Restaurant Management and Leadership: A Bar and Quill Survival Guide
Part of being a good manager in the F&B world is making sure your staff has the tools and the training to do their jobs. Part of being a good leader is conducting yourself as the standard to which you are holding everyone else. Fortunately doing both of these things consistently well in the service industry is as easy as herding cats.
This Survival Guide is written for anyone finding themselves in a position of leadership while slinging cocktails, wines, chops or burgers, but specifically for the new GM or Restaurant Manager. I’m not claiming that I know the only way through the forest here, these are just some lessons I’ve learned after trouncing through the wilderness for a couple decades and getting lost, bitten, stung, and falling down a waterfall or three. With any luck some of this will be useful as you navigate becoming a professional manager…and leader…in the wacky world of the food and beverage industry.
Management: The Nuts and Bolts
1. Multitasking is your life now. You might have to step into any role at the drop of a hat: take some tables when your only server has an anxiety attack and an attitude, bandage up a bartender and start making drinks when the bottle of Kraken takes a bite of his finger, and help pull the kitchen out of the weeds…all at once, with a full dining room and a smile on your face. Only briefly will the thought pass through your mind that your top servers will earn this weekend what you make in a week, but that’s okay, you eat for free J
2. Don’t make any sudden moves. Your first week or so as a new manager should be spent trying to learn as much as you can about how the operation currently runs. Take it all in. Introduce yourself to everyone, have sit down meetings with your managers and chefs and get to know them, open coolers and closets. Ask questions. Don’t criticize, but you should be making a list. Put everything you want to bring up on that list and wait a few days before you say anything so you can see the patterns that emerge. Is any part of the restaurant running better than the others? Is the FOH a well-oiled machine while the BOH tends to crater? Be careful; don’t jump in and start changing anything until you know exactly why everything is set up like it is in the first place. During this time you should be helping out as much as you can too. Working with the FOH staff to set up the beverage station you’ll find out that the coffeemaker is in a really awkward place because the cord is too short and if you put it where it should go it will overload that breaker. Add it to the list. In the kitchen you’ll find out the hood guys unplug the ice machine to run their equipment and almost never plug it back in. To the TOP of the list goes that one. To paraphrase Capt. Kirk: “You. Have. To. Know. Why. Things. Work. On. A. Starship [Restaurant]” Address anything flagrant you see of course (get that chicken away from the produce) …or at least ask about it. “How do you guys do this around here?” is a good way of casually inquiring about something that irks you…and “Hey can you do me a favor?” is a great way of getting something fixed without necessarily making a command out of it. Remember everyone is scoping you out too. How you conduct yourself in the first few days will go a long way towards how people respond when you start asking them to do stuff.
3. Get Organized. I will fill up an entire notebook in my first week of training…notes, questions, references, numbers… and I’ll use that thing for years. Make sure you have easy access to passwords and instructions for order guides and deadlines, banking info, delivery dates and times, invoicing, scheduling, e-mail addresses, etc. Anything that is your job or you have oversite over, you need to know about and should be in that notebook right next to the list of things you saw you really want to change. Like putting a new cord on that coffeemaker.
4. Set the tone. Be positive and control your emotions. You can be happy…but not too happy…but be careful when you are sad or mad or upset in general. Staff look at you. They act differently when you are around…and they will take on whatever emotions you are putting out. You’re angry? They will become surly too. You’re sad and mopey? Good luck keeping anyone else motivated. You can set the emotional mood by how you walk in to start your day. Be cool, man. And don’t toss emotion bombs! That’s when you vent something, yell a little or go off, then go back to normal like nothing happened but everyone who was around you is now walking on eggshells because they think you’re mad. That shit can stay with people for weeks. Weeks. Months if they’re really sensitive. “The tree remembers what the ax forgets.” Don’t be a jerk.
5. Look at the numbers. What are your daily sales? Food costs? Labor percentages? Top earning server by grat percentage? Can you pull a movement report and see your top 10 sellers? Bottom 10? Look at everyone’s rates of pay and the job they are supposed to be doing. Do you have a high paid slacker? Do you have someone busting their ass for minimum wage? Knowing this information can go a long way towards figuring out why someone might be disgruntled, and you might have an opportunity to replace someone soaking up your payroll but doing nothing productive with someone eager to prove their worth and in dire need of a raise. Look at the menu prices vs what you are paying to make each dish. Have the recipes been costed properly, or at all? Figure out where your cash is going and if there is anything profusely bleeding that needs to be staunched. Restaurants are notorious money pits and can be killed by “death by a thousand papercuts”. Silverware in the trash, overproduced food going bad, leaky faucet in the mop sink, over pouring at the bar or too many mistakes, cooks sliding “mistake” burgers to the cute servers...you have to watch out for it all.
6. Learn the POS. If you’ve never used the POS ask if there is a demo or off-line version you can mess with, or just pair up with a server and have them show you as if you’re a trainee…which, after all, you are. Show a little humility and realness. You’re not superman, there’s no reason you should know everything on day one. But you are a leader and need to bust your ass to get up to speed so you can be useful as quickly as possible, because 11 minutes into your first shift table 22 will need a void. You’re also going to be the person who troubleshoots this shit and it’s hella faster to just do it yourself whenever you can than to try to get a human on an IT call. You really only need them for hardcore problems anyway. I used to have a printer in my office that was “broken”. Just stopped working and the station was down for the night. The next day I took the other “broken" printer from the office and swapped them out. The next month another printer decided it wanted a break and I swapped it out again and it worked just fine. The gremlin typing up all the words on the tickets just needs a nap.
7. Learn the menu. I don’t know how many managers I’ve seen get stumped by the one customer they try to help out when everyone else is in the weeds and they get asked a question they don’t know the answer to and it’s something like what salad dressing do you have and now they have to bother someone else, who probably had that customer in queue already, and if you had just given them a second they would have already gotten to them but they saw you had them and moved on to another customer but what do you need Dave and don’t ask me what the salad dressings are again...
8. Learn every station. Few things are as frustrating as wanting to help cover someone…but you literally can’t because you don’t know how to do their job. It can happen, especially for those who come from BOH or FOH and don’t have experience on the other side, but end up running the whole restaurant. Picture a KM becoming an AGM and the hostess is in the back when a party of 6 walks in and this chef, this consummate professional in the kitchen who can kill 250 covers blindfolded, is baffled by Open Table and has to wait for the teenager in Chuck Taylors to come save his ass. It’s embarrassing and if handled incorrectly can lead to a lack of respect. Literally the only right thing to do is come back around and say “Okay, please show me what I need to know so that never happens again.” A restaurant manager at any level might literally be doing three jobs at once, at minimum, at any given time. You have to be good enough at all of them to know the shortcuts and how to teach people on the fly. You might hire a hostess and have 5 minutes to teach her the job before the doors open and a tour bus full of snowbirds hobble in and you WILL teach her everything she needs to know in those 5 minutes even if her head explodes after 4.
9. Where do you buy everything from? Call and ask for a meeting with your reps. Find out what the best ways are to get ahold of them if the truck doesn’t show. Find out how to place orders, what the order deadlines are and what happens if you miss one. Not that you intend to of course, ha-ha, but shit happens. Then make sure your order guides have all of that information in them. Look at what you are buying and from whom…does it makes the most sense? If you have a Chef or KM work closely with them on making sure you are getting the best prices from the right purveyors, look at every order guide and take note of anything out of the ordinary. I used to order our printer paper from the people who bring our bottled sodas...it’s a weird industry. As a GM if you have any thoughts about changing the menu talk to your vendors and see what they can do for you. Most will be happy to bring you samples to try to get into rotation on your menu, and there are a lot of really knowledgeable people in those companies as well. A Boars Head rep once turned me on to navel-cut pastrami, said it was what all the actual NYC delis use...super intense, buttery, and way more flavor than their Top Round, at a dollar a lb. less...and I was the only one in the state who would be ordering it. Yes, please.
10. Who fixes everything? About that leaky faucet…Is there a list of who you call when stuff breaks? Do you have a plumber on-call? Cooler guy? House handyman? Make sure you have good, working numbers for the right contact at the right companies. I had a keg cooler with a coolant leak and the owner said “Call Advanced” so I did. Advanced Refrigeration Technologies. A month later after they paid the bill, I got a text saying I used the wrong guy, our account is with Advanced Commercial Refrigeration. Hey, dude did a good job. And be nice to these guys. You want them to put you at the head of the list when 10 other places in town have their compressors go down in the middle of July.
11. HR/Discipline/Accountability…Fun Police. Do you have any HR policies? Do you have an HR or is it the owners buddy who does it part time? Is there an attendance policy? If someone is late does anything happen? What if they don’t come in at all and the next day they show up like it’s all good? Is it? Know what your disciplinary policies are right from the beginning because you will be tested. Find out if anyone has any history already. To borrow a phrase from my own article for new Kitchen Managers “it’s helpful to know if anyone already has a write-up for flashing their dick at the wait staff.” Once you know what the company does in certain situations (Can you fire someone at will or is there a 19 step write up procedure before you can shed a problem employee?) you can consistently apply appropriate disciplinary actions when people muck something up. Which, statistically speaking, someone just did while you were reading this.
12. Schedule Hell. If you are the lucky dog who gets to write the schedule, just keep it consistent. Respect availabilities, never change someone’s schedule without asking once it’s been posted, and try to get it out a week or two in advance so people can make their plans. Once you have a handle on it delegate that shit to an underling as soon as humanly possible so THEY can deal with all of the time off requests, shift changes, school schedules, child care schedules, transportation schedules, spouse’s schedules, and everything else people will ask you to write YOUR work schedule around. No judgment, I get it, but yes, delegate it or you will be writing that thing in your dreams.
13. Make things efficient. Hang out one night and just observe. Do you have a chokepoint because all of your apps are fried and you only have one fryer? Could the servers use another POS terminal in the dining room? Could your bartenders use a liquor cage in the office, 5 feet from the bar, instead of in the basement? When you’re knocking down 300-450 covers in a shift being able to get the food and drinks ordered, prepared, and served in as few steps, and minutes, as possible is key. Anything you can do to shave a few seconds off anywhere makes the entire process run more smoothly.
14. Protect your staff, your guests, and yourself. I don’t care how nice a place is, the later it stays open, the shadier it’s going to get. You know it’s bad when you have signs telling guests not to have sex in the bathroom. Keep an eye out for anyone obviously creeping on any of your guests or staff and don’t be afraid to keep someone out who is giving you bad vibes. Sometimes your gut is all you have to go on. If you’re managing late night just stay on your toes until everyone is done having fun and paid out. When handling house cash, do it in the office after you’ve locked all the doors. Everything is different at 2am. Make sure everyone feels comfortable getting out at the end of the night and then you go home too. #dontbeastatistic #ripmikecavish #fellinisforever
15. Smoke and Mirrors. At all times the customer should be in a state of ignorant bliss to any shenanigans going on behind the scenes. You’re responsible for making sure everything runs smooth and people follow the rules and everything works ok…and it is a universal certainty that things will NOT run smooth, people will NOT follow the rules and everything will absolutely never always work okay. BUT in a perfect world the customer will never know about it. Be like the Men in Black and handle the Arquillian Death Ray (aka grease fire in the combi) before anyone even knows it happened. On a busy weekend everyone around you is (usually) dealing with more in-the-moment stress than you are. The servers are your first line of defense against the Karens, the bartenders are repelling the Chads, and the kitchen is cooking for everyone with all of their bullshit mods (“Who orders a Caesar salad with no lettuce?”). Part of your job is remove whatever stresses on the system you can, wherever you can, without the guests ever knowing that anything is wrong. Is the ice machine empty? Did a new server just break an entire case of champagne flutes? Did the POS just go down in the middle of service and the bar is freaking out? That’s exactly when you can’t freak out. Put on your “Coolest Totoro In The Room” hat, plug the ice machine back in, ask your favorite dishy to grab a broom, then turn the bartender around and tell him to make drinks. You got this.
““When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that person is crazy.””
Before…
After…(Seriously, you should go watch this movie)
Leadership: An Elegance of Conduct
1. Lead By Example. Bill Murray, Stripes, the motor pool…That’s it. That’s leadership in a nutshell. Lead by example…great restaurant leadership requires it. SHOW your team what you expect. Don’t ask your crew to do anything they haven’t seen you do…take out the trash, get some ice, run some food, drop some fries. Don’t do their job for them, but help the ones who are struggling, go pull someone out of the weeds, and keep a smile on your face as you do it. You are helping your people do their job and if they are so weeded they need your help the LAST thing they need is any negative energy from you…don’t come in hot barking orders at everyone. Crack a joke, take the edge off, do something to make them smile and get them over the hump. You’re their leader, their General, never ask them to do something you wouldn’t do yourself.
2. Know your role. President “Rock” notwithstanding, “The true role of a leader is not to be in charge, but to take care of those in your charge.” Simon Sinek. Say it again. “The true role of a leader is not to be in charge, but to take care of those in your charge.” In other words, your job is to give your cooks, servers, bartenders, bussers, dishwashers and managers the tools and environment they need to do their job…which is making money for the restaurant. POS is down? Can’t do their job. Fryer is busted? Can’t do their job. Out of dish detergent? Can’t do their job. Paychecks are late? Don’t WANT to do their job.
3. Respect/Communication. Praise in public, critique in private. If you have something good to say about someone tell them in front of everyone. Acknowledge their good work. But if you need to criticize someone’s performance, even in the moment, at least pull them aside and tell them privately. Go ahead, publicly embarrass an anxious server who is already in the weeds and desperately needs to hit her juul and see how well that goes. Also, be direct with any concerns. If you have a problem with someone talk to them before you do anything punitive like taking shifts away. Finding out you are in the doghouse with management via a passive aggressive schedule change is a fast way to lose an employee.
4. Listen to your staff and trust your people. They’re the ones doing the work, cooking the chicken, and serving the customers. If they have an idea, listen to it, see what’s driving it, look at the problem they have and if they’ve got a good solution then let them solve it. A good idea is a good idea no matter where it comes from. Too many managers think an idea is only viable if it comes from their brain. Get over yourself. Letting your team be part of the decision making processes can help nudge them towards more “I like this job.” and less “fuck this place”. Remember, they can get a job anywhere, especially now; you want them to stay at yours because it doesn’t suck.
5. Delegation is trust. Part of your job as a leader is to be a teacher. You got to this level because you know things. Now it’s time to pass that knowledge on, you don’t want to do this stuff forever, right? If you have the luxury of having assistant managers and someone doesn’t know how to write a schedule or do a produce order, guess what? Rather than do everything yourself you’re going to teach someone else how to do it so you can just spend a few minutes reviewing their work instead of busting your own ass all day and they get some necessary reps doing something they need to know how to do. Have new guys count coolers, organize stockrooms, write out what they think an order should be before you do it…what sounds like a chore to you can be a task that helps eager staff members feel like they are an invested part of the team.
6. Empathy: Lead from Concern. Did someone have a shitty close? Is a cook throwing crazy attitude at everyone or coming in late all the time? In any situation the first thing you ask is “Is everything okay?” then you can ask what happened. Don’t jump to any conclusions right away, ask what’s going on and why. Because there will always be one of these three things going on (or some combination): they have a personal issue they need to figure out, a professional issue you can help them figure out, or they’re just being a hungover asshole and you can squash that like a bug. But leading with concern, just by asking one simple question, can go miles towards fixing someone’s attitude. They might not have anyone in their life who actually asks “Is everything ok?” and letting someone talk about a problem, if only for a few minutes, can go a long way towards easing their mind. It may sound like therapy but this is part of the job…take care of the people who take care of your business.
7. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. You will be hit with the most bizarre questions, and the strangest sequences of events and have to deal with them in the right order or the world will end...or that’s what it will feel like. One night a CO2 tank on our downstairs kegerator went out and we didn’t have a spare. We started moving tanks and consolidating kegs into other units and in about 5 minutes we were back in business, but for a little bit on a Friday night we had two dudes behind the bar turning wrenches. Know your business and everything in it and how it all works. Those questions in interviews like “You come to work and there is a baby throwing up in the dining room, the bar printer is out of paper, a customer is waiting at the counter for a togo order that’s 20 minutes behind and out of the corner of your eye you see a grease fire in the kitchen. What do you do?” That shit is real yo. In this industry, that happens.
8. Know your boundaries. First and foremost, you are the boss. You may look at someone you work with as a friend and coworker but they and everyone you work with will always look at you as the boss first. Be social, have friends, and have a drink after work if it’s the kind of place you can do that, but you have to be able to hold everyone accountable for their mistakes and they have to be able to take criticism from you and know it’s not personal…or hypocritical. After all, you can’t get on someone for being shitfaced at the bar when they were getting shitfaced with you. And be very careful when hiring friends. You may have to fire them someday. Free advice: Never hire anyone you’re not willing to never talk to again. Unless you pinky swear that it will be all good if something goes wrong.
9. Have a support structure away from work. It can be fun to get off work and have a drink with the crew but honestly sometimes it’s best to treat your job like a job and when you’re done go find another bar close to home to unwind at. No one will ask you to comp anything or if they can be cut. You can relax, stare at your phone, and maybe meet up with your significant other…have a bit of a life in a restaurant other than your own.
10. Keep your sense of humor and have fun. This is self-care and good for the business. You in a good mood is your staff in a good mood. Call it a challenge from the restaurant gods and laugh at them until they stop breaking your stuff but don’t lose your sense of humor. No matter what happens, you’re not saving the world, you’re helping people relax and have a good time…which in its own way can help save the world, or someone’s very small part of it. Have a contest, let everyone wear a costume to work, buy 1000 pens for the staff that say “Jesus tips 20%”. Give your staff the work environment you always wanted. Be the boss you never had. You’re the best:)
Just no face kicks!
