On the Front Lines of Service-By Jackie Yudd

Teaching Service Leaders about the "Roles" They Play in Your Operation's Success. Review last month's start to the Series at: http://www.ronyudd.com/popn050824.htm   

Key Roles of Service Leadership. Every staff member should be taught from the very beginning of their employment about the various roles that they need to play in the delivery of great service. Learning these different roles is not only critical to their development as a team member but also in their success as a key person on the front lines of service. 

This month's three service leadership roles are:   

• The Peace Maker is the ambassador of guest services.  They recognize the needs of out-of-town or first time guests and with your help act as a concierge to enrich their experiences both inside and outside of your establishment.  Most importantly, they act as “Head of Recovery.”  Empower this associate to rally the efforts of the entire staff to do whatever it takes to correct a problem that may occur.  
• Socially aware and empathetic associates take on the Human Resources leadership role.  This person will be fully aware of the company’s mission statement.  They will also help you and fellow managers understand that employees also have lives and families….and issues, outside of work that in most cases need to be considered to maintain a happy employee.  Happy guests can be directly traced back to happy servers.  
• The Team Communications leader.  We all know that in today's workplace there can be personality clashes and drama.  This person, whom exudes great patience and communication skills, strives to build stronger team relationships, among the servers themselves and with the Back of the House team.

Managers know that they have to take the lead in all these roles, but the more team members that are playing these roles the better chance service leadership has to flourish.  

Building Leadership Skills

 

Profitability Plus 

This month's Point of Profit-Accountability. We often hear about managers burning out because the success of the entire operation rests firmly on their shoulders and their shoulders alone. Ask yourself this month about how you specifically hold your associates and employees accountable. Think about some of the things you could do in your operation to spread that responsibility to some of the other shoulders. Consider these three items over the next month:    

• Supervisors and team leaders that develop schedules responsible for meeting labor cost goals. 
• Making those that generate the food cost responsible for meeting specific food cost goals. 
• Front line service personnel held directly accountable for delivering on all service expectations. 

Once accountability is established and understood by all your role as the manager becomes one of tool giver. You provide the tools for your team so they can meet the responsibilities you've assigned! The more shoulders carrying the weight the lighter the load!  

Annual MentorCares™ Leadership Conference-Will be held on Friday October 28th in D.C. area. If you are interested in becoming a trained adult mentor or would like to attend and learn more about our 12 Leadership Skills and 12 Life Skills just drop us an email at ron@leadershipcares.org. Our adult mentors are making a huge difference in the lives of D.C. area young people!    

ThanksgivingCares™ It's never too early to think about joining our young leaders for their annual hunger relief effort. Last year we fed over 700 families. Let us know how you and your team would like to become involved. We'll even help you start a chapter in your area! How You and Your Organization Can Help                                

Developing Your Personal Brand   

Career Building Plan-How are you doing on your career building goals? Review the Seven Things you can do to enhance your career that we laid out in January. Click: http://www.ronyudd.com/popn050126.htm. Putting in place a plan to accomplish the 7 things is the real test of success. 

This month's suggestion-Practice "Real Life" Networking--consider what you can offer the other person before you think about what you can gain from them. They will remember you and thus you will be part of their network! "Real Life" Networking is not about capturing business cards and finding out what someone else can do to enhance your career--its about discovering what you have in common and what you can do to help one another succeed! Three things to consider in your next networking situation: 

• Be the last person to speak. Let others tell you about themselves first.  
• Listen with your eyes. Maintain direct eye contact. There is no worse turn- off than scanning the room looking for others to connect with while you're talking with the person in front of you. 
• Focus on the other person and ask specific questions about what they have told you.
• Think about others in your network that could help this person--then work to get them connected.
• Follow-up right after the event. Drop an email, thank you card or a short phone message of thanks and include a promise to stay in touch on something specific from your networking conversation.  

Next Step: Take these five techniques for a test drive during your next networking opportunity! 

This month we offer two websites of the month. The first is http://www.assessmentspecialists.com a site that offers a variety of ideas on assessing employees. The second is http://www.allbusiness.com/ a great first step resource for small business operators. They offer all kinds of business forms, advice, and interesting articles.