When Leading from the Heart Protects the Bottom Line: A Frank Discussion with Smokey Bones’ CHRO | Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future

When COVID-19 struck, Smokey Bones saw revenues fall 80 percent in three days. Many restaurant chains responded with panic and austerity. Chief People and Culture Officer Rachael Kelly chose a different path. She changed how the company led its people. That choice stabilized the business and created a culture shift that drove growth.
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The Crisis That Changed Everything

Within days, employees faced pay cuts, new health and safety duties, and constant uncertainty. As Kelly recalls:

“In the restaurant industry, you never thought about life and death as part of your work, but suddenly, it was.”

Command-and-control leadership added stress. To move forward, Smokey Bones needed a new approach built on trust, empathy, and shared responsibility.

A Trauma-Informed Strategy

Kelly introduced trauma-informed leadership, guided by five principles:

• Safety: Physical and emotional well-being
  
  
• Choice: Employee voice and agency
  
  
• Collaboration: Decisions made with, not for, the team
  
  
• Trustworthiness: Consistency and respect
  
  
• Empowerment: Building skills and confidence through validation
  
  

This meant training managers to recognize signs of stress, increasing open communication, explaining the “why” behind decisions, normalizing conversations about mental health, and modeling healthy behaviors from the top.

Results That Proved the Model

By October 2020, Smokey Bones had recovered. The company delivered five straight quarters of industry-leading growth. It earned multi-year Great Place to Work certifications and achieved stronger retention than the industry average in a sector known for turnover.

The Business Lesson

Empathy and performance go together. Employees today expect leadership that treats them as people first. Trauma-informed practices protect teams and strengthen organizations, producing stability and results.

Listen to the whole conversation: “When Leading from the Heart Protects the Bottom Line” here or wherever you get your podcasts.