Welcome to another episode of Turning the Table, sponsored by
Adam Lamb:Benchmark 60, Turning the table as the most progressive weekly podcast for
Adam Lamb:today's food and beverage industry, featuring staff centric operating
Adam Lamb:solutions for restaurants in the hashtag new hospitality culture.
Adam Lamb:My name is Adam Lamb and I'm a career coach for chefs and
Adam Lamb:hospitality professionals.
Adam Lamb:This episode is one 15.
Adam Lamb:How do you put the pieces back together?
Adam Lamb:We ask that you share the show with someone you care about who can find this.
Adam Lamb:Useful and leave a review.
Adam Lamb:And I'd like to welcome my co-host, Jim Taylor, Benchmark 60 morning Adam.
Adam Lamb:How are you Jim?
Adam Lamb:How are you Ben?
Jim Taylor:I'm good.
Adam Lamb:And I'm glad, I'm glad to hear you finally got some rest, cuz
Adam Lamb:you've been running the candle at both ends with the new child and Yeah.
Adam Lamb:You know, running the business and everything and I thought we
Adam Lamb:would start with some listener mail that we got That's, Yeah,
Adam Lamb:it's pretty potent stuff so.
Adam Lamb:The male goes like, Hi, I came across your podcast this morning while looking for
Adam Lamb:some hope in the hospitality industry.
Adam Lamb:First off, that's a really powerful, that's a really powerful first, mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:statement, you know, looking for hope in the hospitality industry.
Adam Lamb:I love the hospitality industry so much.
Adam Lamb:I've been in it about every position in the restaurant business.
Adam Lamb:Your most recent podcast made me feel vindicated after feeling defeated,
Adam Lamb:something I don't feel very often.
Adam Lamb:I stepped into a situation where blank.
Adam Lamb:Her direct report has treated the team so poorly that everyone is ready.
Adam Lamb:I was beginning to think that maybe my expectations were too high.
Adam Lamb:I don't mean of the staff.
Adam Lamb:I mean expectations for upper management to just care a little bit about the
Adam Lamb:employees and about training staff to succeed at their jobs mostly.
Adam Lamb:I just really wanted to thank you guys for doing a podcast that speaks
Adam Lamb:so openly about the mental health issues and the restaurant industry
Adam Lamb:and retention of good employees and the importance of good management.
Adam Lamb:Wishing you all the best.
Adam Lamb:So first off we wanted to say thank you very much.
Adam Lamb:Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:, it's kind of a courageous email to.
Adam Lamb:Because Jim, I know right before the show we were talking about, both of
Adam Lamb:us have actually been in this similar situation, and I think that, yeah, if
Adam Lamb:you've been in the industry long enough, you will run into this situation while
Adam Lamb:you're you know, either have to clean up a mess that someone has left or
Adam Lamb:to be kind of wedged in the middle of the situation where you see obviously
Adam Lamb:a deficit in, in leadership such that the staff has been kind of traumatized.
Adam Lamb:And that person is probably still on staff somewhere very often.
Adam Lamb:You direct reports.
Adam Lamb:So there's a lot of there's a lot of needles to thread in this conversation,
Adam Lamb:so I just wanted to first start by saying or asking you, have you ever
Adam Lamb:been in a situation where you had to walk into an operation that had
Adam Lamb:clearly been mismanaged or misled?
Adam Lamb:And what were a couple of the first things that you did while you were.
Adam Lamb:Yeah, I, I
Jim Taylor:mean it's, there's lots of scenarios that, and I think we need to
Jim Taylor:address the fact that, you know, sometimes as in in management positions, we go
Jim Taylor:into a scenario where, you know, we could either think it's been mismanaged or the
Jim Taylor:team thinks that it's been mismanaged.
Jim Taylor:Right?
Jim Taylor:And I think what we're trying to chat about today is those scenarios
Jim Taylor:where the team feels like it's been mismanaged because everybody's got
Jim Taylor:opinion on how on operations should run.
Jim Taylor:Right.
Jim Taylor:. You know, I think there's a couple of scenarios that I was involved
Jim Taylor:in in my operations career where, you know, you start a new position
Jim Taylor:and the team comes forward and just says this, you know, things need to
Jim Taylor:change or we need help, or, you know, we're happy there's someone new here.
Jim Taylor:You know, whether you know them or not.
Jim Taylor:And you know, I think that my approach to trying to work through and navigate those
Jim Taylor:types of situations was always just based.
Jim Taylor:, nothing matters more than making sure that the team is comfortable
Jim Taylor:and feels supported and happy coming to work every day.
Jim Taylor:Mm-hmm.
Jim Taylor:and I, I think that that's, you know, more, more apparent now than ever
Jim Taylor:with, there's places that are already tight for staff and losing more
Jim Taylor:people, you know, isn't an option.
Jim Taylor:So, you know, I think, yeah, I've been in that situation a few times and it's
Jim Taylor:never easy to work through because it doesn't hap, it doesn't change overnight.
Jim Taylor:It doesn't, Those wounds don't heal over.
Jim Taylor:You know, I think you mentioned you've been involved in some of that before
Adam Lamb:too.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:And I guess that's a great point that you're making.
Adam Lamb:You know, how do you make a differentiation between say, you know,
Adam Lamb:they often say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so there might be a couple team
Adam Lamb:members who you might not necessarily feel familiar with yet that are very
Adam Lamb:often the first ones to kind of like talk.
Adam Lamb:Meetings and say, Hey, you know, we really need help.
Adam Lamb:We need this, we need that.
Adam Lamb:And it's hard to differentiate whether or not that's the truth
Adam Lamb:or that that's just their opinion.
Adam Lamb:Do, do you know what I mean?
Jim Taylor:For sure.
Jim Taylor:And, and, yeah, it's, it's interesting to go through that process and
Jim Taylor:trying to differentiate, like you said, between the person who's just.
Jim Taylor:Vocal and the person who genuinely cares about, about the rest of
Jim Taylor:the team and change and, and, you know, moving the business forward.
Jim Taylor:Right.
Jim Taylor:And, you know, I think that this is something that we talk
Jim Taylor:about pretty much every week.
Jim Taylor:You talk about it in your business.
Jim Taylor:I talk about it in my business and just trying to find ways to do a better job
Jim Taylor:of protecting the employee experience and the career experience in hospitality.
Jim Taylor:Right.
Jim Taylor:And, and in this case, this is exactly a, a, you know, applaud her for
Jim Taylor:sending through that comment because she's speaking about the exact same
Jim Taylor:thing, but from her experience.
Adam Lamb:So let's, let's take the listener's position that she's been
Adam Lamb:around the operation enough to know that there's, you know, that people
Adam Lamb:are walking around with their, their heads down, their shoulders bowed, that
Adam Lamb:there's not a lot of pride in the team.
Adam Lamb:That there's, you know, clearly a lack of, you know, You know, it's not, It's
Adam Lamb:not for nothing that we say Retention is the new cool, because very often
Adam Lamb:you can look at the statistics and know whether or not someone's been
Adam Lamb:managing an operation well enough.
Adam Lamb:And I've been known to say once or twice that you know, you can
Adam Lamb:tell a good chef by his leaving.
Adam Lamb:Meaning that once he, he or she leaves and you take stock of where the team
Adam Lamb:is, both emotionally and operationally, you can very often make a very clear
Adam Lamb:distinction about whether or not they were really good at their job or not.
Adam Lamb:Because let's face it, some people are very charismatic and
Adam Lamb:very personally forceful and they can keep an operation running.
Adam Lamb:Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:although probably not to what we would consider to be the best form of,
Adam Lamb:you know, Efficiency or productivity.
Adam Lamb:But you know, once that person is gone and they're out of that situation,
Adam Lamb:then there's nothing kind of holding all those people together other
Adam Lamb:than, you know, I guess in a certain situation would be either fear.
Adam Lamb:But let's, let's say she's pretty clear about what's been going on mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:and yet that person that was responsible for that is still in
Adam Lamb:the management structure somewhere.
Adam Lamb:How does she even start to have a convers.
Adam Lamb:First off with, with her direct report and a, not make them wrong for what
Adam Lamb:they did because that's probably the start of a very short conversation,
Adam Lamb:but to be able to look at the operation holistically and neutrally such that
Adam Lamb:they can come to some type of consensus about what it would look like to move
Adam Lamb:the team forward in a cohesive manner.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Jim Taylor:You know, we, we were having this discussion with a, an operations
Jim Taylor:team the other day about, You know, looking at the business in terms of the
Jim Taylor:feedback that's come forward, the ideas that have come forward, the concerns that
Jim Taylor:have come forward and actually trying to paint a picture of what would the perfect
Jim Taylor:operation look like and, and be really objective about the feedback that they're
Jim Taylor:receiving and try to, you know, create.
Jim Taylor:Specific you know, ideas and things that we can work on every day in order to
Jim Taylor:get to that perfect operation, you know?
Jim Taylor:Mm-hmm.
Jim Taylor:and remove, you know, the, there, I always found that when I was in that
Jim Taylor:mid-level management type position, my job was to filter information filter.
Jim Taylor:You know, negative feedback, constructive criticism from the upper levels of
Jim Taylor:management that maybe, you know, and not their own fault, sometimes slightly
Jim Taylor:disconnected with exactly what's going on.
Jim Taylor:Right.
Jim Taylor:My job was to filter at some of that so that the team didn't feel it.
Jim Taylor:Hmm.
Jim Taylor:Right.
Jim Taylor:And then, you know, like I said, really work on what does the perfect
Jim Taylor:scenario look like every day, and work with the team on the, you know,
Jim Taylor:in the field, on the ground every day to try to build towards that.
Jim Taylor:Because it's, it's so tricky when the person or the people in the senior
Jim Taylor:levels of leadership have one idea about what's going on and then sort of
Adam Lamb:gets filtered down, right?
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:I have some pretty specific experience around this that we'll get
Adam Lamb:to in a, in a second with a story.
Adam Lamb:But ultimately it comes down to if I'm hearing it correctly,
Adam Lamb:wanting to protect the team.
Adam Lamb:And I also get that the team may not necessarily be aware
Adam Lamb:of those efforts to protect.
Adam Lamb:And I say this because I always felt that it was important for me to own
Adam Lamb:the company line no matter what it was, because it's way too easy to go
Adam Lamb:into an operation, say as well, the general manager wants to do this or
Adam Lamb:upper level wants to do that, da da, da, and always kind of pushing off
Adam Lamb:responsibility about what there is to do off to some unseen or unheard.
Adam Lamb:entity.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:Because I wanted to save my ass in front of my associates and not want to look bad.
Adam Lamb:Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:yet I also got that, that's pretty much a victim conversation because there's no
Adam Lamb:way I can ever influence what's going on.
Adam Lamb:And pretty soon they're gonna start looking at me going like, Well
Adam Lamb:dude, if you can't protect us, then what the hell you here for?
Adam Lamb:Right.
Adam Lamb:So sometimes it means owning that, that that bad news.
Adam Lamb:As a decision that I was involved in.
Adam Lamb:Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:, But I remember clearly plenty of conversations that I had with upper
Adam Lamb:management, hr regional directors about specific staff members that
Adam Lamb:those staff members never ever know and nor do I need to go there and,
Adam Lamb:you know, You know, Hey, look at me.
Adam Lamb:Look what I did.
Adam Lamb:Because , that's to the opposite side of mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:, like making it all about hubris and me.
Adam Lamb:And I've always wanted to make sure that there was a clear
Adam Lamb:line of rateable performance.
Adam Lamb:Like, what are the standards and are you living up to those standards or not?
Adam Lamb:And so that meant that I couldn't manage by, by personality, whether
Adam Lamb:I was, you know, winning one for the team or taking one for the team.
Adam Lamb:Does that, does that resonate?
Adam Lamb:. Yeah.
Jim Taylor:Yeah, for sure.
Jim Taylor:And I think the, you know, the things that we're talking about right now
Jim Taylor:about protecting the team and about, you know, filtering information or
Jim Taylor:how you, you know, what types of conversations you're having about
Jim Taylor:the operation or the, the individuals working in it, you know, this stuff
Jim Taylor:applies to every level of the business.
Jim Taylor:And I know I, I, you know, I speak for both of us when I see that we've
Jim Taylor:been, we've both experienced all those different levels of management
Jim Taylor:and leadership and, you know, in, in lots of different environments.
Jim Taylor:So, I mean, myself, I'm not I'm fully comfortable saying that this applies
Jim Taylor:to every single level of management.
Jim Taylor:That it's about the team.
Jim Taylor:It's about making sure we deliver messages in a positive as positive way as possible.
Jim Taylor:That, you know, everything that we go through in the industry, especially right
Jim Taylor:now with the labor shortages, has to be.
Jim Taylor:People centric.
Jim Taylor:It has to be people focused.
Jim Taylor:Cuz if it's not, it's only gonna get
Adam Lamb:harder.
Adam Lamb:I I love the questions that are starting to come up in
Adam Lamb:some posts that I'm reading.
Adam Lamb:People advocating you know deeper sense of mentorship as opposed to leadership.
Adam Lamb:And, you know, one of the first questions is, you know, how can
Adam Lamb:I, what can I do to make your job?
Adam Lamb:. And I, I know that that's a tricky question and I know that some operators
Adam Lamb:don't want to ask that because either they've never had it easy and don't
Adam Lamb:necessarily feel responsibility to like, make anyone else's life easy.
Adam Lamb:But I keep coming back to this idea of what it would be like to actually be
Adam Lamb:in the operation by myself, . Because, because that's all that's left.
Adam Lamb:And so I think speaking to our listeners quandary.
Adam Lamb:It's like when you go to speak to your direct reports and saying,
Adam Lamb:Okay, so what kind of operation do you see that's possible?
Adam Lamb:And, you know, I don't want to necessarily have to make a call around to the other
Adam Lamb:departments because I'm short bus boys and, and I need somebody on the floor.
Adam Lamb:Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:. And so painting a picture of what the possibilities are probably
Adam Lamb:lends itself to a bigger conversation about, okay, so if that's what's
Adam Lamb:possible, what do we actually need to.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:What support do we need?
Adam Lamb:Right?
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:Right.
Adam Lamb:And you know, there's another part to this entire conversation that,
Adam Lamb:that I'll get to in a minute.
Adam Lamb:But this is one of the reasons why you and I talk so consistently about values.
Adam Lamb:Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:and standards.
Adam Lamb:Not necessarily as.
Adam Lamb:From an organizational standpoint, but from an individual's standpoint, you know,
Adam Lamb:this person as a hospitality professional.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:Next week we're gonna be lucky enough to have been able to wrangle Jensen Cum.
Adam Lamb:Onto the show, which is always a gas.
Adam Lamb:And the topic of the show is what do you stand for?
Adam Lamb:So in a lot of my coaching, that's exactly where we need to
Adam Lamb:start, is what do you stand for?
Adam Lamb:What's important to you?
Adam Lamb:What are those incorruptible values that you have?
Adam Lamb:And then how do you match that with an employer?
Adam Lamb:So now this particular associate is in this position where she probably feels
Adam Lamb:like her hands are tied a little bit.
Adam Lamb:She stated quite clearly that, you know, she's been coming home
Adam Lamb:and feeling kind of defeated.
Adam Lamb:Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:which is a feeling that I know very well.
Adam Lamb:And just say, I'm sorry that you're going through that right now.
Adam Lamb:, and there are a couple ways in which you can turn this, not necessarily to your
Adam Lamb:advantage, but your team's advantage.
Adam Lamb:But the only way that that's actually gonna work is if you're
Adam Lamb:focused entirely on the team and what you can do to so assist them.
Adam Lamb:And it may be as simple as, , you know, having more shift meetings, you know?
Adam Lamb:Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:and saying, Listen, times are tough.
Adam Lamb:During Covid I had several meetings a day with shift personnel and
Adam Lamb:there was very little information that I could share, cuz none of us
Adam Lamb:knew what the hell was going on.
Adam Lamb:Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:, and yet the job still needed to be d.
Adam Lamb:So I think that, , like putting yourself out there as a barometer for what's
Adam Lamb:happening in the operation and in the community is important because where
Adam Lamb:else are they gonna get that information?
Adam Lamb:And even if you don't have the answers mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:that you ask the questions.
Adam Lamb:Because very often what we're finding is that one of the very top reasons
Adam Lamb:that people leave an organization is because of communication or lack thereof.
Adam Lamb:So.
Adam Lamb:What would you suggest as far as like trying to hold this team
Adam Lamb:together for the short term?
Adam Lamb:Like what, what do those conversations sound like?
Adam Lamb:Well, in,
Jim Taylor:in that level, you know, where this individual is at, they're
Jim Taylor:in a, it seems to me like they're in a, in a mid-level management mm-hmm.
Jim Taylor:position, right?
Jim Taylor:Yep.
Jim Taylor:And one of the hardest things that I was found in that position
Jim Taylor:is the, the balance between.
Jim Taylor:I'm reporting to somebody whether I agree with what they, the direction
Jim Taylor:they wanna see the business go or not.
Jim Taylor:And then there's all of these people that are relying on me every day.
Jim Taylor:You know, deliver for them.
Jim Taylor:Mm-hmm.
Jim Taylor:and, you know, that only gets harder when you know you're in a position like
Jim Taylor:she's describing where she's feeling defeated and that type of thing.
Jim Taylor:And, you know, me personally, the way that I always tried to, to work
Jim Taylor:through those situations cuz they happen and mm-hmm , they come up.
Jim Taylor:Was that, you know, to recognize that my wins were the team's wins.
Jim Taylor:Right?
Jim Taylor:If an employee had a great day and I had anything to do with that, or I, I
Jim Taylor:talked them through it, or we worked on something together, we provided
Jim Taylor:training or development or mentorship for them, then that was a win for me.
Jim Taylor:You know, and, and I sort of tried to feed off of that type of stuff.
Jim Taylor:because looking.
Jim Taylor:In a scenario, like she's talking about looking upwards
Jim Taylor:for that motivation apparent.
Jim Taylor:It's not happening right now.
Jim Taylor:Right, Right.
Jim Taylor:So there needs to be other ways to stay, you know, stay, stay focused, and stay
Jim Taylor:centered and stay, you know, with your, with your eye on the price kind of thing.
Jim Taylor:Right.
Jim Taylor:And I think in that scenario, that's really tricky in that position where
Jim Taylor:you've got, you know, that mid-level type
Adam Lamb:responsibility.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:I think.
Adam Lamb:And this is not the first time that this type of conversation has come up for
Adam Lamb:us especially since the show started.
Adam Lamb:And unfortunately for some folks when the disconnect is so
Adam Lamb:significant and the polarities are so far apart, then it becomes a time
Adam Lamb:of really thinking about yourself.
Adam Lamb:Yeah, About your, your own mental health, your own physical health,
Adam Lamb:your own emotional health.
Adam Lamb:And it may be necessary to seek that type of.
Adam Lamb:Congruent employment elsewhere.
Adam Lamb:Mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:. And I hate to say that because I, I even spoke to a chef the other
Adam Lamb:night where, I asked him, what does he really like about being there
Adam Lamb:at this particular organization?
Adam Lamb:And his answer was, he would feel guilty leaving his team.
Adam Lamb:So he never really, he never really gave me a positive, but what was, what
Adam Lamb:was present for him was this feeling of like, guilt and maybe shame about
Adam Lamb:the fact that he, he's, you know, done the good, done the good job.
Adam Lamb:Brought this team together.
Adam Lamb:He's had family members bring other family members there to work with him.
Adam Lamb:Yet his first emotion was not wanting to leave because he felt guilty.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:And I so resonate with that, especially after a time spent really coming from
Adam Lamb:your heart and building a team because you know that that's what's best for them.
Adam Lamb:And their own emotional security or emotional.
Adam Lamb:But at some point, man, you, you have to be clear-eyed about the
Adam Lamb:fact that, that you've gone about as far as you can and, Yeah.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:Just a quick story.
Adam Lamb:I took over a I was asked to, I'm sorry.
Adam Lamb:I was gonna apply for a particular position at a, at a retirement
Adam Lamb:community here in Asheville.
Adam Lamb:And at the time, the person that was in the.
Adam Lamb:Position currently wasn't leaving for a while, so I was asked to go in and do
Adam Lamb:an assessment of the culinary operation.
Adam Lamb:So after about a week, I spoke to everybody involved and it was clear
Adam Lamb:that there was some really let's say unproductive behavior going on.
Adam Lamb:So the chef and the food and beverage director who shared
Adam Lamb:an office space didn't.
Adam Lamb:Rest of the organization to know if there was any dysfunction in their department.
Adam Lamb:So very often they'd say, Okay, understand the problem, we're gonna take care of
Adam Lamb:it, and it would never go any further.
Adam Lamb:As a consequence, none of the sta, none of the staff felt comfortable
Adam Lamb:going to human resources, which is there for a particular function, and
Adam Lamb:none of the problems ever got solved.
Adam Lamb:So these two individuals were kind of codependent with one.
Adam Lamb:and they ran the department so tight that it was a Chinese fire
Adam Lamb:drill every day and people were just walking around with their heads bow.
Adam Lamb:I mean it was really sad.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:The way everybody was.
Adam Lamb:And about a week after I put my assessment in, I got a text from the
Adam Lamb:chef saying, Haha, I got a new job.
Adam Lamb:And bailed on the tire operation.
Adam Lamb:So I was asked, Hey, can you come in and bridge us from chef to.
Adam Lamb:Hmm.
Adam Lamb:Just to let you know, food and beverage director position
Adam Lamb:is we found somebody for that.
Adam Lamb:So I'm like, fine.
Adam Lamb:And then about three weeks later they told me that that person had ghosted
Adam Lamb:them and I ended up doing both jobs.
Adam Lamb:So they said, Hey, do you wanna stay here and do the job anyway?
Adam Lamb:And I said, Sure.
Adam Lamb:Formally, and this organization had grown from, you know, basically a
Adam Lamb:hundred residents to 650 residents in the space of about six.
Adam Lamb:So they were operating it as a kind of mom and pop, yet it was large enough,
Adam Lamb:a hundred people in the department.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:But there had to be certain structures in place that didn't exist before.
Adam Lamb:So there was no standardized job classifications.
Adam Lamb:There was no standardized pay.
Adam Lamb:Everybody pays was going all over the place.
Adam Lamb:So for me, the first thing that was going in there and just getting
Adam Lamb:everybody around a table and saying, Okay, so these are the issues.
Adam Lamb:This is kind of like the line of.
Adam Lamb:And this is what we can get done.
Adam Lamb:And it took long time to get, say, job classifications done, because everybody
Adam Lamb:wants to have their two sense in.
Adam Lamb:But during that process somehow I lost the faith of my direct report.
Adam Lamb:She started shopping outside the organization for someone to take my
Adam Lamb:position and then not telling me about it.
Adam Lamb:But the point being is that once I lost her confidence, then it was virtually
Adam Lamb:impossible for me to move the operation.
Adam Lamb:One of the most important things that we were able to introduce
Adam Lamb:and, and still happens, there is a complete second day orientation.
Adam Lamb:So, an orientation period might be something that's easily doable.
Adam Lamb:You don't, necess don't necessarily need a lot of buy-in from
Adam Lamb:everybody to make that happen.
Adam Lamb:But from the standpoint of the new hires, they knew exactly where they were
Adam Lamb:gonna slot in and what was expected.
Adam Lamb:and how they could move through the organization.
Adam Lamb:And those three things were really, really important for people to just
Adam Lamb:kind of like, not worry about where they were and what was possible.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:And that's why I say, you know, this is a great time for everyone in the industry to
Adam Lamb:really consider what's important to them.
Adam Lamb:You know, what's kind of in volatile, like things that they're not gonna give up.
Adam Lamb:Like, I need transparency, vulnerability, and honesty.
Adam Lamb:. Yep.
Adam Lamb:And you.
Adam Lamb:Remembering that you're not the one that's, you know, yes,
Adam Lamb:they're interviewing you, but you're also interviewing them.
Adam Lamb:So maybe stick around and talk to a few people, you know, as the shift
Adam Lamb:ends and talk to some employees that are still working there.
Adam Lamb:And they're platforms out there, employment platforms
Adam Lamb:that have reviews of employers.
Adam Lamb:And so these are all kind of part and parcel of the, of the coaching moving
Adam Lamb:forward as people start to figure out where they most want to be and, and,
Adam Lamb:and looking for the organizations that are gonna take them there.
Adam Lamb:That's the one piece, like being very, very clear about what you stand for and
Adam Lamb:where you're gonna go to, to be able to be incongruence with that, and then finding
Adam Lamb:yourself in a situation where, Jim, like you said, it could always be that it's
Adam Lamb:been just a rough couple years, right?
Adam Lamb:? Sure.
Adam Lamb:It doesn't, doesn't necessarily always need to be mismanagement
Adam Lamb:or poor leadership.
Adam Lamb:It could be the supply chain has been broken.
Adam Lamb:It could have been covid, it could have been a bunch of different things, and now
Adam Lamb:you're, you're presented with a situation where you've got anywhere from 10 to
Adam Lamb:30 to 50 to a hundred people who are looking to you to bring them all together.
Adam Lamb:And again, what's step number one,
Jim Taylor:Yeah, I think, I think we're on the same page that step
Jim Taylor:number one is talk to your people.
Jim Taylor:Step number one is check in.
Jim Taylor:Step number one is, you know, ask people what they need and
Jim Taylor:ask yourself what you need.
Jim Taylor:You know, you made a comment a few minutes ago that I feel like I can't
Jim Taylor:not touch on, and that was the, I feel guilty if I leave my team.
Jim Taylor:Yes.
Jim Taylor:Right.
Jim Taylor:We, we talk about retention being the new cool all the time.
Jim Taylor:Stick around out of guilt, that's not cool.
Jim Taylor:Stick around out of fear.
Jim Taylor:That's not cool.
Jim Taylor:You know, stick around because it aligns with values.
Jim Taylor:Stick align because you, or stick around because you feel
Jim Taylor:protected by your employer.
Jim Taylor:Stick around because you know you're passionate about the mission.
Jim Taylor:That's the, the part of retention that's cool.
Jim Taylor:Right.
Jim Taylor:You know, I think that we need to, that goes for both employees making sure that
Jim Taylor:they are aligned with the values and the mission of the organization they work for.
Jim Taylor:And that goes for.
Jim Taylor:People who run the organization, making sure that they're doing what
Jim Taylor:they can to protect their people so they don't feel guilty staying, I
Jim Taylor:mean, that's not good for anybody,
Adam Lamb:right?
Adam Lamb:Aaron Fish is just chiming in, good friend of ours.
Adam Lamb:Transparency and honesty, It seems obvious, but it's not always there.
Adam Lamb:And mm-hmm.
Adam Lamb:yeah, this idea of over-communication I, I don't think can be understated.
Adam Lamb:And yet you might have some people in your team who are.
Adam Lamb:Like, dude, that's just a bunch of words.
Adam Lamb:Like really, where's the action?
Adam Lamb:And unless we're throwing ourselves into the breach of a particular operation,
Adam Lamb:it's very hard for people to, I should say, it's hard to gain their trust and
Adam Lamb:confidence if you're not willing to jump in and do the things that are the most.
Adam Lamb:You know, uncomfortable for you.
Adam Lamb:And you know, I'm a big fan of mopping.
Adam Lamb:I love a good mopping
Adam Lamb:. Jim Taylor: I didn't know that about you.
Adam Lamb:No, I, listen,
Adam Lamb:it's good to know.
Adam Lamb:It's kind of kind of the the movie with Jim Carey about meeting
Adam Lamb:God and he's just, you know, a janitor mopping this perennial floor.
Adam Lamb:There is something to be said about manual labor, especially
Adam Lamb:in times of great change.
Adam Lamb:You know, there may not be a whole lot that you can.
Adam Lamb:Operationally to change things, but if you're willing to roll up your elbows
Adam Lamb:and grab a mop or do whatever that looks like, it's it's empowering to your staff.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:And at the same time, you're going through this discovery process
Adam Lamb:about what's important to you.
Adam Lamb:You know, you could also be doing that with your staff, and it may
Adam Lamb:be that that means some of your staff leave and that's okay.
Adam Lamb:People leaving an organization can be a, an incredibly positive act and
Adam Lamb:reinvigorate the organization with people who are coming in with a
Adam Lamb:much more enthusiastic attitude.
Adam Lamb:And I, I liken it to, you know, infecting the organism with positivity, right?
Adam Lamb:? Yeah.
Adam Lamb:You get enough people in there of the same mind connected to the same thing.
Adam Lamb:Again, this can be done through, you know, really great hiring processes
Adam Lamb:and, and really in depth conversations with potential staff members.
Adam Lamb:But it could very well be that you start bringing in staff members
Adam Lamb:that are more aligned to how you view running an operation.
Adam Lamb:And after a while they start infecting everyone around them.
Adam Lamb:. Yeah.
Jim Taylor:That, that mopping thing, I mean, I have, again, I
Jim Taylor:have to go back and comment on that.
Jim Taylor:I can't be without . I can't, I can't let you get away with that one.
Jim Taylor:Okay.
Jim Taylor:For one, If I ever have a chance to come to your house, I'm gonna expect
Jim Taylor:that you have really clean floors.
Jim Taylor:Yeah, you gotta but that, you know, to me, that that speaks to a certain
Jim Taylor:approach around the, you know, the whole concept of servant leadership, right?
Jim Taylor:You're doing something that you don't have to do that nobody expects you to do, but
Jim Taylor:it's gonna make your team's life easier.
Jim Taylor:And sometimes it's the simplest things.
Jim Taylor:You know, the one that, and for anybody who might listen to this that ever
Jim Taylor:worked with me, the one that I, the thing I always tried to do was and
Jim Taylor:another partner of ours, Doug New Hill, Kim and I were talking about this
Jim Taylor:yesterday, taking tray trays full of dirty dishes away from staff and just
Jim Taylor:taking them to the dish area so that they can spend time with their customer.
Jim Taylor:That was, I always used to find it so funny, the look that I would get if I
Jim Taylor:took a tray of dirty dishes away from an.
Jim Taylor:They would look at me like, What are you doing?
Jim Taylor:What planet are you from?
Jim Taylor:You know, and, and it wasn't anything really serious that was going, you know,
Jim Taylor:change their day dramatically, but it just made their life a little bit easier.
Jim Taylor:So that was something I always tried to do.
Jim Taylor:I don't like mopping, so that was never my, my go to
Jim Taylor:. Adam Lamb: No, but I mean, you bring up
Jim Taylor:that you're talking about, you know, all of a sudden they feel that arm get really.
Jim Taylor:They're not expecting that and the trade disappears in their head.
Jim Taylor:Like, what?
Jim Taylor:Yeah, they gotta turn around.
Jim Taylor:And I, I feel it's necessary to kind of hammer this point.
Jim Taylor:None of this stuff costs money, right?
Jim Taylor:And none of this, none of this costs any time getting it approved
Jim Taylor:by upper management, right?
Jim Taylor:And it could be that you start a relationship with a staff
Jim Taylor:member that extends beyond this particular location and employment.
Jim Taylor:It could be that you start.
Jim Taylor:You know, pulling together a cadre of people who really respect you and will
Jim Taylor:follow you to the wall, as they say.
Jim Taylor:Yeah.
Jim Taylor:Yeah.
Jim Taylor:And you know, they, they're waiting for your call three months later.
Jim Taylor:Hey, I've landed on my feet.
Jim Taylor:Here we go.
Jim Taylor:And are you ready to make a move?
Jim Taylor:A hundred percent.
Jim Taylor:And you know what, the funny thing about it that I always was, I shouldn't,
Jim Taylor:you know, this might be the wrong word, but I was always entertained
Jim Taylor:mildly by the conversation that that.
Jim Taylor:You know, and Aaron Fish is now saying his was jumping in the dish,
Jim Taylor:in the dish area to help clean that up or mopping or grabbing the tray.
Jim Taylor:You know, it wasn't about, I, I can't tell you how many times I had
Jim Taylor:to explain to staff, I'm not doing this because you didn't do it right.
Jim Taylor:I'm doing this because, So you don't have to, Right, right.
Jim Taylor:I'm not mopping cuz the floor's dirty and I'm annoyed that you're not doing it.
Jim Taylor:I'm mopping.
Jim Taylor:So you don't.
Jim Taylor:I'm trying to help make your day easier.
Jim Taylor:I'm trying to help make your job easier.
Jim Taylor:Right, Right.
Jim Taylor:It's different.
Jim Taylor:There's a difference there.
Adam Lamb:Well, and after, and after a staff has been beat down and thought
Adam Lamb:that everything was an indictment on their work performance, to have somebody
Adam Lamb:come in that just wants to help might be an initial shock, and to be able
Adam Lamb:to have that second, Hey, listen, if I'm, you know, busting your tables or
Adam Lamb:whatever, it's not because you can't get to it, it's because I want to make your.
Adam Lamb:And so you don't have to, right?
Adam Lamb:And Doug's just chime in, sail, nailed it.
Adam Lamb:You know, bend an extra arm, leg, even brain if you need to.
Adam Lamb:Whatever you can do to alleviate their stress and smile while you're doing it.
Adam Lamb:And to Doug's point, I haven't always been really good about smiling while I'm
Adam Lamb:doing it because I'm feeling the pressure, like they're feeling the pressure.
Adam Lamb:And I might be, you know, dripping down for that second, you know, and making more
Adam Lamb:of a point of buzzing around the dining.
Adam Lamb:Grabbing trays or busing tables so that my staff can actually
Adam Lamb:reset those tables, reset those tables, and take care of the guest.
Adam Lamb:And it's not always intu as intuitive as, as as doing the dirtiest job.
Adam Lamb:Sometimes it's looking and see where the greatest need is.
Adam Lamb:Absolutely.
Jim Taylor:But it's all about protecting your people.
Jim Taylor:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Adam Lamb:And you know, to just to.
Adam Lamb:Again, kind of hit hammer the nail.
Adam Lamb:You know, Benchmark 60 and its productivity metric is one of the best
Adam Lamb:ways to protect staff, especially if they know that you're actually doing it.
Adam Lamb:Because again, there are some things that you're gonna be doing
Adam Lamb:as a manager that's not necessarily important to share with your staff.
Adam Lamb:But if your staff knows that you are actually deploying a technology that
Adam Lamb:will protect their workload such.
Adam Lamb:The opportunities for them to be overworked, become less and less.
Adam Lamb:And not only that gives us an opportunity to staff the restaurant appropriately.
Adam Lamb:That's gonna go a long way into making sure that that staff feels
Adam Lamb:comfortable, protected, and, you know, they're not gonna jump ship to
Adam Lamb:a quarter or 50 cents because they probably can't find that anywhere else.
Adam Lamb:Yeah.
Jim Taylor:Yeah.
Jim Taylor:I mean, we, we've had lots of interesting discussion with,
Jim Taylor:with restaurant operators lately.
Jim Taylor:, there's so much conversation happening about work life balance.
Jim Taylor:Mm.
Jim Taylor:Great.
Jim Taylor:Resignation, work from home, all these different things.
Jim Taylor:Most of that conversation is on the life side of the conversation, but that
Jim Taylor:workload thing that you're talking about is, is focusing on the work part of it.
Jim Taylor:Mm-hmm.
Jim Taylor:, because it's, it's kind of a loss if you go on vacation, you know, let's
Jim Taylor:say there's an unlimited vacation.
Jim Taylor:, which is awesome, but every time you go on vacation, you come back to work and
Jim Taylor:you're stressed the minute you get back,
Adam Lamb:right?
Adam Lamb:Because everything's just been piled up on your desk, , right?
Adam Lamb:If we can
Jim Taylor:prevent that through managing workload and looking at things
Jim Taylor:differently that way, it's gonna make the employee experience that much
Jim Taylor:better and, you know, improve retention.
Jim Taylor:Yeah.
Jim Taylor:So that's a, that's a discussion for
Adam Lamb:another day though.
Adam Lamb:Another day and chiming in Jemma's focus has always been the lobby and bathrooms.
Adam Lamb:Because as a customer, that's my first point of contact.
Adam Lamb:And yes, it doesn't really matter whose name is on the checklist, , to go in
Adam Lamb:there and to make sure that not only that it's getting done, but that you might.
Adam Lamb:Actually do something to alleviate someone else's rounds.
Adam Lamb:And I'm really grateful for all our friends and listeners,
Adam Lamb:Aaron Fish, Doug Jemiah.
Adam Lamb:We actually had a first time listener Lathan, Sandy Gumby from From
Adam Lamb:Africa, Cape Town, South Africa.
Adam Lamb:So the message is getting out there.
Adam Lamb:Like our listener who wrote into us, Please dm.
Adam Lamb:Either Jim or I send us an email.
Adam Lamb:We'd love to know what's going on and how we can provide content
Adam Lamb:that's really going to serve you.
Adam Lamb:Because this show is all about solutions.
Adam Lamb:Yet, we know that sometimes you can't talk about a solution until
Adam Lamb:you can identify the problem.
Adam Lamb:So thank you very much for joining us for this episode of Benchmark,
Adam Lamb:Our sixties, Turning the Table, and just some programming notes.
Adam Lamb:So next week we're gonna have Jensen Cummings.
Adam Lamb:We're also gonna have Michelle Moreno and and Kelly feathering
Adam Lamb:him is has confirmed.
Adam Lamb:Second episode with us for the ABCs.
Adam Lamb:So we're really looking forward to that.
Adam Lamb:So we've got a busy November, December, just like you guys and we're all in
Adam Lamb:this together, so thank you very much.