Saturday, April 29, 2006

14 things to consider before your shift gets in the weeds!

The fortunate thing about time, is that it doesn't stop. And even a bad shift will eventually end. The question is what do you do with the de-brief? This situation offers an tremendous opportunity to learn from and come out on the other side, more aware of what actually went wrong and how to prevent it in the future.

  1. NEVER, EVER get pinned down in a position. You have got to train your staff to the point where they can be moved to cover shift critical positions - like the bar. If you get slammed unexpectedly, you have to have a plan to move core staff into positions to support the business and be able to reinforce, not outright work, the weakest position. Make a few drinks, have servers that can make a few of your most basic, as well as get beer and wine tickets filled, make a round of the restaurant, then return to the bar after you have checked on everyone else. When you have multiple fires, you have to prioritize them and then attack them. If you have to, shut down alcohol service and serve only beer and wine.
  2. Servers should be trained to check on their tickets as they make their rounds through the kitchen to ensure that they have been received and are working.
  3. Once you see that your shift is sinking into the weeds, you need to rally the troops. Call a short 60 second meeting of all staff and explain what is happening (like they don't already know) and talk about recovery and support for every position. This is your "2 minute drill" and should actually be practiced for just such events.
  4. You need to have people who are loyal and talented enough that you can call in on a short notice. If it takes 30 minutes for them to get there, so what, you don't know how long the rush will last, (in this case it was 2 hours) so you can always utilize them as long as you need. A host or other key employee should be able to make these calls as well as you.
  5. You may have to incorporate a false-wait in order to slow down the flow enough to take care of the guests you have. If you have to lose a guest, better to lose them at the door, instead of the table.
  6. Every time a guest walks into your restaurant, it's because it's an occasion in their lives. Birthday, anniversary, first date, last date, job promotion, bad mood pick-me-up, divorce final, winning the championship, etc....And even when a guest has a coupon for a free meal, they are still a guest in your business and are still choosing to celebrate their special event with you. Why do we want to discount their discontent about poor service or food just because they are getting it for free in the first place? The first rule of recovery involves hearing the guest out, then taking action. This is about more than a lost ticket. Which no one ever wants to take responsibility for. It's about the guest and his family being in your restaurant on a very important occasion in their life, with very high expectations because you do have a good reputation for good food and service, only to be disappointed because they received the ultimate act of disrespect - a forgotten order - and on their birthday. I wouldn't stick around to talk to you if you lost my order on my birthday. And to be upset because you didn't get to apologize first? That's just plain hubris. I've lost tickets before, but I also never let a guest leave unhappy. Understanding that guests don't necessarily want a comped meal but rather better service is paramount to being in the restaurant business in 2005. The zeitgeist of our culture isn't about apologies, although they are the first point of good manners for a host, its about correcting the wrong done to a guest because IT IS PERSONAL TO THEM, because it's a celebration of a day in their life. It's never "just food". And your response to them should be as personal as the slight. A bottle of champagne or an invitation to a special night of entertainment and dining on you, or something even more personalized would have been appropriate. AND NEVER EVER SEEK REVENGE FOR WHAT YOU CONSIDER UNRULY BEHAVIOR ON THE PART OF A GUEST! If you tell them you are comping their meal, changing your mind because you think you were insulted or abused is simply you not keeping your word. Which is worse? Did the guests at the next table hear you and now see you not keeping your word? What word-of-mouth will you get out of that? We're not in the food business, we are in the PEOPLE business.
  7. Servers have to be trained to guide guests to choices that don't further bog down a bad shift. If you don't have enough talent behind the bar, servers should let guests know up front that a non-alcoholic, beer or wine (servers can pour beer and wine), choice can be made later in the dinner (entree order or at dessert) or when the pressure from the bar has eased to the point that regular patronage of it can be resumed.
  8. Talk to your staff once the doors are closed and seriously ask them what could have been done better to manage the shift.
  9. Servers never "screw up" orders. This kind of thinking will only serve to alienate more people. Your staff doesn't get up in the morning and try to think of ways to "screw up". Where was the expeditor? Was there an expeditor? Other servers? Why didn't the server ask for help? Why wasn't the server trained to never take out an incomplete order? Why wasn't the culture in the restaurant established to inculcate the server that he/she MUST ask for help if needed to satisfy a guests order? EVERY SERVICE FAILURE IS THE DIRECT RESULT OF A PROCESS BREAKDOWN. If not, then the breakdown was a direct result of not having a process in the first place.
  10. POS systems lose tickets. But it's not the POS's fault. You are the professionals who should have had a system in place to double and even triple check on orders if necessary, to make sure all tickets get worked in a timely fashion. Everything that occurs in your restaurant is a direct reflection of you. Relying too much on a system that you know will eventually lose a ticket is unacceptable. Why? Because you may have more guests after you lost the guest whose ticket was lost, but they only have to lose you once to start talking bad about you. That's way too much "losing" for my tastes.
  11. If it's the last night of a promotion or coupon drop. Assume it's going to be busy- period! You should actually manage your business to expect every shift to be busy anyway. Otherwise, you're never going to get busier. Work each shift like it's the volume you expect and want and you will eventually get it.
  12. Staff look to you for leadership. You need to do whatever you need to in order to maintain balance in you emotions to the point of being able to take "unreasonable crap" and still make good on your promise of great experiences for your guests. And continue to offer smiles and encouragement to your staff who still have to work in those weeded shifts. If you don't keep your cool, who will?
  13. Stop looking at "comps" as the answer to every problem. If you are in the FOH, you need to have the skill to talk to people and make them happy without giving away your profit. This is what a true host does. If you're just looking at each guest as a dollar, they will know and treat you accordingly. Everyone gives a comp for mistakes. We have trained the public to demand them if they feel wronged. This is our fault. Stop the madness.
  14. Train your staff on recovery! Then train them again. And again. And again. And train yourself while you're at it. Look at getting some help with trying to understand the recovery event better and creatively dealing with these situations when they happen.

Friday, April 28, 2006

18 Ways to Take Charge -- Fast

There are few career moments as exciting -- and these days, as perilous -- as taking over the top job at a company, business unit, or department. But what exactly do you do once you're in charge? This online guide provides 18 tactics -- and case studies -- to help you take the reigns running.

From: By: Fast Company This online guide is based on the September 2002 article, "Sudden Impact"

1. Begin your transition before you start the job. Use the interview process to get an early jump on learning about the organization. Ask critical questions: How are decisions made? What are the key challenges? Which functions are strong, and which ones need to be overhauled? Use that information to build some initial hypotheses about how you would change things for the better.

Take your cue from Steve Bennett who took over the CEO spot at Intuit Corp. "The interview process is where you start," he says. "That's where you ask all of the questions about what it takes to be successful." Continue

2. Travel widely within your organization, listen carefully, and look for patterns in everything you see and hear. Bruce Patton, co-author of "Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most" and a partner with Vantage Partners, a Boston-based relationship management consulting firm, advises new leaders to spend a lot of time listening and asking questions. Talk to employees up and down the hierarchy. "Soon you'll start to see a pattern about what's going on," he says.

Within his first month on the job, Steve Bennett hit the road and tested the hypotheses that he had formed during his interviews. In 30 days, he visited dozens of locations and talked to hundreds of people, gathering feedback and insight on what was right - and wrong - with the firm's operations. Continue

3. As you ask questions, look for the rising stars whom you want as part of your team. Your listening tour may help you identify the key players whose skills you need as part of your management team. "If you're engaging in high quality inquiry, you'll want to keep people who had good answers," Patton says.

Asking tough questions is a critical skill, but not necessarily a pleasant experience. Patton offers other strategies and scripts for handling tough conversations: Continue

4. Identify the kind of people who will flourish in the environment you want to establish. Even before interviewing people to assemble your team, take the time to identify the challenges ahead -- and the kind of people who are motivated by those situations.

When Scott Lutz was tapped to lead 8th Continent, a soy-milk company borne of a 50-50 joint venture between two corporate giants, DuPont and General Mills, he knew he needed to assemble a team of renegades - people with "the right mix of passion and courage," Lutz describes. "They had to be willing to do things that hadn't been done before." Continue

5. After you've identified the ideal individual, identify the ideal group. Don't stop at finding the type of person you need. Envision how this person will interact with others to get the goals accomplished. Assemble the ideal team. In some cases, literally.

When Pat Gillick took over a mediocre Seattle Mariners club in 1999, he was keenly aware of the kind of group it would take to win a World Series. "Chemistry is unbelievably critical," Gillick says. "If you come into a workplace, and there is inconsistency, there are disruptive employees, or you don't know what to expect, then you won't be a motivated employee." The Mariners' quest for a happy clubhouse includes paying close attention to the wives and kids of the players. Gillick meets with wives early in the season to work out everything from ticketing to security to the potentially inflammatory problem of who sits where. Continue

6. Acknowledge what you don't know. Identify those around you are the experts and don't be afraid to lean on them. No one expects an incoming leader to know everything. And perhaps there is nothing more off-putting to a future team than someone who mistakenly thinks he or she does.

After 15 years as a manufacturing engineer at Boeing, Bruce Moravec had mastered his technical discipline. But when he was promoted to run the 757 Stretch Program, an ambitious mandate to stretch the plane by 24 feet, add functionality, and do it in less than two years, he understood he'd have to gain the confidence of people who worked in areas he knew little about. "I had lots of credibility as a manufacturing engineer and second-level manager. But suddenly I was responsible for tool design, fuselage definition, all kinds of areas that weren't in my background." Continue

7. Don't be afraid to listen to people who disagree. Listen, actively, to the people around you, especially those who challenge your assumptions.

Take it from Carlos Ghosn, Nissan's president and CEO and the engineer of the company's dramatic turnaround. "When I came to Nissan, I engaged in what I call 'active listening' with as many people as I could. I also got a lot of advice from outside the company, most of which was very conservative. People told me, 'You can't go fast in Japan. You can't close plants in Japan. You can't reduce head count.' I listened carefully, even to the opinions that totally contradicted my own beliefs, to make sure that when I made my decisions, I hadn't missed anything." Continue

8. But clean house if you have to. Depending on the situation you step into, no matter how clear your vision is, and how evangelical you are, acknowledge that there may be people - some of whom may have already seen your predecessors come and go -- who are too jaded to follow.
Take Dale Fuller's experience. When he took over an ailing Borland Software, which at one time was a pioneer in developing developer tools, five different CEOs had already come and go in the preceding three years. Skeptics assumed that Fuller was the latest in a series of short-term custodians. Rather than embrace the new direction, they figured that they'd just wait Fuller out. Fuller had other ideas. Within six months, he fired about 400 people, including 60 of his top managers. Continue


9. Establish a way to communicate with -- and listen to -- your entire team. Your strategic course of action is only as effective as your ability to communicate it. Have the pipeline and protocol set up to get your message out there, and don't forget that communication goes both ways.

Dick Brown took over EDS in 1999 and moved swiftly to change old beliefs and behaviors, unleashing a set of practices -- dubbed "operating mechanisms" -- that were designed to create a company-wide culture based on instant feedback and direct, unfiltered communication. One of these practices is the "monthly performance call." At the beginning of each month, 125 of the company's top worldwide executives punch into a conference call that begins promptly at 7 AM central daylight time. Participation is not optional. Continue

10. Don't trash your predecessor, but don't be shy about promoting your own agenda. Do not assume that the prior administration screwed up or lost sight of the big picture. There's probably an element of truth in that. But it's almost certainly true that they had a different disaster that they were working to avoid, Patton says. If you've got a clear vision of what needs to be fixed, by all means, implement it. Then ask yourself what led those really smart people to do what they did in such a way that it made sense to them?

Talk about a predecessor: when Melvin Wearing took over the role of chief of police for New Haven, Connecticut, he filled the controversial shoes of someone who resigned after fathering an illegitimate child with a convicted prostitute. On February 24, 1997, his first day on the job, Wearing moved quickly to telegraph the changing of the guard. First up: a visit to each of the day's four lineups (the roll call of officers that begins each shift) -- a practice that his predecessor had shunned Continue

11. Settle on a few major priorities. You can't fix everything at once. "Typically, you can't do everything you want to do, so you need to make some strategic choices," Patton says. "This is where you begin to align the organization around a common vision for the future."

Perhaps Wearing's most far-reaching legacy will be his focus on quality-of-life crimes -- the so-called broken-windows approach to policing. Just as Rudy Giuliani cracked down on New York's squeegee men, Wearing declared war on New Haven's vagrants and hookers, street-corner dealers, and boom-box blasters. By nipping misdemeanors in the bud, Wearing argues, police may deter more-serious crimes. His approach seems to be working. In 1997, New Haven logged 13,950 major crimes; in 2001, the city had a total of 9,322. Continue

12. Meet the customers. Balance the big picture vision with-front line views. There is no reconnaissance more important than scouting out the territory where your products and services meet their customers. Seeing the customers actually interact provides some invaluable information.

When Gary Kusin took over as CEO of Kinko's Inc., he went into every single one of its 24 markets in the United States, visited more than 200 stores, and met with more than 2,500 team members. Continue

13. Target a few early wins. Momentum counts, and nothing succeeds like success. It's critical for a new leader to create momentum during the transition, say Dan Ciampa and Michael Watkins in their book, "Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership Role." Pick some problems the organization has not been able to address and figure out a way to fix them quickly to establish a new direction.

When Jim Berra was promoted to head the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Guest program in July 2001, and like any newcomer to a job, Berra was keen to have a few big wins to energize his new team. "I didn't want to solve world hunger in the first three months, but I was looking for a couple of things that would pay immediate dividends," he says. So he focused on three priorities: First, he had to build better awareness of the company's Preferred Guest program, which lagged behind Hilton and Marriott in visibility despite its unprecedented policies of having no blackout dates and no limit on free rooms. Second, he had to find a way to measure the program's performance. And finally, he had to research customer segmentation for future promotions. Continue

14. Keep an eye on the clock. Faster is almost always better. "Make sure your time is used to its best advantage," says Patton. "When you're new to an organization, many people will want your attention. While it's pleasant to swap stories about each other's golf game, you're better off saving them for the fairway, and using the time in the office to engage in a learning-oriented conversation."

Here's a tip: Create a "Stop Doing" List. Take a look at your desk. If you're like most hard-charging leaders, you've got a well-articulated to-do list. Now take another look: Where's your stop-doing list? We've all been told that leaders make things happen -- and that's true. But it's also true that great leaders distinguish themselves by their unyielding discipline to stop doing anything and everything that doesn't fit. Continue

15. Don't be afraid to make mistakes but be sure to fix them faster than you make them. Any new situation is fraught with hazards, but taking over a top job exposes a new leader to pitfalls ranging from the personal to the organizational. Accept that you can't know everything in your first six months, and even an extensive professional background can't insulate you from making mistakes in an unfamiliar company and culture. The key is to assess yourself and your progress as rigorously as you do your new colleagues and workplace, and to be prepared to make your own course corrections as you go along.

Last year, Lydia Shire and Paul Licari took over Locke-Ober, a Boston restaurant and Brahmin institution founded in 1875. The entire city was watching, and everybody had an opinion. And the first 10 days were a disaster. "You could have put me in front of a firing squad and it would have felt better," Licari shares. Continue

16. Be wary of reckless re-engineering. If you're assuming leadership of a large organization or department, take the time to understand its current trajectory. Making too drastic and immediate a change can derail both confidence and long-term strategy. Stanford Business School Professor, Jim Collins, warns leaders to be cautious. "Why do overhyped change programs ultimately fail? Because they lack accountability, they fail to achieve credibility, and they have no authenticity."

Consider the Warner-Lambert Co. in the early 1980s. In 1979, Warner-Lambert told Business Week that it aimed to be a leading consumer-products company. One year later, it did an abrupt about-face and turned its sights on health care. In 1981, the company reversed course again and returned to diversification and consumer goods. Then in 1987, Warner-Lambert made another U-turn, away from consumer goods, and announced that it wanted to compete with Merck. Then in the early 1990s, the company responded to government announcements of pending health-care reform and re-embraced diversification and consumer brands. Between 1979 and 1998, Warner-Lambert underwent three major restructurings -- one per CEO. Each new CEO arrived with his own program; each CEO halted the momentum of his predecessor. Continue

17. Don't be afraid to look for ideas in unusual places. Don't just read your own industry's trade journals. Cast a wide net for insights -- sometimes the breakthrough idea lies in the triumphs of a completely different industry.

When Rob McEwen, took over an underperforming gold mine in northwestern Ontario, he assumed a tough situation: The gold market was depressed, the mine's operating costs were high, and miners were on strike. His breakthrough - an unprecedented move to make his company's proprietary information public and launching a contest to develop the mine over the Internet - came from learning about the Linux operating system and the open-source revolution. Continue

18. Finally, ask yourself who do you really want to prevail, you or your organization? You'd be surprised by the difference.

Consider this: Jim Collins and his team at Stanford Graduate School of Business and asked, what makes a good company great? They started with 1,435 good companies, examined their performance over 40 years, and then identified 11 companies that became great.
Here's one thing they found: The CEOs who took their companies from good to great were largely anonymous -- a far cry from the celebrity CEOs we read about. Collins believes this is more a matter of cause and effect than an accident. There is something directly related between the absence of celebrity and the presence of good-to-great results. Why? First, when you have a celebrity, the company turns into "the one genius with 1,000 helpers." It creates a sense that the whole thing is really about the CEO. And that leads to all sorts of problems - especially if the person goes away or if the person turns out not to be a genius after all. Continue

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Coaching Every Play!

OK new restaurant owner. You open your doors for the first time; you are staffed to the gills to ensure you have enough staff to take really good care of the large amount of business you expect during the opening weeks. Hosts are all over the door, greeting each guest with enthusiasm and smiles. Managers everywhere are talking to guests and supporting staff. There is one server for every 2-3 tables, and one busser and host per 5 servers. Hosts are making small talk at tables as they seat guests who are eager to hear about your menu and drink lists. The kitchen manager/chef is doing a great job. Food comes out of the kitchen in record time with great presentations, feeding the eyes of the guest as they are placed superbly before them on exquisitely set tables. Bartenders are showing off their drink prep skills with awesome flair, while telling jokes and the sound of laughter is heard in the dining room coming from the bar. Guests are happy and you are able to put out operational fires practically before they flame up. Business is awesome and guest comment cards tell you to keep up the great job! You must be a genius! “This is easier than I thought!” you tell yourself.

Fast-forward 4 weeks!

Guests walk in the front door at 3:30pm and no one is there to greet them. They wait for 10 minutes before the two bartenders who are talking to each other at the bar, notice them and yell back to the kitchen for the host to come out and seat them. The host walks very briskly to the host stand barely making any eye contact and says, “Two?” “Smoking or non?” Then walks away from the guests and motions to them to take their seats at the table she throws two menus down onto, before once again she disappears into the kitchen. Ten more minutes go bye before the server arrives and says, “Are you ready to order yet?” Orders are taken but not written down because the server is, “very good at remembering things” and leaves talking under her breath. Drinks arrive. Food arrives relatively soon and has 2 side order mistakes as Miss Icanrememberalotofthings, forgot to put in the substitutions, and comments to the guest, “…well I guess I could have not understood what you were telling me!” But brings out the substituted items and fails to apologize. Server does not check back before all drinks are completely empty, and guests become worried that their friends who recommended you have misjudged your restaurant from the opening week they first tried you.

What has happened? This is the same staff you had in the opening that performed superbly. Same great food and service? Why would sales begin to dip lower than anticipated? Guest counts drop?

In a word, “UNDER-COACHING”! It is occurring in epidemic proportions everywhere I turn.

By creating a false sense of the proper Culture in your restaurant from the beginning, you have taught your staff that the sense of urgency and pride with which you performed in the opening weeks, no longer is necessary or demanded by you. That now you have to be checking out servers in the office or checking in inventory and cannot be on the floor. You did not set up realistic labor scheduling from the beginning for either staff or management and now your staff has to learn a completely new way of working without the support of the army you gave them during the opening. You have trained guests to expect to be pampered by that same army but now that you need to run a decent labor cost, you cut back to “normal operating staffing” and leave the guest wondering what has happened to such a good place so soon?

And now what are you going to do? Coupons? Discounts? Quick fix, short-term gimmick marketing that will only further confuse your guests and at the same time tell them that the price they paid for their experience in the beginning was way too much? Profits begin to drop toward red levels, while costs soar as you sit in your office wondering what the license number of that truck was that you just got run over by?

Unfortunately, this is not a made up scenario. It actually happened to the restaurant owners that just opened their latest unit close to where I live. And my wife and I were the guests. So when I asked the manager what happened? His reply was, “…well we had hoped it would last longer than it did, but we knew that eventually business would drop off. Now we’re all about our bottom line.” And of course, when I offered my help (for free!) in recreating the excitement and level of business they enjoyed before their expected reality set in, they politely declined. What a very sad statement to make on what started out to be a fantastic example of how to do it right, but is now nothing more than fodder for magazine articles on what not to do.

This kind of scenario plays out all too often in our world. However, it can be avoided. Moreover, if it has happened to you, you can recover from it. Let us start at the beginning.

Leadership is about creating a Culture that achieves the vision set out for the business. It is about doing the right thing towards your guests and staff, while at the same time creating opportunity for the future of the business to grow and be successful. The tool used to accomplish these feats is nothing less than Coaching!

I do not think you can talk too much on the subject of Coaching in our industry. The second most important subject for us at the unit level is Culture. Now let us understand more of the basics first. You will never be lacking in the Coaching department, and you will always have a Culture in your restaurant. It may be good or it may be bad, but regardless, you will have a Culture. The question is what kind is it? When you answer that question, you have a handle on the type of Coaching that exists also.

Great restaurants that deliver WOW service AND amazing food AND unbelievable value, AND deliver great profits, (like the one in the beginning of our story) have great Cultures that nurture staff to perform at their very best, every guest, every table, every day. They have superb Coaching driving this Culture as well - leaders who Coach every employee, every play, at every table, every day. (Sorry if I rhyme!)

Bad restaurants by contrast (and there are only the two kinds – more on that later!) de-evolve into a Culture of slackers performing tasks somewhat relative to service and placing what appears to be food in front of people who walk in and request something to eat while they sit down at a table where it will be placed for their consumption, and then expected to fork out greenbacks for it, as well as the opportunity to be ignored by their wait person who is off doing only God knows what, only God knows where. And although you think that these two places are universes apart, I guarantee you they are only a few subtleties different. Coaching is present here too, just not in the form you came to expect from the first restaurant.

Coaching is the proactive job of restaurant managers in charge of a business. Not a novel idea but then again it is 2005 and I still rant over how a manager/owner can expect to be like restaurant number 1, and sit at a table in the dining room all day working the keys of a calculator trying to come up with the math that will allow him to pay his bills. Then wonder why he can’t. But I digress.

Hey! Let’s talk football!

Restaurant number 1, (let’s call it my restaurant) has a GM/Owner who, like the great Coach on a very good football team, is on the sidelines watching every play, calling the plays, Coaching the team through the series of plays that will lead to winning the game, and living the game through the actions of his team, one play at a time. Ever see Don Shula on the sidelines? He had one of the most intense gazes. You would always find Coach Shula focused every play, kneeling, squatting or standing intently on the yard line marker of where the ball was placed, watching each player execute his Coaching. Sending in every play. Giving feedback about everything he could to everyone he needed to in order to get the results he demanded. All this, every second of every game. Rewarding great players who executed great plays, as well as redirecting poor performance as it happened, before it had a chance to taint the rest of the team’s effort to lose the game. If they won, he praised the performances that led to the victory, rewarded outstanding individual efforts as well, and then began to prepare for the next game almost as immediately as the gun signaled the end of the current one. If they lost, he praised great performances and rewarded outstanding individual efforts as well, and then redirected poor performances so that those players could, in the next game, contribute to the team’s effort to win it. Winningest Coach in NFL history! The only Coach with a totally undefeated season! Several Super Bowl Rings! I think he has a restaurant or two as well.

Compare that to the team in last place. Everybody wanting to call their own plays. Lots of penalties due to frustrations by players. No momentum gained at any point and seemingly no GamePlan! or team strategy. Lots of yelling by the Coach and tempers flaring. Player in fighting and finger pointing as to who is responsible for lackluster performances. Low morale. Players wanting to be traded or have their contracts renegotiated. Draftees not wanting to play for the team. Are you getting the drift here?

Coaches must set expectations and performance standards in the beginning. Next, the Coach must be focused on watching each player on the field during every play in order to give feedback and support. Not pointing out every action to perform, but guiding then encouraging each player to execute their training 100%. Lastly, Coaches need to reward behavior through the measured results of active, participative goal setting as well as through individual performances. Failing to execute on the Coaches part is usually related to a failure to deliver 99% of these Coaching responsibilities. And every time I analyze a bad restaurant, it inevitably falls to these causes for the reasoning behind the poor results.

How does it get so bad? There are many reasons, but my top 6 include: a lack of skill due to poor management training or the lack of ongoing training; the failure to establish the proper Culture to achieve the business goals and objectives; fear; trying to be a friend instead of a boss; condoning bad performance and failing to develop great players.

The first one comes from my long-standing belief that you can never Coach or behave in any way that you have never personally experienced yourself. How can you Coach superior performance if you have never seen superior performance? How can you be a great Coach if you’ve never been Coached greatly? How can a server be great when they have never experienced great service? How can you overcome training issues if you do not devote yourself to Coaching your team? And who will Coach the Coaches?

The Culture question is the extension of the lack of proper skills point. Culture is what happens in your restaurant in the absence of a policy or direct supervision. How can you create a high performance Culture if you have never been a part of one? Each and every employee needs to challenge any behavior that doesn’t accomplish the goals of the team. And you must develop the security in yourself to allow staff to challenge you as well.

Fear probably took you by surprise, but it is true. Coaches may have the skills necessary to Coach great players, but still lack the courage to challenge unacceptable behaviors or bad performances, or else the second biggest fear – namely the fear of not being liked by the players. I have also had Coaches that were actually afraid of talking to guests. I have also seen Coaches who were afraid to work the floor for fear of what bad things might be lurking about. And the ever popular fear of actually being successful!

Trying to be a friend instead of a boss gets more Coaches in trouble than most anything else. I know that the feeling of family is a great thing to have and it can provide above average results. But all too often it is the backdrop to allowing creeping under-Coaching. It creeps in by taking the talent for granted. That they can perform on their own because “…they know what to do!” Hoping that just because you let a player slack off due to his “personal problems” and then hoping he gets his act together doesn’t cut it either. You must deal with “C” & “D” players immediately in order to raise the talent level of your bench strength as well as keep those “A” & “B” players. Rewarding everyone the same falls into this category as well. Rewards need to be tied to performance – period! Allowing players to remain in their “comfort zones” and not pushing them to be better or do more is another “good guy” trait that must be overcome. And the worst one of all, always seeking consensus on every decision for fear of someone “feeling bad” about the decision.

And oh you would never condone bad performances you say? Well you do every time you accept less than the 100% execution of your performance models. Every time you allow a server to get drinks to a table in more time than your training dictates! Every time you let a plate go out of the kitchen that you know isn’t 100%, but you let it go anyway for some reason. Every time you let a player get by with being 5 minutes late, just because you’re just plain happy they showed up! Etc, Etc, Etc…You need to spend time with each employee in order to set goals for them (yes each individual employee needs a goals action plan!). And the best tool is Transactional Management.

Failing to develop great players. Great players aren’t born, they are made. You might be able to hire what you consider “A” players, but they are really only “A” level opportunities waiting for you to develop them into “A” level players. Just because a great player got to the “Pro Bowl” with one team doesn’t mean that he can do it with another. He must be developed into that superstar he has the potential to be, and then continue to be developed in order to keep that superstar edge! Skills get rusty if not kept sharp and used constantly. Plus your Playbook is different than the last team he played for. The bottom line here is that you have to practice, practice, practice! Practice each and every play in your Playbook until it becomes second nature to your team. When that happens, you have the right Culture to win.

This game is won by each and every detail of each and every play. The more opportunities you give your opponent to beat you, the more they will. Play it smart. Coach your team. Work towards the goal of 100% execution on every play. Then watch out for that shower of Gatorade!

Have Fun Today!
Jeffrey Summers, Head Coach
GameOn! Restaurant Coaching Solutions™