Let's Talk Talent by Talent Plus

Shawn Brady’s Journey from Chicken Cook to HR Leader at Harman Management

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Meet Shawn Brady, a leader who discovered his purpose behind a KFC counter as a young chicken cook—and never looked back. 

In our latest “Let’s Talk Talent” podcast episode, Shawn, Director of Human Resources at Harman Management (a long-time client partner of Talent Plus), shares how recognizing talent can transform an individual’s trajectory and fuel exceptional guest experiences.

From starting his career at 15 to guiding teams for 37 years, Shawn knows that success in the quick-service industry isn’t about finding “any warm body.” It’s about identifying and nurturing people who genuinely love to serve—those who see each customer as an opportunity to deliver something special. With Talent Plus by his side, Shawn harnesses The Science of Talent to build teams that excel, inspire and stand the test of time.

Hear Shawn’s story—how one encouraging conversation set the course of his life’s work—and learn actionable strategies, designed for anyone in the hospitality sector looking to make a lasting impact.

Mark Epp:

Welcome to let's Talk Talent, the podcast that digs into the science of how we find, retain and develop the best people to get the best results. I'm your host, mark Epp, management Consultant Director at TalentPlus and a certified professional coach. Our 35th anniversary we're bringing you a special series where I talk with exceptional leaders, talent Plus clients and colleagues who've been instrumental in our journey. These discussions highlight the transformative power of talent in driving success and making a lasting difference in both personal and professional lives. Joining us today is Sean Brady, director of Human Resources at Harmon Management. Harmon Management Corporation has a decade-long history with the KFC brand and provides consulting and other services to restaurant companies that operate in the quick service restaurant segment. Sean, thank you so very much for joining us on this special let's Talk Talent podcast. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your career journey at Harmon Management?

Shawn Brady:

Sure Harmon Management was the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, along with Colonel Sanders. Pete Harmon was the founder. With him I started working for KFC when I was 15 and a half years old. I was a chicken cook. I still kind of think of myself as a chicken cook most of the time, but I started when I was in high school.

Shawn Brady:

I was a junior in high school, started just to make a little extra money buy gas for a car that was coming my way, soon fell in love with the job that I was doing, felt like I was an important part of the company and the business success. The restaurant general manager at the time helped me identify what I believe was my God-given gift or talent that I didn't even know I had, and from there I was offered a position as a restaurant general manager. I went into restaurant managing when I was about 20 years old. I went on to manage for several years before I became the human resource director about 37 years ago, and so I've learned to do that job over the last 37 years, and so that's been a long career, but with not many changes in it.

Mark Epp:

Absolutely. I love the fact that you think of yourself as a chicken cook. My son is a chef, a very accomplished young chef, and he started out not at KFC, but he started out as a chicken cook and he loved that and that was really what propelledFC. But he started out as a chicken cook and he loved that and that was really what propelled him, at about 16 years old as well, to go into cooking. So I love that you shared that with us. You know, sean, it seems to me as an outsider not working in the fast restaurant business that sometimes when you're selecting individuals for a fast food restaurant, that what people are looking for are two arms and two legs. Just give me a warm body and I'm going to make it work out. But things are different at Harman's. You have a different approach to hiring, and how is it different from common hiring practices that other restaurants might follow?

Shawn Brady:

hiring practices that other restaurants might follow. Well, first of all, we recognize, with all the years of service that we have in the quick service industry, that fast food restaurants are not easy to operate. And they don't just operate because you got somebody that can breathe and blink with either eye when asked to do so, but it has to be somebody that enjoys doing the job. It's a very challenging job. It takes long hours and a lot of hard work, so we have typically tried to rely on referral. Rather than spend a lot of money putting ads and papers and social media sites, we use referral from friends. Birds of a feather flock together. If you're working for us and you're good at what you're doing, I suspect your friends would be good at what you're doing. So we've typically tried to rely on referral from friends in the way that we go about hiring people.

Mark Epp:

That's fascinating, and we certainly see that in other industries as well. It does seem to your point that highly talented people often have highly talented friends or highly talented friends and family, and so to be able to talk to them and to bring them into the organization completely makes sense. Well, you know, here at Talent Plus we understand the importance of talent within organizations, of course, but especially frontline restaurant positions, especially frontline restaurant positions. So can you share what talent means to you as an HR leader and how you've seen talent impact the guest experience overall? I know that's really important to you.

Shawn Brady:

You know, talent is something that oftentimes we don't know that we have until somebody points it out.

Shawn Brady:

But it's something that we've always done, from the time we were very small infants, and then all of a sudden it blossoms into this thing that can actually set the course of our life and give us our purpose.

Shawn Brady:

So, for me, talent in the food service industry and the restaurant industry if you don't like people, you're not going to like working in the food service industry. If you don't like people, you're not going to like working in the food service industry. If you don't like working hard and seeing your accomplishments at the end of every single day, you're not going to like working in the food service industry. So for me, talent is somebody that loves people, loves to see their accomplishments, loves to be challenged every single day, to do it in a different level than what other people may be able to do. So to me, that's kind of what talent is and the way that it impacts guests is that nobody likes to be served by somebody that doesn't want to be serving them in the first place. So guests come to places where they are served by people who enjoy serving them and go out of their way to make it a pleasant experience.

Mark Epp:

Absolutely. I love the response that you just had, that once we know our talent, once we understand it, it can set the course for our life. I think that that's so important, what you've just shared with us. Once we know our talent and are aware of it, like you said, often we don't even know that that might be a talent for us because it's so natural. We don't even know that that might be a talent for us because it's so natural, but that sets our course, could set a course for our life and our purpose, and what a beautiful way to think about talent and how important that is for people to understand about themselves, to set that kind of course, especially for young people today as well.

Mark Epp:

So the quick service restaurant segment can traditionally have higher turnover and we hear that a lot that turnover that, you see, I mean I often will go to a restaurant and it's never or rarely the same people there twice. I'm sure this is not the case with Harmon so much. But what are some of the most successful strategies you've had implemented to not only attract and hire people but to keep them, to keep your best people there at your restaurants?

Shawn Brady:

Well, hiring and attracting, like I said, is referral. But then, once that's done, before a person is accepted into the job role, they need to understand what it is, because so many people have misconceptions about what fast food is and it's just an easy job, and then they start working and find out how tough it is, and so they quit and want to go work somewhere else. So we try to make sure they understand here's what's going to be expected of you. Here's what the job is going to be like. So these are the things you're going to need to understand. So before they go into it, they need to know what the job is going to be like. They have to have the talent for dealing with people and the joy in doing that. They oftentimes want to work with their friends, and so we're helping with our turnover rate by allowing them to work with their friends.

Shawn Brady:

It's very important to us to allow flexibility for them. We try to overstaff, meaning that we try to have more part-time employees and full-time employees, so that if somebody needs the weekend off to go to the homecoming game or dance, we can give it to them easily. So that's an important part of it. But then the other part of it is that we try to create a family atmosphere within the restaurant. We try to celebrate birthdays, we try to celebrate special events and occasions. Restaurant. We try to celebrate birthdays, we try to celebrate special events and occasions and we try to make sure that people feel like they belong so that they want to stick around. They don't want to move on and go do something else. They like to stick with us. So very few people join the quick service restaurant with the intention of making a career out of it.

Mark Epp:

Right.

Shawn Brady:

But we try to give them the opportunity and the vision to see that that is possible. And if they stay and they make it a career for them, well, congratulations to them.

Mark Epp:

You know, sean, you've mentioned a couple of times today already this idea of people liking to serve others and connecting to your guests. As you're well aware, there are five different talent categories for most of our assessments, and those categories include drives and values, work style how people get their work done, people acumen, the relationships that they have and can people make with others, how they influence others, and then also their creativity and their sort of their background and their education and how they apply that knowledge. When you think of those five different groups, what do you really feel is most important for individuals facing your customers that are really customer facing and want to really be able to create that kind of service you're talking about?

Shawn Brady:

Well, you asked me a very challenging question because, first of all, I believe all of them are important and I coach people not to hire somebody who doesn't have strengths in each of those. But if I have to pick one, I would probably go with people acumen. I would have to. You know, it's the relationships and the desire to have the relationships and the caring that people show towards each other that are important in the food service industry. So I'm going to lean on the people acumen one, just because that's, if I have to pick one, that would be the one.

Mark Epp:

And I'm going to put you on the spot here again because it's kind of fun to do it, but you have the background and the experience to be able to pick this up. One of the themes that you're very aware of in people acumen group is the positivity theme, that sense of optimism. How important is positivity in terms of the work with Harman's?

Shawn Brady:

Oh, it's extremely important because, as I said, it's a very challenging job and not all customers come in positive, so you have to turn that around. You have to deal with someone who may not be in a very positive mindset, and so you're going to have to number one try to turn that around. You have to deal with someone who may not be in a very positive mindset, and so you're going to have to number one, try to turn that around, and then, once they've left, you're going to have to maintain a positive attitude with the next person. So if you don't have the ability to look at things in a positive way and have a positive attitude to things, you're not going to enjoy your job and you're not going to stick with it. So positivity is of the utmost importance in our industry.

Mark Epp:

Absolutely. Thank you for that, Sean. You know, since COVID has happened, the world of work changed dramatically and continues to evolve and continues to change. So what do you think is the future of talent in the fast food industry? What's that going to look like?

Shawn Brady:

You know it's an interesting question and I don't know that it's going to change overall because, as I've said, people that work in this industry have to love other people. That's always going to be a constant, that's going to be consistent. It doesn't matter whether they place their order on a kiosk or whether they place their order on an application on their phone, or whether they simply go through the drive-through they're still going to interact with people at some point. So the people who are serving them have to be able to want to serve. Now I will truthfully say I have seen a dramatic difference in behaviors of individuals post-pandemic, and their interaction with people, because so much of our interaction is our personality and who we are comes from the early interactions we have, from childhood on, and there was a period of time where they were unable to do that. They didn't learn how to disagree with each other. They didn't learn how to solve conflict with each other. Most of the time, if they were interacting with their friends, it was online and if they had a disagreement they just hit the red leave button and they were gone. They didn't have to resolve things.

Shawn Brady:

So I don't know that people are going to change and that the people who work in the industry are going to be much different than what they were pre-pandemic. But we as employees are going to have to help them grow, because their growth, in my opinion, was stunted during the pandemic. Those talents are still there, they just haven't had the opportunity to be fed or developed because of the pandemic and because of the lack of interaction they can have with humans. So our job is to bring that back out in them, teach that to them when necessary, show them what good service looks like, and then, five years from now, the food service industry I don't know is going to look that much different than what it did pre-pandemic service industry I don't know, is going to look that much different than what it did pre-pandemic.

Mark Epp:

Sean, thank you so very much for that really caring response. Obviously your heart's in it, because what we're doing, what I've seen working at Talent Plus for 20 years is this change exactly in a person's ability to communicate, to really be able to talk through problems and work things out, rather than just walking away from them. So the fact that you, harmons, are really taking that unto yourselves, to make a difference with your employees every single day, is a huge advantage, and I don't know how many other industries recognize that. But you're really making a difference in the lives of the ladies and gentlemen who work for you every day. Thank you so much for that, sean. This special edition of let's Talk Talent podcast really focuses on talent and how it plays a role in leaders' personal and professional lives. So can you share a story of how employees, their natural talents, have made a significant impact on a guest, or in the guest's experience, or with a restaurant overall? Tell us a story about that.

Shawn Brady:

So when I think about this, I think about so many times when a customer came back and they were disappointed and they confronted the person at the front counter or first person they met in the restaurant and they told them that you guys messed up my order and the first thing that happens is that employee or that team member kicks into the self-defense mode that I'm not even the one who took your order, I'm not the one who packed your order, I didn't make a mistake on your order and we turn it into a disagreement or argument because their egos won't let them accept the fact that a mistake was made Maybe they're not the one who made it.

Shawn Brady:

It's not important to the customer who made the mistake. What's important is to resolve it. Now, what I have seen over and over and over again in my career are people who have the right talent for working in the job and a love and a care for people. Don't care who made the mistake, they care about correcting the mistake and they can even apologize Young adults in many cases, as the pandemic impacted them. They can't apologize. They don't know how, they've never had to.

Shawn Brady:

But it's easy to say to a customer I'm sorry that happened to you. Not necessarily I'm sorry I did that, but simply I'm sorry that happened to you, let's fix it. So people that I've seen, who have the talent and love for people, have the ability to connect with empathy on what that customer is feeling and they know how to resolve the customer's issue to the customer's satisfaction. We also know that when we resolve a customer's complaint to their satisfaction, they become more loyal to us than the customer who never had a complaint in the first place. So watching people who have that talent, that people acumen, that caring, that relationship, resolve customer complaints shows me over and over and over again how important hiring the right kind of talent is within your restaurants to serve guests when they come in.

Mark Epp:

Absolutely, sean, one of the things that we really that. It's really important to me as a consultant here at Talent Plus because I'm often asking people like you to really work with and develop your team and to use the assessment that you selected the individual with, to use that assessment to really help grow and develop them. But this question is really about you how has your understanding of your talent helped you in your position and during your tenure at Harmon Management?

Shawn Brady:

So first of all, I have relied on my talent more than anything else to get to where I am today. I was attending college when I was offered the opportunity to become a restaurant general manager, so I dropped out of college after just a couple of years of community college. So I dropped out of college after just a couple of years of community college. So it wasn't the education so much that brought me to the role that I have, as it was the natural abilities that were given to me and that were developed by people who saw those in me this that when I was in high school I was a very overweight, poor, self-esteem young man, didn't have a whole lot of friends, didn't really know what I was going to do in life. I did know that. It was funny when I was in a grocery store and people wanted to know hey, I was always asked oftentimes hey, where do I find this or where do I find that? And I it wasn't. I was working there, but people just asked me and I love to show them and tell them and I and I felt happy after I helped somebody, find, seems. So I kind of had this understanding. I liked helping people, but I just didn't quite understand to what degree. So, shortly after I got my job at Kentucky Fried Chicken, my mother visited one day to buy a bucket of chicken and she came in and my manager at the time said to me she said, Sean, why don't you give your mom a tour? Show her around. So I brought her back into the back of the restaurant, I showed her around, I showed her the job that I was doing and how I did it, and I showed her how the chicken was prepared and how it was cooked. And to this day, 52 years later, it still rings in my mind fresh as the day it occurred I was standing in front of the pieces of equipment that we cook chicken and I was explaining it to my mother on how it worked.

Shawn Brady:

And my restaurant general manager, Lorraine Brand, stepped up and said Mrs Brady, I have to tell you that Sean is the best trainer we've ever had work here. And I got chills up and down my spine just now, just like I did 52 years ago when that event occurred, because I had never realized that I was good at this. I had never realized I was good at something, and that one statement to my mother set the course of my life, not only for my career, but the way I interact with people outside of my career, the way I try to interact with my family and my children. I had no idea that I was good at something, but once somebody told me I was, I decided I wanted to be the best there ever was at that.

Shawn Brady:

So for my entire career I have tried to be the best trainer, teacher, motivator, encourager of people that I can possibly be, to help them be able to feel the same levels of satisfaction that I have felt in my career and in my family life and in my interactions with my coworkers, because somebody recognized my talent. Once they recognized it and helped me to develop it, there was no going back, and that's what made me make the decision to stay within the food service industry and take on the different roles that I've taken. So to me, that's how important talent is. I've taken so um, that to me that's how important talent is and that's how I why I think it's important that people recognize their talents early in their lives, because it does set the course of the remainder of their lives.

Mark Epp:

Yeah, no question. No question about that. Um, I love the fact that you you talked about that story about your mom you talked earlier about food and my mom was a great cook as well and she always talked about the idea that everything in moderation, including moderation. She used to say so we would, you know, if you want to eat a few more pieces of chicken, a Kentucky Fried, go ahead and make it happen. But also the fact that you've just explained to us that somebody pointed out to you that these were your talents and that beautiful story that I also got goosebumps from when you just told me it is that ability to awaken to something you really do well, and then your engagement and saying I want to be the best at what I do. That was such a beautiful, beautiful story.

Mark Epp:

Thank you so much for sharing that one, sean, your career journey and tenure with Harmon Management. It is inspiring, for sure, and speaks volumes about your passion for the organization and also your commitment to the guest experience. So, as we begin to kind of wrap up our talk today, can you share maybe a couple of pieces of advice for retail and hospitality organizations who may be struggling you know, who could be struggling to create that real, meaningful and positive guest experience. What are some of the pieces of advice or recommendations you might meet, you might offer that would really make a difference to these?

Shawn Brady:

organizations and root cause analysis and going back to where did the problem originally arise and that's where we have to start to try to resolve it. There is no question in my mind that the majority of the problems and I deal with a lot of problems as the HR director, but 99 plus percent of those problems I can trace back to the root cause, and the root cause is the hiring decision. Who did I hire to do the job and were they a proper fit for the job? If I need somebody that is going to cook food, I need somebody that takes pride in the product and what they intend to serve to other guests, or I'm not going to have a high quality product. If I'm going to hire somebody that's going to interact with guests and provide services to them taking their order and packing their meals I have to hire somebody that cares about what that person's going to feel when they get home and they sit down and they open up their bucket of chicken and they reach in and they doil out the chicken and if there's one bad piece of chicken in that bucket, okay, that's one of maybe 15 or 20 pieces of chicken, but not for the person who's sitting down and only eating two. That's 50% of their meal.

Shawn Brady:

So I can trace it right back without question to the hiring decision that people make and who they hire, and are they a right fit for the organization or the type of work that they're going to be doing? And if they're not the right one, you don't hire them, you just keep looking. You work harder yourself, but you just keep on looking until you find the right person. So I have always encouraged be proactive, don't let yourself get behind on having enough talent to fill your positions. I'm a strong believer in a talent bank, of keeping in contact with people that I'm impressed with, because they may not want to work for me today, but they might want to work for me next year. So for me, it's root cause goes right back to the number one decision you make and that's who it is that you hire.

Mark Epp:

Sean, I feel like you're sitting in the office right here with me and that you and I have worked at Talent Plus for about 20 years together. You've been involved in this longer than I have for most of your career, so I just want to thank you so very, very much for your time today. Part of our mission statement is we know to your point that you've just made hiring the right person. We know everyone has talent. We know it. We've been in the business for 35 years and we know everyone has talent.

Mark Epp:

But I also go on to say talent for what? If you love to serve people, if you have that kind of propensity that every piece of chicken is going to be beautiful and is going to be a great piece for those family members that are buying that chicken, if you're that kind of individual and love to work and love to work hard because, yes, it's a tough industry then Harmon Management is the place to go, because you'll help them build not only a great job but a career ahead as well. Thank you so very, very much, sean. It's been an absolute pleasure and privilege for me to work with you today.

Shawn Brady:

Thank you so much. Thanks, drew, it's been a pleasure talking to you.

Mark Epp:

Thanks for listening to this episode of let's Talk Talent. I'm your host, mark Epp. If you're looking to develop the natural talent of your team but need help, check out Talent Plus Solutions. If you like what you heard today, please like and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.