A local business owner has discovered that Chick-fil-A is about more than a sandwich or a couple of cows on a billboard.

Marshall Wilkins, owner and operator of the Kingston Overlook and Turkey Creek locations in Knoxville, has learned "endless" lessons about leadership through nearly 27 years with the company.

In his experience, consistency is one of the most important traits of a good leader.

"You can be consistently mean, consistently nice, you can be anything, but you just need to be whatever that is all the time," he said.

Continual improvement is also essential. "If you don't [continually reinvent yourself], you're going to fall behind. You have to continually try to get better. Never be satisfied with where you are," Wilkins said.

His advice to new leaders is to learn to delegate and trust people.

"If that lesson is not learned quickly", he said, "it is easy to go crazy and [think] you have to do everything."

Chick-fil-A has also taught him many key life lessons. "Life is about relationships and people," he said. "If you give, you get. You don't take. That's what I try to do."

Many of these lessons have come through practical experience, but Wilkins has also been influenced by Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy. He considers Cathy his role model.

Wilkins said that he is a relational person and enjoys interacting with people. However, human interaction can quickly change from refreshing to frustrating.

"It's the best and the worst [part of the job]," he said. "It really is. It's the most rewarding, yet the most frustrating."

In 2005, Wilkins became the first Chick-fil-A operator of two free-standing units to earn the Symbol of Success award. The Symbol of Success is the most prominent award for operators offered by Chick-fil-A. To win the award, Wilkins' stores had to run a combined sales increase of 30 percent.

However, he does not consider the award to be the highest point of his career. Instead, it was when he was experiencing the seven-year itch and an employee told him that he had a huge positive impact on him growing up.

"It made me realize the value of what I do. It's what I give rather than what I get. That was when the value of it really hit me."

After years of serving chicken sandwiches, Wilkins said he still eats chicken. "I like my job now as much as I ever have and very possibly more. Nothing's gotten old about it. It stays fresh."

Wilkins began working with Chick-fil-A in April 1981. Before owning his current locations, he operated other units in Johnson City and Knoxville, Tenn.

More information about Wilkins and his stores can be found at www.cfakingstonoverlook.com and www.cfaturkeycreek.com.