What Happened To The Culture In Your Restaurant

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Have you ever wondered how your restaurant business got to the point of dysfunction that it’s at right now? Have you ever stopped and wondered how it got to this point and why it’s not looking at all like it was supposed to look when you envisioned it?

I’m talking about dysfunction (or lack of functioning) in your restaurant and how you got there.

My name is Ryan Gromfin. I’m an author, speaker, chef, and restaurateur. And I’m the founder of TheRestaurantBoss.com as well as RestaurantProfitAndPerformance.com.

Let’s just quickly address how it got there. It’s as simple as this. One employee tells the boss that a group of people are having trouble with another employee. He’s being a bully, he does whatever he wants and never gets in trouble for it, or he’s not pulling his weight. And the boss says, I know, I know but he’s really good at this, or we need him because we’re short-staffed or we can’t get rid of him because of this.

The conversation may not be that issue specifically, but you get the point.

It’s at that moment that the culture of your restaurant fell apart. It’s at that moment that the dysfunction in your restaurant was created – a crack was formed and now every little thing just shakes that crack until it expands and expands and expands. Before you know it, you’re in a situation where you’ve lost control. It’s no longer what you envisioned. Clients tell me it’s like inmates are running the prison.

So how do we fix it, get to the other side, bring functionality and culture? How do we build the restaurant of our dreams? It’s quite simple – Create standards and accountability.

When I say standards and accountability, I don’t mean being stern and ruling with an iron fist and firing people the first time they make a mistake. Nope, that’s probably the worst thing you can do for your culture.

We respect people that have tolerance. We respect people that respect us. We respect people that helped us grow. But part of that is pushing us. It is making us better than we were before. And the way that we do that, the way that we push people is by holding them accountable to new higher standards.

In order to hold people to higher standards, we have to start by setting the bar. Where are the standards in your restaurant set? Are they set up here (mid-level)? Are they set up here (very-high)? Are they set so high that they’re never going to be reached? Or are they set down here (very low). Are they set so low, that your employees are scraping their knees to get under your standards?

Raise the bar and then hold people accountable. If you don’t like the way something’s being done create a system for it – a checklist or a prep list. Take pictures of it. Train your staff on it. I have all kinds of resources HERE..

When you create the system you then have to develop your employees and hold them accountable. If they’re struggling to reach that we help them with what they need to get there.

There’s a difference between developing your employees and managing or micromanaging your employees. A lot of us don’t have the system set and we don’t have the standards that’s why we have dysfunction in our restaurants. That’s why we don’t have the culture in our restaurants—the culture that we’ve dreamed of in restaurants. That’s why we’re not having as much fun. That’s why we’re not enjoying the freedom that we want from our restaurant. That’s why we’re feeling stressed out and going through struggles and overwhelms in our restaurants.

Source: Ryan Gromfin The Restaurant Boss