If there is one piece of advice that Taco Bell CEO Sean Tresvant credits for his success as a leader, it’s this piece: “Don’t try to be a black belt at everything.”
The CEO believes that focusing on excelling at a single aspect of business, rather than trying to do it all, is what sets successful people apart from most. This is because, as you advance your career, you only need to be proficient at other business aspects. “Be a black belt in marketing, and be a brown belt in everything else,” Tresvant, who previously held marketing executive roles at Taco Bell, Nike, and Sports Illustrated, stated.
This career-changing advice was given to Tresvant in January after he became CEO of Taco Bell—which is owned by fast food titan Yum! Brands. Tresvant said the advice helped him quickly adapt to the new role, where instead of believing he has all the answers, he now tries to ask the “right questions” of his team members who are experts in areas he is not.
“I’m not trying to be everything,” said Tresvant, 54. “I understand I’m not a CFO, but I have a great CFO who can lead the [financial side of the] business.”
The Power of The Right Questions
Tresvant’s approach to asking the “right questions” is a sign of “great leadership,” with the CEO stating that the move helps the people around you develop their own expertise, which ultimately positively impacts both your business and their careers.
“Leaders who try to be everything to everybody, and try to maybe be a little bit too micro, and don’t empower their teams to lead—I think that’s when teams aren’t at their best,” said Tresvant. “I try to be a leader who understands what I’m good at, but also understand[s] what other people are good at, and make sure I’m giving them the space to be great.”
Communication expert Matt Abrahams finds power in the right questions as well, telling CNBC Make It in September that asking good questions can help you obtain influence and build relationships in the workplace. Abrahams further stated that good questions are concise, advance the conversation, and focus on a single idea.
Asking the right questions “demonstrates you care, it demonstrates empathy, it demonstrates you’re willing to learn and, in some cases, admit you don’t know everything,” said Abrahams. “Those are all valuable tools and assets to have when you’re trying to grow your career or deepen relationships.”
The power in recognizing you don’t know everything was expressed by leadership expert Charlene Li, who said that there is a correlation between success and accepting you don’t know it all. “Individuals who are able to balance confidence with humility are better able to learn from their failures and bounce back, which improves their performance and helps them make better decisions going forward,” stated Li.
“Because you don’t know everything, you can’t be expected to have all the answers,” Li said. “You can be open to a learner’s mindset, and that is absolutely crucial.”
Tresvant Takes Taco Bell Up
Joining the Taco Bell team in December 2021 as chief brand officer, Tresvant became the company’s CEO in January 2024. Now overseeing global growth strategies, franchise operations, and overall performance, his leadership at Taco Bell has been marked by strategic initiatives to build a stronger connection with the company’s customers.
To deepen the company’s connection with customers, Tresvant’s idea of creating future nostalgia—planning in a way that has future generations saying “back in my day …” to their kids—focuses on one kind of customer: those who are likely to adopt a new, different idea and run with it.
“We came up with a consumer called the ‘cultural rebel.’ A cultural rebel is somebody who is changing the game, somebody who wants to push culture forward,” he told me. “And so when we started focusing on them. Our food was designed for them; our content was designed for them.”
