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Working Teams Can Find the Right Balance
Is there some magic behind excellent working teams? Replace the word “magic” with the word “strategy,” and your team will get closer to the right balance! By incorporating the right elements, it is achievable.
John McCarthy, President/CEO of AGI Hospitality Recruiting, recently spoke to a local group of Restaurateurs about the importance of addressing employee retention. Drawn out from the larger presentation, we have isolated the elements to make them available in brief podcasts (mp3 format) for your listening convenience.
While the podcasts are short, they are packed with insightful and smart strategies. Leaders within the hospitality industry (or any industry) should consider these tactics to improve their employee retention and staff performance issues. Listen to them as much as you need, and share them as often as you would like. They make sense, cost little or no money to implement, and will make a huge difference in your company’s culture.
If you are an employee of a company that should consider these ideas, perhaps you could think about introducing them to your manager. The majority of companies are appreciative of helpful suggestions from their employees.
Click on each podcast link below to listen:
Do you have any additional insights to share with us? We are interested. You can email John McCarthy directly at john@agimanagement.com with your comments. We hope you will invite others to listen by passing along this blog’s link! Thank you!
We barrow a wise quote from Sir Winston Churchill who said, “You make a living by what you get; but you make a life by what you give.” A brief biography Evidence about the goodness that comes from good people is all around us; but we wanted to focus on one particular place where we know this is true.
We met a humble young man named Kyle this week who told us, “You know, drug addicts are selfish people. With me, it was all about me-myself-and-I all the time. Let me say myself a few more times with that. And I didn’t know it grabbed me so hard. But this place is showing me that I can look past myself again and think about others in my life and not just me.” Kyle’s former claim-to-fame was his life as a very successful university sports star; but drug abuse took over, and everything was over for him.
Kyle’s friend, Brandon, commented on his own journey when he said, “The hardest thing for me right now is remembering all of the people I hurt for my need for drugs. I robbed them, I cheated them, and I am finding it very hard to forgive myself for all of that hurt I caused. I’m writing letters to them to ask for forgiveness. I have a lot of letters to write, but I’m healing.”
We mention this because we had a wonderful opportunity this week to share a Christmas Lunch with the City Gospel Mission in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 13th. The gentlemen we met were absolutely inspirational to us, as they shared their personal stories about their discovery-and-recovery process of finding solutions to battle their overpowering drug addictions. We plan to have lunch with them on a quarterly basis. While we only met with the men in the program, City Gospel Mission also serves women. Families in the community benefit from this charitable organization throughout the year, and CGM “graduates” can begin to positively contribute again to society. These transformations are something that can bring happy tears to our eyes! Goals and life-long dreams are awakening in these young men, and that is exciting!
Remarkable, isn’t it? Remarkable because they are taking personal responsibility to journey through their individual darkness, and walking by the light of a small local organization that has a lot of big hearts to help them along a brighter and happier path!
Perhaps we can harshly judge the lifestyles of others and conclude that they have walked too far past a “point of no return” according to our own opinions; but we want to applaud professionals and volunteers everywhere who recognize the little glimmer of light that lingers deep behind the eyes of sorrow who only need someone to believe in them again. It’s amazing that the biggest renewals of hope can be ignited from the smallest sparks from sincere kind gestures from a willing heart with helping hands. The offering of a lift upward can help people move forward. Our AGI team feels very blessed to be a part of their support, because doing so exemplifies our company’s three Core Values of integrity, relationship-focus, and humble service. You can read more about our Core Values here.
Please take a moment and explore City Gospel Mission’s website and their Facebook page so you can see what we already know as being the gospel of Christ in action!
Note: We didn’t use the real names of Kyle and Brandon; but they really exist as hopeful young men who are happy to be part of the City Gospel Mission Program.
“Which way should I go?” This is the classic quandary that spans across the ages by every walk of life at various stages in life. Since we do spend the majority of our lives as working adults, it’s very important to know within ourselves in which direction we will go to find a successful career path. The beauty is that we never have to stick with a decision that we made about a career ten or 20 years ago – we can change directions when we discover that small voice inside that whispers, “When you love your work, it doesn’t feel like work.” The trick is to figure out how you get from where you currently are to where you actually want to be.
Which Way Should I Go?
We can take a big hint from the wise, yet strange, Cheshire Cat who has a similar discussion in the book, Alice in Wonderland. In the story when Alice finds herself roaming around in circles and feeling lost, she meets the Cheshire Cat and asks him about which way she should go. The Cheshire Cat asks if she has a place in mind, and Alice answers that it really doesn’t matter. The simplistically sensible Cheshire Cat advises her that if it really doesn’t matter where she goes, then it really doesn’t matter which way she goes. We can view this advice as being shallow and insensitive to Alice’s immediate needs, or we can see it as a snippet of deep truth that Alice should heavily ponder before she takes one more step. Watch this VIDEO: Alice Asks the Cheshire Cat Which Way to Go
Here are Five Strategies that can help you fix that dilemma:
And remember: The Cheshire Cat didn’t make it easy for Alice. Instead, he posed the likelihood that she would continue to wander around in wonderland if she didn’t know where she wanted to go. Chasing a white rabbit was a spontaneous decision she made, and all through the story, she never knew where she was going. Don’t let that happen to you along your career path! Know where you want to go, and then you’ll know which way to go!
AGI Hospitality Recruiting can help you determine the right direction for you. Contact Us so we can begin the conversation! We guarantee there are no white rabbit here!
Restaurant Managers can never win a popularity contest when they have to be the bearer of bad news about who has to work the holiday! But you can prepare their mind for the upcoming stresses.
Help Create a A Happy Working-Holiday Team!
Speak with your team a few days ahead of the holiday to prepare the mindset. This exercise will ensure more successes than failures during busy holiday dining traffic. The special day will not feel like a holiday to your staff, but more like a demanding and stressful work day. The right attitude will make the time go smoother for everyone working, so discuss the expectations, and help them understand these key factors of holiday diners. Remind them that the holiday dining crowd is not like the average dining crowd. Holiday diners come in two main categories; 1) Planned Dining, and 2) Unplanned Dining.
CATEGORY ONE: Planned Dining — These are guests who planned to be at your restaurant because:
CATEGORY TWO: Unplanned Dining — Something went wrong at the last minute, so they needed to come to your restaurant because:
Knowing about these two types of dining groups will help the team adjust accordingly and better meet the needs of every guest.
Also explain these insights:
A final word to Restaurant Managers – remember that you are a part of your workers’ holiday memories too! Read through these tips again with the approach of how you can translate them into ways you can interact with your employees for the day. You are all in this together; and together everyone can have a great working holiday!
AGI Hospitality Recruiting supports great Restaurant Management Best Practices by offering tips and advice. You can find more advice in some of our blog archives. Enjoy the reading! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
