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Lack of Leadership. Who's in Control?

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Is anybody in control or are you all just plodding along?

How disappointing it is when you get to go out only to see the sad effects of poor leadership.
Once again I have to say it happens too often. You can see it in lots of places not just the food service industry but other service industries as well.

If you have a leader that can deal with any situation that may arise that's good, if not then look out. The side effects of a place with no leader can be very detrimental to your business.
If your establishment gives off bad and incompetent vibes your in trouble.

It is easy to recognise a damsel in distress, the hardest thing is not being able to help them your self, correct?

Imagine having a problem with a customer and not knowing what to do. First thing is you look for help and guidance, only to find nothing because nobody knows better. In other words your stuck with the problem, and, more often than not you try to forget about it and hope it goes away, or keep out of sight of the customer or the problem right. WRONG. You need to show some balls and deal with it.

The first thing you need to do is put your self in their position. Then and only then will you have any idea of what you may or may not do to try and solve the issue. More often then not it is a communication barrier and that is easily sorted.
If not, step outside of the box and look in, then you will see what can be done.

Take a proactive attitude and make the change, be better at what you do and you will notice the difference from all angles, the customer, the management and your fellow workers.

Not everybody was born a leader, but most of us have equal opportunity to learn, its just that some don't make the effort. You have to want it.

As for the management, well, if you can't see the problem of having no staff with controlling capabilities then you need to sack your selves because the problem lies with you first. That statement might get up your nose coming from a chef but believe me I have seen plenty of idiots become so called managers or have management positions just months after transferring from being a bloody brick layer. Work it out it's not rocket science.....

image credit:pedrosimoes7

5 comments:

Hellraiser said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIw61Q6S5zI&NR=1

Anonymous said...

You are right about that leadership begins with the top and if it is not there all the little people below just run amuck....

www.service-superstars.com said...

How true....sad to say the recruiting process is always not performed with much thought, hence the problems from management down.
deanchef.co.nz
http//:service-superstars.blogspot.com

Hellraiser said...

@ Waiter Extraordinaire

I agree with your comment. It seems to me though, that the older we get and the more experience we have, the more we have to run around. I've been running for 20 years and I can't keep it going forever. Who's going to run the little people when we've gone? And worse, to think that these little people are the future of the industry.

What can we do?

Hellraiser said...

@ Service Superstars

Thank you for visiting the site. I hope you enjoy it, and come back to leave some more of your points of view. I'll be going to have a look at your site very shortly :)

To your comment, it is as you say, there seems to be very little forethought into the recruiting process, but anyone can do it, it's easy right??

As we know, this is far from the truth. You just can't place some young gun F&B manager fresh out of Uni in front of a kitchen of 60 chefs, likewise, a Chef from Sizzler doesn't know jack shit about how to run a service in a fine dining restaurant.

I've been caught out myself, with a cook's CV that was a dream to read, but after several weeks working with me, it was obviously fucking bullshit.

I was in NZ for many years, and I know you have the same frustrations. Come back and tell us some more!


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