Leading a business well: What does that look like? (book excerpt)

Salt doesn’t say a word. It simply does what it does, preserving and seasoning everything it touches. Similarly, light just illuminates everything in its path, silently making things clearer, more visible.

I began to feel a bit guilty when the growth of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels kept me from consistently devoting my time to serving at church as I had prior to our growth. I began to pray about what I could change in order to invest more time into things I considered more “spiritual” than running a business. While I was praying, through my tears, a picture began to form in my mind. It was a picture of me rolling pretzels while Jesus stood in front of me with a big smile on his face. I could see pure joy in his expression — even laughter!

This vision seemed to be communicating something I had never considered. What I heard in my heart was: “I have created Auntie Anne’s as a vehicle to give.”

As I saw that Auntie Anne’s was, in fact, the mission God had for me, I began to shift the way I fulfilled that mission, and I wanted to understand more fully how to do that. I had grown up in church, hearing countless songs and lessons about Jesus’s words: “You are the salt of the earth,” and “You are the light of the world.” But it wasn’t until after this epiphany that I began to understand, as never before, the implications of these two powerful metaphors.

Up to that point, I’d relied heavily on talking about what I believed and doing things that I believed would identify me as a follower of Christ. Instead of “talking the talk,” I would have to overcome my previous notions of what living out my faith in the world looked like.

As this life-altering shift in my faith began to happen, I started seeing my life and business in a new way. Everything I did became an outpouring of my heart, and I began to find new ways to put my most deeply held values to work in my life and business without bringing attention to myself or my words.

I came to understand that what I carried inside me was vital to the world, yet it wasn’t about what I said I believed but rather what I did. I knew I could not say one thing and do another if I wanted my faith to silently reveal the unconditional love of Jesus from a place of authenticity.

Just as generosity was a core value of my business, it is my goal to share my experiences and learned lessons with those who come after me. I love acronyms, so that is how I’ve summarized the metaphors that transformed how I lived and led Auntie Anne’s forward.

Being S.A.L.T. means incorporating elements of yourself into your leadership style, just like salt is worked into dough. I recommend four simple things you can do to maximize your impact as a leader:

Share your story
Activate Authenticity
Lean into intuition
Trust Courageously

And, as I envisioned Auntie Anne’s Pretzels as L.I.G.H.T. in the world of business, my team and I created an acronym, which eventually became the company’s statement of purpose:

Lead by example.
Invest in employees.
Give freely.
Honor God.
Treat all people with respect.

These simple metaphors became a compass for me as I navigated changing business laws and helped me come to peace with living the way I believed was right without having to convince anyone to believe what I believe. I could be me and, in turn, create space for others to be themselves as well.

Adapted from Overcome and Lead by Anne Beiler. Anne is an author, speaker and entrepreneur who founded Auntie Anne’s®, the world’s largest pretzel franchise. For more information visit annebeiler.com.