What a Deli in Ann Arbor Taught Me About Leading with Excellence
I was born in New York City, so a good Reuben sandwich with a dill pickle wedge was something I appreciated from an early age. When I moved to the Midwest as an adult, the quest for a delicious Reuben was harder to find. Then I discovered, Zingerman’s Bakery and Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have a world-renowned brick and mortar establishment and a thriving mail order business, which I frequent to send food gifts with love.
Ari Weinzweig, the Co-Founder of Zingerman’s talks about how he and his co-founder, Paul Saginaw dreamt about a Reuben sandwich that was so transcendently good, that when you bite into it, the juice runs down your forearm.
I have eaten a lot of sandwiches in my life. But the first time I bit into a Zingerman’s Reuben — hot corned beef stacked high, melted Swiss, tangy sauerkraut, Russian dressing on grilled rye — I understood something I hadn’t quite been able to articulate before.
Excellence has a texture. You know it immediately. And once you’ve had it, you can’t settle for less.
That’s what Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan has been proving since 1982. But here’s the thing, this legendary institution isn’t just making extraordinary food. They’ve built an extraordinary culture — one that leaders in every industry can learn from and steal shamelessly.
Excellence Is a Function of Uniqueness
Zingerman’s doesn’t try to be everything to everyone. Their guiding philosophy is simple and stunning: excellence is a function of uniqueness. They know who they are, they know what they stand for, and they refuse to compromise it. That corned beef is sourced and brined with obsessive care. The rye bread is made from scratch. Every element is intentional.
Think about your own organization. Are you crystal clear on what makes you distinctive? Most leaders I coach can’t articulate their team’s unique value in one sentence. If you can’t, your people can’t either — and that’s where mediocrity creeps in.
The fix? Name it. Get specific. “We deliver fast” is not unique. “We are the team that clients call when everything else has broken down” — that’s a north star.
Three Steps to Great Service (That Work Everywhere)
Zingerman’s distills great service into three steps so elegant you might dismiss them as too simple. Don’t.
Step 1: Find out what they (customers/clients/constituents) want. Not what you think they want. Not what’s easiest to give. What they actually want.
Step 2: Get it for them. Sounds obvious. It rarely is. How often do our systems, our egos, or our assumptions get in the way of just delivering?
Step 3: Go the extra mile. This is where the magic lives. The unexpected touch. The follow-through nobody required but everyone remembered.
My client Marcus leads a regional sales team at a mid-size tech company. He posted these three steps above every desk. Within a quarter, his team’s customer satisfaction scores jumped — not because they changed their product, but because they changed their orientation. They stopped transacting and started serving.
Meaning-Making: The Practices That Shift Everything
Zingerman’s has also developed what they call meaning-making methods — practices to keep people grounded, grateful, and energized. Two of them stopped me cold when I first heard them.
Stop/Breathe/Appreciate. In the middle of a busy shift — or a brutal quarter — you pause. You breathe. You find three things you’re genuinely grateful for and leave the stressors in the rear-view mirror. This is not soft. Gratitude is a performance tool. Leaders who practice it make better decisions and create better cultures.
3 and Out. The same move distilled: find what you’re grateful for and consciously step out of the stress loop. It’s a reset. And you can teach your whole team to use it.
These practices cost nothing. They require only intention.
Energy Management: The Dimension Leaders Ignore
Here is what I find most compelling about the Zingerman’s philosophy – they think in three dimensions of energy — physical, mental, and vibrational.
We all understand the first two. Sleep, eat well, move your body, think clearly. But vibrational energy — the invisible current in the room, the vibe that either lifts people or drains them — that’s what separates good leaders from great ones.
Two questions to carry into every meeting, every interaction, every room you walk into: What are the signals here? And what can I add to raise the energy level?
That’s not just leadership. That’s presence.
Your Turn
You don’t have to run a deli to lead like Zingerman’s. You just have to commit to the same elegant principles: know your uniqueness, serve with intention, create meaning, and manage the energy you bring.
The standard is clear. The juice is worth it.
Enjoy your career AND love your life.
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