The Ultimate Guide to Restaurant Manager Productivity
If you’re ready to use systems to improve your restaurant’s operations, service and profits, there is one person you must identify now – your implementer. This is a restaurant manager or restaurant employee who can serve as your right-hand person when it comes to implementing systems in your restaurant. Your implementer is someone who buys into your business, into your dream and you. They're excited to learn, and they are organized and able start and finish projects. Your implementer reports to you but might also have another role in the restaurant and report to a manager. They train others on the systems and, with your help, hold others accountable to them. How do you select them? They tend to be people pleasers and want to make you proud.
In this episode of my podcast, The Restaurant Prosperity Formula, I explain the purpose and usefulness of an implementer in greater detail, plus I give you the three-step process for supporting your implementer and helping them be successful. This is important because your implementer’s success is your success, which gets you that much closer to restaurant prosperity.
The three-step process for supporting your implementer’s success includes continued communication, setting boundaries and working up.
Continued communication: have a weekly meeting with your implementer to review last week's numbers and goals, review what got done and what didn’t and set your implementer up for success with what you want covered in their manager meeting.
Create a new list of things you want done this upcoming week. This list needs to be set in highest priority order to the least. This will make it much easier for you to express what absolutely needs to get done, no excuses allowed.
On a quick side note, you also have to deliver the message that when you, the owner, come in during the week and add to that list, your implementer can show you the current list and let you know if they don’t have time and ask where this new task falls on the list. If it takes priority over something else, what can be missed?
Set boundaries: This is extremely important. When you have double coverage on the restaurant floor, your implementer can make their way into the office to work on systems, input data and get things done! This must be clear to everyone on shift. Assign a manager on duty and leave the implementer alone.
When the implementer is interrupted, they MUST send the team member back to the floor to find the manager on duty.
Work up, not down: Most restaurant implementers and managers started in a line position. This means when the restaurant is busy or in times of stress, they will revert back to where they came from and do their team members' jobs for them.
For example, if an implementer started in the restaurant as a server, when its’ busy, they will revert to taking care of the guests by running food, bussing tables, even taking orders and dropping checks.
This means your implementer and managers are working down, not up…
Now this is ok when the restaurant is in the weeds! Otherwise, your implementer and managers need to learn the lesson of there’s a time to do, a time to help and a time to direct.
Tune into this episode of my restaurant podcast, The Restaurant Prosperity Formula, for additional tips and advice I share with my restaurant coaching group members and to hear examples of how my coaching group members have managed their challenges with implementers.
So, remember, your implementer and your managers are vital to your success, but if they don’t get things done or worse burn out and leave, you’re not going to achieve restaurant prosperity. Instead, teach your implementer the three steps covered here to support your implementer and ensure they’re successful.
