Reacting for People Management

I was told the other day that I needed to sort out some people issues straight away, for fear that the person might make a rash decision and leave.  That person was quite important to us.  It was suggested that I should bring forward a planned pay increment as that person had made a statement about her pay being not enough for the work she was doing.

So I went in and gave some encouragement.  I decided not to talk about any increment for that person.  I didn't really talk through any issues to be honest.

What I realised after soothing that person was the following:
1. I should be continually encouraging my staff.  Doesn't matter when or where, I should be doing it.  It does help calm a situation and reinforces the "we are here to help each other" mentality.  A lot of times, it is when people feel that they are doing it all themselves is when they get frustrated.
2. I should not act on any decision like pay increases based on another person's view to act.  I need to be willing to wait until the request is given to me, or when I decide it is the right time.  Trust my instinct.
3. Everyone has good and bad days.  We shouldn't blow things out of proportion and react prematurely.  And overall, as long as we are setting a good environment, things will be ok.  Look at the longer term.

I think I am calm in most situations, but I need to learn to be calmer when it comes to dealing with people.  And assume good people are emotionally mature and can take care of themselves.  Sometimes just a good word will be all that is required.

Convincing

I think I have some skill in convincing people to do this things I want.
But with this skill, there is always a risk that I ignore what other people's views are.  It's like riding roughshod over people, but those people feel ok about it!  Is that still a bad thing?

I read a book "Raise the Bar" which talks about the fact that ANY interaction has an emotional component to it.  In that sense, there is always some feeling to any discussion.  And the aim of any discussion with staff (positive or negative) is to make them more engaged, more energised and more motivated than the start of the conversation.  I think that is good advice.  It is very easy to berate people, especially as the boss when whatever you say people listen more than once.

So today, convincing one more my staff that he should cut his labour costs was tough.  I think I ended up pushing through with a certain cost number.  What I think was good was that I offered some specific areas for him to focus on in order to hit that cost number and used past history to manage this expectation.  The "you've done it before, you can do it again!" has worked on many occasions!

Culture

It's one of those intangible things that every good management person talks about.  And once it's established, it is so hard to change, usually because the culture fits with the most efficient way of getting things done in that environment.

We've experienced one culture here in KL.  And with all cultures, there's good and bad. One of the key differences with this culture (at least according to my two managers) is the high level of trust/support that the back of house and front of house provide to one another.  It's something that is really good to see and something that we would want to estsablish.

On the bad side, there is some tension in the team, and some of the managers are not doing their job of managing the personnel issues.  So in specific cases, the respect staff have for their peers is not there.

What I am hearing from my managers makes me happy that I hired them, as I think they embody the attitudes that we want in our team.  I have the values of "push, belief, responsibility, and teamwork" as things that we stand for.  Funny enough, even putting these things down into words makes everyone more committed to it.

Now I just need to make sure that we pass this culture and attitude on to any new staff we hire.

Ethnicity

We (verbally) hired our first employee today.  A milestone!
I love her attitude, I think she will really help us with the service levels and hospitality of the restaurant.  Question I have is will she fit the "american casual dining" concept, or a better question, can customers associate her with the "american casual dining" concept, or will her ethnicity (Indian) and her demonstration of that ethnicity be an issue?

I want to say no, it's all about the service.  But Singaporeans (as with any one, really) can be racist and judge people by their covers.  It's this kind of stuff that I may need to be more sensitive to.

A similar potential issue would be hiring a Muslim to manage a kitchen or manage a restaurant that is focussed on pork.  Even if the they have no issue with handling that meat, would we have an image problem and be disrespectful to the wider community by having that person in the restaurant.

We should never discriminate based on religion, let's hope it doesn't become too much of a sticking point.

Organisational Plans

Going into the Unilever kitchens was an experience.  So much kitchen gear, so little of it is used!  I am still in dire need of understanding the food preparation side, to appreciate the quality of the foods.  When the rubber hits the road ie when I'm in my own kitchen, that may be the time where the learning really starts.

Talking to Tham, he provided some good suggestions regarding the organisational structure.  He argues that at the end of the day, the duty manager (one of the restaurant managers or myself) should have the final say for the whole restaurant, including the kitchen.  In essence, the customer, that the restaurant manager represents, is the boss.  I think this system has value, as ultimately the customer is the one bringing in the revenue.  What it does imply is that the kitchen cannot be an independent area, with its own rules.  What it also implies is that all our restaurant managers need to have a working understanding of the kitchen, how it works, what is required to run it.

It was also good to have Tham do a review with the shortlisted candidates.  He provides a much more structured way of interviewing staf, more so than how we did the first round of interviews.  Some good questions he asked were: who was your ideal boss and why; how do your staff see you; what analytical awareness do you show, especially in terms of costs and profits etc.

Finding the Right People for F&B

We had another round of interviews for Restaurant Managers today.  It was good to see some candidates that had potential, within the salary range we were looking at.  Jo's question challenged me, are these the people I expected?

I had pictured people that were more upbeat, a bit more willing to learn and understand what we are trying to do with the company.  The people I am meeting seem more clinical, detached.  No doubt some of them have the technical ability, I'm just not sure of their emotional capacity.  How "can do" are these people?  Would they take the right initiative when given the opportunity?  Would they go the extra mile to provide that level of hospitality that we are aiming for? It's so hard to tell this from just 45 min with one person.

Are we essentially dealing with a different culture of people?  I'm thinking back to when I prepared for an interview, I would have approached it with a lot more engagement, striving to understand how I can add value to the company.  People don't seem to care as much.  The cynic in me would equate that to the failure rate of the F&B industry!

We have to be able to adapt to the situation, to recognise that even with this difference in culture we can still get those people to achieve the goals we set for them.  It is still early days for this round of interviews, perhaps we will get more quality as we go along.  I want to find someone where providing hospitality gives them energy.