Never waste an opportunity to gather intel before your first day on the job.
Every head coach needs somebody with the balls to tell them when they’re not being their best… Somebody who will tell them when a certain player needs some love - or when he’s being too intense - or when he’s being unfocused. You also have to know how to say it. Messages that aren’t received aren’t delivered.
MESSAGES THAT AREN’T RECEIVED AREN’T DELIVERED.
WHEN THE STUDENT IS READY, THE TEACHER WILL APPEAR.
Bad organization creates friction. Sometimes there are lots of standards in place, but no real system to communicate them. This will lead to a lot of inconsistency.
If (in a restaurant) the managers can’t agree on how they want a tray carried and communicate it to the people carrying them, what hope could there possibly be for the larger vision?
When your organization is making more people mad than happy, you have issues.
When you take over a losing team, they’ll mostly just need to be brought along. They need to feel seen and appreciated. They need expectations to be clearly laid out and explained. They need discipline to be consistent. They need to feel like vital and important parts of an exciting change, not obstacles in the way of making it happen.
THE FIRST PRINCIPLE IS TO TAKE CARE OF ONE ANOTHER.
You need systems in place so everybody knows what they are supposed to be doing and how they are supposed to be doing it.
TEAM FIRST - be clear about what your job is - which is to do what’s best for the restaurant, not what’s best for any of you. More often than not, what’s best for the restaurant will include doing what’s best for you. But the only way I can take care of all of you as individuals is by always putting the restaurant first.
Some of the best advice I ever got about starting in a new organization is: Don’t cannonball. Ease into the pool… No matter how talented you are, or how much you have to add, give yourself time to understand the organization before you try to impact it.
YOU WON’T ALWAYS AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU HEAR, BUT YOU HAVE TO START BY LISTENING.
Time spent with people goes a long way. It shows them you care about what they think and how they feel and makes it that much easier for them to trust that you have their best interests in mind.
You choose your team. Even if you inherit them, you decide if you want to keep working with them or not.
A LEADER’S RESPONSIBILITY IS TO IDENTIFY THE STRENGTHS OF THE PEOPLE ON THEIR TEAM, NO MATTER HOW BURIED THOSE STRENGTHS MIGHT BE.
You can’t be afraid to have difficult conversations… To hear difficult things… To say difficult things…
Criticize the behavior, not the person. Praise in public. Criticize in private. Praise with emotion. Criticize without emotion.
Receiving praise, especially in front of your peers, is addictive. You always want more.
Establish a regular rhythm for giving praise.
You have to be as thoughtful about criticism as you are about praise. People in your organization should come to you if they think we could be doing something better, and they should do so well before their frustrations reach a boiling point.
When young managers take the reins of power - and most managers are young when they start because of how little money they make - they want to be liked. They work with people a ton of hours. They often have drinks together after work. It’s normal to want to be seen as part of the group. So when somebody comes in with an unironed shirt, you let that minor infraction slide in the interest of creating a friendly environment - both for the person in question and for YOU. You don’t say anything. And you continue to not say anything… By day 20, you start to take those wrinkles personally. The reality is that this guy has ironed the shirt because nobody has said anything. But in your mind, he’s not ironing his shirt because he doesn’t respect you as a manager, or the restaurant, or the other members of the team. That shirt becomes a neon sign for you saying he couldn’t care less… Your resentment festers - and by the time you finally get around to it, it feels personal and emotional… Spoiler - this conversation you end up having isn’t going to go well… THERE ARE WAYS TO AVOID MOMENTS LIKE THIS… Many of these confrontations can be avoided with early, clear, and drama-free corrections.
Every manager lives with the fantasy that their team can read their mind. But in reality, you have to make your expectations clear. And your team can’t be excellent if you’re not holding them accountable to the standards you’ve set. You normalize these corrections by making them swiftly, whenever they’re needed… AND MAKE THOSE CORRECTIONS IN PRIVATE.
Correct an employee in front of their colleagues, and they’ll never forgive you. The wall of shame that goes up may mean they can’t even absorb what you’re telling them. Issue the same correction in private, though, and it’s a different exchange.
It’s a leader’s job to give their team feedback all the time. But every person on the team should be hearing more about what they did well than what they could do better, or they’re going to feel deflated and unmotivated. And if you can’t find more compliments to deliver than criticism, that’s a failure in leadership - either you’re not coaching the person sufficiently, or you’ve tried and it’s not working, which means they should no longer be on the team.
Consistency is one of the most important and underrated aspects of being a leader. A person can’t feel safe at work if they’re apprehensive about what version of their manager they’re going to encounter on any given day. So if you’re the boss, you need to be steady.
Every once in a while, you’re going to mess up. When you do, apologize. There’s an inherent intensity that comes with being passionate about what you do, and on occasion, it can get the better of you.
THIRTY MINUTES A DAY CAN TRANSFORM A CULTURE.
When initiating change, I look for the best lever, whatever will allow me to transmit the most force with the least amount of energy. And there’s no better lever than a daily 30-minute meeting with your team.
A daily 30-minute meeting is where a collection of individuals becomes a team. The way you run the meetings can set a tone that is as important as what is being said. Attendance should be mandatory. Meetings should start on time. And they should last exactly 30 minutes.
There should be no ambiguity about what we expect the front-line guys to know.
The notes for those meetings should be thoughtful and presented well.
YOU CAN’T STAND IN FRONT OF PEOPLE AND TALK ABOUT EXCELLENCE IF YOU’RE NOT MODELING IT YOURSELF.
If done right, these meeting can fill the gas tank of the people who work of you right before they go out and fill the gas tank of the people they are working for.
COMMUNICATING CONSISTENT STANDARDS WITH LOTS OF REPS IS IMPORTANT. A good manager makes sure everyone knows what they have to do and makes sure they’ve done it - that’s the black and white part of being a leader. But a huge part of leadership is taking the time to tell your team WHY they’re doing what they’re doing. Use those meetings to get into the why.
Speak about the spirit and culture you’re trying to build. Inspire and uplift the team and remind them what we’re striving for. Celebrate wins, even small ones. Publicly acknowledge when someone on the team is crushing it.
Meetings should follow the same template so everyone knows what to expect. Start with housekeeping. Always talk about something that inspired you.
IN ORDER TO BECOME A TEAM YOU HAVE TO STOP, TAKE A DEEP BREATH, AND COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER.
How connected you are as a team should be more important than anything.
Employees who aren’t succeeding tend to fall into two camps: the ones who aren’t trying, and the ones who are. The end result may be similar, but the two need to be handled differently. HELP THE PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING.
Sometimes you need to slow down in order to speed up. It’s possible for expectations to be too high. Sometimes you have to solidify your foundation.
Sometimes going too fast will slow the whole operation down. Sometimes you squander momentum trying to do too much too soon.
First, communicate clearly what you expect them to learn. Then hold them accountable.
The point of these tests isn’t to fail people or call them out. It’s to make sure they know what to do.
Be consistent. Do what’s fair. Do what’s right.
Make it the kind of program you WANT to be a part of.