Management By Memo Does Not Work
Steven Abigail
Servant Leader - Developer of Culture - Unleashing and Empowering the Capability in People
In the Restaurant Industry, you cannot manage by memo.
I'm always curious when I go into a restaurant if any of the Team Members know what's written on all the various management posts and communication boards: "NO MORE FREE SODA", "Anyone caught on their cell phone will be written up!" or “Our customer surveys were up 5% last week!” I usually take a Team Member to the sign or communication board in question, put my hand over it and ask the TM to tell me what it says. More often than not, the TM does not know. Why? Because you cannot manage by memo. You have to engage your employees and talk with them. You have to coach and bring them along. You have to sell them and not tell them on what is expected, allowed or not allowed. To be effective, managers have to actively communicate results, expectations, and consequences consistently and timely.
I had the opportunity to work on an exciting project once. We were going to modernize our communication boards in the restaurants. Up until that point, the Restaurant Manager was expected to manually update the restaurant's current results daily and weekly on numerous communication boards. The thought was simple: since many Restaurant Managers were not regularly updating these communication boards, by automating it onto cool flat screen monitors, it will solve all our communication problems and TMs will be fully aware of the restaurant’s results. This should be a win-win, no?
Well, the result was not much different than the hand-written communication boards on the wall. We spent a bunch of money on state-of-the-art flat screens to automatically update the team on the results for the restaurant. The reality was virtually identical to what we had previously. What we found was that everything depended on how well the Restaurant Manager was engaging their teams...how well they were communicating...how well they were bringing their team along. Managers that engaged their teams, we found informed TMs. Managers that did not…no real difference.
The best Restaurant Managers do not need signs to communicate or even communication boards to provide results. The best Restaurant Managers engage their teams, talk to their teams and bring their teams along. If there are communication boards, the sign of a great manager is that the team knows what the results are without looking. If the manager consistently engages their team, the team will become proactive and begin to ask about results.
Imagine a sports team with players that played without knowing the score? Once you engage your team and they want to know the score, you can win.
Systems
9 年The great area coach once told me, "they only care about what they hear you talking about. If you don't talk about it, it doesn't matter. If you stop talking about it, it doesn't matter anymore." I always remembered that, and it's always proven true.
Vice President Human Resources | Strategic Partner | Connector | Trusted Advisor | Talent Scout
9 年Great post, Steven Abigail! I'm pretty sure that I was with you, visiting restaurants, when you had some of those coaching conversations. The things I saw written on whiteboards and scraps of paper taped to the soda cooler over the years in the restaurant industry were appaling. Some of it was downright inappropriate and/or harassment. The problem is, without the engagement you're talking about, it just becomes wallpaper. It never gets noticed because it blends in with everything else in the back of the house. Point proven with the project you worked on. You just "upgraded" the wallpaper! I miss your leadership and working with operators like you. Keep doing what you're doing, brother!