Why I invest in delegation to free up valuable time

A Restaurant Owner’s Guide to Continued Success

By Alex Munford

After working my way from the very bottom of the Food & Beverage industry to leading my own teams and sites, I have learned more knowledge and skills than I know what to do with! I have therefore decided that now is the time to share some of these key experiences with others on the ascension, to offer insight from experience and hopefully guide some of you through the many different opportunities & challenges that come with running any successful Food & Beverage business.

Like many in our wonderfully resilient industry, I was furloughed back in 2020 due to the pandemic which swept through the lands.?

My wife and I, (admittedly she did the majority of the birthing bit) had a baby a few weeks before the entire nation went into lockdown. This meant that, unlike so many of my colleagues who had been thrown from the day to day chaos of running shifts and working in restaurants into literally nothing, I had plenty of fresh challenges to keep me busy and swallow literally every moment of consciousness.

It was time to really roll up my sleeves and get dirty.?

But after a little while, routines began to form and life became far less hectic. That is apart from the constant challenge of home-schooling the older kids. That got old very quickly.

So, what next? I refused to sit around complaining about the situation. Since we are all responsible for how we react to any given situation I felt it appropriate to do something constructive.

I decided to throw myself into the world of personal development, learning as much as I could about a vast array of different subjects.?

I remembered listening to my favourite podcast and learning that the only 3 skills needed to run a successful business were the following:?

The ability to lead & manage

The ability to sell

The ability to build a product that provides value

So, with that as a starting point, I set to work.?

Starting with the ability to lead & manage

Now, in my opinion, and this is just my 2 cents worth, I was never going to be effective until I could lead & manage myself. Afterall, congruence is king in all areas of hospitality.

I read book after book, classics such as ‘Think and grow rich’ & ‘The 5am Club’ as well as more recent titles. Books by business titans, self improvement evangelists as well as leading psychologists the world over. For the first couple of months it was more ‘Shelf Help’ than 'Self Help’.

After a while, however, I started to notice some themes. Many of the business titles were focussed on the same thing…

Buying back time to invest in higher ROI activities.?

Since I wasn’t in a position to buy more time by investing in more staff for my team, I decided to focus on learning more on the art of delegation.?

Ie: giving away more of my day to day tasks to free up my own time in order to focus on the few activities that would really drive the business forwards.?

Essentially: Marketing, Sales & Perfecting our Product.

I found this weirdly difficult. Throughout my career, I have been the hardest of hard workers. I’ve always had this natural ability to just get s**t done.

Every task is completed with speed & efficiency in mind, I even walk at a canter because in my opinion, if you’re not in a hurry to get somewhere then what’s the point in going there at all? Needless to say on the flipside, patience was not something I had in abundance.

Nevertheless, I always considered this work ethic to be my superpower, but when it came to leading a team, it was actually my biggest weakness.?

Allow me to explain,

There are generally 3 levels in any business.

Producer

Manager

Leader

Producers get s**t done. They are the boots on the ground, front line staff, cooking the food, preparing the drinks, providing invaluable customer service as well as the day to day tasks involved in ensuring compliance.

Managers organise the producers. These guys take responsibility for the day to day operations and ensuring compliance across the board. They need to know who is doing what, adding in the ad-hoc tasks and taking responsibility when anything doesn't go to plan.?

Leaders create the vision & culture for the managers & producers to work within.?

Being a manager by definition, I was responsible for ensuring tasks were completed correctly and on time. I was NOT responsible for completing all tasks correctly and on time.?

There might not be a lot to separate these two phrases in wording, but it’s so important to understand the difference.?

One involves doing literally everything and the other, ensuring that literally everything gets done.?

Moving from producer to manager is tough because it requires a totally different skill set.?

Amongst other things, it requires delegation.?

Not saying, as I so often did ‘but it’s just quicker if I do it myself’, or ‘I’m the only person who can complete this task’. Both will hold you back.

Delegating to your team is an investment, sure in the first instance it might be quicker to just do it yourself. But then you will always be doing it yourself, no matter how frustrating it is.

For example, If it takes you 60 minutes to teach a 30 minute task to your team and that task needs doing daily, within 3 days you are already net-positive on your time investment.?

Over the course of a year, just by delegating 1 30 minute task, you’re looking at well over 120 hours back for you to focus on the tasks that will ultimately drive your business forwards. Imagine doing this for 4 or 5 hours worth of tasks each day??

Sure the initial time investment will need some careful planning, but handing over 5 hours a day? Over a standard working year? At least 1250 hours back to invest as you see fit. Essentially 8 months worth of your working year!!?

You will begin to work ON your restaurant rather than IN your restaurant/ Another subtle yet huge difference.?

All you need to do is check in & hold them accountable for completion.?

Ciao, x