A short monologue by Donald Burns arguing that leaders "teach people how to treat us" by setting behavioral standards and using consistent, brief daily interactions (five-minute conversations with multiple employees) as a form of micro-coaching. Burns claims this practice reduces turnover, lowers costs, improves morale, prevents long coaching blow-ups, and increases staff effort and guest-focused outcomes. The tone is practical, anecdotal, and results-focused.
Chapters
Greatest quote I ever heard in my life. My mother had told me, we teach people how to treat us. Oh, that's so true. That's powerful. We don't tell them how to treat us, we teach them. We let them get away with the shit that they do. Or we treat them a certain way, which teaches them, oh, that's the way we're supposed to work in this dynamic. Okay, you ignore me and don't talk to me. I'll ignore you and don't talk to you. Like that's the standard we set, right? So we teach people how to treat us, man, that's, it's the truest thing. And what is five minutes? What is five minutes? You know? Can you spend 25 minutes of conversation a day with employees? I promise you you can. Even if you're working 10 hour shift, make it a 10 hour and 25 minute shift because I promise you it will make the next shift nine hours. Because you're no longer putting out fires and scrambling and dealing with all this passive aggressive coming at you and going and sitting down with an employee and having a big coaching meeting for a half an hour. If you front end, load it with the five minutes, five people a day, you won't have those big 30 minute blow ups. Right? You know what I mean? It's just such a cool connection piece. And again, it's a critical part of culture and it's amazing how much it works. I don't talk about this ethereal, fluffy for the sake of. It makes me feel good. It has a direct correlation to cost. I'm telling you, it drives down my turnover, it increases my morale, it gets people to work harder. For me and with me and for our guests, the outcomes are immeasurable.
