What a Hot Dog Stand Taught Me About Leadership

I once worked with a part-time music director who supplemented her income in a unique way—she ran a hot dog stand. Not a restaurant, not a food truck—an old-fashioned rolling cart she pushed through the downtown area during lunch hours. And for a while, she made great money.

Why?
Because she was the only hot dog stand in town.

She didn’t offer a lot of options in hot dogs or toppings. Her menu didn’t have to be creative. People didn’t have many options—so what she offered worked.

But then a new food shop opened. They offered better hot dogs. They had more toppings. They had more variety. Suddenly, being the only option no longer protected her. Profits shrank. Competition grew. And eventually, she sold her cart and stepped away.

Her takeaway stayed with me:
When you’re the only hot dog stand in town, your hot dogs don’t have to be very good—but nothing stays certain forever.

And that’s where leadership comes in.

When You Can’t Offer Certainty—Offer Clarity

We live in a time of incredible uncertainty. Leadership has always required navigating the unknown, but today the pace and pressure feel even greater. So what do you offer as a leader when you cannot offer certainty?

You offer clarity.

As organizations grow, they become more complex. As they age, they accumulate traditions and habits that once made sense but no longer do. It’s like the elevator operator who said, “Elevators are so complicated… they have so many levels.”

Clarity cuts through all that.
Clarity simplifies.
Clarity focuses.

And clarity is something every leader can—and must—provide.

There are three questions every leader needs to answer to bring clarity to the people they lead.

• What are we doing?
• Why are we doing it?
• Where do I fit in?

The first two are organizational questions—questions every person should be able to answer the same way in a sentence or two.

The third is personal—it requires intentional conversation, reflection, and understanding of a person’s unique gifts. The third question is about how I help the team or organization reach its higher purpose. 

Let’s look at each one.

What are we doing?

This is the question of focus.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he was famous for saying, “Focus means saying no to the hundred other good ideas.” His team was working on too many projects, so he stripped it all back to one core mission: make computers that are easy to use.

Anything that didn’t support that?
Gone.

Clarity about what you do removes confusion about what you don’t do.
It aligns people.
It simplifies decisions.
It channels resources—human, financial, emotional—toward what matters most.

Why are we doing it?

This question injects purpose and passion back into the work.

Your “why” is about what’s at stake if your organization disappeared tomorrow.
What problem goes unsolved?
What service goes unprovided?
What hurt goes unhealed?
What opportunity vanishes for the next generation?

If you can capture the why in one clear sentence, that sentence becomes the jet fuel for your mission.

Life has a way of draining the purpose out of us—emails, to-do lists, endless meetings. But returning to the what and the why centers a leader again. It sharpens decisions. It rekindles conviction. And it helps you anchor others who feel overwhelmed.

Where do I fit in?

This is where leadership becomes deeply personal.

This is not a job description. It’s a responsibility description—a one-sentence explanation of how someone contributes to the bigger “we.”

Meaning comes from knowing your role in the mission. Purpose grows when people see how their gifts connect to the work God has called your organization to do.

Here’s the good news:
You aren’t meant to be good at everything. Neither is anyone else. The body of Christ is designed with complementary gifts. Leadership is helping people connect the dots between who they are and why their contribution matters.

A healthy organization can define this clearly for every role. Clarity is like oil in an engine: the parts may be well-designed, but without oil the friction will destroy the whole system.

Start With Yourself

Before you can give clarity, you must have clarity.

So start with your own responsibility description. Not your job description—your core contribution. What are you responsible for that provides the greatest value to your team or organization? Here’s mine:

“My main responsibility is to inspire my congregation to remain fully engaged in the mission and vision of our organization.”

Once you define yours, begin helping others articulate theirs. It is not their job description.  I preach every week.  It is the most visible thing I do but that is not the most important thing.  Ask your team leaders what they believe their one-sentence responsibility is. You may be surprised by their answers—and the conversations will be invaluable.