5 Myths About Restaurant Teamwork - Busted

What is it about teamwork that gets us so excited and frustrated at the same time? What if I told you that many of the things we think about teamwork are not true? Today I'm going to debunk five of the biggest myths about teamwork that are holding your restaurant hostage. Hey. Donald Burns, the restaurant coach and author of the youe Restaurant Sucks trilogy. You know, at times, it seems like we have a love hate relationship with the concept of being a team. Maybe it's hardwired into our genetic code for survival. I mean, human beings have been working together since the first formation of societies, you know, helping each other and pulling together for the common good of humanity. Now, granted, our motivations have changed somewhat over the centuries. We, we went from surviving wild animal attacks and nomadic bandits to fending off power hungry co workers and hordes of cookie cutter restaurant concepts opening up all around us. Wait, maybe things haven't changed that much. We still feel the need to come together for the common good of the brand. Most restaurants benefit from working together as a collective. The biggest obstacle, however, is that we have so many misconceptions about teamwork that they cause teams to fail. So let's explore five common myths and and the truths that lie beneath them. Myth number one. Teams are harmonious. The truth teams are a collection of lots of different personalities. I'm sure you've heard this before. There's no I in team. A lot of people hold on to this fantasy that working on a team is like a magical experience where everyone gets along. While there's some truth behind the statement that there's no I in team, there definitely is a me in the team if you just kind of scramble it up. So understand that teams are a collection of individuals who all have different personalities. Think of team members personalities like spices in a recipe. Some flavors work really well together, harmonizing and elevating one another to levels that could not be otherwise achieved. But some spices really don't go well together, particularly if they're bold and aggressive on the pallet. Building a team is very much like creating a recipe. Gotta be very careful about the personalities that you put together. Too many strong or what we call dominant members, and you're gonna have team loaded with people fighting over who's gonna be in charge. The opposite can be just as debilitating. Too many submissive members means no one's gonna step up to take the lead. So it's definitely a balancing act. Myth number two, Conflict is unhealthy. The truth. Conflict is energy. And that can be used As a resource, conflict often really gets a bad rap. Perhaps we have this perception of conflict as negative now. Many people imagine conflict as hostile, maybe even violent. But many people also think that conflict has a winner and a loser, and it's not necessarily so confident. Conflict in reality isn't so bad if it's handled properly. Conflict can promote growth, change, and on some level, brainstorming of solutions if and only if you maintain a level of respect. It's okay to have divergent ideas and attitudes from the team. It's okay to speak up and voice your opinion if you think there might be a better way. What's not okay is being disrespectful to each other. You see, respect must exist if a team's ever going to survive and succeed. Respect is the number one main ingredient for real teamwork. Remember this, you don't have to like everyone on your team, but you have to respect them. A telltale sign of disrespect is that passive aggressive behavior. Passive aggressive people act like they're part of the team, but they work to subvert it. Every turn they get, they use tools that undermine the team's agenda. They do things like procrastinate, they gossip. And when you find these people within your team, the best thing you can do is remove them. They're not worth giving a second or third or fourth chance to because all they do is violate the core ingredient to teamwork, which is trust. Trust is the social glue that holds a team together. Without trust, remember, you don't really have a team. You have a collection of free agents that are all out for themselves. You know, the Beatles said that all you need is love. Well, for a team, what you really need is respect and trust. Myth number three, building a team is the hard part. The truth. Keeping a team's momentum is the real challenge. I mean, come on, think about it. Putting together a team is easy. Just grab some people, call a meeting, and declare them a team. See? Easy. The real work comes when you try to get the team to work together towards a common goal and a common mission. I mean, getting a team to pull together has at times been described as herding cats. You need to be very, very selective about who you allow on your team. One of the most important roles as an owner, operator, or chef is selecting who they allow to be on the team. Therefore, the team selection process must be clearly defined and very methodical. The last thing you want to do is pull together a team based on emotional reactions or desperation. The panic hire is a classic example. You lose a team member or two, and you become desperate to fill those positions. So you place an ad for a job and very few people apply. So your anxiety grows and it grows. And then finally someone comes in to apply for the job, and you're just so happy that they're alive that you hired them right on the spot. Big mistake. If you're going to just allow anyone on your team based solely on the requirements that they have a heartbeat, you should really hand over the keys to your restaurant and the deed to your house and let them do whatever they want with your car, because they're just going to definitely abuse the property. Indiscriminate hiring will cause you more disruption to your brand and profits than you realize. Always screen the team with a highly selective filter. Always. Myth number four, it's the leader that makes or breaks the team. The truth is, the team as a collective, makes or breaks itself. Now, leadership is important to the foundation and direction of any team. However, it's the strengths of the individual on the team that produces results. Sure, a leader can take credit for bringing the team together. However, it's the team members themselves that figure out best how to do the work. Look back at the famous, you know, Michael Jordan era Chicago Bulls. Phil Jackson certainly played a major role in winning six championships, but it was Michael Jordan who and his teammates who put the points on the scoreboard. They work together and leverage each other's unique skill sets to win three championship rings in a row. Twice. Now, there are two vital elements that contribute to an outstanding team member success. Skill and character. And character can also be known as, like, core values. Skills get you into the game. Character keeps you there. There's a lot of incredibly talented people who work in the restaurant industry, yet they don't last because they don't have the character to sustain playing the game at the highest levels. Too many times, owners and operators are impressed by skill alone. You need to really make sure the person has the character and the heart to be able to maintain a spot on your team. Myth number five, all work is best with teamwork. The truth, Sometimes teamwork can actually slow down the process. Now, while working together as a collective or a team is advantageous most of the time, there will be times when you need to allow someone on your team to kind of go it alone. A byproduct sometimes created by teams is bureaucracy. Waiting for consensus. And for everyone to get on board with a plan can put a real damper on results. Sometimes you need to allow highly skilled employees to function outside the framework of a team now. They still need to function within the standards of respect and trust or the entire team dynamic is going to suffer. Act like you're sending them out more. Unlike a recon mission, they have to keep communication lines open, report results back to the team constantly. Remember, lack of communication is a death sentence for teamwork. It can honestly be said that poor communication inhibits teams from reaching their peak, especially puts them in that perpetual orbit of mediocrity. Communication has to flow unhindered from leadership to the team, among the team, and from the team back to leadership. Too many restaurants just communicate one way. When you communicate only in one direction, you're basically telling the team two things. One, you don't respect them, and two, you don't trust them. So forget about what you think you know about teamwork. It's like the old Zen saying of a teacher who invites a senior student over for tea one day and they sit down in the garden and the teacher tries to fill the teacup of his guest and when it reaches the top he just keeps pouring. And the student reacts harshly, saying, hey, hey, what are you doing? My cup is full. And the teacher calmly replies, yes, I know you've come here to learn, but your mind is full of your own preconceived notions, opinions and beliefs, and you won't be able to learn until you first empty your cup. There are a lot of myths about teamwork, and most are preconceived notions, opinions and beliefs that we've been handed throughout our careers in the restaurant industry. You can't move to the next level if you're keeping a foot on the level below. Hey, make sure you hit that like and subscribe button for more ways to get more from your team and your restaurant. In my next video, I'm going to share five things your staff hates about you.