Learning to lead from behind the bar

When people hear that I’ve spent my entire career at one firm, I often get the same question: what would you be doing if you hadn’t started at PwC? It’s an easy answer: bartending.?

After college, I was tending bar and loving life when a temp agency matched me to PwC. Surprising no one more than myself, it turned out to be the start of an incredible journey. Also surprising? Bartending turned out to be a fantastic training ground for my 27-years-and-counting career in professional services. Today I still draw upon what I learned during my time in the restaurant and behind the bar—here are my top three lessons.?

1) Let people tell you their stories.

There’s a familiar trope in popular culture of the bartender as listener-in-chief, always there to lend an ear to a weary patron. In that way, bartending is really the ultimate customer experience. When someone tells you their story, they’re also telling you what they need. I quickly learned the value of listening more than talking and asking questions to get to the heart of who someone is and what they want—and I’ve spent every year since then honing those skills. The more you understand a person, the more personalized service you can provide, the more information gaps you can close, the better teammate you can be and the more you can differentiate what you have to offer. Everyone has a story to tell—take the time to listen.

2) There’s no replacement for hustle.

There’s a moment at the start of the evening rush when you look around at the customers crowding into the bar, the tickets start to come through faster and faster and you think you’ll never accomplish everything in front of you. What I learned during those busy times was that there is always a finish line, but the only way to get there is to hustle through it. My fellow bartender and I would look at each other with that knowing glance and then, just start—tackling the task immediately in front of us, taking it one step, and one drink, at a time. In those moments, you just have to keep going until you see your way clear. I also learned the importance of controlling what you can control and doing as much work as possible to prepare for those busy times. Even when the pressure isn’t on, the slow times are when you have to plan—rotate the beers, stock the shelves and cut as many limes as you can. Now when I’m in the midst of another intense work period, I plan for what I can, and then I just put my head down and hustle through—with full confidence that that is how we get to the other side.

3) Be a team player.

A good bartender is more than a mixologist. Some days you’re in the lead spot, some days you’re the supporting cast and some days you’re on trash and clean-up duty.? However, the one thing you always need to be is a team player. In a crowded bar, you learn quickly that a “not my job” mentality doesn’t serve anyone. And when you add alcohol to the mix, you need people around you who have your back. But those relationships don’t come for free. You need to put in the work of being a good teammate, stepping up for others so that when the time comes that you need to step back—and it will always come—you know that you can. That lesson has carried through every one of my years at PwC—it’s a true team sport. The way to be a good teammate is to be a utility player, willing to step in for whatever is needed, particularly when the going gets tough.

4) Bonus: Work + fun = The perfect cocktail.

I don’t necessarily agree that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. Even the best jobs have tough days. But I do believe that if you love who you work with, those tough days will be 1000% easier. At the bar, I worked alongside one of my best friends and it taught me that it’s not just okay to mix work and fun, it’s essential. Whether it’s playing pranks (like pouring so much hot sauce into my soda that I broke out in a full-body sweat when I gulped it down) or swapping stories after the latest Real Housewives episode, those moments of levity and laughter REALLY matter. The average person will spend an estimated 90k hours at work over a lifetime. We owe it to ourselves and our colleagues to make it fun.

When someone walks into a bar, they’re looking for an experience—they could easily get a drink at home. Being in a bar gives them not just a cocktail, but connection: the shared experience of enjoying a drink in a communal space, exchanging a word or a nod with fellow patrons, tapping your foot to the same song. It all comes down to people: that’s what I loved most about bartending and what I love most about my current job. At the end of the day, people—whether teammates, employees or clients—need to come first. From listening to hustling to raising your hand to help, going through life with open ears and an open heart will never lead you in the wrong direction.?