Success Doesn't Teach You Much, ft. Cheryl Bachelder (KFC, Popeye's)

Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz

The former CEO of KFC and Popeye's doesn't love talking about success, of which she's had plenty. No, in fact she's more interested in life's stumbles, in the complexity of failures, and what they have to teach her and her team. Her leadership style is highly relational ("I must know you to grow you," she says). Bachelder became President of KFC years later, but a job that started as a major opportunity wound up being a massive failure. In this conversation with Guy Raz from 2020: How Bachelder learned from her failures and went on to turn Popeyes into one of the biggest success stories of the past decade.