Donald Burns (Restaurant Coach) outlines a step-by-step argument for building a positive restaurant culture to recruit and retain staff. He opens with a listening exercise to diagnose team morale, argues that negativity persists because leaders allow it, and urges decisive action (remove toxic staff, self-reflect on burnout). He distinguishes brand (guest-facing) from culture (team-facing), recommends measuring team sentiment through conversations and anonymous surveys, and asserts that prioritizing team experience and hospitality improves retention, profitability, and guest experience. Ends with a promotional CTA for free training and a teaser for the next episode.
Chapters
Having trouble finding staff? Let me show you the step by step formula to build a restaurant culture that doesn't suck. In this episode of the Restaurant Coach podcast, we're going to tackle one of the most pressing issues in the industry. That's finding and retaining great staff for your restaurant by creating a better culture. I know what you're thinking. Hiring good people can be a total, total nightmare. But with the right strategy, you can build a restaurant culture that doesn't suck and also one that helps keep the best staff around for a long time. Be sure to hit the like and subscribe button so you don't miss out on tools and tips to help you make more and work less in your restaurant. Now do me a favor. Go sit in your restaurant for an hour with your eyes closed and just listen. What do you hear? Does it sound like the smooth cadence of a well oiled machine? Or more like a clunky old car engine that. That backfires every minute? When I'm coaching clients and I'm at the restaurant doing a site visit, I love to sit in the dining room and just listen. Sometimes I hear the team complaining about the kitchen. Sometimes they're complaining about the manager. Sometimes they're even complaining about the guests. Sometimes I hear them compliment each other and say, actually, the two most powerful words in the world, thank you. Which one do you think has higher profits and less stress for the owner? What would I hear if I sat down in your dining room for an hour on a busy night and just listen? Would you be surprised and shocked as to what toxic things your team says to each other and about the guest? Or would you say it didn't surprise you? If the negative energy from your team doesn't shock you, then you, my friend, are an accomplice to this crime. You didn't say anything and you unknowingly gave it approval. Now, don't feel too bad. 80% of the restaurants in your market operate just like this and they don't realize it. They just think that that's. That's just how the way things are. Which, honestly, is the biggest bunch of BS out there. We have become so desensitized to the negativity in our restaurants that we think it actually belongs there. It only belongs there if you allow it. Now sit down and let me say that one more time. Negativity in your restaurant only exists because you allow it. And that's exactly why most restaurant cultures suck. Not because they are that way. It's because they choose to stay that way. Now, that statement there is Both sad and liberating. That negativity is eating away at your culture and making it hard for you. Get control of your restaurant just because that negativity does not want to let go and you know it's there and so does everyone else in your team. So what are you prepared to do to get the restaurant that you want? Are you willing to let go of a few bad apples and run short staffed? Are you willing to tell that chef with a really bad attitude just to please leave your restaurant? Are you willing to look in the mirror and admit that you might be the one holding your restaurant back because you're burned out? Until you face these demons head on, they're gonna keep you stuck in a perpetual loop. Just like the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. Yes, I make a lot of movie references, so deal with it. You see, culture is the holy grail. I've had magazine and industry reporters ask me what I think is the secret to a successful restaurant, and I always give the same answer, even after 14 years as the restaurant coach. It's the culture. The downside to this is that most restaurants have no clue what their culture is. Think about it for a second and see if you could tell me in a few sentences, what is the culture at your restaurant? See, culture is hard to put into words because it's a feeling. It's how your team feels about your brand. I get this question a lot as well. What's the difference between brand and culture? I'll sum it up in a very, very straightfor definition. Brand is what your guests say about you. Culture is what your team says about you. Brand is easy to see what's going on, because when we talk about brand, we see what people think about our brand all the time on social media, online reviews. Culture, on the other hand, seems to be kind of like hiding in the background. As the leader, you must be asking your team constantly about how they feel about your restaurant. Just like we get the post of our guests, you know, experience from online reviews, we get the pulse of our culture by taking time to talk with our team daily and occasionally sending out maybe an anonymous survey that they can voice their concerns. The most successful restaurants I have ever seen focus just as much on the team experience as they do in the guest experience. So here's a great question. What comes first, the team or the guest? I would bet if I had a room of 100 independent restaurant owners and I asked that very question, what is more important, the team experience or the guest experience? I'm sure these would be the kind of ratings I would get. And I've actually tested this question out on audiences with I Speak. So it's pretty accurate. 20% of the audience doesn't even know that team experience is a real thing. 70% say the guest experience is the most important, 8% say they're equally important, and sadly, only 2% say that the team experience is everything. Those 2% would also be the restaurants with the lowest turnover and the highest profit margins of the group, hands down. And I see it really play out when a restaurant shifts their focus from the guest experience to creating a better team experience. When you take care of the team and invest in making them better with constant training, growth opportunities, that really trickles down to create a culture of true hospitality. You see, that's where a lot of restaurants miss the the mark. They forget that restaurants are not in the service industry. We are in the hospitality industry. To be a host. And if you look at the word hospitality, it's from the Latin word hospice, which means to be a host. To be a host is the highest level of service that you can deliver to another human being. It's all about being selfless and committed to making them feel like they are your sole focus and that they have your undivided attention. Why not embody that spirit of hospitality in your relationships with your team? Hmm, interesting concept. What you really want to do is you want to be a host to their well being and growth. If you do that, I promise your days of running short staffed and low profits will soon disappear. And you can take that advice to the bank. If you want some free training on my foundational frameworks that create culture, just head over to threeframestothrive.com to get immediate access to over four hours of free training. In the next video, I'm going to share with you the secret to motivate restaurant employees.
