Disagree and Commit
Posted by estiator at 22 December, at 11 : 38 AM Print
MANAGING FOR SUCCESS By Constantine N. Kolitsas Business Coach
One of the greatest frustrations of a restaurant owner is in finding good people for management positions. Today’s restaurant manager needs to have a broad skillset that encompasses diplomacy, public relations, extended software knowledge, and marketing, in addition to an ability to actually manage people. Quality people who have mastered or can learn these disciplines are rare to come by, and when you do, they are usually difficult for a restaurant owner to manage.
Many management candidates have aspirations of being their own boss, and, as such, are of the mindset that they are running the show and the owner is lucky to have them on board. While a good owner will want constructive input from his management team, at the end of the day, the team needs to support the owner. Business isn’t a democracy. It’s a dictatorship, albeit a benevolent dictatorship where all the stakeholders are invested in its success (through bonuses, profit shares, and partnership potential where warranted).But just as a ship has one captain, so, too, must a business have one leader.
While a good owner will want constructive input from his management team, at the end of the day, the team needs to support the owner. Business isn’t a democracy
The issue, then, is in building a team—or hiring managers—that understand this and commit to the notion that they will sometimes disagree with an owner’s choices but must commit to giving 100 per-cent so that the business and the team move forward. When managers don’t fully support a decision, the entire organization feels it, and instead of moving forward, one person is pulling sideways. Physics is physics. When one part of a machine pulls sideways, then the forward movement is hindered and the direction taken askew. Well, it’s the same in business.
Now, there’s no such thing as mind control. And no one expects everyone to be on the same page all the time. But for the best of the business, managers need to agree to disagree, and commit to doing what the owner has directed. I know I’m being repetitive, but for a purpose. I need you to truly think about what it means to disagree and commit, and what kind of person you need to hire that will embrace and put into practice that counterintuitive act. Someone with a huge ego can be of benefit to an organization, but that person seldom has the capacity to accept direction that they deem wrong or misguided.
I’ve had all kinds of managers work for me. Some have been blessings, and some have been curses. One was so full of himself that he honestly believed he was the smartest person in what-ever room he entered. I’ve never been so in effective as an owner than with him running one of my restaurants. While the one area of the business that he liked most and was good at grew, all the others suffered. As soon as he left, I was able to very quickly put into place several key initiatives that had an immediate impact on our top and bottom lines. Initiatives that involve staffing, menu creation, marketing, appearance, and even facilities maintenance. Why? Because with him gone, there is no pushback and nothing is slowing me down. Do yourself a favor: If you have a manager who can’t disagree while committing 100 percent to your vision and plan, drop them, and drop them quickly.
────────────
Constantine Kolitsas is a business consultant and president of Greca Hospitality Group, the owners of Greca Mediterranean Kitchen + Bar. He can be reached at dino@grecamed.com.
