Restaurant Culture- We Value The Wrong Employees

We have been leading wrong for years in restaurants. To motivate our teams we have used a Darwinian approach of survival of the fittest and rewarding the asshole and this is wrong.

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Simon Sinek explains the problem well looking at it from the perspective of the Navy Seals:

Why we keep the asshole?

When there is a line of customers out the door, tickets are flying into the kitchen and customers are making demands of the service staff we need someone that can perform under this pressure. So we look at hard skills in the back of house and soft skills in the front of house.

Far to often I see leaders in the hospitality tend to look past an employees less savory behaviors because they are good at cooking or great with customers or even gets great tips or online reviews. This will eventually impact the team as a whole.

This tacit approval and Darwinian approach to leadership resulting in survival of the fittest, develops a culture that promotes harassment, physical and mental abuse and an industry that has a 75% turnover rate.

You can't have employees bring joy to customers if they are just trying to get through the day.

A new restaurant culture

I dream of a new restaurant culture that is rooted in trust and respect and performance is the outcome of the team and not the asshole. This will create an environment where a career in hospitality can grow versus just a job on the journey of life.

How do we get there?

This is the type of vision I am working towards but its not easy. It often requires taking the long road and requires better leadership skills than top down heavily directive leadership.

There are a few things you can do today. First, start by recognizing the high trust, mid and low performers. Work daily to build plans to develop their skills. Secondly, don't lose the high trust and high performers in your organization at all cost. Lastly, actively manage the performance of those in the middle of both trust and performance.

This topic is wide and deep. I am just getting started. It is time we change the culture in the restaurant industry.