How to Inspire Your Restaurant Management Team

In my last video tip, I talked about proven strategies to boost restaurant performance. Now I want to talk about how to inspire restaurant managers to drive success so you can transform your business.

A great management team is an essential component of a successful restaurant. But even a good management team can lose steam and stall their development, which ultimately stalls your restaurant's success. As the leader of your restaurant, you need to inspire your team.

Inspirational leadership is a leadership style that involves influencing and motivating team members to exceed their own individual performance goals and contribute to the overarching objective of the restaurant. Inspirational leaders guide by example, share a compelling vision and foster an environment of respect, trust and positivity. They inspire their team to reach their full potential, often resulting in high levels of engagement, productivity and job satisfaction.

In the context of a restaurant and restaurant management, inspirational leadership plays a critical role.

Restaurants are high pressure environments and inspirational leaders can motivate their team to remain positive, focused and efficient, even during peak business hours. They achieve this by fostering a positive work environment and recognize the efforts of their team members.

An inspired and enthusiastic leader will create a team with similar traits. This positively affects customer service as enthusiastic and motivated staff tend to provide a better customer experience.

Inspirational leaders set high standards and motivate their team to meet these standards consistently. They provide the team with a vision, a set of clear expectations and guide them towards achieving these expectations. This directly contributes to the overall performance of the restaurant.

The restaurant industry often struggles with high staff turnover. Inspirational leaders can significantly improve employee retention rates because employees are more likely to stay when they feel valued and a part of a positive and supportive team environment.

Inspirational leaders encourage growth and development. They're invested in their team members’ personal and professional growth and offer opportunities for training and development. They help them grow within the organization, which leads to a more skilled and dedicated team, benefitting the restaurant.

To truly inspire your managers, you have to understand what motivates them. While what motivates someone does vary from person to person, there are several common factors that generally inspire and motivate restaurant managers.

• Recognition and appreciation
• Autonomy and freedom in decision
• Team success
• Financial incentives
• A positive, inclusive and supportive work environment
• A work-life balance
• Loving what they do

Here are several strategies to help you craft an inspiring environment:

• Encourage open communication
• Foster a culture where open and honest communication is the norm
• Provide necessary resources
• Promote work-life balance
• Develop a culture of respect
• Provide training and development
• Recognize and reward success
• Foster teamwork and collaboration
• Allow autonomy

Last, but not least, empowerment is a powerful tool for inspiration because it cultivates a sense of trust, responsibility and ownership. It's an approach that allows individuals to make decisions, take action and influence outcomes in their roles. As empowered managers with autonomy, they can have a more direct impact on the restaurant's success. Empowered managers are more innovative. They have freedom to think creatively and propose new ideas.  Empowerment also often leads to greater job engagement. When managers feel they have a real stake in the restaurant’s success and the autonomy to make the decisions to make a difference, they're more likely to be committed to their roles and motivated to perform at their best.

Empowerment is not about relinquishing control. Instead it’s about providing the necessary support, resources and autonomy for managers to excel in their roles. It's about fostering an environment where managers can thrive, which ultimately inspires them to reach their full potential. Learn and practice inspirational leadership so you can learn what motivates your restaurant managers and then also craft a supportive environment and empower them to do their jobs.

Be sure to visit my YouTube channel for more helpful restaurant management video tips.