A New Restaurant

As a restaurant owner, you have to remember that when it comes to staff performance, you reap what you sow. You are the leader of your organization, and it is up to you to set the tone and the expectations for how your staff performs.

This puts a lot of pressure on you. Your staffs behavior and their performance is your responsibility. If meals aren’t coming out of the kitchen correctly, or your servers aren’t delivering excellent customer service, guess who’s to blame. And don’t try playing the “You can’t find good help these days!” card. There are plenty of restaurants that are doing it right, and they’re drawing from the same talent pool that you’re drawing from. In truth, the problem usually isn’t the people that are available.

I know that there are some people that are truly bad employees, but they should be the exception and not the rule. If the rest of your staff is performing as they should, the bad apples are easy to sort out and replace. The problem is, how do you seed out poor performers when they’re all poor performers?

The key is to not let things reach that point.

One well-worn cliché became well-worn because it works: “INSPECT what you EXPECT.” What that means is, if you have expectation about the way your staff is performing (if you don’t have expectations, you should), you need to watch them to make sure they are doing things the way you want them done. If they are not performing to your standards, you need to do whatever it takes to make them accountable.

Two truths you need to keep in mind:

1.) Most of your employees want to do a good job.

2.) Some of your employees are still kids trapped in a grownups body.

What that means for you is, 1.) most of your employees will do what you want them to do if you make it clear what you want them to do, and 2.) if you don’t hold them accountable, they will do what they want to do.

Once you get a crew that is living up to your expectations, handling the bad apples is a lot easier.

Think about the organizations and groups you’ve been a part of.  Is the true leader always the most noticeable person in the group?  Sometimes they are; they’re charismatic, thrive in the spotlight, and people love them.  But that’s not always the case.

My son plays soccer.  There is one young man on the team who is very vocal.  He spends the game telling his teammates what they should do, where they should play the ball, and what mistakes they just made.  He yells, and tries to vocally intimidate his teammates while on the field.

The second young man decided that he deserved to be the team captain, so he stepped up and started playing the part of leader.  He called the team together to start practices, and lead the team in warm-ups and stretches, but when it came time to practice he was more interested in socializing with his fellow seniors.

There is another young man on the team that doesn’t say a whole lot.  When it’s time to practice, he buckles down and practices hard.  Come game time, he plays hard.  He his on-field communication is more game related (ie. Calling for the ball, pointing out open spaces, etc.), and it is always encouraging.

While the first player has a good knowledge of the game, and what he yells to his teammates is often correct, when it came time to select captains, guess who was chosen?  That’s right, the quiet encourager.

While player #1 had the knowledge of the game, he didn’t have the kind of care for his teammates that makes for a good leader.  He was more interested in giving orders than he was about building his teammates up.  Everything he said on the field reinforced the fact that he felt his teammates would never measure up to his standards.

Player #2 merely played the part of leader.  He wanted the prestige that came from being able to say he was the team captain.  When he was passed over for the title, he lost all interest in trying to build his team up.  He began coming to practice late, and was more interested in having fun than he was in being a good teammate.

Player #3 was the true leader, and rightly deserved the role of team captain.  His attitude, work ethic, and humility made him the perfect choice.  He was even a little surprised that the honor was given to him.  He certainly wasn’t working toward that as a goal.  If one of the other players had been given the role, Player #3 would have continued on like he always had, and title or not, he would have stood out as the true team leader.

Have you ever noticed that in some restaurants you never see the manager unless there’s a problem? I’ve been to some where I have not seen a manager the entire time I’m there. The other thing I’ve noticed is, these restaurants don’t usually impress me. I see mediocre service, longer waits for food, and meals that are average at best.

There’s a term in management practice called “Management by Walking Around” (MBWA). What is means is, instead of spending your time secluded away in your office, you need to get out amongst the workers to see what’s really happening with your business. For restaurant management, that means spending time in your dining room and kitchen, talking to customers, coaching employees, and keeping an eye on how your restaurant operates.

You and I both know that the majority of the time, if there are problems, the customer will not complain, at least not to you. They will complain to their family and friends, and they show their displeasure by not coming back to your restaurant. Wouldn’t it be better to head off that problem by catching it and fixing it before the customer leaves? You can’t do that by sitting in your office. You need to be out where you can catch small problems before they become huge issues.

Another benefit of MBWA is that your employees are more on their toes if they know they are being watched. This doesn’t mean hovering over them waiting for them to screw up. It’s more about developing a culture where the people in charge are visible and active in the operation, and all of the employees know it.

There are times when you have to be in the office. The paperwork has to get done, but you need to schedule your time in the office so you are available during your restaurants peak business times. Give it a try, you might be surprised by what you see.