October 2022 Digtial Issue

LEADERSHIP
company; the vision for the team;
and how your leaders, managers
and staff are needed and
contribute to achieving the
overall vision and goals.
RECOGNIZE, CELEBRATE,
REWARD
The last couple of years have felt like
crashing waves of challenge, stress and
strain for many in the industry. At
this point, many felt we would be
rebounding and improving, but the
fact is it’s just as challenging now as it
was at the peak of the pandemic. One of
the ways to change how your team
feels is to change what it focuses
on. Where focus goes, energy
flows — if you’re focused
on the negative or the gap
between where you are and
where you want to be, then
that will weigh heavy on you and
your team. I’m not asking you to ignore the
challenges we’re facing. As leaders we have
the opportunity to help our team tweak
or change what they focus on by building
a recognition-focused culture. Simply put,
positive recognition can change your culture
in a matter of days if done consistently
and in a genuine way. I recommend having
someone on your team be responsible and
own recognition practices to ensure the team
stays committed and focused. They need to
answer the following questions: who will
be recognized for what, when and how and
what is the budget? Then they need to track
recognition interactions and ensure the
budget, no matter how big or small, is spent
every week/month.
PATH TO LEADERSHIP
In the interview process — or at the very
least in an employee’s first week working for
your restaurant — they need to know what is
expected of them, how they will be measured,
how they succeed and what the average
amount of time in each position is. Creating
clarity and expectations for new employees is
critical to retain top-performing staff.
Here is the flip side of the coin and the
real benefit to a path to leadership: It not
only ensures that new and existing hires
know how they can learn, develop and grow
in your organization, it also ensures your
FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM
SIMPLY PUT, POSITIVE
RECOGNITION CAN
CHANGE YOUR CULTURE
IN A MATTER OF DAYS
IF DONE CONSISTENTLY
AND IN A GENUINE WAY
leaders and managers are committed to the
development of your people. Once you
share your path to leadership, it becomes a
commitment that should be part of a simple
and powerful frequent conversation with
your staff.
FIRST WHO, THEN WHAT
Nothing kills company culture and the
retention of great employees more than
holding onto employees that no longer fit
the team. Most of us in our careers have held
onto a team member when we know they no
longer fit the team or in many cases do not
want to be on the team any longer. This is
what I call the ‘quit and stay.’ They might be
doing a good job, but they play by their own
rules, or they are no longer doing the job in
a way that meets your expectations, but you
hold onto them out of fear of not being able
to find a replacement.
The challenge is not your relationship
with that employee, it’s how the rest of
your team views your ability to make the
decisions and changes that need to be
made. Not making these changes causes
top-performing employees to lose trust
in their leadership. I know it’s hard, but
especially now, we need to focus on the
right people in the right position who
believe in our vision and goals.
TOGETHER, ONE TEAM
This is a core value for my two companies —
a simple statement that ensures we all stay
focused on our collective results as a team. If
silos start to rise up across departments,
between leaders or for a current project,
we need to ground ourselves by re-visiting
and discussing that we are all on the same
team. No matter the position, or the title,
we cannot achieve the results we want and
deserve if we don’t do these two things: play
our positions to the best of our ability every
day and stay focused on the collective results
we’re achieving as a team
In order for your retention results to
change, we first need to make changes in our
leadership. You don’t need to do all the steps
above — focus on one area, go all in and
make the changes needed. If nothing changes,
nothing changes and change starts with your
leadership team making the commitment to
consistent and relentless change that helps
your team, your guests and your operation. FH
Matt Rolfe is a coach,
speaker, bestselling author
and entrepreneur. For
support or more leadership
insights, email matt@
mattrolfe.com
OCTOBER 2022 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY 41