A powerful exploration of how organizational culture deteriorates through small compromises, revealing that team performance issues stem from eroded standards rather than people problems, and how leaders can reclaim accountability.
Her Story
About Kiera
Kiera Shahan’s story in the restaurant industry started at just 11 years old, and from the very beginning, she fell in love with the energy, pressure, teamwork, and connection that comes with serving people. What began as a first job quickly became a lifelong passion and ultimately a career built on leadership, resilience, and developing others.
After joining Buffalo Wild Wings 14 years ago as a bartender, Kiera steadily worked her way through every level of management on her way up to now District Manager. That journey shaped the leader she is today, one who believes the best leaders never forget what it feels like to be on the front lines.
At the core of Kiera’s leadership philosophy is people. She believes strong cultures are built through trust, accountability, recognition, support, and consistency. Whether coaching a new manager, helping a struggling team regain confidence, or celebrating major milestones alongside her leaders, she is passionate about creating environments where people feel seen, challenged, supported, and inspired to grow.
Known for being highly relational and deeply invested in her teams, Kiera leads with both intensity and heart. She believes leadership is not about position or authority, but about influence, service, and the responsibility to bring out the best in others. Her passion for development extends beyond operations into mentorship, communications, leadership advocacy, and community involvement across Inspire Brands.
Today, Kiera continues to build high-performing teams while helping shape leadership conversations across the organization. Her mission remains simple: create legendary experiences, build strong people, and leave every team stronger than she found it.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kiera
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to a combination of work ethic, resilience, and the standards that were instilled in me from a very young age. I was raised by a father who believed deeply in discipline, consistency, and never settling for average. He taught me that mediocrity is the enemy and that if you are going to commit to something, you give it everything you have.
Some of my earliest memories are watching him outwork everyone around him. Even now, in his 70s, he still works every single day. Growing up around that level of discipline shaped the way I approach leadership, adversity, and growth. I learned early that success is rarely about talent alone. It comes from showing up consistently, staying hungry, being willing to outwork expectations, and continuing to push yourself long after most people become comfortable.
At the same time, I also attribute my success to the people who believed in me, challenged me, and gave me opportunities to grow throughout my career. I’ve been fortunate to work alongside incredible leaders and teams who pushed me to think bigger, lead better, and continue evolving.
Today, I try to pour those same values into the people I lead. I believe leadership is about creating environments where people feel challenged, supported, inspired, and capable of more than they originally saw in themselves. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that growth happens when high standards and genuine belief in people exist at the same time.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
One of the best pieces of career advice I’ve ever received was to 'never become comfortable with being average'. Early in life, I was taught that growth happens when you continue pushing yourself beyond expectations, even after you’ve achieved success. That mindset has stayed with me throughout my entire career.
I learned very young that talent alone will only take you so far. Consistency, discipline, resilience, and influencing culture are what separate legends from ordinary over time. Some of the most influential leaders in my life taught me that the moment you stop learning, adapting, and challenging yourself is the moment you stop growing.
As my career evolved, that advice took on even deeper meaning. I realized success is not just about personal achievement. It is about how many people you can impact along the way. The best leaders are the ones who create opportunities, develop others, raise standards, and leave teams stronger than they found them.
I believe in setting high expectations while also genuinely investing in people. When people feel both challenged and supported, incredible growth can happen. That combination of accountability, belief, and continuous growth is something I carry with me every day.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My biggest advice to young women entering this industry is to never underestimate the value of your voice, your work ethic, or your presence. The restaurant industry can be fast paced, demanding, and highly competitive, but it is also one of the greatest industries in the world for growth, opportunity, and leadership development if you are willing to work for it.
Early in my career, I felt like I had to prove myself constantly, and in many ways, I did. But over time, I learned that confidence is not about having all the answers. It is about being willing to step into uncomfortable situations, continue learning, ask questions, take feedback, and trust your ability to grow.
I would also encourage young women not to limit themselves to the role they are currently in. Learn every part of the business you can. Be curious! Volunteer for challenges. Build relationships. Find mentors. Pay attention to the leaders who inspire you and also the ones who teach you what you do not want to become.
Most importantly, understand that leadership is not about becoming the loudest person in the room. Some of the strongest leaders are the ones who create trust, build people up, stay consistent under pressure, and lead with both accountability and heart. This industry has given me opportunities I never could have imagined, and I truly believe there is room for more women to rise, lead, innovate, and leave a lasting impact within it.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges in the restaurant industry right now is balancing operational excellence with the human side of leadership. Expectations continue to grow across every area of the business, from speed and profitability to guest experience, retention, training, and culture. At the same time, leaders are navigating burnout, staffing challenges, evolving workforce expectations, and the pressure to consistently deliver results in an incredibly fast-paced environment.
I also believe one of the greatest opportunities in our industry is people development. Restaurants have the ability to change lives faster than almost any other industry. You can start in an entry-level position and build an incredible career through hard work, leadership, and consistency. Some of the strongest leaders I know started as hosts, cashiers, servers, bartenders, or cooks. That growth potential is incredibly powerful.
Another major opportunity is innovation. The industry is evolving quickly through technology, off-premise growth, operational efficiencies, training platforms, and new ways of connecting with guests and team members. Leaders who are adaptable, people-focused, and willing to evolve alongside the business are going to continue shaping the future of the industry.
For me personally, I believe the future belongs to leaders who can balance high performance with strong culture. If you can drive performance alone, you will absolutely see results. But the leaders who build strong cultures alongside that performance, the ones who develop people, create belief, inspire teams, and build genuine connection, will outperform the rest every time because culture is what sustains greatness long after pressure alone stops working.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
At Buffalo Wild Wings, we bleed black & yellow. Aligning my own values to our brand - Sportsmanship, Spontaneity, Hustle, Community & Fun.
I value people who show up consistently, do the right thing even when no one is watching, and take pride in the way they treat others. Work ethic has always been incredibly important to me, but over time I’ve learned that leadership is about much more than performance alone. The strongest leaders are the ones who can create trust, inspire belief, develop people, and build cultures where others feel empowered to grow.
Growth, another value that drives me. I never want to become comfortable with staying the same, whether that means learning new skills, improving as a leader, strengthening relationships, or challenging myself personally and professionally. I believe growth requires humility, self-awareness, adaptability, and the willingness to stay coachable no matter how much success you achieve.
Above all, I value impact. At the end of the day, titles and accomplishments only go so far. What matters most to me is the difference I make in the lives of the people around me, the culture I help create, and whether the teams and relationships I leave behind are stronger because I was part of them.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Kiera
You Don't Have a People Problem, You Have a Standards Problem
No Excuse Management
You Don’t Have a People Problem. You Have a Standards Problem.
One thing I’ve learned after years of leading teams across different markets, states, and levels of performance is that it’s usually not a people problem—it’s a standards problem. That’s a harder truth to accept because it’s easier to blame others. It’s easy to point at turnover, staffing shortages, burnout, generational differences, or struggling leadership and decide that must be the issue. It feels cleaner to believe the wrong people are sitting in the seats than to ask whether the standard inside the building has quietly shifted over time.
The reality is that standards rarely collapse overnight. They erode slowly—one excuse at a time. One missed expectation that gets ignored because everyone is tired. One tough conversation that gets avoided because it feels uncomfortable. One moment where “good enough” becomes acceptable because addressing it head-on feels harder in the moment. Most of the time, we justify it to ourselves without even realizing we’re doing it. We tell ourselves the team is short-staffed, it’s been a rough week, or people are trying their best. The problem is that when enough excuses pile up, they stop sounding temporary and start becoming culture. That’s how mediocrity gets normalized—not through one massive failure, but through hundreds of small compromises that slowly move the bar lower until nobody remembers where it used to be.
It can happen to struggling teams and successful teams alike. In fact, some of the most dangerous moments for a team are when things are performing “well enough,” because that’s when blind spots form. The urgency fades. Standards soften. Things that would have stood out immediately a year ago barely get noticed anymore. That’s the difficult part about lowered standards: eventually, you stop seeing them. The lens changes. What once felt unacceptable starts feeling normal simply because it has become familiar, and teams adjust faster than leaders realize.
People perform to the level of what is reinforced, not what is written on a poster or repeated in a meeting. You can talk about excellence all day long, but if accountability disappears the moment things get difficult, your team quickly learns that the standard is flexible. Your best people usually see it first. They see who gets coached and who gets a pass. They notice when expectations shift depending on the person, the workload, or whether someone feels like dealing with conflict that day.
Eventually, top performers adjust too. Some lower their standards to match the environment around them. Others leave entirely and go find a culture that already matches the standard they hold themselves to. That’s why burnout is often misunderstood. Most high performers are not burned out because expectations are too high—they are burned out because standards are inconsistent. There is a significant difference. People will work incredibly hard for a winning culture when they believe everyone around them is held to the same standard. What drains people is feeling like they are giving everything while others are allowed to operate at half the level without consequence. That imbalance wears teams down faster than pressure ever will.
Leadership has to own that honestly, without becoming defensive. Because leadership is not just reacting once problems become visible—it is paying attention before they become normal. That requires stripping away your own blind spots first. Every leader has them at some point. You get used to the pace, the pressure, and the constant need to solve problems quickly so you can move on to the next thing. Over time, things settle into the background that should have been addressed immediately. That is usually the moment where culture either begins slipping or begins strengthening. The difference comes down to whether the leader is willing to stop, reassess, and raise the standard again before the drift becomes permanent.
Remind yourself: your people are capable of far more than you think. They just haven’t been led clearly enough, challenged consistently enough, or pushed beyond the comfort zone that average environments create. So when performance starts slipping, when the culture feels off, or when frustration starts building, leaders need to ask themselves a different set of questions before pointing fingers at their team:
What have I allowed to become normal?
What standards have quietly drifted?
What excuses have I started accepting?
What conversations have I avoided?
At the end of the day, winning cultures are not built through motivational speeches, slogans, or talent alone. They are built through standards that stay firm when excuses would be easier. And the moment leaders fully commit to that, everything changes—not because the people suddenly changed overnight, but because the standard finally did.
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