Time management is the act of controlling events, says time management expert Charles Hobbs. Unfortunately, a typical restaurant manager's day is filled with so many urgent events and unanticipated fires that there's little time left to manage them. There are employees to hire, schedules to fill, orders to place, groceries to store, bills to pay, and books to balance. The list goes on and on and on.
But hidden behind the facade of productivity is a restaurant manager's unique legion of time bandits. Time bandit's are those unproductive habits, problematic people, and poorly written policies that subconsciously deplete a manager's day until there is nothing to show for it but a pair of sore feet and pile of unprocessed paperwork.
Some common restaurant time bandits include:
FAILURE TO DELEGATE
Management has been defined as: the achievement of company objectives through people and other resources. This definition implies that restaurant managers guilty of the "I gotta do it or it won't get done syndrome" may be limiting their potential, and are likely on a fast track to executive burnout.
Yes, pitching in a pinch promotes teamwork and fills unanticipated gaps in the labor pool. But if you find yourself spending too much time changing empty toilet paper rolls and updating PLU's on the POS, try loosening the apron strings and give your employees a chance to prove themselves.
NEGATIVE EMPLOYEES
All employees have problems, but the difference between positive and negative employees is that negative employees think their problems should be everybody's problems. Left to their own devices, they can drive away customers, disrupt morale, and sap management of time and energy faster than a salmonella outbreak.
Remember, a restaurateur has only a brief window of time each day to greet, sell, and satisfy a guest. Consequently, there's no place for an employee experiencing a bad hair day. Remind all employees that they work in the HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY and that POSITIVE ATTITUDE is part of every job description.
MEETING MADNESS
Meeting mania runs rampant throughout the hospitality industry. Everyday hundreds of unnecessary shift, staff, corporate, and committee meetings take place across the country, knocking the wind out of an otherwise smooth sailing day.
So stop the madness! Before scheduling your next meeting calculate the anticipated time and labor cost and weigh it against the meeting benefits. You may decide that a well written memo or payroll insert may be a less costly means of getting the message out. If you decide a meeting is necessary, start with well defined agenda, invite only those employees with the need to know, and stick to a strict time limit.
INSUFFICIENT PLANNING
The days of seat-of-the-pants management are over. Like a yacht leaving port without a rudder, a restaurant manager that takes the helm of a million dollar restaurant without a daily action plan is charting a course for disaster.
Starting your day with an action plan serves a twofold purpose: It provides a benchmark for measuring the success of your day, and gets you back on track after a brief period of inclement weather. A mere fifteen minutes of planning in the morning will save you hours throughout the day.
So if your looking for more productive hours in your day than
your stressed out peers, put a stop to your personal time bandits. In the words
of Benjamin Franklin, "Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made
of".