Why Restaurant Owners Must Lead with Accountability

Every week I host a coaching call for a group of restaurant owners who are part of my premium coaching program, Restaurant Transformation Intensive. This is a group of restaurant owners who understand the importance of being the leader their restaurant needs. They understand the importance of systems, training, accountability and taking action.

They have the same struggles you do. What sets them apart is they are willing to invest in their future, they are willing to change, and they are not too proud to accept help, understanding there has got to be a better way. Ultimately, they are all working toward restaurant prosperity, which is freedom from their business and the financial freedom they deserve.

Every week we talk about what is going on in their restaurants that might be making them feel like a prisoner in their businesses. This week we talked about how their team members might be making them feel like a hostage in their own business. They’re so afraid of losing their managers, they hold back on adding more to their plates and then don’t question them when things aren’t done right. That leaves the restaurant owner in a lurch – doing all the work and cleaning up after everyone else.

While this hostage situation isn’t unusual in the restaurant industry, it is heightened right now with the shortage of staff and the increase in sales. Most owners are already working as many hours as they can in the restaurant and if a manager quits, they have no one to pick up those 40+ hours.

So how do you fix this situation? How do you negotiate your way out of the situation? In this episode of my podcast, The Restaurant Prosperity Formula, I outline the four things you must do to build a team of reliable managers that allow you to focus on the right jobs for an owner AND give you confidence to leave the restaurant for scheduled time off.

It’s OK to empathize with your managers. It’s OK to want to help them be successful.

It’s not OK to do their jobs for them. It’s not OK to enable them not to think because you do the thinking and solving for them. It’s not OK to operate from a place of fear.

Become the leader your restaurant needs by inspiring, teaching, correcting and pushing your managers to be the best they can be, all while executing their duties as managers as defined by you. You may or may not be the problem, but I will tell you that you are 100 percent the solution.

Click the podcast player above to listen in, or you can watch the video on YouTube, click here to download the latest episode.