The Invisible Restaurant Manager – Daily Tip for Monday August 16th.

Posted on 16. Aug, 2010 by Michael Hartzell in Daily Tip, Marketing

Post by guest blogger Michael Hartzell

The Invisible Restaurant Manager.

To understand the restaurant business and the success or failure of an operation, we must first look at the invisible restaurant manager.  Without doing so, the eye of an owner, investor or supervisor may not fully see the true restaurant success.

Restaurant owner:  Do you evaluate your manager(s) based on their personal effort?  Or do you instead look to the results?  Do you hear from your leader(s)?  :  “I am the hardest working manager!”

If you see a manager at 120% working every position, working extra hours and skipping breaks; is this a good sign?

If you were able to filter the restaurant manager from your field of vision and consider them invisible, what would you see?

You would then see:

• The staff
• The cleanliness and sanitation
• The safety
• The appearance of products
• The morale
• Guests smiling (or not)
• Guests waiting (or not)
• … And many more details in the operation.

If you evaluate your leadership by how involved they are with the details BEFORE looking at the overall results then you may have a GREAT employee in charge but not necessarily a leader or manager.

Focus on just the staff for just a moment.  Watch how they perform their responsibilities.  Is there waste?  (Remember, the restaurant manager is invisible to you now.)  If there are 20 staff persons on duty, is it possible they are doing their jobs “the hard way”?  What is the chance of each one of them increasing their performance by just 10%?

Here are reasons performance might improve by 10%:

• Equipment working better
• Training
• Aces in their places
• Team work
• Systems improved
• Communication
• Scheduling
• Preparation
• Planning
• Coaching (Direct supervision)
• Eliminate the bottom producers
• Removing misc. barriers holding people back.

Now that you are able to see the opportunities to help the individuals improve and know more precisely where the waste is, now look to your restaurant manager.  Are they working hard?  Or are they a catalyst to improving performance by 10%?

If a manager can create an environment and lead the team in such a way to improve the performance of 20 people by 10%, the math says that is twice what the manager could do personally.  (20×10%=200% improvement)  There is little chance that a restaurant manager can add to the restaurant operation simply by working harder or longer.

Once each person on the team has improved by 10%, there will be a dramatic improvement in the morale and guest experience as well.  Then the old conversation such as:  “I don’t have much time to do restaurant marketing, I am working very hard and there just doesn’t seem to be time.”  Or “I can’t seem to find the time to follow up with guests after their visit.” will become a thing of the past.

Evaluate the restaurant manager by making them invisible as you review the restaurant operation.

Sure, you can do this with any supervisor.

No, you must not think this means the restaurant manager should make themselves be invisible.  They must ensure each on the team is successful.  It does mean HOW they work side by side with their team will change.

Yes the principle works with a smaller staff but the managers are more involved and integrated in the operations with lower sales.  (I expect this would be a motivation to do more restaurant marketing and improve sales.)

Now you know the secret to improving the results of your restaurant manager by 200%.

It is time to apply the same principles to you, the restaurant owner don’t you think?

Michael Hartzell – Inbound Marketing Certified Professional, entrepreneur, writer, speaker, restaurant marketing coach.   Co-Author of “The Reality of ROI & Social Media Marketing”.   Member of the American Marketing Association.  Read more at www.michaelhartzell.com/restaurant-marketing

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