The 3 Big Problems with New Restaurant Managers

Just got promoted to restaurant manager. Now what? Grab the steering wheel and force the team to comply to all your demands and orders. Not so fast. Before you jump in all crazy, let's talk about the three big problems new managers have and how to fix that. Welcome to the Restaurant Coach Podcast. It is the cure for the common restaurant. You know, managing a restaurant is not all sunshine and rainbows. Quick disclaimer. If you think it is all sunshine and rainbows, then please seek mental help immediately because you suffer from a condition called delusion. Many new managers find this out the hard way, sometimes through the lackluster results they get when taking control of the management wheel. If you find yourself in a new management position, take notes. And if you're watching this video for a friend, should take notes and pass them along. Just remember that awareness precedes choice, and choice precedes change. You have to realize that there's a problem before you can actually find a solution. Contrary to popular opinion, ignorance is not bliss. It's just ignorance and delusion. And that is not a good combination. Restaurant success as a manager isn't really complex. Success does leave clues and so does failure. So time to get out the pen and paper because we're going to go old school with this. So take some notes. Now, in this video, I'm going to drop so not so subtle clues that you might want to pay attention to. And you can usually tell these clues when I say hashtag wtsd, which stands for write this shit down. So these are the three biggest problems facing new managers. Number one, they use outdated management theories, which is basically called poor modeling. See, your early management style is a mashup of every supervisor you've ever had in the past. Now, it's not good or bad. It's just naturally who we are. Human beings are creatures that mimic the behavior of those we hang out with the most. It's kind of like those. Remember those cliques back in high school? The athletes hung out together, the band kids stuck together, and you know the book smart kids all kind of hang out together, too. I hate to break this to you, but these cliques are a constant in your life even as you get older. Your peer group largely determines your success level. And sometimes you're going to need to dump your current group if you want more success because water seeks its own level. Your current management style is a product of your past. Now, if you were extremely lucky, I mean, like struck by lightning twice in a day kind of lucky, and you worked with exceptional leaders, then you developed your skills that Made you kind of a natural. Now, if you're like the majority, you've probably endured some pretty, pretty intense mental torture that would actually make waterboarding sound like a lot of fun. The most common and outdated management technique out there is to break them down and build them back up. Now, to be honest, early in my chef career, I thought that was the way you did it. Because I learned this technique from the chef I worked with in high school, which was my father. He was a master of the break you down mindset. He just wasn't really good at putting people back together, which is how most managers kind of operate. And I always wondered how come we had so many new people working at the restaurant. Now, his common reply would be that, you know, they just weren't good fit for the team. I have to say that delusion is a powerful mental drug that keeps us stuck in average. Here's a solution. If your go to tool for whipping your team into shape is using the break them down, build them up mentality, stop immediately. You're not building a better team. You're actually tearing the team apart. Now, when I started to see a mass exit from the people on my team when I was a young chef and restaurant owner, kind of had a long talk with myself about getting better results. And honestly, I never liked it when my father did it to me. So why was I doing it to others? The answer, it was the only management technique I knew. So I dropped that outdated tool and I picked up a few new ones, like coaching and mentoring. Wtsd, you can hold up the standards in your restaurant without being a jerk. You can be firm without insulting people. You can be a leader and not an. Number two, they don't communicate. Now, if you recognize problem number one, outdated management theories and techniques, number two, it's not far behind. We tend to either talk down to others or not communicate at all. Assuming that you know, they should know. Well, I have some good news and I have some bad news. The bad news, if they really knew what to do, they would probably do it. If your team is not producing the results you want, your duty as a true leader is to keep training them effectively and clearly until they know how to do it. Until. Until it becomes a habit. Does that mean just train them until they just kind of get it right and then you say, that's it, my job's done. They can do the task adequately? No, your duty as a leader is to train and train and train and train and train and train until they can't get it wrong. You train until the old habits are not even around anymore. You train until those old habits are completely gone. So how do you replace old habits? You keep on repeating the new habit with constant, steady, gentle pressure until the old habit doesn't even show up anymore. Now here's some good news. You have the skill and the power to break old habits. But it starts with changing your old habits first. All change starts with a change in ourselves before making a change in others. And here's the solution. Up your commitment to communicate more directly to your team. Come on. Those passive aggressive emails, text messages, notes in the logbook, or you know, the random post it note left up on the cooler aren't improving your results. They're actually making your team avoid you. And when you finally do speak to them, they kind of have this look of terror on their face. Because now you want to talk. Here's a simple test you should try. Walk up to a team member right now and say, hey, I'd like to talk to you in the office. Now note the expression on their face. If they look petrified and their eyes got really big, you're not communicating enough or effectively with your team. And remember, that changes today. WTSD talk with your team, not down to your team. And number three, they think success comes from hard work. Now, is success easy? Of course not. But it also doesn't mean that you have to be relentless. Putting in 14, 16 hour days, seven days a week, sacrificing your life to your restaurant. New managers tend to think that throwing more hours at the problem will fix the problem. That's not necessarily the case. Now, you're human. And everyone has a personal limit about how long they can work. It's called your internal kinetic energy. And think of it just like a battery. Some people have boundless energy and can go all day, just like the Energizer Bunny. Some people put in two hours at work and they start asking if they take a break right away. New managers tend to think that long hours are required to get respect. Wtsd working long hours in your restaurant is not a badge of honor. It's actually a mark of stupidity. It's poor planning, a lack of priorities, and a failure to develop your team. And also fear of saying no. The answer isn't more hours. It's less bullshit solution. Stop buying into the lie that success comes from hard work. I mean, there are a lot of people out there that you and I both know that work extremely hard that don't have shit to show for it. Success comes from knowing who you are. And what you're great at doing. Building a team around you to complement your strengths and also make up for your weaknesses. Being a leader is not about being the best at everything. It's really about being the best at what you do the best. I mean, seriously, if you suck at spreadsheets, hire someone who loves spreadsheets and turn them loose on those things. Stop wasting time doing things that do not meet these three criteria. Number one, does it make you a better person? Number two, does it make your team better? Number three is make your restaurant better. Remember, restaurants become better when the people in them become better people when they improve. And that starts with you as the owner, operator, or leader. Don't wait for things to happen. Take action. You got to make them happen. You need to become the leader that your team deserves. Now, if you want to learn the secrets to restaurant success, I'm offering viewers on my YouTube channel free access to the Three Frames to Thrive series. It's over three hours of training that's going to show you three foundational frameworks that I teach my private coaching clients on how to make more while working less in the restaurant. Just head over to 3frames to thrive.com and sign up now. Hey, make sure to hit that like and subscribe button before you go. And in my next video, I'm going to share my five tips to win the menu pricing game.