Restaurant Association. Including pioneering philosophies in your operations can be the best thing you ever do to propel your organization into the future.

A narrow scope of inspiration – focusing exclusively on leaders within your own field -means missing out on insights by some of the most inspiring individuals of human history that you can adopt into your personal leadership philosophy, from the Classic Greeks to current thinkers. Take Winston Churchill. As a strong communicator with a forward-thinking attitude, he often advocated novel points of view and laid the foundation for England’s future strength and world leadership. He never shied from new approaches. We can all learn a lot from him. I have. To use his words, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Bio:

Steven C. Anderson, CAE 
President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Restaurant Association

Steve Anderson is President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Restaurant Association, a position he assumed in 1999. He represents and is the chief spokesman for the nation’s restaurant industry, which is comprised of 878,000 locations, 12 million employees and $440 billion in annual sales.

In 2004, Anderson was named the “Association Executive of the Year” by Association Trends newspaper, joining only 25 men and women honored with that title since 1980. Nation’s Restaurant News cited Anderson as one of the “50 Power Players” in the restaurant industry. On two occasions Washingtonian magazine has named Anderson as one of the “50 Best” trade association executives. Fortune Small Business magazine selected Anderson as one of its “Power 30” in America representing small business. The American Society of Association Executives has cited Anderson as an “Advocate with Impact,” and the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives has called him a “Rainmaker.”

Anderson has appeared on the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, The Today Show, C-SPAN, numerous CNN and FOX News television shows, and other major television and radio outlets. Anderson has been cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters and numerous other major domestic and international print publications.

Before joining the National Restaurant Association, Anderson held management positions at the American Frozen Food Institute for 20 years, having served as President and Chief Executive Officer for 10 years. He was a candidate for the United States Congress from the Sixteenth District of Illinois in 1980. Anderson served as a senior staff member to Congressman John B. Anderson (no relation), the Chairman of the Republican Conference of the United States House of Representatives, the third-ranking position in the Republican leadership.

Anderson has been a Visiting Lecturer at Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and American University’s Washington College of Law. He was a Paul E. Wise Executive in Residence at the University of Delaware.

Anderson currently serves on the Board of Directors at the United States Chamber of Commerce. He is the Past Chairman of the National Board of Trustees of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Organization Management, and a member of the U.S. Chamber’s Association Committee of 100.

He served as a member of the American Society of Association Executives Board of Directors, and Chairman of its Public Policy Committee and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of its Insurance Commission. He is a member of the organization’s Key Industry Associations Committee.

Anderson serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal for Association Leadership.

He holds the IOM designation from the Institute for Organization Management and the CAE designation conferred by the American Society of Association Executives.

Anderson is a graduate of Cornell College, where during his junior year he was selected to study at Oxford University and in London. During that time, he clerked for The Honorable William Hamling, a member of the British House of Commons. He attended the Legislative Affairs Program for graduate study at The George Washington University. He completed the six-year Institute for Organization Management Program at the University of Delaware.

He is married and has two sons.