How to Hire the Right People

How to hire the right people and get off the drama train once and for all. Stick around and I'm going to share the top three questions you must ask yourself before hiring someone to add to your restaurant team. So have you ever been to a restaurant where the service was so outstanding that it made you want to come back? And also, have you ever been to a restaurant where the service was so bad that you swore you'd never go back ever, ever again? If you're like me, your answer probably is yes to both questions. Now, you might not consciously realize it, but your brain is hardwired to make snap judgments about people, places, and things. Your brain is constantly gathering information about the world around you. It's constantly trying to make sense of all the data that it collects. Your brain is always building your model of the world. If you're like most restaurant operators, you probably don't have a written model of what your restaurant should be. If you did, you know what you want your restaurant to be known for. You know exactly what you wanted your brand promise to be. You know exactly what you wanted your culture to be. See, without a model, you're just guessing. To make sure you always have the right people in your restaurant, you must have a model. This model is kind of like your reference guide. It's the compass that's going to guide you in the hiring of new team members. And here are three questions you must ask yourself when interviewing new team members. Number one, do they share the same core values? Number two, do they have a clear understanding of the mission? And number three, do they see themselves as a member of the team? Let's break each one down. The first one do they share the same core values? I talk about this all the time. You're going to hear me preach about this forever. But your core values are the foundation of your model. They are the standards you hold yourself and your team to. They are the standards that you hold your vendors to. You can't expect your team to hold themselves to high standards if you don't know what your core values are. And sadly, if you're a person who does not live by your own core values, you're just fooling yourself and you're just a hypocrite. Hypocrites are people who say one thing and do another. They are the people who talk about having high standards for themselves and their team, but you know their actions and their words don't back it up. You want to avoid hiring hypocrites? Make sure you're a person who lives by your own Core values. First, remember, your core values are your standards. The old adage, a man is only as good as his word. It's true. If you say you're going to be there at 8 o', clock, yet you show up at 8:15, you've broken your word. If you say you'll never cheat on your spouse, and you do, you broke your word. And if you say you're going to be honest with your team and yet you lie to them all the time, well, you again, you've broken your word. You want to avoid hypocrites in your restaurant and the best way to do that is have your core values clearly defined. And you must live your life in alignment with those core values. Question number two was, do they have a clear understanding of your mission? Your mission is your reason for being. It's the driving force for your brand that it's the reason your guests come to your restaurant. Now hear me out. Your mission is not the same as your brand promise. Your brand promise tells your guest about your restaurant. It's the promise you make to your guest. Your mission is the promise you make to yourself. Your mission is who you are. Your mission is the promise you make to the world. Now if you want to avoid hiring people who don't share your mission, you gotta make sure that your team understands what your mission is in the first place. It's easy to say that you care about making your guests happy. It's another to live that mission. Remember, your mission is an expression of your authentic self. If you're not living your mission, then you're not being your true self and you're living a life that is inauthentic. And I'll tell you right now, just from working with so many restaurants over the years, being inauthentic is a one way ticket to having a team that doesn't share your mission. If you want to avoid hiring people who don't share your mission, you have to be honest with yourself about who you really are. Question number three was, do they see themselves as a member of the team? If your new team member says in their application they want to be a chef, yet they talk about wanting to have their own restaurant, then they don't really see themselves as a member of your team. If they see themselves as a chef, they want to learn the skills to become a better chef. They'll ask questions about your menu, they'll ask questions about the food, the recipes, techniques. They'll see themselves as a member of the team and they'll want to help you make your restaurant better. You see, if new hires don't see themselves as a member of your team, they're going to see themselves as like their own little island. I mean, they'll want to do the job, but they don't want to help other people on the team do their jobs. They're going to see themselves as a one man or one woman show. They're going to look for ways of doing their job without interacting with other members of the team. They're going to be more concerned about their own agenda than the team agenda. If you want to avoid hiring people who don't see themselves as a member of your team, you got to make sure you're clear on what your restaurant expects from its team members. You must make sure your team knows the standards that you expect them to live up to. And here's the thing. You must hold them accountable for the standards, and you must fire people that don't live up to the standards. And here's the thing. If you're not willing to do that, then you're not a leader. You're just a manager. Hey, make sure to hit the like and subscribe button. And in my next video, I'm going to go a little deeper into hiring types and wit types you must avoid at all costs.