<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>Blog | Sullivision</title> <atom:link href="https://sullivision.com/category/blog/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://sullivision.com</link> <description>Where Foodservice Leaders Go To Learn</description> <lastBuildDate>Thu, 21 Nov 2024 03:31:58 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2</generator> <image> <url>https://sullivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/fav_icon.png</url> <title>Blog | Sullivision</title> <link>https://sullivision.com</link> <width>32</width> <height>32</height> </image> <item> <title>5 Fresh Leadership Strategies for 2025</title> <link>https://sullivision.com/5-fresh-leadership-strategies-for-2022/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-fresh-leadership-strategies-for-2022</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Sullivan]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:08:30 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Fundamentals]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Most Popular]]></category> <category><![CDATA[coaching]]></category> <category><![CDATA[leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[multiunit leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Profitability]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sullivision.com/?p=8104</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>First it was a global pandemic back in 2020. Close on its heels came a staffing shortage and labor crisis that still rages unabated. (Where the heck did all the people go, anyway?) And now the foodservice industry is getting</p> <p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/5-fresh-leadership-strategies-for-2022/">5 Fresh Leadership Strategies for 2025</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="has-drop-cap">First it was a global pandemic back in 2020. Close on its heels came a staffing shortage and labor crisis that still rages unabated. (Where the heck did all the people go, anyway?) And now the foodservice industry is getting hammered by wage increases, escalating food and beverage costs and consumer pushback that has driven up costs, raised prices, and has operators wringing their hands over what to do next.</p><p>It’s an understatement to say that we’re facing unprecedented times and challenges as an industry. To paraphrase poet W.B. Yeats: when things fall apart; the center cannot hold. Times like this require foodservice operators to be both tougher than a pump handle and able to navigate this seemingly unending squall of challenges. What’s needed is some fresh leadership direction and perspective. So here are five current lessons in leadership to integrate into your Leadership GPS.</p><p><strong>Re-assess your hiring process from top to bottom</strong>. Solving the staffing challenge is not simply a matter of “finding people.†In today’s marketplace and beyond it means taking a holistic and strategic approach to rethink how we hire, who we hire, and how effective our team member training and development programs are. <em>Make certain there’s a cultural fit first with any new employee; one wrong hire is far costlier than being one person short.</em> Leverage technology; over 60% of foodservice employees apply for jobs via their smartphones, and prefer to set and access their schedules the same way. Make that process easy for them. Consider apps that facilitate text-to-hire capabilities. Finally, don’t put the cart before the horse; before you embark on a journey to find new people, you first need a solid strategy in place for <em>retaining the good ones you have</em>.</p><p><strong>Service is simple. Simple is hard. </strong>We all know that customer service is our invisible product. And I’ve long preached that you don’t improve service in “generalâ€, you improve it in <em>specific</em>. Without specificity all process is subject to interpretation in both practice and application. Apply the profoundly simple but highly effective Net Promoter Score evaluation to every customer visit: “Based on your experience today, how likely are you to come back to our restaurant again with family, friends or co-workers?†And while you’re at it, apply the <strong><em>Employee Net Promoter Score</em></strong> question to your team members: “How likely are you to recommend our restaurant as a great place to work to your friends or family?†I’ve literally written a book on the <strong>Fundamentals </strong>of service (you can find it in the store here at Sullivision.com), but I’ll boil it down to the following sentence: <em>if you want to improve the customer experience you start by improving the employee experience. </em>See next point.</p><p><strong>Reassess your training process from top to bottom. </strong>Daily Learning & Development are the table stakes for continued growth and keeping a great team interested and engaged. Invest in the right tools and resources to improve team member engagement and communication. Always leave your people better than you found them with formal training or micro-coaching. Your training programs—whether analog or digital—should be oriented first <strong><em>to teaching people how to think instead of merely telling them what to do</em></strong>. Ninety percent of the corporate foodservice training programs I’ve seen do just the opposite. They’re focused on compliance and checklists. So please chisel this in stone: If you train only to a process, all thinking stops. (And thinking seems to be exactly what corporate training is trying to eradicate.) Were your training programs designed for today’s workforce or for a workforce that no longer exists? (Hint: if your training materials are more than four years old they’re more than four years out of date). A good place to begin a training program re-design is by asking “What are the most critical skills my restaurant managers must have and routinely deploy to add value to our business?†If your 2025 answer would match the same answer you’d give in 2020 you’d best ask the question again. You’re not being honest enough. All improvement starts with the truth. Now ask yourself what your best managers and team members routinely do that your worst ones fail to do? The responses will point you in the right direction relative to designing a more effective training program.</p><p><strong>Prioritize team effectiveness as a competitive strategy.</strong> A crisis (or any critical challenge) will either cause a team to stretch upward and grow, or expose and widen cracks in its foundation which can cause the team to collapse. It’s no coincidence that the foodservice companies whose teams succeeded the most during the 2020 and 2021 pandemic were those who had strong cultures built on foundations of dignity, care, respect, equity and trust. If your team isn’t cohesive, respectful, and routinely learning and growing together in periods of stability they will very likely crumble in periods of sustained crisis or instability. And I think we saw this happen in a lot of foodservice companies post-pandemic. Put a premium on team engagement and team progress. <em>One step forward by a hundred people is more effective than a hundred steps forward by one person</em>. All work is teamwork.</p><p><strong>People First.</strong> Our managers and Above-Store Leaders will continue to be called on to navigate the unpredictability of a staffing, supply chain interruptions, pricing, health/safety concerns and a changing customer. Make certain your team’s learning and development needs stay current with–and ahead of–the new challenges they’ll face. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: <em>companies don’t build business, they build people</em>. People build business. Adapting to a changing environment and new challenges isn’t something a company does–it’s something that people do. Treat every one of your team members as the appreciating assets they are.</p><p>I’ve been in this business long enough to testify to an eternal truth: <em>it will never get easier; we just have to get better at it.</em> So proactively identify and share the lessons in leadership that your managers and hourlies teach you everyday. Scale that innovation and those ideas across all your locations and leaders. Leverage technology wherever possible to automate process and integrate culture, learning and development daily. None of us are as smart as all of us.</p><p><strong>Companies using Jim Sullivan’s training resources and live seminars include Wendy’s, Domino’s, Panera, Chipotle, Starbucks and Texas Roadhouse. His bestselling books <em>Fundamentals</em> and <em>Multiunit Leadership</em> are available here at the Sullivision store and also at Amazon and Audible. Join his 370K social media followers at LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter for daily lessons in leadership, or visit his other website MultiUnitLeadership.com.</strong></p><p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/5-fresh-leadership-strategies-for-2022/">5 Fresh Leadership Strategies for 2025</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>It’s all about RETENTION: How to Re-Recruit Team Members Every Shift</title> <link>https://sullivision.com/retention-101-how-to-re-recruit-your-team-members-every-shift/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=retention-101-how-to-re-recruit-your-team-members-every-shift</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Sullivan]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 24 Jan 2020 22:30:48 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Most Popular]]></category> <category><![CDATA[customers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[development]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fundamentals]]></category> <category><![CDATA[hiring]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Improving Performance]]></category> <category><![CDATA[leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[multiunit leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Service]]></category> <category><![CDATA[teams]]></category> <category><![CDATA[teamwork]]></category> <category><![CDATA[training]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sullivision.com/?p=5241</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Having a bad reputation as a place to work is like a hangover. It takes a while to get rid of and makes everything else suffer. –Jim Buelt I have written often about the importance of making hiring THE most</p> <p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/retention-101-how-to-re-recruit-your-team-members-every-shift/">It’s all about RETENTION: How to Re-Recruit Team Members Every Shift</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Having a bad reputation as a place to work is like a hangover. It takes a while to get rid of and makes everything else suffer. –Jim Buelt</em></p> <p>I have written often about the importance of making hiring THE most important decision in your restaurant. I’ve shared best practices from the industry’s best brands relative to sourcing, hiring and developing the best talent. Most of those best practices have centered on recruiting good people and then developing them into great people. But somewhere between “recruiting†and “retention†lies the little-used process of “re-recruiting.†This means keeping your “A†players engaged, appreciated and energized every day. It’s done by showing appreciation every shift and letting them specifically know why their work matters.</p> <p>Outstanding team members are high maintenance in that they expect focus, goals, guidance, appreciation and recognition from their supervisors. Focus and goal-setting seem to be naturally abundant in the supervisory skillsets of our GMs, but appreciation, encouragement and recognition is in a little bit shorter supply. Why?</p> <p>There are both developmental and financial reasons. Foodservice Managers are trained and expected to focus first on tangible goals aligned to measurables such as same store sales, customer service scores, labor hours, food costs, repair and maintenance expense, marketing dollars, operating margins, training costs, and sales per labor hour. These line items are clear and accruable, subject to multiplication, subtraction or division, and therefore easily columned and scrutinized in a profit and loss statement. Managers are salaried and bonused on improving these numbers, so naturally that’s what they will focus on. What you reinforce is what you get.</p> <p>Not so easy to measure and delineate is the importance and ROI of employee encouragement, appreciation, recognition, development, relevance. The value of those things lies not in what it costs your managers to do them but what it will cost you if they don’t. This logic is contrary to the CFO mindset, which is why accountants tend to be dismissive of recognition and appreciation and training by labeling them as “soft skills†implying their worth is secondary since it’s so hard to measure. And so managers are not taught these skills. What you don’t reinforce is what you lose. Deserved or not, this explains why training and development programs appear first on the chopping block in tough economies.</p> <p>Here’s where it all gets a bit tricky. Hourly team members are not focused on the same things their managers are. GMs focus on the Big Picture whereas hourly crews work solely in the Nitty-Gritty. That’s where the Big Disconnect occurs. Managers can achieve self-worth, relevance and fulfillment by attaining numbers and hitting targeted goals. But how do our hourly team members find fulfillment at their job? What did they make today? A dollar, or a difference? Do our managers ever help them make that distinction? Show the same concern, energy and appreciation for your “A†players daily that you normally reserve for new team members you’ve just hired.</p> <p>Re-recruiting has two stages. One is done daily, the other is done quarterly or bi-annually. The longer-term stage centers on extending the tenure of each position, as opposed to simply measuring turnover. If you know the average tenure of every single position in your restaurant (“How long have our cooks or cashiers stayed with us on average over the last five years?â€) you now have measurable insight on where to apply recognition, development, or advancement measures to extend that tenure. For instance, if my cooks tend to leave after an average tenure of 28 months, I’d apply formal training, recognition or pay raises at 12 month, 18 month, and 24 month intervals to see if I can extend that tenure to an average of 36 months, or more. Tenure tells you more than turnover does. But you can’t manage it if you don’t measure it.</p> <p>“What are you still doing here?! Get off the clock, go! No wonder our labor costs are through the roof!†How many times have you or your managers said something like that to your hourly employees at the end of their shift? Never? Sometimes? Often? What if you took that moment instead to tell that team member what they achieved that day, how it aligns with the customer’s expectations, and how much you appreciated their effort? You re-recruit with recognition in a brief post-shift one-on-one meeting right before the employee clocks out. Everyone wants to know they contributed, that their role has value, relevance, worth.</p> <p>Patrick Lencioni, in his book <em>The Three Signs of a Miserable Job</em> suggests that Anonymity, Irrelevance and Immeasurement are the Holy Trinity of job dissatisfaction and turnover. Anonymity is resolved by taking a genuine interest in your people, getting to know them better, their interests, their passions. Lencioni says that Irrelevance is counteracted by making certain that each team member understands “Who they are helping and how they are helping†every single shift. What problem are they individually and collectively solving? By sharing this insight with your team members at the end of their shift, it demonstrates their value to you, your customers, your brand, and your business. Immeasurement is an “Employee’s lack of a clear means of assessing his or her progress or success on the job,†says Lencioni. Failing to link measurement to relevance frustrates employees who wonder why the most important parts of their jobs aren’t being measured or recognized. Can you imagine a basketball, baseball or soccer game in which no one keeps score and the coach eyes only his or her own performance review during the game? How would players on those teams feel…would the best ones search out other teams with scoreboards and more appreciative coaches? In a heartbeat.</p> <p>So if you had a record lunch, let your cooks know that only one error was a team best, and that their efforts made for many happy guests. Thank servers with sincerity and graciousness—not sarcasm–for being on time and show appreciation for the smiles they gave and the sales they made. And teach your junior managers a lifelong lesson by your example.</p> <p>Be gracious, show gratitude, and don’t forget this simple credo of the Servant Leader: <em><strong>your customer is anyone who isn’t you</strong></em>.</p> <p><strong>Jim Sullivan’s bestselling book <em>Fundamentals: 9 Ways to Be Brilliant at the Basics</em> is available at Amazon and bookstores nationwide. Get his online training catalog, apps and insights here at Sullivision.com.</strong></p><p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/retention-101-how-to-re-recruit-your-team-members-every-shift/">It’s all about RETENTION: How to Re-Recruit Team Members Every Shift</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Ten Creative Training Techniques That Will Improve Your Team’s Performance</title> <link>https://sullivision.com/these-ten-creative-training-techniques-will-improve-your-teams-performance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=these-ten-creative-training-techniques-will-improve-your-teams-performance</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Sullivan]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 24 Jan 2020 22:25:55 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Most Popular]]></category> <category><![CDATA[multiunit leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[training]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sullivision.com/?p=7423</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>“Games are won on the floor, championships are won in the locker room.†–Michael Jordan, five-time NBA World Champion with the Chicago Bulls by Jim Sullivan 5 Minute Read Given the stress, strain and hardship that the recent coronavirus pandemic</p> <p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/these-ten-creative-training-techniques-will-improve-your-teams-performance/">Ten Creative Training Techniques That Will Improve Your Team’s Performance</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>“Games are won on the floor, championships are won in the locker room.†–Michael Jordan, five-time NBA World Champion with the Chicago Bulls </em></p><p><strong>by Jim Sullivan</strong> 5 Minute Read</p><p>Given the stress, strain and hardship that the recent coronavirus pandemic put on the restaurant business, it makes sense that we take advantage of this reset opportunity to make our teams better and stronger and more engaged. This article shares 10 ways to improve your crew through training. </p><p>Restaurants are ecosystems. Every team member’s success will be affected by the people, process and environment surrounding them. And the best General Managers (GMs) know that the way to shape strong ecosystems that attracts both talent and traffic is by becoming a Developmentally-Dedicated Organization (DDO). </p><p>DDOs tend to have lower turnover, stronger talent, bigger profits and more loyal customers. A hallmark of the DDO is retooling the traditional manager-employee relationship from a transactional nature to a transformational one. You do that by teaching everyone something new every shift, aligning new skillsets to career paths, and using scoreboards and scorecards—like Digital Badges–to show skill mastery and learning progress. We recently polled 161 high-performing GMs for a large QSR chain on their coaching, training and development processes. Here’s a snapshot of the best-practices we gleaned from our research: </p><ul class="wp-block-list"><li><strong>Excellence is a learned behavior. </strong>Consider an athlete’s “muscle memory†as a metaphor for training excellence. For instance, a professional baseball player takes dozens or hundreds of practice swings before every game, repeating key behaviors like “hips open, shoulders square, eyes on the ball.†Through perfect practice, their muscles eventually memorize the movement sequence, and the response becomes automatic during the game. The same is true for unit managers who train their crew every day via the pre-shift meeting and coach each team member into position, through the position and out of the position each shift. Eventually the crew’s “muscle memory†is primed with an excellence reflex, executing the “little†things correctly and consistently. This strategy of attaining habitual consistency by concentrating on the fundamentals daily is the cornerstone of any effective training regime and curriculum. It’s not what you know, but <em>what you do with what you know</em>. <br> </li> <li><strong>Know the greatest enemy of training outside the classroom.</strong> It’s <em>habit</em>. Don’t expect significant behavior change as the result of just one training session or meeting. Research shows that it can take as many as 66 consecutive days of different behavior to change a habit. Meetings and speeches and handouts don’t change things, <em>people change things</em>. And people don’t change “things†until they change their way of <em>doing</em> things. Use the meeting/training session to detail the behavior change, use daily coaching to effect the change. Now work on the new behaviors every day for the next two months with your managers. We don’t think ourselves into a new way of acting, we act ourselves into a new way of thinking. <br> </li> <li><strong>The Three-to-One Ratio.</strong> For every specific objective you want to accomplish training-wise, attach three different activities which can help the learner execute on and accomplish that objective. For example, if you want to educate your assistant managers on Financials 101, choose three different ways to educate them, perhaps by studying spreadsheets, physically doing inventory together, plus a written quiz. Remember: one training objective, three learning activities to support it. <br> </li> <li><strong>The Rule of Three. </strong>When it comes to retention, ad agencies, film directors, coaches and marksmen have long known the power of stringing trio of phrases together to maximize recall. Consider: “Reduce, re-use, recycle,†“The few, the proud, the Marines,†“Lights! Camera! Actionâ€!, “Ready! Aim! Fireâ€!, or “On your Mark! Get Set! Goâ€! It works for remembering key training points too. When you’re looking for a memorable catch phrase or memory peg for your training or coaching session, think three (i.e. Serve-Sell-Succeed, Think-Plan-Execute). <br> </li> <li><strong>Spaced repetition is the mother of all learning.</strong> Teach key concepts repeatedly, but with enough space in between to allow for reflection, understanding, guided practice, and application. What would make you a better tennis player if you’d never played before? One five-hour lesson, or five one-hour lessons spread over five weeks with time to practice in between? Mandatory Pre-Shift Meetings are the linchpin to this best practice. <br> </li> <li><strong>Always teach WHY before how.</strong> 99% of manager-to-crew training fails because we first tell our team <em>what</em> to do and <em>how</em> to do it, often completely ignoring the most important step: <em>why to do it. </em>For instance, teach servers how low the profit on the dollar is (why) before you teach them what and how to sell. <br> </li> <li><strong>Think KFD. </strong>Plan every presentation by first asking yourself: What does the audience need to <em>know? </em>The <em>F</em> stands for how do we want them to <em>feel</em> as a result of what you’re teaching? Excited? Motivated? Confident? Dissatisfied with their current behavior? The <em>D</em> stands for what do we want them to <em>do</em>? Always link learning to action. What specific actions do we want them to take? <em>Learning has not taken place until behavior has changed.</em> What they <em>do</em> as a result of what you say is much more important than what you “told†them. Use the KFD principle for every training session, voice mail, letter and e-mail, and you’ll see better retention, more productive managers and even MCIYP: more cash in your pockets. <br> </li> <li><strong>Always train learners FIRST on what causes the most frustration day in and day out. </strong>When you’re deciding what’s most important to teach your team, prioritize the options based on what they struggle most with day in and day out. You won’t have much success teaching servers to sell if they find it too difficult to input orders in your POS for instance. <br> </li> <li><strong>Practice, practice, practice. </strong>The fundamental skills of coaching aren’t hard to understand, they’re just hard to do. The key is not to practice on your managers and employees. Practice coaching and training skills with your fellow GMs, mentors or trainers. <br> </li> <li><strong>Make it fun.</strong> What we learn with enjoyment we rarely forget.</li></ul><ul class="wp-block-list"><li><strong>Know the 3 performance problem areas.</strong><br>Managers or hourly crew will not perform to expectations or standards for one<br>of three reasons. They either: <em>1) Don’t<br>Know, 2) Can’t Do, or 3) Don’t Care.</em>If they <em>don’t know </em>how to do<br>something, that’s a training issue, and it’s the MULs responsibility to try and<br>coach them through it. If they <em>can’t do</em><br>it, that’s usually indicative of a lack of resources; and that’s also the MULs<br>responsibility to identify and provide the tools they need to fix it. If they <em>know how</em> and <em>can do</em>, but <em>don’t care,</em><br>my experience is that apathy is difficult to reverse. If not caring is chronic<br>behavior on the manager’s part, I suggest you cut your losses and give them a<br>job at the competition. </li></ul><p>This is hardly definitive list of creative training techniques, but it’s a start. When you teach, you learn twice. </p><p><strong>Jim Sullivan is the author of two books (<em>Multiunit Leadership</em> and <em>Fundamentals</em>) that have sold over 350,000 copies worldwide. He speaks at foodservice conferences on Leadership, Execution, and Team-Building. You can learn more at Sullivision.com or join his 370,000+ Social Media followers at LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter @Sullivision. </strong></p><p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/these-ten-creative-training-techniques-will-improve-your-teams-performance/">Ten Creative Training Techniques That Will Improve Your Team’s Performance</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Ten Commitments of Foodservice Leadership</title> <link>https://sullivision.com/ten-commitments-of-foodservice-leadership/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ten-commitments-of-foodservice-leadership</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Sullivan]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 24 Jan 2020 22:14:30 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Most Popular]]></category> <category><![CDATA[leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[management]]></category> <category><![CDATA[teamwork]]></category> <category><![CDATA[training]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sullivision.com/?p=7419</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>by Jim Sullivan Over the last decade our company has focused on researching the best demonstrated leadership practices in the foodservice industry. And in the last three years I’ve had the privilege to share that insight and those specific 21st</p> <p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/ten-commitments-of-foodservice-leadership/">Ten Commitments of Foodservice Leadership</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="1000" height="933" src="https://sullivision.comwp-content/uploads/2014/06/looking-up-black-guy.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-739" srcset="https://sullivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/looking-up-black-guy.jpg 1000w, https://sullivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/looking-up-black-guy-115x107.jpg 115w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure></div><p><strong>by Jim Sullivan </strong></p><p>Over the last decade our company has focused on researching the best demonstrated leadership practices in the foodservice industry. And in the last three years I’ve had the privilege to share that insight and those specific 21<sup>st</sup> century leadership skills in presentations for brands like Panera, McDonald’s, Texas Roadhouse, Dunkin’, Olive Garden, Five Guys, Portillo’s, Chipotle, and many others. In the course of this journey I’ve learned a few core truths about leadership that stand out, and I think you may benefit from knowing them as well. </p><p><strong>Leadership can’t really be “taughtâ€, it must be learned.</strong> Effective leadership development in your company should be focused on doing, not merely knowing, because doing is where learning actually occurs. What you know doesn’t matter, what you do with what you know is what matters. Emphasize skill application and learning from experience with your teams.</p><p><strong>You haven’t taught it if they haven’t caught it.</strong> Instead of trying to overcome resistance to what people are not ready to do, find out what they are ready to do, and harness and direct that motivation and momentum toward your targeted goals. Oft-times a team’s perceived resistance is due to the leader’s failure to communicate the goals. The truth is, you don’t communicate as much or as clearly as you think you do. </p><p><strong>Foster collaboration.</strong> Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a family, call it a culture, call it a tribe. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one in your workplace. And one of the best ways to build that family is to know your “why.†Instead of telling people what to do and how to do it, lead with why you’re doing it. Leaders know the way, show the way and go the way. </p><p><strong>Trust is a must.</strong> Everything rises or falls with leadership. It’s rare to read business success stories credited to great “manager-ship.†And integrity is the foundation of a leader’s ability to inspire a team. “Managers are people who do things right,†says author Warren Bemis, “and leaders are people who do the right things.†</p><p><strong>Get water to the end of every row.</strong> Author Stephen Covey used a farming analogy to illustrate the importance of shared knowledge: “Be certain that the water gets to the end of the rows,†he said, “and that once it does, have the people at the end of the row come forward and teach you so you’re certain that the translation—and learning—occurred.†Learning has not taken place unless behavior has changed. The best leaders focus on seeing and measuring that change so it can be taught and replicated downstream to next-gen learners. </p><p><strong>School is never out for the pro.</strong> Collaborate with talented people outside your area of expertise. When we study or associate with people who know more than we do, our horizons always expand. Research has confirmed that whom you associate with is crucial to who you become. If you spend time with successful people, you’re more likely to become successful yourself. The best leaders don’t just seek a mentor, they seek multiple mentors, one or more for each of their major professional pursuits (or shortcomings). This group of mentors can form a sort of personal “board of advisors†for the brand called you.</p><p><strong>Challenge the process.</strong> In <em>Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, </em>author Anders Ericsson suggests that every leader should assess their team and ask<em>: </em>“What is the best way to improve performance among people who are already trained and on the job?” His answer is that deliberate practice—paired with coaching and feedback–of skills you’re not yet good at is the starting point, and continuous improvement is the never-ending point. </p><p><strong>Vitality drives leadership.</strong> Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performers.The number of hours is fixed in a leader’s day, but the quantity and quality of energy available to them is not.<strong> Always leave every restaurant better than you found it, and leave every team member better </strong>seek out challenges. </p><p><strong>Light the fire within.</strong> The best managers today are less focused on being in charge and more focused on helping employees be charged up. “You’ll never get the best from employees by trying to build a fire under them,†says author Bob Nelson, “you’ve got to build a fire within them. There’s a big difference between getting employees to come to work and getting them to do their best work. Get the best work from employees by expecting it from them, telling them you expect it and helping them attain it in any way they can.†</p><p><strong>Be smart with heart.</strong> Leadership is an affair of the heart, not just the head. Getting things done is not the same as getting the right things done. Brains, like hearts, will go where they are appreciated, so don’t forget to recognize the performer as well as the performance. “The highest achievable level of service comes from the heart,†says Hal Rosenbluth, CEO, Rosenbluth International. “So the company that reaches its people’s heart will provide the very best service.†Judge team members on their best days not worst days and be both supportive and protective of your team. To get ahead, put others first. If you provide loyalty down, you get loyalty up. </p><p><strong>Jim Sullivan is a popular keynote speaker at conferences and the author of </strong><em><strong>Fundamentals</strong></em><strong> and </strong><em><strong>Multunit Leadership</strong></em><strong>, two books that have sold more than 335,000 copies. Jim has over 400,000 social media followers. You can follow him daily on LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter or download his leadership insight at Sullivision.com. </strong></p><p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/ten-commitments-of-foodservice-leadership/">Ten Commitments of Foodservice Leadership</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>5 Smart Ways to Make the Next Quarter More Profitable</title> <link>https://sullivision.com/5-smart-ways-to-make-the-rest-of-the-year-more-profitable/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-smart-ways-to-make-the-rest-of-the-year-more-profitable</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Sullivan]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 26 Jul 2016 19:17:35 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Most Popular]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fundamentals]]></category> <category><![CDATA[leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[management]]></category> <category><![CDATA[multiunit leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Profitability]]></category> <category><![CDATA[retention]]></category> <category><![CDATA[selling]]></category> <category><![CDATA[teamwork]]></category> <category><![CDATA[training]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sullivision.com/?p=5168</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Most companies set goals and measure progress the same way we live our lives, by the thirteen periods in a calendar year—January 1 to December 31. Fiscal years begin October 1 for some companies and most begin measuring profitability by</p> <p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/5-smart-ways-to-make-the-rest-of-the-year-more-profitable/">5 Smart Ways to Make the Next Quarter More Profitable</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Most companies set goals and measure progress the same way we live our lives, by the thirteen periods in a calendar year—January 1 to December 31. Fiscal years begin October 1 for some companies and most begin measuring profitability by calendar years. So January 1 begins with detailed goals set months before that are designed to raise your people, performance and profits over last year’s. Guess what? There’s not much time left to hit those calendar year targets. So let’s assess our progress and, most importantly, detail the steps necessary today, tomorrow and each remaining week to make the most out of the year remaining before us. Here are 5 strategies to make certain that December 31 arrives with the satisfaction of targets hit and jobs well-done and not the disappointment of priorities dimmed and opportunities squandered.</p> <p><strong> Start dividing by five.</strong> Whatever goals you set on January 1, now’s the time to divide them up incrementally into the remaining months. Let’s say you had a target of growing this year’s sales 20% more than last year’s. That means you should see year-over-year sales increases of at least 1.67% per month. Hopefully you hit 50% of your sales goals (a 10% total increase) by June 30. If so, you’ve got a 10% bump left to attain, so align your teams and training to the behavior necessary to exceed each upcoming month’s targeted goals. Seek out the low-hanging fruit first, such as increasing beverage and dessert sales. Design monthly sales contests for your teams and be sure to post progress reports/scoreboards daily and make selling a focus at every pre-shift meeting.</p> <p><strong> It’s cheaper to keep her.</strong> As unemployment numbers shrink, so does the available labor pool. Therefore hiring and retention will continue to have the highest priority for the remainder of the year, and in 2019 as well. Elevate the importance of hiring and retention to the same level as food safety. If your goal was to reduce turnover by 25% this year, replicate what worked in the first half of the year in the remaining time to reduce employee churn for the remainder of the year.</p> <p><strong> Focus on the important not just what’s urgent.</strong> Strategic clarity is your number one resource for setting and attaining goals. Does everyone on your team clearly understand the targets and their role in attaining them? If you’ve been lax in your discipline and accountability in achieving the goals so far, then the reality is that you have to double down from here on out. Discipline for goal-attainment is a daily habit, not an occasional behavior.</p> <p><strong> Set milestones and keep score.</strong> At the end of every month be certain to share progress on your goals and how close your team came—or how far they exceeded—each objective. Having scoreboards are important for your team’s self-initiative and pride. I can remember a Little league game so many years ago when our coach was giving us a motivational talk centered around the concept that “It doesn’t matter if we win or lose, it’s about having fun.†Then Robert Compton, our wry catcher raised his hand and asked: “Then why do we keep score?†Classic.</p> <p><strong>Celebrate accomplishments.</strong> What you reinforce is what you get. What you don’t reinforce is what you lose. Recognize all individual and team successes. This is the essence of Servant Leadership and helps to build a strong employee culture. Strengthen your team’s abilities and belief in their abilities daily to achieve the goals you’re collectively striving toward. What people believe shapes what people achieve.</p> <p>The final factor in finishing big this year is to <em><strong>advance in small ways on big goals every shift</strong></em>. The secret to attaining quarterly targets is to focus on incremental gains daily against your monthly goals. For instance, $30,000 in higher gross sales over the next quarter is $10,000 per month, or only $178 more per shift.</p> <p>Set your smartphone, laptop or calendar app to release an alarm on January 1. That’s the first day of the first quarter of the next calendar year. On 1.1.19 you’ll need to divide your targeted vs actual scores by three and adjust your goals and strategy accordingly. The last week in September is your last chance to do a keen assessment of where you stand with your lag goals for the year and align a big push to end strong in that final quarter. But why wait? If you start that process now, it will be a lot less stressful and resource-consuming then.</p> <p>Three simple questions will help you progress toward your goals:</p> <ol> <li>“Were we better today than we were yesterday?</li> <li>Did we do more of what matters to drive our business forward?</li> <li>Did we do it better than we did last month?â€</li> </ol> <p><em><strong>You don’t have to be flawless, just improving</strong></em>. Every restaurant operator has two choices: make plans or make excuses. And maybe Keith Moon, the late Who drummer, summed it up best: “Time flies when you don’t know what you’re doing.â€</p> <p><em>Jim Sullivan is a popular keynote speaker at Leadership Conferences worldwide. Companies using his products, programs or services include Walt Disney, Starbucks, Panera Bread, Portillo’s, Coca-Cola and Olive Garden. You can access his apps, videos and training catalog here at Sullivision.com</em></p><p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/5-smart-ways-to-make-the-rest-of-the-year-more-profitable/">5 Smart Ways to Make the Next Quarter More Profitable</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>5 Ways to Use Training to Minimize Employee Turnover</title> <link>https://sullivision.com/5-ways-to-use-training-to-minimize-employee-turnover/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-ways-to-use-training-to-minimize-employee-turnover</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Sullivan]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 06 Jun 2016 20:56:55 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[hiring]]></category> <category><![CDATA[leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[retention]]></category> <category><![CDATA[teams]]></category> <category><![CDATA[turnover]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sullivision.com/?p=5059</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>The foodservice industry’s annual hourly employee churn averages 100%. Yes, you read that right. The number is obscene and embarrassing, yet many foodservice operators merely shrug it off as “the price of doing business.” That perspective is short-sighted and wrong.</p> <p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/5-ways-to-use-training-to-minimize-employee-turnover/">5 Ways to Use Training to Minimize Employee Turnover</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The foodservice industry’s annual hourly employee churn averages 100%. Yes, you read that right. The number is obscene and embarrassing, yet many foodservice operators merely shrug it off as “the price of doing business.” That perspective is short-sighted and wrong. I contend this 100% turnover rate is unsustainable for continued growth, untenable for manager tenure and unnecessary for forward-thinking operators. Simply put, if your labor strategy is focused solely on how to get the most out of people while paying them as little as possible, you’re playing a zero-sum game.  So let’s discuss how training relates to turnover and share a few best demonstrated practices to better engage and retain our new and veteran team members.</p> <p><b>Culture first, process second.</b> “The only thing we have is one another. The only competitive advantage we have is the culture and values of the company,†says Howard Schultz CEO, Starbucks. “Anyone can open up a coffee store. We have no technology, no patent. All we have is the relationship around the values of the company and what we bring to the customer every day. And we all have to own it.†The goal of an effective training program is to instill and align company culture, not simply to infuse a process. Process can be looked up. Identify the 5 or 10 keystone cultural behaviors that all employees should share (like empathy, teamwork, customer service, communication, etc.) and redesign your training program to reinforce those skills. Determine first what you stand for and then what you should do to stand out.</p> <p><b>Questions are the answers. </b>Brand execs could ask themselves a simple question to help solve the turnover crisis: <i>“What kind of company would have employees fighting to get into it, not fighting to stay out of it?â€</i> At Facebook, candidates are asked the following question: “On your very best day at work–the day you come home and think you have the best job in the world– what did you do that day?†Document the responses and incorporate those behaviors into your supervisor’s and teammates development program.<b> </b></p> <p><b>Stay Interviews.</b> Ten years ago, the concept of “Exit Interviews†was all the rage, a process designed to assess why employees leave companies. Roy Hinojosa, a Division President at Golden Corral, has a different perspective: “I think it’s much more important to know, at regular intervals, why our people are <i>staying</i> with us. The more we understand what’s most valuable to them, the better we can provide more of that, and keep them with us longer. That’s why regular ‘Stay’ interviews, to me, are much more valuable than an exit interview.â€</p> <p><b>Educate, don’t lecture.</b> Take a good hard look at the tone and timbre of your operations training materials. Is the “voice†you’re using in your videos, elearning and position manuals patriarchal in tone?  Uncertain?  Read a couple of pages out loud. You’ll know the answer.</p> <p><b>Fix the disconnect.</b> Do you sit new hires down with a GM who pumps them up for 45 minutes about how awesome the company is and then sends them off to HR for a few hours of paperwork that commences with a detailed checklist of all the ways they might get fired? Think through the process that new team members experience and make certain it’s positive, welcoming and engaging with no mixed messages. Ask employees who just went through onboarding with you what they liked best and least about it.</p> <p>One of the more popular presentations I do for foodservice leaders at conferences is called “Foodservice 2021: Five Big Changes & Five Big Obstacles We’ll Face in the Next Five Years.†The topic and content is compelling because it shares cutting-edge and best demonstrated practices in operations today, while offering a realistic look at how technology will transform hiring, service, marketing, management and training tomorrow. Many foodservice brands have grasped the competitive advantage of transforming training  in order to transform their teams which transforms their guest service. And they’re seeing lower turnover, higher tenure, and happier customers as a result.  Simply put: from here on out, make hiring THE most important decision.</p> <p><b>Jim Sullivan is a popular speaker at foodservice leadership conferences worldwide. You can get his training catalog of resources at Sullivision.com and follow him on LinkedIn, YouTube or Twitter @Sullivision. Email: <span style="color: #0000ff;">jim@sullivision.com</span></b></p><p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/5-ways-to-use-training-to-minimize-employee-turnover/">5 Ways to Use Training to Minimize Employee Turnover</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Hire Power: The New Basics of Building High-Performing Teams</title> <link>https://sullivision.com/hire-power-the-new-basics-of-building-high-performing-teams/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hire-power-the-new-basics-of-building-high-performing-teams</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Sullivan]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2016 21:52:59 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Multiunit Leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fundamentals]]></category> <category><![CDATA[hiring]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Improving Performance]]></category> <category><![CDATA[leadershio]]></category> <category><![CDATA[retention]]></category> <category><![CDATA[teamwork]]></category> <category><![CDATA[training]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sullivision.com/?p=4811</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>“At the end of the day, you bet on people, not on strategies.†–Larry Bossidy, CEO AlliedSignal The marketplace for foodservice labor is both highly competitive and very crowded. Statistics offer hope: the current Millennial Generation is some 80 million</p> <p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/hire-power-the-new-basics-of-building-high-performing-teams/">Hire Power: The New Basics of Building High-Performing Teams</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>“At the end of the day, you bet on people, not on strategies.†–Larry Bossidy, CEO AlliedSignal<br /> </em></p> <p>The marketplace for foodservice labor is both highly competitive and very crowded.</p> <p>Statistics offer hope: the current Millennial Generation is some 80 million strong, surpassing even the vaunted 72 million Baby Boomers of 1946-1962, and colleges expect their enrollment to swell to historic levels in 2016 as the largest number of Americans who are aged 18 will hit university age simultaneously. But just because the numbers offer hope, remember that “hope†is not a strategy. All those Millennials may be of job age, but that doesn’t mean they’ll choose foodservice over retail, Home Depot, or even choosing to stay unemployed. We need to make a strong case for our industry in terms of what we teach and develop if we are to stock our talent pipeline and bench strength with future leaders. Otherwise we’re endless victims of economic cycles predicated on variable birth rates and driven by job-seeking supply and demand. Here are a few ideas on finding keepers and turning them into long-term assets:</p> <p><strong>Grow your own</strong>. Reassess and reevaluate everything all of your crew and manager development tools, from your onboarding process to the training materials to your pre-shift meetings (which should be mandatory, not optional every single shift.) Find a way to make your development resources richer, better, more effective. Benchmark the best demonstrated practices of your best team members, and incorporate that insight into your training materials. Teach everyone something new every shift.</p> <p><strong>Recruit strategically not generically</strong>. Seek talent where it gathers, and aim for people who are already motivated and wired to succeed. Instead of just participating in local high school job fairs, sponsor or recruit from the school’s National Honor Society or Link Crew. Align your company with a local Boy Scout Troop and recruit from the Order of the Arrow honorees (Scouting’s National Honor Society.) Look for affable, eager and self-directed people from these groups that you can develop into tomorrow’s superstars.</p> <p><strong>Don’t recruit or train to yesterday’s competencies.</strong> Identify and detail the top five performance-based criteria necessary to be successful in every position in your restaurant. Determine what average performance and what stellar performance looks like for each role. Develop your current teams to be proficient in those key performance-based criteria. Now look two years down the road. What skills may be critical then that are only peripheral now? For instance, if you have two GM candidates with similar expertise, I’d promote the one with proven social media savvy and technology-enabled training skills.</p> <p><strong>Assess your ABCDs</strong>. Consider all the nuances of the four levels of employees. There are two kinds of A players. An A player in a B company is likely to be a B player in an A company. They will work down—or up—to the talent that surrounds them. There are two kinds of B players. One is someone who is a B player in the overall foodservice marketplace, but they could be an A player (or even a C player) in your company depending on your talent pool. An organization can also outgrow A players. For instance, an A-Level Area Manager in a $3 million foodservice company can quickly regress to a C in a $50 million company if their skillsets don’t grow. C-Level managers don’t hire A-level team members. They hire D-level associates so they look better as a manager. As author Brad Smart says in Topgrading: “C players suck the creative energy out of your organization. They fail to prevent problems and then can’t fix them. A tremendous amount of your time is wasted undoing what C players did or doing what they should have done.†There are two types of C-players: one who can be developed into a B and one who will only ever be a C. Know the difference.</p> <p>Simply put, your most competitive strategy going forward is out-teaching the competition and doing so with habitual consistency. It is cheaper to train than it is to recruit. Consistency in operations is the most effective marketing strategy. Consistency in hiring, training and development is the most effective profitability strategy.<br /> Every day that we spend not improving our people, performance and products is a wasted day.</p> <p><em>Jim Sullivan is a keynote speaker at foodservice leadership conferences worldwide. His newest book Fundamentals is available at Amazon or here at Sullivision.com.</em></p><p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/hire-power-the-new-basics-of-building-high-performing-teams/">Hire Power: The New Basics of Building High-Performing Teams</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Fundamentals: 9 Leadership Strategies for the Next Decade</title> <link>https://sullivision.com/fundamentals-9-strategies-for-2016/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fundamentals-9-strategies-for-2016</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Sullivan]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 28 Dec 2015 21:35:33 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Most Popular]]></category> <category><![CDATA[cost control]]></category> <category><![CDATA[customers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[development]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fundamentals]]></category> <category><![CDATA[future]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Improving Performance]]></category> <category><![CDATA[jumpstart]]></category> <category><![CDATA[leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[multiunit leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Profitability]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Service]]></category> <category><![CDATA[teamwork]]></category> <category><![CDATA[time management]]></category> <category><![CDATA[training]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://sullivision.com/?p=4124</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>You can’t build a pyramid from the top down. A house without a foundation will not stand. And any business without fundamentals firmly entrenched and dutifully executed can wither and shrink as small as the period that ends this sentence.</p> <p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/fundamentals-9-strategies-for-2016/">Fundamentals: 9 Leadership Strategies for the Next Decade</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You can’t build a pyramid from the top down. A house without a foundation will not stand. And any business without fundamentals firmly entrenched and dutifully executed can wither and shrink as small as the period that ends this sentence.</p> <p><img decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-4125" src="http://sullivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/abc-blocks-1.jpg" alt="abc-blocks (1)" width="254" height="214" srcset="https://sullivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/abc-blocks-1.jpg 254w, https://sullivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/abc-blocks-1-115x96.jpg 115w, https://sullivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/abc-blocks-1-237x200.jpg 237w" sizes="(max-width: 254px) 100vw, 254px" />Strong businesses build their brands on The Basics and today’s competitive marketplace and post-COVID world requires us to be unflagging in executing the Fundamentals daily. So what are the critical building blocks of successful businesses in the post-pandemic 21st Century? Besides luck, pluck, nerve, heart, capital, masks and sanitizer, here’s a short list of the essentials:</p> <p><b>Focus</b>. When companies start strong and stay strong, it’s because they focused on the right things. (Being focused on the wrong things can be more detrimental than having no focus at all.) Focus is not just “clarity,†it’s about inspiring a shared vision. Focus is not just knowing the destination, it’s following the roadmap. Focus is not just “wanting to win,†it’s the willingness to prepare to win. Focus is not just being committed, it means being disciplined. What do the best operators focus first on? The things they can control. Not the things they can’t. Make the things that won’t change–Quality, People, Culture, Training–ever stronger, ever better.</p> <p><b>Build Strong Teams</b>. Everything starts with hiring. We must have the discipline and commitment in place to assure that only the most dedicated and most passionate and most talented people are allowed onboard. Otherwise we put weighty (and unnecessary) burdens on our frontline and multiunit supervisors, forcing them to under-lead and over-manage. We don’t build “business,†we build people. People build business.</p> <p><b>Serve Better</b>. In case you haven’t noticed, the top-rated customer service organizations are now online companies like Amazon, not traditional brick-and-mortar stores with a face-to-face presence. What happened? For one thing, these online companies anticipated and resolved 90% of their customer service challenges before customers visit the site. By investing in a complex infrastructure, FAQs, built-in suggestive selling and a no-constraints mindset and makeup, they can almost guarantee a smooth experience-providing you’re not a Digital Alien. But brick-and-mortar operations like ours are dependent on a Freudian Smorgasbord of people and personalities for service delivery, not the mathematical algorithms (and, it should be pointed out, a willingness to self-serve) that characterizes Web customers. The thing is, the Internet is digital, but people are analog. To build your customer traffic, first understand that guests don’t want to be treated like customers, they want to be treated like <i>people</i>. Have your customer-facing team excel in empathy and situational service; this is the connective tissue of guests engagement and heartfelt hospitality.</p> <p><b>Sell More.</b> Think about all the different ways a business can generate revenue: unit expansion, acquisitions, selling new franchises, going public, selling assets, etc. But the best route to a healthy balance sheet is by simply 1) acquiring more customers and 2) raising like-for-like sales.  Do so with great service, smart selling and focusing the outcome of every guest transaction on a repeat visit.</p> <p><b>Control costs.</b> All money is not created equal. One hundred dollars in sales is one hundred dollars less taxes and expenses. One hundred dollars in savings is a hundred dollars. Be careful with inventory, portions and train the team train to think like owners do. Everything we don’t sell has a triple cost. You pay to buy it, you pay to store it, you pay to throw it away. Teach this awareness daily to your frontliners.</p> <p><b>Always Be Marketing.</b> How and when you advertise, who you hire, how you serve, what you sell all are functions of marketing. Since most every other Fundamental is dependent on marketing (without customers, service and selling and hiring are irrelevant), smart leaders approach marketing as a philosophy, not a department.</p> <p><b>Out-Teach the Competition.</b> Which companies do you admire most for their people, sales and service? Odds are those organizations are exceptional at training too. Teach everyone on your team something new every shift. Hire people with a bias for learning. And teach your team members how to think, not just what to do.</p> <p><b>Lead Smart. </b>Leadership is not a personality trait so much as the ability to master variable skill sets and knowing when and how to apply them. All leadership is situational. Smart leaders <i>prepare</i> to win: since you don’t really know on which day success will occur, you have to be ready every single shift.</p> <p><strong>Flexibility</strong>. When the covid-19 virus came swiftly with little warning to devastate economies, lives and standard operating procedures, you had a choice: pivot or wither. The businesses that took too long to decide (paralysis by analysis) were hurt the most. The ones who accepted the new reality and adapted to the circumstances succeeded in the face of crushing odds. What did these companies do that we can all learn from? They were flexible, decisive, energized and forward-thinking.</p> <p><b>Execute.</b> There are three elements of effective execution: 1) <i>Habitual Consistency:</i> daily and steady application of the Fundamentals, eliminating barriers to execution along the way. 2) <i>Discipline: </i> holding yourself and your team <i>accountable</i> for excellence—and results. And 3) <i>Focus: </i>knowing where and how the Fundamentals have to be applied if anything is to be executed: The Shift. Which brings us full-circle to the first Fundamental.</p> <p>There was a time when focusing on the Fundamentals really mattered. That time is called now.</p> <p><b>This article is excerpted from Jim Sullivan’s bestselling book <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Ways-Brilliant-Basics-Business/dp/0971584982/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=FUNDAMENTALS+book+by+jim+sullivan&qid=1595104412&sr=8-1">Fundamentals: 9 Ways to Be Brilliant at the Basics of Business</a>. </i>It’s available here at Sullivision.com or at <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Ways-Brilliant-Basics-Business/dp/0971584982/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=FUNDAMENTALS+book+by+jim+sullivan&qid=1595104412&sr=8-1">Amazon</a>.<i> </i>Over 195,000 copies sold.  </b><b></b></p><p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/fundamentals-9-strategies-for-2016/">Fundamentals: 9 Leadership Strategies for the Next Decade</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>An A to Z Comprehensive Annual Leadership Action Plan</title> <link>https://sullivision.com/a-2016-action-plan-from-a-z/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-2016-action-plan-from-a-z</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Sullivan]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2015 23:07:41 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[checklist]]></category> <category><![CDATA[cost control]]></category> <category><![CDATA[customers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[development]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fundamentals]]></category> <category><![CDATA[management]]></category> <category><![CDATA[multiunit leadership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[multiunit leadership checklist]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Profitability]]></category> <category><![CDATA[selling]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Service]]></category> <category><![CDATA[time management]]></category> <category><![CDATA[training]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://sullivision.com/?p=3918</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>by Jim Sullivan What’s your plan for improvement in the next twelve months? I’ve got an alphabet-full of ideas for you… A: Action is great, unless it’s the wrong action. So start here with some advice from Guy Kawasaki: “Always</p> <p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/a-2016-action-plan-from-a-z/">An A to Z Comprehensive Annual Leadership Action Plan</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>by Jim Sullivan</p> <p>What’s your plan for improvement in the next twelve months? I’ve got an alphabet-full of ideas for you…</p> <p>A: <strong>A</strong>ction is great, unless it’s the wrong action. So start here with some advice from Guy Kawasaki: “Always be selling, not strategizing about selling.” Train your customer-facing team to be service-oriented salespeople, not “order-takers.â€</p> <p>B: <strong>B</strong>est beats first. Master and then excel at executing the fundamentals. Do the common things uncommonly well.</p> <p>C: <strong>C</strong>onsistency is the backbone of great customer service and value. Habitual consistency is the keystone of foodservice operators that succeed in good times and bad.</p> <p>D: DIRFT means Do It Right the First Time. Practice with the team, but never on the customer. Assess all processes with this question: “What could go wrong?’ Then have an advance plan to minimize mistakes.</p> <p>E: Everything you don’t sell has a triple cost. You pay to buy it, store it and throw it away. A dollar on the shelf that you don’t need is a dollar wasted. But remember…</p> <p>F: Food cost is secondary to menu merchandising. If nobody buys your food or beverage what difference does cost make? (See “A†above.)</p> <p>G: Government and business do not go well together. Play by the rules. Don’t do anything that gets the local, state or federal government further involved in your restaurant.</p> <p>H: Hiring the right people will not insure a manager’s success but hiring the wrong people will insure the manager’s failure. Why? See next letter.</p> <p>I: “If your average server waits on thirty people a night and works six nights a week he or she will be impacting 180 of your customers each week,†says restaurateur Rich Melman. “If you don’t have the right people in the right place, you’re making a big mistake.â€</p> <p>J: Jumpstart every shift with a clear shared goals and an energetic, focused pre-shift meeting. If you’re not sure how to do that, check out our best-selling video called Jumpstart here in the Sullivision.com Store</p> <p>K: Keep cool but do not freeze. A/K/A The Hellmann’s Principle (from the side of a mayonnaise jar)</p> <p>L: Learning is to the team what service is to the customer. Give it in abundance. Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back.</p> <p>M: Manage in good times as if you were operating in bad times, because eventually bad times will come.</p> <p>N: Never lower your standards just so a mediocre applicant can raise theirs.</p> <p>O: Overteach. Managers and employees tend to under-learn and over-forget.</p> <p>P: Procrastination is the devil’s chloroform. If the task is small, do it now. If it’s big, do a part of it now and a part of it tomorrow and another part the next day.</p> <p>Q: Quality is a bedrock fundamental of successful operators. Customers will forgive us for a higher price, but never for lower quality.</p> <p>R: Results, not “effort†call for reward. Get 1% better every day and where will you be 100 days from now?</p> <p>S: Statistic that Matters: There are currently 11 million people working in America’s restaurants—that’s seven times more than the entire U.S. Armed Forces. Outside of government, we are the nation’s largest employer. But turnover is at unsustainable levels. A key strategic focus must be employee RETENTION.</p> <p>T: Turnover reduction must be a primary goal for the next 12 months. Shoot for 3% less turnover each month, 36% less turnover in the next year.</p> <p>U: Understand how other industries excel at service, selling, recruiting, training. Study retail, manufacturing and internet companies. The best practices in foodservice are not that great.</p> <p>V: Value is determined by the customer. It combines quality, price, service, cleanliness and sometimes, speed. It’s made up of a thousand little things we do day and day out that the customer may not even notice…until we don’t do them. Get the basics down pat.</p> <p>W: “Winning is not a ‘sometime’ thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.‖ Vince Lombardi</p> <p>X: X-rays reveal what’s below the surface. Take a good look at the underlying systems and processes that support your operation. Improve each one each week. Ask yourself; “Why do we do it that way/ Why do we do it at all? Who is doing it better than us?” Don’t wake up a year from today to find yourself 52 potential improvements behind.</p> <p>Y: When it comes to customer service, the answer is “YES!” What was the question?</p> <p>Z: Zealot is defined in the dictionary as “a fanatical partisan.†Create the kind of experiences that transform casual customers into brand apostles for your business. There’s an epidemic of sameness in foodservice today that presents real opportunity for operators focused on passion, purpose and performance, one customer, one transaction at a time.</p> <p>Once you master the ABCs, you realize that the Little things are really the Big Things.</p><p>The post <a href="https://sullivision.com/a-2016-action-plan-from-a-z/">An A to Z Comprehensive Annual Leadership Action Plan</a> first appeared on <a href="https://sullivision.com">Sullivision</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded> </item> </channel> </rss>