You might as well quit!

So you are the Manager, General Manager, Area Director or Multi-Unit Supervisor in the restaurant industry. When questioned about what your job description may be the answers that I hear most often are….

-Protect the image and standards
-Deliver a great product to every guest, every day
-Ensure the financial success and long term viability of the business

Similar to the canned responses that you might hear when you ask a police officer why he or she does what they do, “to protect and serve”. I hate that answer.

However when you ask these same people what they love about their jobs they will tell you….

-Teaching the employees and managers how to be successful
-The interaction with the guests and providing them with a great experience
-The pace, atmosphere, energy, and competition

So the difference between their job description and what they love to do are not aligned. The one thing that I do know is that if you aren’t doing something you love, it becomes mundane, repetitive, and well hell you end up not doing it very well. So you might as well quit. I know someone famous said if you find a job that you love it will never seem like work! So how do you combat the gap between the job and what you love? Well align them!

What exactly is it you are teaching that creates your love for the job?-The standards, specs, and service expectations!
When you are engaged with the guest, what actually are you doing?-You are validating that the overall value and experience are being delivered by your people because the standards, specs, and expectations are being met!
Why do you love the pace, atmosphere, energy, and competition so much?-Because you get a chance to deliver the standards, specs, and service expectations better than anyone else!

So, if you find yourself bored with the day to day operations like, follow up, order taking, line checks, and repetitive processes that happen everyday in the restaurant business either quit and go do something else you love or realize that those processes are exactly what make this job so great. Be the basics of the business and the restaurant business is alive and in living color!