Your managers are your eyes, ears and, most importantly, your mouth in the day-to-day running of your restaurant. Whether you are an extensively "hands-on" owner or if you only check in once in a while, you have to be able to rely on your management staff to keep things running smoothly in your absence and to make sure that your restaurant maintains the standard of excellence you, or your franchisor, has set for it. There are a number of key attributes that should be looked for and encouraged in your management staff.
Strong Communication Skills
Communication is key. You count on your managers to keep you informed and to be able to adequately express your wishes to the rest of your staff. You cannot expect your employees to do what you want if your management cannot clearly relate your instructions to them. Strong communication is vital for a happy workplace. Misunderstandings lead to upset and disgruntled employees, managers and ultimately and unhappy you, as you see your plans and instructions not being implemented.
Stress the importance of communication to your managers. Make sure that they can repeat your instructions back to you in a manner that indicates that they comprehend them. Also make sure that your managers have a clear understanding of how to communicate firmly yet respectfully with staff to keep thing running smoothly without friction in the workplace.
Handling Employees
Hand-in-hand with the manager's ability to communicate with staff is his or her ability to maintain a professional and courteous relationship with the employees under his or her supervision. You don't want your managers being harsh or condescending. This leads to discontent and demoralization of your staff.
Even more dangerous to your business are the managers who want to be overly friendly with the staff. Those managers get walked over and easily lose control of the staff they are paid to supervise. A successful manager needs to understand the middle road of being courteous yet firm in their expectations. Any manager not capable of this balance is not fit for management at all.
Leading by Example
If your management staff does not demonstrate strong work ethics, then expect the rest of your staff to follow suit. Your managers have to be able to show the same dedication to their work that you would ultimately like to see from even the lowest level employee. A successful restaurant has no room for managers that are chronically late, disorganized or display a tendency to do the bare minimum.
A good manager looks beyond the day-to-day duties of running the restaurant and consistently seeks out ways to improve the business. A manager who lacks the initiative to do this, lacks the qualities necessary to be a successful manager. Encourage and provide incentives for managers to be proactive.
Your restaurant is your livelihood and you certainly wouldn't want to trust it to just anyone. You place a tremendous amount of trust in your managers. However, if you don't take the time to express your expectations and to cultivate positive qualities in them, then you have little reasonable expectation for them to rise to the challenge of making your business flourish.
0 comments:
Post a Comment