How to be a Better Restaurant Manager
Managing is an entirely different role than being an individual contributor at a restaurant. It may seem obvious, but often times, becoming a manager is much more difficult than expected. As a manager, your job becomes helping other succeed and driving company goals as opposed to completing individual tasks. It can be hard to let go of the day to day activities you once did and let someone else do them. If you find that you are struggling with management, or feel your employees are not responding to you, it may be time to reevaluate your management style.
One of the most famous ideas surrounding management comes from Henri Fayol, a mining engineer and executive who lived in the 1800s. He developed the idea of Fayolism. He theorized that there were five main elements of management that a manager should engage in to move an organization forward. These elements are still relevant today and can potentially help you with your management approach.
Planning
As a manager, you should be creating a plan for the future. In this plan, you should determine how you can get from point A to your goal and the resources you will need to implement these changes. The planning stage should not be skimped. It lays the groundwork for all the future steps and should be as detailed as possible. Include details about what needs to be done, who should complete steps of the plan, how they should do them, when they should be completed by. For instance, if you had a goal to increase your restaurant’s revenue by 5%, It isn’t enough to just write this down. The plan you create should name the accountable parties and what they will need to accomplish. Planning is also critical for others to understand where you are going. Everyone has had a situation in the past where a manager was expecting something of them that was not communicated. It is frustrating for both the employee and the manager when this happens. Your detailed plan can help prevent this from happening.
Organizing
Once you have identified your plan and how to carry it out, you need to provide the necessary resources to accomplish it. It can be extremely demoralizing to employees if you tell them that they are expected to do something but then do not provide adequate resources to do so. For instance, if you want your guests to have a 2 minute or less wait time from being seated to their server making contact, but don’t have the number of servers needed to accomplish this, you are not setting your team up for success. Organizing can include things like money, tools and human resources/staffing. You may need to hire people to be able to meet your goal, or you may have to raise capital. Either way, as a manager, you must provide the resources your staff needs to carry out the plan you established.
Commanding
Once your plan of action is devised and you have organized the resources you need, you need to implement the plan. This can be done by leading people in a way that helps them meet the established goals. As a manager, you should know the strengths and weaknesses of your employees and delegate accordingly. Commanding is not just simply telling someone what to do. It includes training and development if needed, rewarding staff for their contributions, making sure the right people are in the right position, and most importantly, balancing your restaurants goal with the needs of the staff. To get the best performance possible out of your team, they must feel supported and valued, not bossed around. Your role as a manager is to motivate your staff to accomplish your goals. This can be challenging as every staff member is different. You need to take the time to figure out what makes each of your restaurant employees tick and feed into that.
Coordination
Most restaurant goals do not happen on just one team. If your ultimate goal is to increase the bottom line, it isn’t just on the servers to sell more, it is also a responsibility of the kitchen to reduce food waste, the line level managers to schedule their team properly, and the person in charge of AP to ensure all vendors are paid on time to avoid penalties. It takes all parts of your restaurant to meet your goals. You must work with everyone to accomplish your goals and synchronize all the pieces that contribute.
Controlling
Controlling is the process of evaluating how achieving your plan is going. Are you meeting your goals? If not, why not? What needs to change? This step is all about evaluating and adapting as needed. It includes establishing performance standards, measuring performance, comparing results, and taking corrective action when needed. Taking the time to complete this step can help keep your restaurant moving forward and help identify potential issues before they become serious.
KEY TAKE -AWAYS
One thing to notice about all of these steps is that the manager is NOT the one completing the work. They are facilitating the work that needs to be completed in the restaurant through others. As a manager, though it may be tempting to jump in and just do it yourself, it is important to empower your staff to accomplish what has been assigned to them. If you find that you are constantly running around your restaurant, bussing tables or rewriting the shift schedule, ask yourself: am I helping my team develop? If the answer is no, what can you do to help your team to accomplish these goals? Maybe you need to hire an additional busser or train your new line manager how to analyze business needs to better schedule their shift. These small changes can help to keep your staff engaged and learning, and potentially reduce your frustration. It may be tempting to do the work yourself, but if you find yourself often completing tasks for others, you may need to take a step back and look at what needs to change.