Recently I was asked to speak at an annual kick off breakfast for a dealer group. The meeting was geared towards rewarding the top producers and kicking off the New Year. This is a great group with outstanding leadership.

As the group started to go through the buffet line, I couldn’t help but notice that the owner and the general managers were the last to get in line.

Somewhere between being a head football coach and a Marine I leaned the valuable lesson of eating last.

You always feed the troops first and you eat last. If you take care of the troops they will take care of you.

Whenever you find yourself in a gathering like this I would urge you to also make sure you sit with those you might not normally have a lot of contact with. The last thing you want to do is for the management team to sit together.

Leaders work the room. Leaders sit with the troops. Leaders make sure other leaders don’t sit with other leaders.

I’m not saying you have to eat last to be a good leader. I’m saying good leaders eat last. That’s all I’m gonna say.