By Urszula Zywer, UpMenu
One of the most important things in running a business is good communication. As hard as it is contriving restaurant management strategies, it might be even harder to delegate particular tasks to different people. If you are a restaurant manager, having strong communication skills is paramount to a successful restaurant and career. It starts with creating a solid plan and continues with your ability to keep the team on track, being flexible, and showing superior leadership.
Establish Your Work Plan
Restaurant management should be based on a solid, well thought out plan. First, think about what should be done and when it should be done. Then you can take a look at your restaurant’s staff and decide who you should delegate to a particular task. Don’t give any easy tasks to people who need a challenge and don’t push rookies into doing something complicated. You know your staff, you should know what each of them is capable of.
It is also important that you understand the needs of employees and try to facilitate their work. There are solutions available on the market that help to organize restaurant work and shorten task time. A good idea is to run a POS system that will make it easier to control inventory, costs and sales, or restaurant food online ordering system, which will automate the process of receiving and managing orders in delivery.
You’ll also want to build into your plan training your employees. Even if they’re seasoned vets of the restaurant industry, there’s always something new to learn. Be it cross-training, getting certified, or expanding your team’s know-how, it’s easy for training & career development to never get done if it’s not built into your plan from the get-go.
Don’t Hesitate to Write Something Down
Even though your restaurant management strategies are solid, chaos will still find its way into your restaurant. It’s the nature of the beast. There are guests coming in and out, staff working shifts. With so much hustle & bustle it’s easy to forget about something. That’s why you shouldn’t hesitate to write important things down. That way you will make sure it will actually get done and you won’t stress about it as much.
Be a Good Restaurant Manager; Set a Good Example
Your subordinates look up to you. They only do what you allow them to do. It’s not only about what you actually tell them to do – your body language is just as important. If they see you not caring about a guest, they will do the same thing; they will feel they are allowed to do so. If you play on your phone during shift hours, so will they. If you lean against the wall in the presence of customers, they will do the same thing. Restaurant management is much more than just delegating and making plans. It’s about leading by example in all aspects of your business.
Take Care of Relations Between Your Coworkers
All of your refined restaurant management tools are good for nothing if your restaurant’s staff don’t get along. They don’t have to be friends. They don’t even have to like each other. But they have to tolerate each other and learn how to work together. Every little conflict can grow and fester, and big conflicts can hurt your business. Besides, people who like each other are much better at work – think about it whenever you see some hateful looks between your subordinates.
Listen to Your Customers
Being a restaurant manager requires watching carefully everything around and drawing conclusions. Still, you are just a human and you cannot be everywhere and see everything – that’s just physically impossible. You might miss your staff’s misbehavior and that is why it’s so important to ask your restaurant’s guests about the service and their feelings in general. They might tell you what you don’t see. Listen to their comments about their server’s behavior, but also about your bartender’s and chefs’ skills.
Summary
Well organized work is not also more efficient, but also more rewarding. Most of the problems that a restaurant manager is facing is somehow connected to one of the examples we mentioned in the article. Every managing problem has a solution – you just have to get to the bottom of it.
Good luck!
About the Author
Urszula Zywer is a restaurant marketing specialist and content writer at UpMenu. Crazy about food and crazy about sports – loves to combine these two. Experienced writer and eater, very picky when it comes to restaurants.
