Emotional Intelligence As An Operating System For Modern Restaurants

For a long time, restaurant performance was framed almost entirely through numbers: comp sales, traffic counts, ticket averages. If the dashboard looked healthy, the business was considered healthy.

That equation is cracking.

Guests are eating differently. Technology is reshaping how orders appear and how hospitality is delivered. New health trends are changing how often people eat, not just where they eat. Inside the four walls, teams are carrying more pressure in thinner margin environments. In that world, more data and more process are not enough.

Emotional intelligence is the missing layer that turns those inputs into a culture where people stay, grow, and perform. It is the difference between a brand that survives disruption and one that uses it to build deeper loyalty.

On The Bliss Business Podcast, we sat down with Kelly Roddy, CEO of WOWorks, the parent company behind six better for you restaurant brands, including Saladworks, Frutta Bowls, Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, The Simple Greek, Barberitos, and Z!Eats. Kelly has led major brands through reinvention, guided franchisees through intense headwinds, and built a platform focused on helping guests live healthier lives with clean, nutrient dense food. His leadership approach offers a playbook for how emotional intelligence can operate at scale.

Emotional Intelligence Is Not A Soft Skill

Early in the episode, Stephen cites research showing leaders with high emotional intelligence see significant gains in employee engagement and team performance. Kelly does not treat that as a nice side benefit. For him, emotional intelligence is central to how a multi brand platform functions.

In his world, emotional intelligence shows up in three practical ways:

• Staying emotionally regulated when the environment is noisy, so leaders can be a calm anchor.

• Connecting deeply with franchisees and operators who have put their life savings into the brand.

• Holding a long view that remembers there is always some macro crisis, and that the work is to focus the team on what they can control.

He refuses the excuse of “I lost my temper because I am passionate.” In his words, leaders are not babies. Emotional regulation is part of the job. Teams watch how leaders respond to pressure, and they calibrate their own responses accordingly.

Values You Actually Live, Not Frame

Many companies have value statements that live on posters and slide decks. Kelly is not interested in that approach. At WOWorks, values are treated as daily operating instructions.

Instead of wall art, the team talks about values constantly. They recognize people who live them every day. In all hands meetings they pick a value, go deep, and invite team members to share real examples of how they lived it. There is no “culture deck” doing the work. The culture is carried in live conversation and recognition.

This intentional repetition has a compounding effect. New hires often arrive skeptical, expecting the usual corporate lip service. Over time, the consistency wins them over. Values are not referenced only in calm seasons. They guide how the company navigates difficult years for the restaurant industry, which is when culture matters most.

Accountability As Shared Standard, Not Top Down Control

One of Kelly’s most useful reframes is how he talks about accountability. Instead of “I hold you accountable,” he defines it as “I need to do my job so you can do yours.” Accountability becomes a shared obligation to the team, not a weapon.

In practice, that looks like:

• Clear, specific goals tied to “big rocks” the team has committed to move.

• Weekly check ins, not monthly autopsies, so people can adjust in real time.

• Public commitments where each leader states what they will do this week to progress the work.

No one wants to be the person who shows up to the next call and admits they did not move their rock, especially when everyone else did. Accountability becomes a culture of self expectation, supported by transparent data, rather than a cycle of top down reprimands.

With franchisees, the same spirit applies. WOWorks shares performance benchmarks and “best in class” examples, then collaborates on a plan the franchisee helps design. Ownership is built in at the start, instead of imposed after the fact.

Serving Guests Who Are Eating Less, Not Eating Worse

The restaurant landscape is shifting in ways that are both structural and emotional. Off premise has exploded through third party delivery. Dining rooms can be half empty while kitchens are slammed with digital orders. At the same time, GLP 1 drugs are reducing overall consumption, which means there are simply fewer meals being eaten.

Kelly refuses to view these realities only as threats. Instead he asks a different question: if people are going to eat less, how do we make sure what they do eat is incredibly nutritious.

WOWorks focuses on:

• Clean ingredients, with a strong bias toward removing additives and preservatives.

• Nutrient dense offerings, such as genuine acai and high quality protein.

• Supply chain choices that favor all natural and “no antibiotics ever” over convenience.

Even in that operational focus, emotional intelligence is present. The company understands that guests want to trust that someone has thought deeply about what they are putting in their bodies. When a brand aligns its purpose with that concern, it earns loyalty that outlasts trend cycles.

Culture Design In A Remote World

WOWorks does not rely on a single headquarters office to transmit culture. The leadership team is spread across multiple states and time zones, and the broader team is largely remote. Instead of accepting culture erosion as the cost of flexibility, Kelly has invested in cultural infrastructure.

A chief culture officer focuses full time on reinforcing shared values and connection. That role is not an HR label. It is a mandate to design experiences that keep people human to one another.

Examples include:

• Weekly coffee talks where business conversation is off limits and people simply connect.

• Book clubs that discuss practical ideas and leadership concepts together.

• Programs like “Dare to Wow” that help team members set personal as well as professional goals, sometimes resulting in life choices as bold as training for a marathon.

Culture is treated as a living system that needs ongoing design, not as a vintage artifact from the pre remote era. Emotional intelligence here looks like designing for wholeness, not just productivity.

Purpose That Includes Every Stakeholder

Kelly describes WOWorks’ purpose as helping make the lives of everyone they touch better. That “everyone” is taken seriously.

The purpose extends to:

• Franchisees who are often local family businesses betting on themselves.

• Team members inside restaurants who deserve growth and meaningful work.

• Vendor partners who are also trying to build healthy companies and support their own families.

• Communities that should benefit from having a WOWorks brand in their neighborhood.

Food is the vehicle for that purpose, but not the whole story. Clean, accessible, flavorful fuel allows guests to pursue their own passions and health goals. Franchisees get a platform that aligns with their values. Vendors get treated as partners, not transactions. Communities get restaurants that see themselves as citizens, not just tenants.

This is emotional intelligence at system level. It is empathy structured into the business model, not merely into individual interactions.

Love As A Leadership Practice

When asked what role love plays in business, Kelly gives a layered answer. First, you have to love what you do. Then you have to love the people you do it with enough to make them feel genuinely valued.

That love is not abstract. It shows up as:

• Asking for people’s ideas instead of simply issuing directives.

• Creating environments where contribution is recognized and remembered.

• Being honest when there is a values mismatch and helping people transition out rather than forcing them to stay in work that does not fit.

Love, in this sense, is not sentimental. It is disciplined care. It is the decision to design systems, conversations, and choices that treat people as full human beings while still holding high standards. In a remote, fast moving, margin pressured industry, that is not weakness. It is a durable advantage.

Key Takeaways

• Emotional intelligence is an operating system, not a side skill. It shapes how leaders regulate themselves, connect with others, and focus teams in turbulent conditions.

• Values need to be spoken, celebrated, and debated often. If they live only on posters, they are not yet values.

• Accountability works best as self commitment inside a trusted team, supported by weekly check ins and transparent data.

• Restaurant leaders cannot ignore macro shifts like delivery and GLP 1 drugs. They can, however, respond with cleaner, more nutrient dense offerings that deepen trust.

• Remote culture requires deliberate design. Roles like chief culture officer, recurring rituals, and whole person programs keep connection alive at scale.

• Purpose that includes franchisees, team members, partners, guests, and communities aligns decisions across the system and makes tough calls clearer.

• Love in leadership looks like making people feel valued, telling them the truth, and caring about their growth, even when that means helping them find a better fit elsewhere.

Final Thoughts

Emotional intelligence in business is not a luxury for calm seasons. It is a necessity for environments that are changing fast, where people are tired of being treated like numbers and where brand relevance is always at stake.

Kelly Roddy’s work at WOWorks is a reminder that you can run a highly disciplined, data informed, multi brand restaurant platform and still lead with empathy, purpose, and love. In fact, those qualities often make the discipline sustainable.

Check out our full conversation with Kelly Roddy on The Bliss Business Podcast.