Welcome to Turning the Table.
Speaker:My name is Adam Lamb.
Speaker:I'm here with my host, co-host, Jim Taylor.
Speaker:Welcome.
Speaker:Hey, Adam, how are you?
Speaker:I am really excited about this episode, Jim one of the things that I
Speaker:really like about what we do is we spend a lot of time like speaking
Speaker:and being in relationship with not only other folks who do what we do,
Speaker:but also folks out in the field.
Speaker:And there have been some things that have been popping up lately
Speaker:that that I feel really.
Speaker:Honored that Kelly's gonna be with us in a little bit because a lot of these
Speaker:things have to do with the book.
Speaker:She's been on here a couple times before talking about assumptions
Speaker:and boundaries and where we've talking about communication.
Speaker:But a few folks that I've spoken to have offered the fact that
Speaker:communicating with their staff hasn't necessarily got any easier, has it?
Speaker:Yeah, it hasn't gotten any easier and it probably hasn't
Speaker:really gotten that much better.
Speaker:So I'm looking for
Speaker:conversation too.
Speaker:And this you brought up a couple times something I think
Speaker:is really important is like that whole training gap that occurred.
Speaker:So you got junior managers who are now ready to take it on and covid
Speaker:happens and now they're hanging on by their fingernails and none of that,
Speaker:none of the soft skill training.
Speaker:Gets to happen.
Speaker:And I know almost every single article or report I read about why people
Speaker:leave organizations communication is like in one of the top two three.
Speaker:I, I don't know if anybody listening is had that same experience not
Speaker:only having to deal with that, but also juggling what's pc,
Speaker:what can actually be said.
Speaker:And things just seem to be happening so quickly that.
Speaker:For a manager who hasn't been like steeped in this stuff I would be
Speaker:nervous going into the shop, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think if you're not in an organization or you're not,
Speaker:Running an organization that, that considers a lot of these things.
Speaker:There's definitely and Kelly's got so much good stuff that I
Speaker:think this is gonna be a,
Speaker:another good discussion with her.
Speaker:So No doubt.
Speaker:So if you struggle with workplace communication you're
Speaker:gonna wanna keep listening.
Speaker:Because we're gonna have executive coach and team leadership
Speaker:trainer Kelly feathering him.
Speaker:And we're gonna talk about her book.
Speaker:We're gonna talk about her new branding.
Speaker:And she may even.
Speaker:Tell us about her new book, which we're really excited to talk about, and we'll
Speaker:get into all that in just a moment, and we'll be right back after the break.
Speaker:Welcome to Turning the Table, the Most Progressive Weekly podcast for
Speaker:today's food and beverage industry.
Speaker:Featuring staff centric operating solutions for restaurants in the
Speaker:hashtag new hospitality culture.
Speaker:Join Jim Taylor, benchmark 60 and Adam Lamb as they turn the tables on.
Speaker:The prevailing operating assumptions of running a restaurant in favor
Speaker:of innovative solutions to our industry's most persistent challenges.
Speaker:Thanks for joining us, and now on to the show.
Speaker:This episode is made possible by e vocalize.
Speaker:E VOCALIZE makes complex local digital marketing push button easy for anyone.
Speaker:Empower your franchises with programs that automatically optimize performance
Speaker:and program spending across Google, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Speaker:All from one, easy to use collaborative marketing platform.
Speaker:To find out more, go to Turning the table podcast.com/evo.
Speaker:And we bring on Kelly Ingham.
Speaker:Hi Kelly.
Speaker:Hi Kelly.
Speaker:Hi guys.
Speaker:How are you doing Great, thank you.
Speaker:And what a perfect time to have you on as we were discussing right before
Speaker:we got onto the show that this is a great time for folks who are out
Speaker:there on the leading edge of the hashtag new hospitality culture.
Speaker:Get to book themselves on stages and talk about the new things that are coming.
Speaker:Jim and I are always.
Speaker:Sift in the tea leaves to find best practices that will really serve
Speaker:our listeners and viewers so that they can walk right back into their
Speaker:organizations and say, yeah, cool.
Speaker:I can try this.
Speaker:And yet I have to ask the question, how are you really, Kelly?
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:I
Speaker:love it.
Speaker:This is our friends.
Speaker:This is from our friends chow co.org.
Speaker:And so they have adopted this meat temperature gauge as a way to break
Speaker:the ice about how we're actually feeling without giving away too much.
Speaker:Cuz gosh what would we do if we didn't have our armor on?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I'm definitely medium rare to wear.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:It's exciting Mr.
Speaker:Taylor.
Speaker:Yeah I'm meeting rare today for sure.
Speaker:I'm feeling nice and relaxed today.
Speaker:It's Thursday.
Speaker:We're headed into the weather's supposed to start to turn
Speaker:to spring here right away.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's lots of good stuff, you think?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I on the show again for the
Speaker:third time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I was just taking a walk yesterday up and down.
Speaker:My street, we live in a rural area, but ramps are already coming up, man.
Speaker:It's an exciting time when the ramps start coming up.
Speaker:Everybody like their ears at fault.
Speaker:Pork cup.
Speaker:And for those folks who don't know, it's a spring onion
Speaker:that's really thin and fragrant.
Speaker:That's a great time to get out there and start foraging.
Speaker:So I would say I'm medium.
Speaker:I'm both amused and present.
Speaker:I was gonna say grumpy, but
Speaker:I don't want to give that away.
Speaker:And so to preface the conversation for folks who may not necessarily have have
Speaker:had the opportunity to to check out the first two episodes that you were
Speaker:on with us, Kelly your book Maximizing team Performance By Mastering Your
Speaker:ABC's took both Jim and I by surprise, because it seemed like a simple idea.
Speaker:And then as I said, when I got about 10 pages in, I was already starting to kick
Speaker:my own ass for my ways of being up, like remembering that one time like, oh gosh.
Speaker:And the ABCs reference what exactly, when you're talking about
Speaker:how to maximize team performance,
Speaker:assumptions, boundaries, and communi.
Speaker:And what is it about assumptions that everybody forgets?
Speaker:Including me?
Speaker:You mean the ais?
Speaker:S for the you and me
Speaker:one?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think for me it's always shocking to realize just how many assumptions I hold.
Speaker:E even when I think oh no, I'm being, I'm present.
Speaker:I don't have any particular opinion about this.
Speaker:I'm just gonna hold some space and then someone says something
Speaker:and makes my eye twitch.
Speaker:It really is second nature.
Speaker:It's amazing how we do it all day long.
Speaker:And as I mentioned, I think previously, it's not done to be mean.
Speaker:It's just a behavior that.
Speaker:We fully embrace all of the time, and unless we're aware of it and our
Speaker:conscious and are paying attention to making sure that we don't make
Speaker:those assumptions it just happens.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's almost there's having the assumptions and then kicking
Speaker:your own ass about the fact that you had the it's a great way.
Speaker:Of distracting me.
Speaker:Like when I'm in that space, it's a great distraction for me to actually
Speaker:get on to do what needs to be done, because I'm spending all my time
Speaker:just kicking my own butt and oh yeah, I should have done better.
Speaker:Man,
Speaker:we're all moving at the speed of light, which I think doesn't help us either.
Speaker:We're moving so fast.
Speaker:Efficiency is.
Speaker:Ever present.
Speaker:So I think taking the time to slow down and think about things
Speaker:and ask more questions or ask for clarifications is almost directly
Speaker:opposite to what is in our nature right now, because we're always going.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There,
Speaker:there were so many things when we had that first conversation about assumptions.
Speaker:I was having, it made me have flashbacks about the number of times that I
Speaker:went that I thought that's what was happening and that wasn't even close.
Speaker:So that I, yeah, and I think we don't give ourselves enough credit, man.
Speaker:Like Kelly, to your point, like things are moving so fast.
Speaker:We had to shut everything.
Speaker:In a heartbeat.
Speaker:We had to pivot our operations and we continued to adjust those all the way
Speaker:through the pandemic and the lockdown.
Speaker:And then all of a sudden it was like, yay, it's over.
Speaker:Let's party.
Speaker:And I think because we were so good at at multitasking that we don't
Speaker:give ourselves enough credit for just how well we can juggle things.
Speaker:That also speaks to the point of it's easy to let things
Speaker:slip through the cracks.
Speaker:It certainly comes at a cost sometimes.
Speaker:What kind?
Speaker:It's so silly.
Speaker:I'm not even gonna ask that question.
Speaker:And what kind of costs are we, like of course we know what that looks like.
Speaker:And one thing that we didn't talk about last time, and I just want
Speaker:to briefly touch on, and maybe this is about the communication pieces.
Speaker:Like I spent a lot of time falling on my sword during that period.
Speaker:Even when I didn't have the answers, people were still looking at me for
Speaker:stuff, and I would always take it on the chin and own that.
Speaker:Not as a way of like self flagellation someone had to say something.
Speaker:Do you know what I mean?
Speaker:And so do you find that.
Speaker:That type of transparency and vulnerability, especially in
Speaker:communication, is a good thing.
Speaker:Is that actually welcome in some corporate environ?
Speaker:I
Speaker:think to a certain extent, I think anything in moderation, right?
Speaker:If you go too far and I mean it leans into the second
Speaker:behavior, which is boundaries.
Speaker:We don't wanna, we don't wanna completely erase our own boundaries
Speaker:by making ourselves the.
Speaker:The whipping tool or the whipping toy of all of it at the same time, it is good to
Speaker:take some responsibility and be part of the solution or part of the path to the
Speaker:solution instead of just passing the buck.
Speaker:Yeah, and I find that some people who like prize harmony also become
Speaker:emotional doormats just because they want to keep the peace.
Speaker:Which is not effective
Speaker:either.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:And again, at what costs in the long term, right?
Speaker:It works for today, but then what are you teaching other people?
Speaker:What are you demonstrating for your staff?
Speaker:What are you demonstrating to your colleagues or your superiors?
Speaker:What is the long term cost there for short-term smoothing things over?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So the, I think as I'm sitting here thinking about this the assumptions,
Speaker:the boundaries, and the communication.
Speaker:I mean they, the thing that's going through my mind is that, and I'm sure you
Speaker:did this on purpose, obviously, but the way that they flow from one to the next.
Speaker:I'm thinking about, okay, how many times did I make an assumption and then
Speaker:potentially cross some sort of boundary in my attempt to communicate something?
Speaker:So what's, can you tell us about the basis around the communication side of things?
Speaker:Because I think like Adam and I were talking about right before we brought
Speaker:you into the show, that the communication in, I think business in general and
Speaker:leadership in general, but for sure in the hospitality space, it's probably
Speaker:gotten harder and it, I don't think it's gotten any better in most cases.
Speaker:So can you start to take us down that path a
Speaker:little bit?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:So the three are definitely inter intertwined.
Speaker:And that was intentional.
Speaker:Because I think that they all lean on one another and our ability to.
Speaker:To leverage and be good or bad at any of them, certainly affects each other.
Speaker:So if you've got four boundaries, your communication is going to be
Speaker:challenged or you're going to make more assumptions to overcompensate.
Speaker:So they definitely they definitely move back and forth with whichever one
Speaker:you're excelling at or challenged at.
Speaker:I do think that communi.
Speaker:Is featured throughout because we need our communication to be better
Speaker:at making assumptions, to be better at asking questions, clarifying
Speaker:questions to not make assumptions.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Our communication skills to help us set and maintain our boundaries.
Speaker:And then again, communication on its own for all of the things that we use it for
Speaker:to make sure that we are being clear in what we're telling the people that we're
Speaker:working with, or just people in general.
Speaker:And being considerate.
Speaker:And like you said, it hasn't gotten easier.
Speaker:It's something that is so prevalent in training.
Speaker:I run into people all the time.
Speaker:I do training courses on communication.
Speaker:But still, there's just so much to it.
Speaker:When you look at all of the different ways we do communicate with written and verbal
Speaker:and non-verbal I mean there's just, it's such a, such an in-depth concept
Speaker:that I think it's difficult and we.
Speaker:Again, we don't give ourselves the credit that trying our best
Speaker:and doing our best and showing up honestly and at least authentically
Speaker:and saying I'm doing the best.
Speaker:How can I be better accepting that feedback, give and take
Speaker:and not assuming that we should be perfect or need to be perfect.
Speaker:I strikes me, Kelly, that you're talking about a level of maturity that
Speaker:may not necessarily be accessible to.
Speaker:Some younger folks, and it's not a knock on them.
Speaker:We had a chef on.
Speaker:Ryan Dodge, who spoke a lot about how we in the industry set folks up almost for
Speaker:failure because we don't impress upon them the importance of some of these things
Speaker:you can get pretty quickly and some of these things are gonna take you a while to
Speaker:get, which they don't want to hear because they want to make an impact right away.
Speaker:Yet can't tell you how many times having.
Speaker:One of the sharpest knives in the drawer, so to speak someone
Speaker:with a great deal of talent.
Speaker:And they're tone deaf on how to communicate with other people.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, and it's to your point, like modeling that has to take
Speaker:a certain amount of presence.
Speaker:Like Jim, you were talking about the filters yesterday, right?
Speaker:When in our conversation.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Talk a little bit about that because I think it, it Backs up to Kelly's point
Speaker:about like having some compassion and grace for yourself, but also having that
Speaker:as like your base operating system.
Speaker:I think
Speaker:the filter that we were talking about yesterday and we've talked
Speaker:about this one a few times.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Kelly, I think this came up in one of our conversations on a previous
Speaker:show too, was that filter around operating as a leader in a business
Speaker:as though your mission is to make sure that everybody loves working.
Speaker:And that doesn't mean tiptoe around people.
Speaker:That doesn't mean constantly just doing, saying yes to everybody for everything,
Speaker:but it's a filter for how you communicate with people and how you consider
Speaker:people and how all of those things.
Speaker:And that was something that I was challenged with by a mentor 25 years ago.
Speaker:And it stuck with me that there was this you should be on a mission wearing
Speaker:an invisible cape to take care of people that work with you and make sure, and
Speaker:communication is part of that, but it's just, it's not just that easy, right?
Speaker:There's, like Adam was saying, there's lots of learning involved in that.
Speaker:It takes practice.
Speaker:Nobody's perfect at it by any means.
Speaker:I'm curious where if there's somebody who's, let's.
Speaker:Somebody who's listening today, that's leadership, and they're, they might
Speaker:be terrified about the things that they have to communicate to people, right?
Speaker:The number of different things that are going on all the time.
Speaker:What do you tell them?
Speaker:Where do you start?
Speaker:I think timing is a big thing and of course it lay adds another
Speaker:lay of complexity, right?
Speaker:When we talk about people that are nervous about communication, finding the
Speaker:right time in the right place, finding the right tone, knowing your audience, knowing
Speaker:what you want to communicate to them.
Speaker:I'm a.
Speaker:End objective focused person, kinda do everything backwards.
Speaker:This is where I wanna be, how do I get from point A to there?
Speaker:Fascinating.
Speaker:Break it down that way.
Speaker:And I think that for me, that works for everybody.
Speaker:It doesn't necessarily work.
Speaker:Some people start at the beginning and then they meander a little
Speaker:bit and then have to backtrack and that's perfectly fine too.
Speaker:But I think.
Speaker:When we're nervous in our communication, finding a time or a place that
Speaker:you'll feel more comfortable, cuz that's gonna give you more confidence,
Speaker:thinking about it ahead of time.
Speaker:Having a plan for what it is that you wanna communicate, what you want to get
Speaker:out and what you're expecting, doesn't mean you're necessarily gonna get it.
Speaker:But I think a lot of times we wander into communications or
Speaker:conversations with people and.
Speaker:We have no idea what we wanna get outta that conversation.
Speaker:And that's what you end up in the assumptions quagmire there, because
Speaker:you're not sure what you wanna get out and halfway through they're saying
Speaker:things and you're just jumping around because you're not having a clear
Speaker:plan for what you want to get out.
Speaker:Time doesn't always lend us that opportunity to come up with a plan.
Speaker:You have to your feet sometimes, especially in the hospitality
Speaker:industry, flight again.
Speaker:So trying to make sure.
Speaker:Even if you're in that situation where you're having us think
Speaker:quickly, give it two or three minutes to just think, or two or three
Speaker:seconds, what do I want out of this?
Speaker:And sometimes it's the words are already outta your mouth and you have
Speaker:to pull back and say, wait a second, this is what I'm looking for here.
Speaker:How do we get there?
Speaker:That's, yeah.
Speaker:That's so good.
Speaker:That's so good.
Speaker:And again, acknowledging how many times I actually started in
Speaker:conversation without that thought.
Speaker:And then almost getting like shocked about where it goes.
Speaker:And I, I know probably one of the most structured environments to
Speaker:have those type of conversations is an annual review, right?
Speaker:Because there's a process around it, there's some
Speaker:boundaries and lanes and stuff.
Speaker:But also like critical timing stuff, like someone's acting out
Speaker:or you need a coaching council.
Speaker:And my strategy was always to have them.
Speaker:What they were doing instead of me just telling them by using the standards.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So we, do you remember when we first came in, we signed this
Speaker:document, you remember this one?
Speaker:And we talk, talked about it and is there something that I don't know, like
Speaker:that you, is there something happening outside of work that has you like
Speaker:flying off the handle at the, so trying to use that so they go No.
Speaker:And because then the work is.
Speaker:And they're actually self-regulating, I guess is what I'm saying.
Speaker:And the environment also provides an opportunity for that type
Speaker:of self-regulation, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:As well if everybody's grounded in the same standards.
Speaker:Yeah and I can appreciate how this is like a Gordian knot when you're talking
Speaker:about those three things, it's hard to break it up into three different podcast
Speaker:episodes because they're all intertwined.
Speaker:But I guess Kelly, what I'm interested in is how long has
Speaker:it been since you wrote the book?
Speaker:About nine months.
Speaker:About nine months.
Speaker:And that was based off 20 years of experience and learning and experience.
Speaker:In the nine months has your viewpoint shifted any I know
Speaker:that you're working on a new book.
Speaker:I don't know if that's necessarily gonna be an addendum to it or maybe
Speaker:extrapolating some of those concepts.
Speaker:But is there something that, that you didn't necessarily.
Speaker:Understand or appreciate at the time of writing that you, that now seems
Speaker:to be really important to talk about.
Speaker:I think, and I touched on it briefly, I think giving ourselves a little bit of
Speaker:grace I wish that I had written a chapter in there because I do think that it's
Speaker:very easy for us to take account of all of the things that we're doing wrong.
Speaker:And the way that I wrote the book was giving the examples, the
Speaker:scenarios of it in a perfect world and in a realistic world so that
Speaker:you could see the differences.
Speaker:But I, I.
Speaker:If I do a second edition or I do an update to it, I will definitely add a
Speaker:chapter or two around the concept that, again, a lot of these are never gonna
Speaker:be things that we're perfect at, right?
Speaker:We're just not right.
Speaker:But understanding that we're constantly growing, we're constantly improving.
Speaker:And part of the battle is just being aware and understanding and to your
Speaker:point, self-regulating, noticing when these things are happening and even maybe.
Speaker:Patterns for when they happen.
Speaker:Are you in a situation where you're stressed or in this situation with certain
Speaker:people as opposed to different people?
Speaker:Perhaps it's a work issue.
Speaker:Trying to find some of the patterns because those things will help us to
Speaker:be better at observing as well, and we can almost preempt the situation.
Speaker:If you know that every time you go into a kitchen at one restaurant
Speaker:with a certain set of staff you're feeling pressured or tense.
Speaker:Being more aware.
Speaker:So things like that.
Speaker:No I know that you obviously, you've got quite a bit of hospitality.
Speaker:But didn't necessarily write this book for the hospitality industry.
Speaker:And it's it's amazing to me and reminded all the time how much crossover there
Speaker:is between the hospitality industry and every other industry out there.
Speaker:But I keep thinking about this, the whole assumptions, boundaries, and communication
Speaker:around, it's the middle of a crazy shift on a Friday night in July, and Just crazy
Speaker:busy and there's high stress and there's assumptions happening all over the place,
Speaker:and then there's no boundaries followed.
Speaker:And Adam and I were joking about this yesterday, the venting and.
Speaker:Thing.
Speaker:It's okay, we need to have a chat.
Speaker:You need to walk in.
Speaker:You go and there's some poor communication that happens
Speaker:and it's all, it's so relevant for the hospitality industry.
Speaker:The walkin chat
Speaker:there there's no more crying in the cooler, God damn it.
Speaker:Typically typical.
Speaker:For me, it was like like being able to walk somebody out of a space,
Speaker:especially high tension space.
Speaker:Like I get why going into the cooler makes sense.
Speaker:My what I became more aware of is that it's a confined space and
Speaker:if there's any power imbalance, it's immediately amplified.
Speaker:And so typically what I would do is I would walk out to the let's
Speaker:go have a smoke on the dock.
Speaker:This is the back dock typically.
Speaker:It's not necessarily a very clean and orderly place, but
Speaker:at least there's some space.
Speaker:And it it took me a really long time to understand
Speaker:that in that confrontational.
Speaker:Dynamic of the dyad, that it's really easy for things to go south.
Speaker:And I didn't understand it until I was taken a drive with my wife.
Speaker:And it seemed every time we were driving we would get into
Speaker:these really great conversations.
Speaker:We could talk about anything.
Speaker:And it struck me that a, the vehicle is in motion and we're sitting shoulder to.
Speaker:So there's not that dyad, but it's actually both of us looking out.
Speaker:And so I started using that as a tool for annual reviews, like to walk out to the
Speaker:cafe patio and deliberately sit side by side as opposed to being confrontational.
Speaker:And that is something that I, it took me a long time to learn and no one ever said
Speaker:that it was just a, an intuitive thing.
Speaker:But I see that people do that now more and more like
Speaker:trying to diffuse the dynamic.
Speaker:What a, a good lesson around that, similar for me was, and Kelly, after
Speaker:I mentioned this, I'm curious your take on both of these examples.
Speaker:But there's some really good stuff in the Rockefeller habits
Speaker:about the way that, that he operated.
Speaker:And so I was running a restaurant at one point that was attached to a mall and.
Speaker:At one point we would have meetings because the restaurant was busy,
Speaker:there's no space available.
Speaker:We'd have meetings in the food court and we were like, this is not cool.
Speaker:We're having a meeting in a food court and there's high school kids
Speaker:sitting next to us having eating subway or something like that.
Speaker:And so that just didn't seem like a professional environment.
Speaker:Anyway, it evolved to the point where, same thing as what Adam's saying, we
Speaker:used to do, maybe not annual reviews, but we would have like strategic convers.
Speaker:Walking around the mall.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it became this like internal joke that we'd have, go have a mall walk.
Speaker:And that was like, code word for we're gonna go have a meeting.
Speaker:And there was no distraction.
Speaker:It's, you're not on your phone, there's no interruption.
Speaker:But it was, I agree with what Adams saying around that concept
Speaker:that you're side by side, there's this breaking down of a barrier.
Speaker:So the walking around conversation became really powerful.
Speaker:It's so important, your time, your timing, and your place for those meetings.
Speaker:And I joke that I the walk-in was a big thing, right?
Speaker:And consider from the perspective of the persons that's being sent to
Speaker:the walk-in or taken to the walk-in.
Speaker:Already there.
Speaker:And this is my assumption, but I know how I felt when I had to go to the walk-in.
Speaker:It was like, oh, now everybody's gonna know I'm in trouble.
Speaker:Whereas, let's go grab a cigarette, let's go grab a smoke, let's go
Speaker:have a bottle of water on the dock.
Speaker:Whatever.
Speaker:That's a very different format.
Speaker:Anybody could be doing that at any time, whereas you're, you could assume
Speaker:if someone's been misbehaved or being obnoxious that's why they're there.
Speaker:But you're not necessarily sure they could just be going to grab a break.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:What changes the dynamic of how you're approaching them, but also
Speaker:how they're gonna feel when they come back on shift or back on the floor
Speaker:or back into the kitchen and you're like, yep, I just got in trouble.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm just reflecting right now, get like kind of crappy feeling in my
Speaker:chest because having been in those situations and I know earlier in my.
Speaker:I didn't have a lot of sympathy for anyone else in that particular situation.
Speaker:It was almost as if, and Jim and I talk about this all the time there has
Speaker:been a history of, because it was done to me then it's okay to do to others.
Speaker:Yet like I dressed this one dishwasher down one time in my office, and then
Speaker:it was completely glass lined and the, and this grown man fell to his knees.
Speaker:In this incredibly powerful heaping and sobbing, and my heart
Speaker:just dropped right to the floor.
Speaker:I'm like, oh my God, what did I do?
Speaker:And it was like such a shock to me that I I don't think I gave myself the credit
Speaker:of the power I was wielding in the moment.
Speaker:And we really I was the store manager at 20 or 21.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:I have 30 people I was in charge of.
Speaker:I didn't know what I was doing.
Speaker:I was a shift manager then I was a assistant manager.
Speaker:Then you have a store.
Speaker:It's like you're, you are in control of their schedule, their lives, but
Speaker:they can go out on a date on the weekend if you're gonna sh schedule
Speaker:them because you're upset with them, because they didn't do their shift work.
Speaker:There was just, and a lot of those kinds.
Speaker:Things are endemic, at least when I was in that industry,
Speaker:that it is can be very catty.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:You have all of these different and it's a it's a family where you
Speaker:get all in the good and the bad.
Speaker:You get very close-knit, so therefore you're passive aggressive at times.
Speaker:You're supportive at times, and all of the love and hate
Speaker:goes with that.
Speaker:And it's almost like this assumption if I freak.
Speaker:And yell at everybody, then it'll be understood.
Speaker:Like somehow I'm supposed to get the pass because I'm the boss, right?
Speaker:And I will go back at that and oh my God, I just wanna throw up right in my mouth.
Speaker:And Kelly, I just I wanna round back to this compassion and grace
Speaker:because I feel it's very powerful.
Speaker:Do you think that within.
Speaker:That particular chapter, there would be an opportunity to talk about the
Speaker:backside of that, which is shame and regret for those of us who have a little
Speaker:long in the tooth and maybe look back at things that we've done and don't
Speaker:necessarily know how to move beyond them in a constructive and powerful way.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And I think that is, we all, we.
Speaker:Shoulder that at times there's so many shoulda, woulda, couldas and I
Speaker:think that it is hard sometimes to move forward because we don't have the closure
Speaker:or the opportunity to set it right.
Speaker:And maybe we set it right in different ways.
Speaker:And understanding that it.
Speaker:We can't turn back the clock.
Speaker:We can learn and we can grow and we can apply the things and make it
Speaker:better for other people and make it better for ourselves going forward
Speaker:with positive intent in our heart.
Speaker:And If the entire objective of communication is to be understood, right?
Speaker:Because if someone was walking away from the conversation and they still
Speaker:don't get it that's gotta be on me.
Speaker:So in your experience, are there one or two things or three things
Speaker:that like prior to walking into that conversation that I might be able to
Speaker:deploy so that I make sure that I'm understood in a mutually honoring way.
Speaker:I'm not bringing anybody down.
Speaker:They don't feel like shit afterwards or hold a grudge against me or try
Speaker:to throw me under the, do you know, all that dynamic because once that
Speaker:starts it's very hard to stop and it makes it really easy to hold
Speaker:them in judgment too about that.
Speaker:Then it's that.
Speaker:The polarization.
Speaker:So if I'm walking into a situation and I want to be understood, what
Speaker:is, like, how can I do that in the most efficient way possible.
Speaker:One would be know your objective and we are not long for listening.
Speaker:So an objective per interaction is probably the best you're gonna get.
Speaker:You could try to five, but if you could figure out one thing that you
Speaker:want them to take away from that interaction, and it doesn't mean you
Speaker:can't meet with them multiple times.
Speaker:One thing, and then find a way to talk to them and ask them what did,
Speaker:what are, what did you hear me say?
Speaker:Or, What do you think we should do next?
Speaker:Or how do you feel about this moving forward?
Speaker:But something open so that they have to give you a description.
Speaker:Like you said, when you do your performance reviews or, and you talk
Speaker:to folks about what they did wrong and you ask them to describe to you,
Speaker:because we do have to say it out loud.
Speaker:If we have to process it and work it, we're gonna remember it more.
Speaker:Than if somebody's just talking at us because you know the lip service.
Speaker:I see your lips moving and you're, you are yelling at me and I'm thinking about
Speaker:what the order is that's waiting to be made, or what I'm gonna do after work.
Speaker:I sure, okay, now I'll get it with that.
Speaker:If I have to say to you I understand this is what I'm gonna do moving
Speaker:forward and make it a almost a coa.
Speaker:Because now you're bringing them on board as a part of the solution.
Speaker:You're giving them ownership of the next steps too.
Speaker:And it doesn't come across as being like manipulative or self-serving.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And you might learn you might get a great idea from that too.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:If you're asking them, if you truly are open to Hey, we're having a
Speaker:problem with how this is going.
Speaker:What do you think we could do different?
Speaker:They may come up and be like I've been thinking for months.
Speaker:You should do this.
Speaker:But I was to say it.
Speaker:I was allowed to tell you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And again, God damnit Kelly time moves so fast when we're together but I
Speaker:know right before the call we were chatting in the green room the luxurious
Speaker:green room with the stuffed bear.
Speaker:But you also mentioned consideration and I think that's probably a great way to.
Speaker:And this conversation.
Speaker:But I, and before you go, I also want to hear a little bit more about
Speaker:your upcoming book, but absolutely.
Speaker:Can you talk about consideration a little bit and what do you mean by that?
Speaker:Consideration when we're communicating, I think is about understanding who
Speaker:we're talking to who it is that you're having a conversation with.
Speaker:Getting to know your staff, understanding what, what lands
Speaker:with them and what doesn't.
Speaker:And the more we know our employees, the people that we interact with, people in
Speaker:our family, our friends, our networking, social, the more what we understand, what
Speaker:drives them, what motivates them, what interests them, the more we can tailor and
Speaker:adjust our communication style to them.
Speaker:Some people are very, Some people are very informal.
Speaker:Some people don't mind language, some do.
Speaker:There's so many different ways, and if we meet them where they are, we're so
Speaker:much more likely to resonate with them and to be absorbed than if we're bouncing
Speaker:off because we're talking to somebody that isn't going to be on the same page.
Speaker:I love that idea about meeting them where they're.
Speaker:Because then there's no, again I can't hold him.
Speaker:I can't hold him in judgment if he's not coming over here, I gotta go over there.
Speaker:And sometimes when you, some, I've explained that to junior managers and
Speaker:sometimes they come back and they, it makes somehow they get the idea
Speaker:that it's like a downward movement.
Speaker:Do you know what I mean?
Speaker:Oh, I gotta talk down to them, or they're not up here with.
Speaker:Does that ring a bell?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I, again, some of that's some of that.
Speaker:Immaturity and leadership style.
Speaker:A lot of organizations don't provide leadership training.
Speaker:They don't try to actual manager training.
Speaker:It's just, you know how to do the ordering and you can do the
Speaker:p and l on Tuesday nights when you count the inventory, right?
Speaker:But you don't know how to work with people and how to interact with them.
Speaker:Often we're not taught those skills.
Speaker:We're just thrown into the role.
Speaker:So the more we can.
Speaker:Seek to develop those even on our own.
Speaker:If it's, if there's not space for formal, there's so many books out there.
Speaker:There's podcasts.
Speaker:Yeah there's so many different ways, but they have to want to be better.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think it's important to just put a pin in it and say, this is
Speaker:not just the hospitality industry.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:This is every industry out there,
Speaker:managers or throughout the world.
Speaker:One of the, one of the corporate environments that I worked in that's
Speaker:just reminded me about we did a lot of work with our Adam, to your point, the
Speaker:junior manager side of things around just EQ and emotional intelligence and
Speaker:that they could try to do every day to help improve some of those scenarios
Speaker:and the meet them where they are thing that one just hit home for me because.
Speaker:The simplest version of that we could think of and was before you ever get
Speaker:into any type of development, feedback, constructive conversation at all, it's
Speaker:just to go to the person and say, is now a good time to have a conversation?
Speaker:What respect that shows them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No matter where they are on the ladder.
Speaker:And that was meet them where they are.
Speaker:And Adam, there was maybe in some scenarios, some swallow your pride.
Speaker:This person is below you, air quotes kind of thing.
Speaker:But that's not what it's about.
Speaker:It's about if I just burst down the door and start providing
Speaker:feedback, they might not hear any of it and it's all been wasted.
Speaker:But yeah, that, Hey, is now a good time?
Speaker:Do you have five?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We're present.
Speaker:We're here.
Speaker:We can be productive.
Speaker:So
Speaker:I, yeah, it's such a, it's such a simple, it's such a simple thing,
Speaker:Jim and yet I remember clearly dragging somebody off the floor.
Speaker:Yeah, it's not about their time.
Speaker:It's about my time.
Speaker:Now was a
Speaker:good time for me.
Speaker:I laugh, but inwardly there's the groan and.
Speaker:I think Kelly, the work that you're doing is incredibly important.
Speaker:Even though it's not within our space, we still get to benefit from
Speaker:from everything that you're doing.
Speaker:And we will continue to have you cuz definitely wanna.
Speaker:Be very eager to see what you're gonna write next, but can you give us like a
Speaker:thumbnail sketch of the book to come
Speaker:tell us about the new one?
Speaker:It's about leading yourself first, so that'll be basically the tenant.
Speaker:We're all leaders and we have to lead ourselves.
Speaker:I think you mentioned this the book about getting up and making your own bed.
Speaker:If we're not leaving ourselves, how are.
Speaker:How are we ever going to be good at leading other people?
Speaker:So it's about looking inward and finding very simple ways
Speaker:at all ages for us to step up.
Speaker:It's not an exclusive club being a leader.
Speaker:We can all do it if we want
Speaker:to.
Speaker:I can't tell you how many times I said that to staff members it
Speaker:doesn't matter what's on your jacket.
Speaker:It doesn't matter how the size of your hat you can be a leader
Speaker:as a dishwasher because you leave that dish pit immaculate.
Speaker:And seeing that type of leadership where to be frank, there might
Speaker:be somebody right next to elbow with them that's not necessarily
Speaker:emulating that type of behavior.
Speaker:Not to say that it's any knock on their personality.
Speaker:A friend of mine when he used to do an interview for a cook would
Speaker:strike up a conversation about hey, what kind of car do you drive?
Speaker:And really, I am, let's go out.
Speaker:Really, I wanna take a look at it because he would purposely want to go out to
Speaker:look inside the car to see the interior, to see if it was messy, and that's
Speaker:when he would make his hiring decision.
Speaker:Ever since then, I keep a little bucket there, like he's
Speaker:not gonna catch me no way.
Speaker:Good on you.
Speaker:Barn Hill.
Speaker:Thank you very much.
Speaker:And where else do you think that we might see this season, the speaking season?
Speaker:I'm working on that.
Speaker:It's the season of speaking, so that's, if any of your listeners is looking
Speaker:for somebody to come in and and talk, I'd be more than happy to.
Speaker:I'm happy to do it in Zoom and to a certain extent in person that
Speaker:I can schools, even in college.
Speaker:I've talked to a few here locally here in my Virginia area for things like that
Speaker:because it's just, it's nice to get out and talk to people aside from just the
Speaker:training classes and things like that.
Speaker:Share more of this kind of messaging.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And all your information is in the chat.
Speaker:And contact through LinkedIn also for your newsletter.
Speaker:And the one thing I can, I wanted to mention is I appreci.
Speaker:The example that you're setting for me because you had a podcast.
Speaker:I still have a podcast.
Speaker:And when I went to look at it, I noticed that there was like, there was a time when
Speaker:it, where the cutoff and I asked you about it and you said, I only have so much time.
Speaker:And that time now got a allotted to writing the book.
Speaker:It wasn't like I was trying to do everything and for me, sometimes I have
Speaker:a tendency of jumping in wholeheartedly.
Speaker:So to be able to create the space in those boundaries for
Speaker:me was really powerful.
Speaker:So I just wanna say thank you for that and and to everybody listening
Speaker:Consistently send two books to every coaching client that I get.
Speaker:One is Kelly's and the other one is Radical Candor, because I think those two
Speaker:books together harmonized actually set the set the framework for the handbook
Speaker:for the hashtag new hospitality culture.
Speaker:So thank you for that contribution to our evolution.
Speaker:Thank you, Jim.
Speaker:Any last words, my friend?
Speaker:I'm gonna read the book again.
Speaker:It's.
Speaker:And we should just plug you in here quarterly or something like that.
Speaker:Cause it's just a, yeah.
Speaker:Discussion.
Speaker:Good reminder, a good take away.
Speaker:And we just love having you, Kelly.
Speaker:So thanks so much for joining us
Speaker:together.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And again, it's that Gordian knot man.
Speaker:How do you pull that apart?
Speaker:So it's in everything and.
Speaker:Probably should say that this is these principles are not
Speaker:necessarily just for work.
Speaker:In relationship, these things can be a complete game changer no matter
Speaker:how much water is under the bridge.
Speaker:So your husband is a lucky person to have somebody who understands
Speaker:that communication is key.
Speaker:Without.
Speaker:We got nothing.
Speaker:So thank you very much, Kelly, Jim, folks we'll see you next
Speaker:week on Turning the Table.
Speaker:Thanks for joining us on this episode of Turning the Table with
Speaker:me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.
Speaker:We're on a mission to change the food and beverage industry for the better
Speaker:by focusing on staff mental health, physical and emotional wellbeing by
Speaker:proactively measuring and managing staff.
Speaker:Join other hospitality professionals co-creating the hashtag new
Speaker:hospitality culture by subscribing to our weekly newsletter at ww dot.
Speaker:Turning the table podcast.com/news.
Speaker:In every edition, you'll find innovative solutions ready to test and validate
Speaker:in your operation this weekend.
Speaker:Plus, listen to exclusive bonus content just for you.
Speaker:Connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram at Turning the Table Podcast.
Speaker:If you found value in this episode, please consider leaving us a review
Speaker:on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify.
Speaker:Give us a star rating.
Speaker:It helps other hospitality profess.
Speaker:Just like you find the show, or better yet, grab the show link
Speaker:and share it with a friend or colleague who you wanna see succeed.
Speaker:Thanks for stepping in and speaking out for an industry craft and
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Speaker:Remember, retention is the new Cool y'all.
Speaker:This podcast was written, directed, and produced by me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.
Speaker:Turning the table is a production of Realignment Media.