Yesterday’s post on extra charges for the various items a guest requests caused me to ponder on a larger scale. It is remarkably common to hear guests say, “I could buy that steak/wine/etc at the store for half that much.” This is the same principle as walking into a car dealership and demanding a price […]
Tag Archives | how to be a better restaurant manager
The Evolution of Free Bread
In the far corner of Southeast Missouri is a town called Sikeston. If you have heard of Sikeston, MO it is probably because of a restaurant called Lambert’s Café. I’ve eaten at Lambert’s a number of times over the years, but don’t recall what I had. I always remember the food being good, but nothing […]
Management Mentality Mistakes
Motivating servers is a tricky business. Without question servers crave autonomy and tend to resist being told what to do. At the same time, managers in general are given very little guidance on what is perhaps the most important part of their jobs. Two similar restaurants in the same company with the same menu and […]
What Motivates Servers: Purpose
(Note: This is the final part of a six part series dealing with what does and does not motivate servers. It is based upon research presented in the first part. If you have not read the initial post entitled “The Epiphany”, I highly recommend you do so to fully understand the series. Later parts dealt […]
What Motivates Servers: Mastery
(Note: This is part five of an ongoing series regarding what does and does not motivate servers. It is based on research provided in part one. I highly recommend visiting that post to gain proper perspective on this one. The second part dealt with how money fails to motivate servers. The third part showed how […]
What Motivates Servers: Autonomy
(Note: This is part four of a series based on research presented in part one. Part one serves as the basis for the whole series and gives a great deal of background for this post. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend doing so to get the most out of this post and series. […]
How Money Motivates
(Note: this is part three of a series based on research presented in part one. Yesterday, I addressed why contests and financial incentives do not motivate servers. If you have not read these posts, I highly recommend doing so in order to fully understand the premise of this post.) Yesterday, I discussed why contests do […]
Why Contests Don’t Work
(Note: This is the second part of a series I am posting over the holiday weekend. The first part of this series lays out the basic premises this post and the rest of the series is based on. In order to full appreciate this series, please read “The Epiphany” where the research behind this post […]
The Epiphany
“Epiphany: noun- a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.” I suppose there is nothing more simple or commonplace than scrolling through Facebook. I was scrolling through Facebook today trying to decide what to write about for […]
Ways To Motivate Servers
Given the popularity of last Monday’s post on management styles, I decided to follow up with another management post. This may become a regular Monday feature depending on the feedback. While I am a server, I have worked on the other side of the office door. I prefer serving. I enjoy making guests happy and […]
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About The Author
David Hayden was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He took his first serving job in 1996. Since that time, he has worked for over a dozen different restaurant companies. He has held both hourly and salaried positions at independent and corporate restaurants. He has waited on over 100,000 guests and trained hundreds of servers. He has been named "Best Server in Kansas City" the last three years by the local weekly paper.