Recently, a website ranked the top 60 restaurant industry blogs. I was flattered that my old blog came in third. I also was flattered that other blogs I write came in eight, twenty fourth, and thirty fourth. Teleburst came in second and I cannot dispute that ranking at all. So You Want To Be A […]
Tag Archives | Restaurant managers
The Pre-Shift Meeting (Part Two)
Yesterday, in part one of my discussion of pre-shift meetings, I discussed the things a manager can do to harm the effect of a pre-shift meeting. It was by no means a comprehensive list. There are many other mistakes managers can and do make that harm their pre-shift meetings. It does however beg a very […]
Leadership: Creating A Shared Goal
“Leaders don’t force people to follow-they invite them on a journey.” -Charles S. Lauer The fundamental question behind the desire to manage rather than lead is, “How can I get people to do what I want them to do if they do not want to do it?” Failure to answer this question is what leads […]
Set Schedules As A Manager
One of the most time consuming tasks a manager faces during the week is writing the server schedule. Hours can be spent digging up scraps of paper and consulting server availability just to get coverage for a particular shift. This is followed by the inevitable complaints from people who work too little or too much. […]
Cost vs Profit
In a previous post about why restaurants charge for different extras, I discussed the difference between the guest’s perception of profits and reality. It is not uncommon to hear a guest say, “I can buy this for half as much at the grocery store.” The problem is that food in a restaurant carries far more […]
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 […]
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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.