Very often I’m being asked about the biggest challenge that a restaurant owner faces to become successful. I say that the biggest challenge facing restaurant owners nowadays is a lack of LEADERSHIP!
Why do I say lack of leadership?
In all my years of experience owning and operating restaurants, coaching, mentoring, consulting, I have worked with thousands of restaurant owners, and the leadership issue has become a pattern that is very hard to ignore.
I have learned some lessons and have concluded:
- It isn’t so much about implementing systems but about changing your business culture.
- The core values should be written down and must be used as the guiding principles to run your restaurant.
- Common sense doesn’t really exist, and that the communication must be specific and clear.
Things that kills leadership and need to be avoid.
Ok, just because you own a restaurant does not make you a great leader. Some people become good leader naturally, I believe it can be learned. Following is a list of the most common leadership killers in a restaurant:
- Lack of confidence
To be a confident leader, you first need to feel good about yourself. You need to feel like you’re smart enough to figure things out, even if you don’t know how to do something. At least you need to understand that you have a God-Given right to go broke if you so choose to; it’s your place and it’s your way. Even if you must fake until you make it stick and stand tall.
- Lack of knowledge
To lead you need to grow and learn new ways of doing things. You need to seek out help when needed. You need to be voracious on your quest to continually learn.
- Fear of making a decision
To lead you must be able to make decisions. It doesn’t mean you live in a vacuum and are a lone wolf. It means your restaurant is a democratic dictatorship. You’ll gather opinions and ideas for everyone and anyone, but you will ultimately do what you think needs to happen and be confident that you’ve made the right decisions that outweigh the bad ones.
- Lack of passion
To lead you must have a burning desire to be successful, as Napoleon Hills says in his book “Think and Grow Rich”. A burning desire is that inner drive that takes a college athlete and propels them to a professional career. Very often a strong passion is enough to make your business transcend, because is infectious.
- Negativity
To be able to lead, you must THINK AS A WINNER!
- Lack of vision
To be a great leader you must have a greater vision for what your success looks like! It starts with a budget for financial goals, but also sharing your core values so that everyone on the team con not only make decisions that align, but see how each of their actions affects what you ultimately want to see your restaurant be in the future.
Vision creates the destination where you’re leading your people.
- Poor communicator
To be an effective leader first you need to make sure you’re clear on what you want done, how you want it done, how well you want it done and by when. When it comes to vision, budgets and customer service, make sure you document, document, document.
- Lack of self-discipline
As leader you have to not only stick to your guns, but you have to stick to them even, and especially, when the task is hard to do or uncomfortable. You must have the self-discipline to do them every day. You must be persistent that nothing and no one can stop you. A leader stays the course!
Conclusion
Just because you own a restaurant, doesn’t make you a great leader. A great leader does not have to be born leader. A great leader can learn the skills to be great.
Do an introspection and asses where you fall, make the decision to improve. Your team and business are counting on you, and that’s what great leaders do.
