How Hospitality Can Change Your Business
The Secret Ingredient For Business Growth
Prep Time: 90 days
Bake Time: Endless
Outcome: A Joyous Culture
I am a practiced leader and manager of people, but how does this 20-year restaurant woman help a non-restaurant company?
When I left operations of restaurants more than a year ago, a Design Industry CEO friend of mine reached out for help.
“Christine, I saw you open White Street. You hired 100 employees in a matter of weeks, you trained them and they all did what you said and liked it. I have five people and a 12-year-old company and I still need to know how to do that.”
Since he designed my restaurant, he had a front row seat during the opening period. Little did I know, he was taking in my every move and he was impressed.
“Wow” I thought, how can this be possible? He has an amazing company; he is a visionary; he cares deeply about his people and his business. He is, without a doubt, a great leader and a great CEO.
I didn’t really know if I could be of service, but I dove in - curious about how my experience in restaurants might be applied to other industries. After listening to his concerns, it became clear that what his company was suffering from was a case of “no culture”. What also became clear to me was that, despite being a great leader, he was not a practiced “Manager”. He did not know how to hire and, arguably more importantly, he could not bring himself to fire. His team did not know his vision for them or for his company. They were spending their days reacting to the situation-of-the-moment, frantically putting out fires and disheartened that, at the end of the day, they had more unopened emails than when they started.
Just as with my restaurant teams, I knew that his team would have the answers we needed. I interviewed each person and found out what they saw, felt and heard. I then took my findings back to the CEO.
“Your people are wonderful but you are not going to achieve the growth you aspire to with this team. I recommend we let go of all but one of them. I promise you that they are better served in another company. We will hire a new team and I will teach you not only the critical skill of management but how to have a joyous and rich culture.”
He was actually not surprised at my recommendations to fire. What really moved him was that he might have a company that, one day soon, had joy. And, even better, this joy would open up financial growth for his company, the likes of which he had not seen in its 12 years.
I'm pleased to report that since our first collaboration in May of 2018 and subsequent events in every month of 2019, this business’ gross sales has grown 16% compared to the same period last year.
Ready for the secret ingredient?
Recipe for A Joyous Team Culture
INGREDIENTS
1 very clear mission statement, massaged and sky-written
1 very clear business plan, kneaded until the road map appears
1 very solid pro-forma with a healthy dollop of cash for the team (aka culture)
1 “dream-team” organizational chart
1 set of job descriptions (including yours, Boss!)
1 set of performance criteria descriptions for each job description - this is how we will measure and track KPIs
1 set of schedules, hour by hour, for every working day - “overlay” this on each job description
1 strict system of hiring with at least three discerning people weighing in on the decision; include background checks, reference checks and a trial day
1 set of individuals who are a “flaweless” fit to your organization chart
1 solid HR person or system to lead an inspiring on-boarding and training process
52 times the number of managers on your team one-on-one weekly meetings with YOU per year -
You are only to speak 10% of the time in these meetings. Additionally, each manager is to do this with each person on his/her team.
1 ongoing training plan for each employee, booked and in the company calendar
1 performance review per employee, per quarter - This must include not only ratings on skills and duties but also provision of a clear path, aligned with your ongoing training plan for improvement.
6 company gatherings per year - This can be trips, happy hour, bowling, meditation, pedicures; anything together. And yes, you should include “significant-others” in at least half of them.
1 very exciting food & beverage program - Food is love and the more you find ways to give this to your employees and staff, the more joy will show up. This can range from a client dinner, including key team members, to bringing freshly-baked blueberry muffins to the staff kitchen.
METHOD
Eye-to-eye, say good morning everyday, to everyone. Everyone.
Criticize privately. Compliment publicly.
Sleep. Take breaks. Take vacations and require your team to have the same work/life balance.
Hire thoughtfully, never straying from your hiring system.
Have high expectations for your team. If you treat them like responsible adults, they will act like responsible adults.
Listen to your gut. When you have “that feeling” that something is wrong, trust that there is a conversation you have been avoiding. Have it. Also listen to the need to break your own rules. Some of the most powerful team-building moments arose from when I broke my own rules.
Be kind but do not be anyone’s friend.
Never yell - except for maybe once a year when your team needs a reminder that your kindness is not to be mistaken for casualness. Trust that you will know when this is necessary.
If someone steals, uses drugs or alcohol (outside of the designated alcohol-consuming gatherings) or sexually-harasses or assaults another employee, fire them immediately. Make sure your staff knows the “when and why” in these terminations. For the record, when someone was caught stealing in my restaurant, I had them arrested in front of the entire team. For other terminations, simply say, “So-and-so is no longer with us, unfortunately. We wish him/her the very best in his/her next chapter.”
Give raises. Employees should never have to ask for a raise. They should know that if they do X & Y by Z date, they will be awarded a 3% - 7% raise. By the way, simply by staying in your company a full year means that they have achieved incredible success and merit a 3% raise.
Accept that perfectionism is toxic. Every time you would say “perfect” to your team, replace it with “flawless” and if you are writing the word, spell it incorrectly. I suggest this spelling: flaweless. :)
Above all, hold fast to your integrity. This means that you do what you say you will do in everything. If the meeting starts at 9 and you start it at 9:01, you have compromised your integrity.
The result of the recipe above is a joyous team culture. Along the pilgrimage path, things will go wrong; everything will not be perfect. Everything good and bad is your responsibility. Even the bad is an opportunity to be better. Take that in and take responsibility for making improvement happen. Good luck. I am truly excited for your success if you ‘bake in’ this recipe to your operation.
