| By :
Gregory Garner
A restaurant manager must continually juggle a variety of tasks, issues, and current situations all at once. In order to successfully keep the mechanisms of the restaurant "machine" in motion food must be purchased and on hand, staff must be kept up to date and working, things must be kept clean, and above all, customers must be kept happy. The restaurant manager does all of this and more. Here are some tips to help achieve this seemingly impossible task. Organization is key for any restaurant to succeed. Whether you use a simple notebook or a complex computer spreadsheet, organizing your food purchases, schedules, or even your daily to-do list is vital for keeping a restaurant manager calm and in control. Implementing some type of organization is especially helpful if there are multiple managers for a restaurant. You can all stay on the same page and work toward common goals if you have a way to communicate in an organized manner. Rattling off what you did and what the next manager needs to do in the ten minutes before your shift change is not an effective method of running a restaurant and can lead to disaster. Many successful restaurant managers suggest treating "your employees like GOLD, especially your star performers." Understanding and acknowledging that you can't run the business alone will not only gain you the respect of your workers, but also inspire them to work harder as a part of your team. Like any leader, showing your employees by example how you wish them to work is instrumental in gaining their trust. I saw a great example of this the other day in Red Robin. During the busy times in the kitchen, the manager was right there alongside of the other employees, doing everything from plating food to sweeping the floor. Another idea is to hold a weekly or even daily meeting to inform your staff of changes, set goals, and publicly praise your employees. You can use these meetings as a platform to introduce performance contests to motivate everyone to work harder. Remember the classic scene in Moby Dick where Captain Ahab nails a gold doubloon to the mast for the first man to spot a whale? The same concept works amazingly well for the waitress that can turn over the most tables in a week or the person that can work the longest without complaining or arguing or whatever creative idea you can think of. Almost every restaurant owner agrees that "managers set the tone." If your tone is organized, hard-working, and appreciative of your employees your restaurant will be a successful, busy place.
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