Straight Talk
Posted by estiator at 10 September, at 06 : 26 AM Print
MANAGING FOR SUCCESS By CONSTANTINE N. KOLITSAS Business Coach
Do you remember “Scared Straight”? It was a program for middle- and high-school students that put them into contact with prisoners in an attempt to give them a dose of reality and where their life could take them if they took the wrong path. It was mostly for at-risk youth, and I was too much of a Goody Two-shoes to be sent to experience it in person (there were field trips to maxi-mum-security prisons), but, as with all students in my class, we were subjected to the videos, which were enough to frighten me into being more of a Goody Two-shoes than I already was. (Okay, I wasn’t that good, but that’s beside the point.)
If I wasn’t going to get into any real trouble, the big take-away from the exposure to the program for me was the straight talk that characterized the interactions that we saw on the screen. There was no sugar-coating. There was no dancing around an issue. There was no politeness or political correctness. Instead, there was real, in-your-face brutal honesty. I liked that. And I watched and learned.
The tactic of straight-talking no-b.s. direct speak is particularly effective when dealing with staff who have a “history.”Not all of us in this industry were Goody Two-shoes. Many have had issues with substance abuse and with behaviors that put us at odds with the judicial system. And for many it’s not just history, but an ongoing struggle.
While as a rule, I tend to steer away from people with “history,” sometimes you can see beyond the past and recognize that an individual is more than the sum of their bad decisions. And whether it’s out of desperation for workers or because my intuition tells me to take a chance, I have and continue to, on occasion, hire individuals with history. But when I do, I don’t treat them as any other employee. That would be a mistake for the business, and that would be a problem for that employee. Instead, I take the issue on straightaway. I let them know that I’m aware of their issues, and I let them know that I will not allow anything to jeopardize my business.
Whether it’s out of desperation for workers or because my intuition tells me to take a chance, I have and continue to, on occasion, hire individuals with history. But when I do, I don’t treat them as any other employee.
Drug addicts are great liars, and I let them know that I understand that, after all, they lie so much that they get really good at it. Sort of like Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 theory (he posits that if you spend 10,000 hours doing something, you get great at it). When you spend so much of your life lying to cover up your habit, then you become a damned good liar. Anyway, I put that on the table immediately. And I let them know that by default I will assume that when they tell me something, it’s a lie. If the legal system says that the burden of proof is on the prosecution, then I let them know that my restaurant is not the legal system, and that I am the law, and the burden of proof is on the accused.
Of course, I don’t go full-on negative with these individuals. Quite the opposite. I let them know that I believe in second chances (and sometimes even third chances, but that’s between us). I let them know that I am there to support their sobriety.
I let them know that I want them to succeed—not just as a member of my staff, but in life. But I don’t let them think that they can fool me. And I don’t let them get too comfortable. Constant gentle pressure and reality checks are tools in my arsenal for making these challenging human beings into valuable members of my team. A manager who worked for me once said that he doesn’t look down on people with drug issues, telling me that he believes that they are usually sensitive, good-hearted people who have weaknesses. I liked that outlook. And so sometimes I hire someone with history. And some-times it doesn’t work out. But many times it does.
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.
