We've all seen it time and time again in restaurants: one of our team members is a great server (or cook, bartender…) so they get offered, “hey, wanna be a manager?” They think about it, maybe it wasn’t a path they were considering before, but consistent money and a career path sounds ok, so – sure! Why not? They get promoted and go through training to catch them up on any stations they didn’t know intricately before, teach them a little employment law and responsible alcohol service, CPR, and facilitate their ServSafe certification. Boom. Manager.
Now they are in the position of managing people who were at the same level before (you can’t tell me what to do, you not better than me), or guiding people in positions they themselves are new at (Jess is a server, she can’t tell me how to cook) and trying to make sense of shifts from a new vantage point, guiding people which they were likely not taught to do.
Sidebar: I will forever be grateful to the managers I worked with early in my career, because although my story is similar (this girl usually found the best wrong way to do things first), I had many shining examples around me to learn from. Not only that, but they were generous enough with their time that they would sit and coach me on how to improve my people management skills. Mind you, not before I lost good people and sent us into Short-Staffedville, but that’s why I’m here to teach now so you don’t have to go that route.
The thing many organizations miss is teaching how to lead by: building relationships, earning your staff’s trust in you by showing your capabilities, developing a level of buy-in from the team with your proven dedication to improving the organization, and motivating your team.
What they usually do is focus on filling in gaps in:
- Knowledge
- Skills
- Attitude
This is sound practice in training, so this is foundational and important learning, it just isn't the whole picture and training programs that I have experienced or heard about don't often have a continuing education plan.
KNOWLEDGE: Most restaurant training programs focus heavily on the knowledge a new manager needs to successfully run a shift (working each station, cashing out drawers, POS troubleshooting, any relevant laws or compliance information, safety, etc.). They will teach trainees to understand budgets, inventory control, and the forms and paperwork required of managers.
SKILLS: Manager training programs also typically address restaurant skills for a new manager in the areas of how to cook, bartend, host, serve, etc. all in ways that increase profitability and minimize friction. They may learn some skills in conflict management, improving guest experiences, running successful shifts, scheduling and budgeting strategies, and more.
ATTITUDE: In this context, attitude refers to your brand ambassadorship, how you conduct yourself with guests and team members, and how you approach various situations. Some training programs address this, if you have any "mission, vision, values" content that helps direct manager trainees on aligning their attitude with the brand, and some conflict management training helps with this as well.
Here's what's missing, though... What sets leaders apart from managers, is investing time and energy into developing people into leaders. Managers just starting out in their career are (understandably) concerned about mastering tasks like inventory management, understanding invoicing processes, hitting their sales and labor budgets, and other business attributes, but not given insight into what will truly launch their career. The path to an enriching restaurant career is paved with empathy, servant leadership, patience, and intentionality in your actions. This is because these are the skills necessary to inspire your team to want to achieve great things. We have to understand why Sally might want to increase her sales, or what will motivate Timmy to take initiative moving into management. We have to be dedicated to understanding people and finding ways to motivate them in ways that are relevant to them, and we have to find joy and reward in that.
I think it is truly the best part of leadership when you can find a way to encourage someone to do something just by showing them a glimpse of the path, letting them find their own way, and sitting back to watch them flourish. I recently had a new manager (external hire, we'll call her Alicia) come into my organization and had the absolute joy of marveling at what she would create when I'd highlight an opportunity for her.
Picture this: our busiest day of the year is coming up. I'm a prepper and I love a challenge, so I am over the moon to be in a position where I get to lead a team on a day with so much going on for the first time in a few years. Alicia has just finished her training, so she's finding her sea-legs, but she's also excited for a big day and I schedule a 1-on-1 with her 3 days prior to lay out our plan. We sit and go over an outline of all the items we should be prepared for (sales, labor, challenges, hourly volume, staffing) and I leave that meeting feeling like she's going to have a great experience on this upcoming busy day despite being fairly new. The big sales day arrives, and I have a whole page written out with our pre-shift meeting agenda, sales projections, ways we can challenge the team, deployment/station charts - you name it, I had it. I plan for a quick 10-minute huddle with Alicia when she comes in so we can go over these plans and let me tell you, this girl met my fire with fire. She took the outline we had gone over 3 days prior and filled in the blanks. She prepared ideas for the team and ways to inspire them at pre-shift to upsell and keep team momentum going. She had opinions on which employees should be in specific stations to keep aces in places. She was ready.
So, guess what I did? I quietly closed my notebook and let her run with it. My job is not to prescribe the plan in this scenario, my job is to inspire the manager in front of me growing her own career to plan as she did and to support her when she needs it.
The day went perfectly, the team had off-the-charts energy, we beat our prior year's sales by 11%, and everything moved in that rhythm you hit in restaurants sometimes when operations are planned and the whole team is in sync. Magic. But even more magical was watching the pride Alicia swelled with every time I'd tell another leader in our operations how well she planned and executed that shift.
This is our call to action as leaders: develop others around us with skills, knowledge, and attitude that will help them realize their own potential. The more great leaders we have around us, the more they develop future leaders and/or create supportive environments to work in. I think that's a worthwhile quest in any industry, but since restaurants have my heart, it's what I want to share with the employees we bring into our teams.
Something people will always remember, even if they move on to other jobs or careers, are leaders who were dedicated to the quality of the workplace they created are unforgettable.
Jess is the creator of Before the Floor Systems, a growing compilation of tools and systems to help restaurant managers achieve successful, fulfilling careers. Please see my Employee Development Program in my shop for a comprehensive, easy-to-follow plan to help you guide your brightest stars into leadership.
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