Build a Badass Team in Just 90 Days

Well, here you are running your restaurant full speed and things are either in one or two states A, you're rocking it beyond your wildest expectations, or B, you're already looking forward to next year and you need to survive until then. So if you're in state A, congratulations, because you can stop listening now because the rest of it doesn't apply to you. Now, if you're in state B, then stick around because we need to have a talk. Hey, welcome to the Restaurant Coach Podcast. It is the cure for the common restaurant. I am Donald Burns. I am the Restaurant Coach. I am the author of your Restaurant Sucks trilogy, Savage Restaurant Success, and I'm also the creator of the TRC Method. Your success and failure are caused by your ability to gather and build a high performance team around you. Sorry to break the bad news to you, but. But it's hard to build a successful brand all alone. Now, you might think you can. Yet here you are, just spinning your wheels and hoping that next week, next month, next quarter, next year is going to be better. You have to catch a break. Well, hope is not a strategy for running a successful restaurant or a bar. Hope is actually for suckers who play the lottery as a retirement plan. So what can you do now? Allow me to bring out my soapbox and give you a sermon on how to get your shit together and build an A team that can save you from evil and deliver you to the promised land of prophets. Can I get an amen? All right, ready? Step one, admit you suck a little as a leader. Hey, it's okay. This is between you and me, and I'm not going to point fingers at you on social media or make you feel bad. If you can cowboy up and admit the truth, then I can say with certainty that you are savable. You have to know that you have a problem before you can solve the problem. Step two, stop making excuses for your lack of leadership. Oh, and quit placing blame and shame on others. Stop your bad leadership habits. Under your bad leadership, your team has run amok and does whatever they want to do. That stops now. And it starts when you say to yourself, I'm done with bullshitting myself. I accept where I am, and now it's time for me to take action. Step three, you have to separate your A players from your C players. Now, if you have a shocked look on your face right now, here are the answers to the questions kind of floating in your head at this moment. Yes, you have some C players on your team who are dragging your brand into the ground. No, you do not have an obligation to keep C players. Now, yes, that might mean you might be running short staffed. And no, you're not gonna fail because you let the deadwood go to another restaurant. Yes, your A players are going to love you for getting rid of the slackers. Now get a piece of paper out and draw a line right down the middle. Don't overthink this exercise because you're gonna try to rationalize things and it won't be effective. Believe me when I say human beings can talk themselves into pretty much anything. You gotta be aware of this glitch in your cognitive processing and you have to do everything you can to avoid it. So on one side are your A and B players, on the other side are your C and D players. Now, in all honesty, you should never have any D players. However, I'm gonna give you a pass since you just kind of woke up to the fact that you're now the leader. Now, once again, without overthinking this, start putting people in either one column or the other. Now, the first instinct is usually right, so don't second guess yourself. Now, you should have a clear list of your C and D players that you must replace. Time to move on to the next step. Step four. You gotta get busy recruiting. Now, recruiting isn't placing help wanted ads on the Internet or social media. That's job advertising. No, what you need to do is get out there and actually recruit. That means taking the first step and reaching out to people that you might not know. And yes, I know that's scary for some people, but you got to suck it up and just do it. Now, if we're going to get you an a team in 90 days, you need to get going like today. Use your social media accounts like LinkedIn to search for people in your market who have similar job titles or job descriptions for what you're looking for. So say you need to upgrade a C player manager. So you search for restaurant or bar manager on LinkedIn and you look at profiles. Now, if you have a Premium account on LinkedIn, you can send them a short message, something like this, Hey, I was looking at your experience and I think that you might be a really great fit for our team. I'm not sure if you're looking to make a change, however, if you are, message me and let's set up a time we can talk. Now consider that example I used. Now, let's say you're at a car dealership and there's a young man who really, really impresses you. Ask him if he's interested in working with you to help. Don't be shy. Ask. You got to step up and be the leader here. Now consider recruiting as a numbers game and it's a lot like digging for gold and you have to sift through a lot of dirt to find a gold nugget. No one said recruiting is easy. Recruiting is required if you want to build a real high performing a team. So commit each week. That means schedule it to spending time recruiting. Here's the thing. Remember top talent A players don't last long on the market because they're a hot commodity. So you need to keep your eyes open for them before your competition snaps them up. Always have your business cards on you when you're out and always look for opportunities that's an A player when they present themselves. Now I'm telling you from experience it could be anywhere. So stay sharp and keep your eyes open. Great candidates are people who have the important soft skills, the skills that make them shine like a sincere smile. Being helpful, taking initiative, maybe actually liking people. How about being concerned about their appearance, not obsessed by it. Or how about being comfortable talking to other people? How about demonstrating attention to detail? How about moving with purpose and urgency? There are a thousand people in your market right now who have the traits that you want to seek to add to your team. And interesting. Many people don't work in the industry that we're in right now. Many people don't work in the bar and restaurant industry. So why not recruit people with soft skills? Train them for hard skills. Many restaurateurs have that equation ass backwards. They look for job experience and hard skill sets. You see, we tend to hire for skill and then sadly we fire them for their behavior. Flip that around and you're well on your way to creating a team. Now can you do this in 90 days? Yes. Why? Because I've done this many many times in the past. Now here's a little bonus side note. If you get rid of the poor performers, make a commitment to schedule recruiting time each week and keep your eye out for those A players because they are everywhere. You have to step up and be the damn leader that your team is looking for. And that means you got to drop all the bs. If you do this, you're going to find an A team and you're going to head to the promised land. Hey, make sure to hit that like and subscribe button before you leave. And please share this video with someone that you feel might be able to use the information. Now for those that truly want to really get on the fast path to increasing their profits and getting their life back from the restaurant. Then please grab a seat at my free 2 hour TRC method master class. It's a live training, so no replays. Just head over to Restaurant Coach Masterclass.com to save your seat.