Raising the Collective Emotional Intelligence of Your Restaurant Team

Late one night, after a closing shift, I was flipping channels on the TV and was stopped dead in my tracks on ESPN. Nope, it was not SportsCenter with whimsical slapstick laced sports highlights. It was a panel of 5 Super Bowl quarterbacks discussing the differences between the teams that did and did not make it to the biggest game of the year. The teams that made it to the pinnacle game of the season had these traits in common. First, there was no finger pointing between the offense and defense about why they lost a game, they had each other's backs, they played as a team without any particular player demanding to standout and there was clear purpose from true leaders on the field and from the coaches. Teams are only as strong as their weakest link. These links consist of:

• Talent
• Physical Strength and Speed
• Mental Strength aka as Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
• Understanding the playbook (Game Philosophy)
• Football IQ (Wonderlic Cognitive Test Scores)
• Leadership
• Ownership
• Repetitive Practice (Elevated Training)

It’s easy to fall into the trap where we can just hire smarter and more experienced high-priced free agents that have a focus on cherry-picking tables, sections, and shifts with the intense focus on greedily accumulating tips as if they are mercenaries. There is absolutely nothing wrong with hiring smart people who are quick on their feet and are blessed with a silver tongue. But if we as restaurant GM’s add people to the roster that are self-centered, egotistical and are only after the almighty dollar, we have cooked up a recipe that is ripe for disaster. The collective emotional intelligence (Emotional Quotient aka EQ) of the team, if ignored can potentially produce a mentally weak team and performance of the restaurant will suffer greatly. If this happens your performance of as a GM will be determined as subpar. No matter what we have been told or believe, remember that there is no one individual stronger than the collective. There is also no team that has risen above the leader. The performance falls onto the leadership shoulders of the GM. Point blank. In the book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0 Travis Bradberry lays out the difference between IQ and EQ.

“Intelligence is your ability to learn, and it’s the same at age 15 as it is at age 50.” ― Travis Bradberry

“EQ is so critical to success that it accounts for 58 percent of performance in all types of jobs. It’s the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence.” ― Travis Bradberry

To be completely honest, this guide is really about how to raise the collective EQ of your team and managers. The subject of EQ is the least trained in our industry but can make a colossal impact on the overall success of the entire organization. EQ is something that is either in our blind spots or it is believed a person either has it or does not. Unlike IQ which is believed to be locked in for life, EQ is trainable and by teaching how you and your team can match the calmness of a Buddhist monk and methodically navigate the most stressful situations you can, in fact, dramatically increase the collective EQ of your restaurant teams.

The takeaways from this brief encounter with this panel of quarterbacks on ESPN are:

Culture - Leadership - Training - Recruiting

For you, the GM, real success springs from John C. Maxwell’s ‘Law of the Lid’. Here is an explanation of this Law in Mr. Maxwell’s own words.

“...leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness. The lower an individual’s ability to lead, the lower the lid on his potential. The higher the individual’s ability to lead, the higher the lid on his potential. To give you an example, if your leadership rates an 8, then your effectiveness can never be greater than a 7. If your leadership is only a 4, then your effectiveness will be no higher than a 3. Your leadership ability—for better or for worse—always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact of your organization.”

Each of the championship football teams mentioned earlier had tremendous leadership. There were generals on the field for both of sides of the ball. The offense and defense had different and distinct leaders. These leaders possess high EQ’s that allowed the team to rise above all others. You as the GM or the Exec Chef must have the highest levels of EQ and a knowledge base that exceeds all. To exemplify true leadership the focus should be on the entire operation so that your teams can rise above all expectations under your leadership, under your lid. Remember that none of our teams want to be managed or even micromanaged. People desire to be led.

This is an excerpt is from the complete guide on 'How to Deal with Angry Guests" that is available for FREE download at this link https://www.thegmcoach.com/free-training

Cheers