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The Restaurant Roadmap is your guide to building and running a successful restaurant. Each episode explores the full journey of operations—from planning and development to menu design, execution, and growth. Hosts Danny Bendas, Amanda Stokes, and Chef Eric Lauer bring decades of expertise, joined by industry leaders and restaurant professionals who share their insights and stories. Together, they uncover strategies, tools, and lessons that help operators improve performance, strengthen teams, and elevate the guest experience. Whether you’re opening your first location or refining an established brand, The Restaurant Roadmap equips you to navigate every step with confidence.
Danny: Welcome to The Restaurant Roadmap podcast, powered by Synergy Restaurant Consultants, your go-to source for actionable insights and real-world strategies from the industry’s top experts, clients, and special guests. Whether you’re building a new concept or refining an existing one, we’re here to help you create a forward-thinking sustainable brand, elevate guest experience, streamline operations and maximize your bottom line. With decades of hands-on experience, our mission is simple: to deliver practical, proven solutions to the everyday challenges restaurant operators face. Let’s dive in and get to work.
Danny: Hey everybody, welcome back to The Restaurant Roadmap. Once again, we have myself, Danny, Managing Partner at Synergy Restaurant Consultants. We have Amanda Stokes. Say, hey, Amanda. Happy Friday afternoon to you.
Amanda: Happy Friday.
Danny: Happy Friday. And Eric, one of our culinary specialists, all around, good guy. Say hey, Eric.
Eric: Hey y’all. How’s everybody doing?
Danny: All right. So, this is round two of leadership. We felt like this was critical. Again, as we do a lot of our work, we find that one of the biggest efficiencies is having a strong leader. Not that they’re bad people, they just maybe haven’t had training. They don’t understand how to lead; they know how to do. So, this whole thing is designed to get people to be great leaders.
So, right out of the gate, I’m going to put you guys on the spot and based on our last and first edition of leadership, anything you want to fill in? I just want to kind of do a little bit of a recap, if we can, before we get into this episode and move forward with leadership. So, I’m going to start with Amanda. Ladies first. Any thoughts, anything that you wish you would have said but you didn’t before we move on?
Amanda: Oh, that’s a thoughtful question. So, for me, thinking about the last podcast that we did, I think it boils down to having a really strong team in place, a strong leadership team in the restaurant, and then having a strong succession plan, so knowing who is going to be taking the next leadership role, and then being 6, 12, 18, and 24 months out with that plan. I think where restaurants really fail is that they’re being very reactionary with their strategies in promoting people, and it’s doing the people a disservice and it’s going to be doing the restaurant a disservice.
Danny: The same thing with manpower planning, not getting behind the power curve with your team because you end up making bad hires because you end up short, and that causes problems, too. So Eric, any thoughts?
Eric: No, I thought I was perfect during the last podcast. I didn’t think I missed anything. So, I think we just jump right into today and get going [laugh].
Danny: That’s what I love: modesty. The key to great leadership is being modest.
Eric: There you go. Got to be humble, baby.
Danny: Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, then, having said that, well, I’m kind of the same. I’m pretty good too, so I don’t really have anything to add. So, I guess Amanda, you’re going to have to catch up with us on this modesty [crosstalk 00:03:16] someday.
Amanda: Oh, my goodness.
Danny: See, if we can pull it off today, on today’s episode. So anyway, so we’re going to jump in here now. Accountability, performance management. So, holding the team accountable without being a jerk, and being respectful and treating people with respect versus intimidation. You know, I’ve always found there’s two ways to manage. I mean, not me, but generally, people have two attitudes. I can either scare the crap out of you and threaten you, or I can work with you and I can earn your respect. So, how do you hold people accountable, Amanda?
Amanda: You know, I think accountability starts on day one, when you set that expectation, and really during that onboarding process where you say, this is how we do things, this is why we do things. And I think at the end of the day, everybody wants to be held accountable. Everybody wants to know what the expectation is. I don’t think accountability is a dirty word. I think it’s a dirty word when there’s inconsistencies and different accountability for different team members. I think when people know the expectation, and they know the expectation when accountability isn’t met, it just becomes more about having clear conversations versus being a jerk.
Danny: Eric, I’m going to rephrase it for you for a second—and we do a lot of work where, actually we’re working on, potentially a project now, where we’re going to do an assessment, performance audit, and we’re going to do our strategic planning session, and there’s always this question of, well, are people going to buy in? And I know this is a statement more than a question, but I’m getting to it. So, rather than worrying about whether people are going to buy in or they’re going to want to change, is it possible that they’re going to go, “Man, I’m really glad. I could use some structure, and I’m going to help create that to make it better, and it’ll make my life easier.” So, is that something that you’ve seen, as you’ve done—you’ve done a lot of work with a lot of our clients.
Eric: Definitely. When you get out in the field and you’re working with these clients, you see a lot of that. And Amanda touched on it briefly during the last podcast. We were in a project in the Midwest, and we had a client, the team just almost was begging us to give them structure and give them some systems and tools so they could run at a very nice manner and a good clip. Because nobody wants to go to work and be unstructured and it just be like, “Oh, how’s the ball going to bounce today? How are we going to make it through tonight? Nobody knows.” Right?
So, everybody wants to go to work, they want to do a good job, nobody wants to be stuck behind the eight ball. You know, you brought it up, right? You can lead in two ways. You can be a jerk, or you can kind of set an expectation. And I always gave people the benefit of the doubt. You spend some time with them, you teach them the expectation, you put the ball in their court, right? So, this is how we do everything. These are our systems and tools to accomplish things. That shows them what you want. Now, the onus is on them to get it done. If they don’t do it, guess what happens? Now, the question isn’t, why didn’t you do it? The question is, what caused you to fail? So, that’s where I see it from.
Danny: Yeah, I thought you were actually going to say, “I used to be a jerk.” [laugh].
Eric: [laugh]. If you ask some of the people that work for me, I’m sure they’ll say that.
Danny: Yeah, you’re probably right. We all probably got that vibe at some point. So—I’m sorry, Amanda, what were you going to say?
Amanda: Yeah, don’t think accountability is about hovering over somebody every moment. You know because that really, I don’t think anybody enjoys being micromanaged, right? We need to give our people very clear expectations, direction, and then let them run with it. The last thing in the world anybody wants to do, and myself included because I can say that when I’m micromanaged, I disengage because that just tells me that you don’t trust me. So, if you give me something, let me run with it, and if I veer off, course-correct me and we’ll go from there.
Danny: All right. That leads into the next subject, which I already have in my brain what the answer to is. What’s the big secret to getting people to take ownership? And there’s a lot of ways to do it. And what do you guys think before I give you my idea because—and you guys are probably steal it before I get a chance to say it, but go ahead, whoever wants to go first.
Eric: So, in my mind, it’s always involving the people that the task falls on, involving them in the decision-making process, and having them part of the conversation because at the end of the day, they are the ones that are doing the task. They’re the ones that are repeatedly being tasked with this function, and if they’re involved, the ownership is more on them. If you just say, “Hey, we’re doing it this way because that’s what I thought of, and I think I’m great,” guess what? They’re going to find every little hole in what you just told them to do, and they’re going to point it out to you every chance they get. But if you work together and you say, “Hey, we need to get chicken tenders out in seven minutes,” guess what? They’ll find a way to get to that seven-minute time mark, and they’ll work through it with you, and now you have somebody who’s bought into the end result and to give you exactly the result you want.
Danny: Well, there you go. Stole my thunder.
Eric: [laugh].
Amanda: Such a thunder-stealer. So, similar to Eric, I was going to say, you know, give them a seat at the table. You know, give them a voice and how things are done. You know, at the end of the day, you could have people who clock in and clock out and that’s okay, but if you want people to be bought into whatever you’re doing, give them a say on how it’s done. And I think I learned that early in my career.
I worked for somebody who gave me this idea—and Eric’s heard this story—but I made each area of the restaurant somebody’s area. I put their picture up—this is a true story—and it became this person’s dry storage, this person’s dish area. A little bit of ownership, and those were the cleanest areas in the restaurant, the ones that were owned by people. And so, ownership and accountability, people take a lot of pride in that. It’s like, “Hey, this is my dry storage,” and so, you know, I would make a big deal out of it. I would give gift cards out to people who had the best, cleanest, most organized areas. So, I think giving people more than a job because nobody wants to just come in, clock in and clock out and go home.
Danny: No, I think that’s a really great idea, you know. And we found out over the years that when we help our clients, creating brands, creating training materials, we insist that we have the management team on board so they can help, they’re engaged. You know, they have ideas. We always say, we don’t care who has a great idea, as long as it’s a great idea and it works, let’s do it, and it’s done in a controlled environment.
And you know, I always believe if you have a great idea, let’s do it everywhere, whether it’s one restaurant or a chain of 50, and then everybody really, really feels like they’re engaged and they’re a part of something. And then, as you said, they’ll do it, and they’ll take ownership, which is really, really, really amazing. So, speaking of, we’re moving on to the next thing. We have this challenge. You always have people that just may not buy in, or that, you know, they’re kind of laissez-faire, they don’t show up for work, they no-call, which can be a real drag on the rest of the operation. So, how do you guys handle those kinds of situations?
Amanda: I believe that no-call, no-shows are just—anything that disrupts a shift more than that because everybody has an idea: we have this many people going into the shift. And unfortunately, the no-call, no-show happens right when the guests are coming in the door, so asking your team to pivot is always very frustrating for the team members. I think you address it in a way that’s consistent with what you told them when you hired them. “Hey, if you do not call for your shift, call in for your shift and, you no-show you’re going to lose your job.” And then you have to stick to that. It can’t be, well, you know, we’re going to give Susie one break, and then we’re not going to give Bobby a break. It’s just being really consistent about that policy. I think no show, no calls. I think they’re not just disruptive for the team; they hurt your guest experience.
Danny: One of the podcasts that we should do here in the near future, which we’re all good at—and this is your right in your wheelhouse, Amanda—is how do you interview? How do you hire the right people? And if you do a good job in the beginning, no-call, no-shows aren’t a problem because you’re hiring right to begin with. I think that’s a whole ‘nother subject that we need to talk about here in the near future. So Eric, anything you want to add?
Eric: Definitely. I think Amanda touched on it briefly, but to expand on what she started to talk about was setting that expectation in the beginning when you hire somebody, right? So, just so everybody knows, hey, when I put you on a schedule, I need you here. We don’t have extra people. We don’t have somebody on standby that we can call in. If your name appears on a schedule, I need to know if you’re not going to be here well in advance of you not being here because then the team can be set up for success. And nothing’s worse than a team not set up for success.
And you put the ball in their court, right? So, I always explain it to them, imagine you’re the one that’s on shift, and you know you’re supposed to have someone working next to you, and they don’t show up. Now, you have to work twice as hard. It’s not really fair. So, think about that and the other person that will be in their shoes when you do it to them. So, I think that’s part of it, and setting the example and the expectation in the beginning.
Amanda: Hey, do you guys remember the on-call thing where—
Danny: I loved on-calls, yeah.
Amanda: It’s not legal in most states at this point because you’ve got to pay them, but it’s like, gosh, those team members, I mean, we asked a lot of them. Hey, just sit around until two hours before your shift and we’ll let you know if you’re going to get, you know, called into work. That was awful.
Eric: On a Friday night. “Hey, it’s 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. I don’t know if I’m working tonight. I got to wait. I can’t do anything fun, yet.” Right? Horrible.
Danny: I mean, operationally for managers, I mean, it was really nice to have that backup. I know it wasn’t very pleasant for the person on call, but we always used to try to reward them when they came in. And, you know, it goes back to, I think in our first podcast, I totally screwed up the golden rule. But again, you know, just taking care of people the way you would want to be taken care of. I think I got it right this time, right? So, anyway.
So, then all of that gets down to hopefully, you have a group of people that have been engaged, they give you great ideas, and I think just to say it, it’s really important you follow up on their ideas, too. There’s a lot of people that, you know, come in with this idea, nobody does anything about it, and then after a while, it’s like, “Okay, I’m not going to say anything because nobody really cares,” right? So, then you’re really beginning to create the capability of finding a future leader. And so, let’s talk about future leaders, and how do you look at your team, and what do you do to get somebody who’s great and become a leader for you, either as you expand or you have to replace people in your restaurant? So, Amanda, what say you?
Amanda: The people who have the most potential to be future leaders are people who have that natural ability to influence their peers. It’s not the most skilled server or the most skilled cook. I’ve learned that the hard way. It’s the people who just naturally have the respect and ear of all of their peers. It’s the people who go the extra mile, who can eloquently get through a shift meeting at the beginning of the shift and be able to explain to people what’s going on. So, I think we have this propensity to want to promote the person who is the best server who has the highest sales or is the most skilled cook, but I think that’s the wrong way to look at it.
Danny: Yeah. You can be a great doer and a terrible leader, right, and that doesn’t get you anywhere except you have a doer that’s not going to really be able to orchestrate shifts and lead the restaurant, right? Eric, anything else you want to add?
Eric: Just to that point? I know we’ve all seen great sports figures throughout our life who were some of the best players in their games. I won’t mention any names, but some of them have gone on to become coaches or managers or leaders and they don’t have the same success as a leader as they did as a player, and that speaks to what Amanda was talking about. And then just to expand upon when Amanda—now we’ve identified these people who have empathy and can lead from a great spot, they have their ear of the people, give them little bits of things to do to move their leadership progression forward. Maybe it’s running the shift meeting every day when they’re in the building. Maybe it’s taking inventory, maybe it’s doing an order, maybe it’s helping with the schedule. Whatever it is, you’re putting more on their plate to see how they handle elevated responsibility and see if they can handle what life throws at them at that point, and see if they’re going to be able to move forward as a leader in your environment.
Danny: Yeah, and it’s a really good test also because it’s really hard to go from being an employee to being a leader with the same group of people. And I’m sure you guys have experienced you never promote somebody to promote shift leader or into management and keep them in the same store because that can be a nightmare, too. It’s great training, but it’s a really challenging thing, so it’s a really great leadership lesson, too is, how do you elevate yourself to being a leader versus one of the gang, right?
Amanda: So, one thing I want to add to that is I used to—young, you know, young GMs and young managers who’d want to promote shift leads, they would think, “Well, I’m just going to give them the keys and see what they run with it.” And I used to tell them, they’re not magic keys. They don’t magically have any power over this person, so you giving them the keys is not a strategy for development. It used to crack me up.
Danny: Yeah, it’s like, sprinkle a little fairy dust on the keys and poof, you have a GM, right? Really, wouldn’t that make life a lot easier? So, just touch quickly on the right way and the wrong way. You know, when you’re a manager, you are walk a fine line, different generations, different people, different personalities, everybody wants to be treated differently, so enforcing policies, you know, some people are very understanding. Some people think you’re a jerk. I know, back to you, Eric, being a jerk—
Eric: [laugh].
Danny: —right? So, you have to be delicate, so what’s the best way to handle stuff like that, where you have to enforce policy, where you have to terminate someone? I mean, I used to hate terminating employees. I just hated doing it, as we all probably do. So, how do you handle stuff like that?
Eric: Again, I think it goes back to setting expectations and holding people accountable to your expectations, right? So, if you are the one who sets that expectation in the beginning and somebody doesn’t meet that expectation, that conversation is a lot easier to have because you know the expectation was set, whereas if you just go all willy-nilly and let people do what they want to do, and then 14 days, 21 days later, you say, “Hey, you’re not meeting the expectation,” and they say, “Well, I don’t even know what the expectation is,” it’s very hard to hold that person accountable. Whereas the other person, now 14 days, 21 days later, they’re not meeting that expectation, you sit down with them, “Hey, you’re not meeting this expectation,” they go, “I know. I’m really trying to get there. This is what’s stopping me.”
Then you can have a developmental plan from there to help them get to meeting that expectation, or if you don’t see it turning in the right direction, you can have that termination conversation and not feel bad about it, right? Because you set the expectation, you showed them how to get the result, you moved—all of the obstacles in that person’s way, you moved out of the way to help them be successful, and they’re just not successful. So, you can lay your head down at the end of the day and know that you did what you were supposed to do.
Danny: Yeah, and giving them the tools and the knowledge. Like I think we talked the last time if you didn’t give them every opportunity to succeed, shame on you, not shame on them, right? And I know it’s tough. And Amanda, you probably have done a lot of this over the years. It’s not easy to do, so how do you handle it? How would you like to weigh in?
Amanda: I think you just do it respectfully. You know, this person gave us their time, and I think that we handle it in the kindest way possible. You know, we don’t want it to be a contentious meeting. We want to be clear about, hey, we’re parting ways today, and this is why. I think it’s really important to tell somebody why. You know, there’s somebody—and not just to make them feel better, but so they really have an understanding of what’s happening.
Imagine getting terminated from a job and not knowing exactly why you’re being terminated. I mean, that seems obscenely unfair. And so, I think we’re very clear on the reasons why we’re parting ways, and I think we make it clear, hey, if there is anything that’s hanging what next steps are, if there’s any insurance involved. And I think it people are watching this, right, not necessarily immediately, hopefully we have this person in a private setting, but this team member is going to either speak really poorly about us as an employer, or say, wow, they were really nice, even all the way up until the end. And really people know they’re being terminated. I mean, this should probably, unless somebody’s done something egregious, this should not be a surprise to the person getting terminated.
Danny: Yeah, and again, you know, you hate to do it, but you have to do it—I think you pointed out earlier—because it does affect the morale of the entire team and it becomes a downer for everybody, so better to do it, do it right. And I think hopefully you’re helping the person in their next job and helping them become a better person as you go forward, right?
So, we’re going to switch subjects here. We’re going to talk about time management, and I think we’ve talked before, people think it’s some badge of honor to work 80 hours a week, and think you got all this done, and do everything yourself, and you’re a hero, right? That’s probably, like, the worst thing that you could possibly do. So, let’s talk about how to stop putting out fires, and let’s talk about the power of delegation, and how do you do that, and what kind of process do you guys go through that makes people better, right? So, what do you guys think? How do we get this done right without killing yourselves?
Eric: I typically use a timeline. I typically use some sort of pattern throughout my day to ensure that everything flows the way it should. 30 minutes prior to opening the door, that line check better be complete so the team members have any ability to finish what needs to be done, anything that needs to be changed, any quality problems that were found during line check, they have the ability to take care of those prior to opening the door, right? So, everything has a timeframe. You know, you open the door, you’re doing your security check, you’re looking and making sure all your coolers are working. These routines, while they seem to be innocuous, they give you a great repetition to go through every day, and then you ensure every day, you’re getting all these things done in a timely fashion, so that way, when the first guest walks through the door, you’re ready to roll.
Amanda: Eric said it exactly right. It’s having those great habits and routines, but it’s also, the best leaders are not doing the tasks that don’t impact a team member or guest. They’re really spending their time on things that are more meaningful. Let’s face it, I used to love to reorganize things. It feels really good to visually see, wow, you’ve got this walk-in great, but is that really impacting a team member or a guest in the moment? It probably isn’t.
So, it’s just figuring out where to spend our time to create the most impact in the restaurant, and it’s not doing those tasks that can be developing other people. We talked about delegating a little bit in our last podcast, and I think saying, “Hey, if I’m delegating this to—let’s use Susie again. We seem to like her.” “Hey, Susie, I want this walk-in to look like this. Here’s a diagram. This is how it should look.” And then guide her along the way, to give her that ownership and development. That’s not taking me away from things that are bigger picture items. So, I think the best leaders are not just managing their time effectively. They’re being really strategic about developing other people to do those tasks that don’t impact the bigger picture in the restaurant.
Danny: It’s what we used to call, you know, in my previous jobs, powering down, but following up, follow up being the key to make sure they’re getting trained. And, I think, last time we talked about it, too, your goal was to work yourself out of a job. Recently, Amanda, you and I are on a project where you have somebody that’s in charge of business analysis helping with a catering party. You know, like, why? I think this person doesn’t know how to pull back and let things happen, or figure out how to a better way to do it, right, rather than doing it yourself. It’s easy to get into that trap because, you know, you say, I’ll just do it because I can just get it done faster. And before you know it, you’re doing everything, and you’re burnt out.
Amanda: You know it’s interesting, when I’m hiring somebody, you alluded hey—you know, that could be a separate podcast—but I ask a lot of different questions that most people haven’t heard, but I typically ask somebody to tell me about their leadership style, and then I ask them what their team would say about their leadership style. And I’m looking for something really important. I’m looking for them to say, “I’m really hands-on, and I want my team to see that I’m going to do everything that they’re doing.” And I always think to myself, “God, that is so old school, and why are you still doing that?” Because your team will respect you if the restaurant is running well and you’re focusing on the things that you need to focus on. I wish that mentality would just cease to exist in the restaurant business.
Eric: It’s funny you say that Amanda because recently, on a lot of these projects we’re on, we see so much hands-on leadership and so many people diving in and working in the business instead of working on the business, right? Leaders should be working on the business constantly, and we see them every time we’re in a restaurant, working in the business, either running food or doing a menial task that they’re already paying two to three other people to do, they’re taking it over and doing it, and then they’re missing the big picture of the entire guest experience. So, definitely see that a lot.
Danny: Yeah, and I think oftentimes, you know, again, as people get promoted, they try to revert back to where they’re most comfortable. If they’re comfortable running food because they’re a server, you know, it’s a way of, kind of being comfortable in your environment. So, the goal is to try to get them uncomfortable so that what is uncomfortable becomes comfortable. And that’s leadership, right?
So, now we may have already touched on it. So, let me just quickly ask, are there common time-wasters that you guys see out there that kind of bring people’s awareness, and maybe they can say, oh, yeah, I do that all the time. I’m going to stop doing that? Any time-wasters you guys can think of off the top of your head?
Eric: Yeah. How many times have we gone into a restaurant and a manager is standing by the bar just talking to the bartender, right? Go talk to your guests. Get away from the bar. Go talk to your guests sitting at the tables. Go check on your kitchen guys, make sure they have everything they need. What have you seen, Amanda?
Amanda: I used to love the opening manager, like, making all of the iced tea and putting the ice and the ice wells, and they’re like, “Yeah, I like to do it before the team gets here.” I’m like, “Okay, so let me understand this. You have somebody coming in to do this, but you like to do it so that it’s done before the person that you’re paying gets in to do it?” I’m like, “Please help me make that make sense.” And so, they thought, you know, they wanted to be kind to the person and get their day started right, and it used to drive me crazy because I’m thinking to myself that 30 to 45 minutes could have been spent doing so many other things, coaching a prep cook, working through a recipe, and just doing things that would really impact the restaurant. So, if I see that in a restaurant today when we’re doing an assessment, it still drives me crazy.
Danny: Well, you recall we had a client not too long ago, one of the managers first responsibilities was to mop the floor, right? Remember that one?
Amanda: I could not believe it, and I asked them, I said, “Do you mind doing that?” And they’re like, “Well, if I don’t do it, who’s going to do it?” I’m like, “The three other people that are clocked in right now could maybe do it?” So, that was a bizarre one.
Danny: That was a pretty interesting scenario. And hard as we tried, we couldn’t quite get them to comprehend that was, like, the absolute worst thing that a manager should be doing at 7:30 or eight o’clock in the morning. And I think the other thing it’s like trying to teach managers, be there when you need to be there. So, coming in a half hour early to brew tea, you’re not there when the guest is there, you’re not there when your team is there, so you’re not really leading, and you’re not touching your guests either. So, it’s just a really crazy mentality.
And again, it’s like, well, if I’m there, it’s a badge of honor, and it’s going to run smoothly, as opposed to the theory, it’s not how good you are when you’re there, it’s how good you are when you’re not, right? That’s really the key. So, is there anything that you feel like you can’t delegate as a manager and a leader, that you just simply you have to take care of those things? Anything there before we move on?
Amanda: Yes, when a guest, you have an upset, unhappy guest, I typically do not like that, pushed onto a senior team member. I think that it means a lot to a guest when you see a manager go out there. We train for this, we know exactly how to diffuse a situation, ensure that we can turn an unhappy guest into a happy guest. And then anything to do with a coaching conversation. So, if we have a shift leader that we’re developing into a manager, I think it’s important that they sit in on those conversations so they gain that comfortability in how to start them, what to say, you know, how to make the other person feel comfortable, but those two things, I would never delegate.
Eric: Amanda stole them all. The only thing I would add is maybe termination, you know? I don’t think it’s right for other folks to terminate anybody else either.
Danny: Good points. Yeah, I think finances, making sure that you’re on top of finances, you know, instead of delegating that away, all the critical stuff while everything else is happening around you. And just to go back and reiterate, I think a big part of this, Eric, I think you were right on with timelines. We really advocate as we work with our clients, same routine, same way, every day. And the analogy is, if you do those things the same way every day, along with your team having the same timelines, you don’t have to worry about what you forgot to do before you go home.
And you know, a lot of that stuff is, I don’t want to say menial, but if you get that done, you can work on more important things like taking care of guests, taking care of your team, too, and marketing, instead of doing all those crazy little things that have to get done that you shouldn’t be doing anyway, right? So, I have a question for you guys. Are you ready? It’s seven o’clock Friday night. You got a two-and-a-half hour wait, and the power goes out. What do you do? How do you manage it?
Eric: That’s always one of my favorites, right? So, obviously the biggest thing is, is calm the people down, right? So, everybody freaks out. Calm them down, right? Servers, go talk to your table, say, “Hey, power went out. We’re going to hang here for a minute, see what’s happening. I’m going to go back and check in the kitchen and check on your food, but let’s just relax a little bit.”
Then go to your kitchen team members. Calm them down, get them in the right headspace. Make sure, if you have gas pilots and stuff, and sometimes when the electric goes out, the pilots go out, so depending on where you are, maybe you’re turning off gas so we don’t get any surprises when the power comes back on. And then just getting with the people. I think the biggest thing you can do as a leader is making sure everybody keeps a level head.
Danny: Very good. And then filling orders where you can, right? And then—you know, I don’t know if crash kits still exists today, you know, with new POS, but just managing the best you can, to your point, and staying calm. So, anything you want to add, Amanda?
Amanda: I think Eric touched on all the important parts. And I think it’s really just being a calm leader during that situation, calling the power company, having a great understanding, hey, somebody hit a pole. It’s going to be 45 minutes, so that you’re going in knowing, hey, this is just a blip in the road. We’ll be back on in 30 minutes, or hearing from your power company. Hey, we’re probably three hours out so that you can make the best decision on how to proceed. It may not be worth it, if it’s eight o’clock at night, to not lock the doors. So, it’s getting the information, to Eric’s point, keeping your people calm, and then making the best decision for the restaurant in terms of, is it worth it to stay open?
Danny: Yeah, and serve the best you can, what you can before you have to call it a day, right? So, good. And then, you know, I think also just if you have to get out of the building and having a rally point, I don’t know if anybody actually has that in a restaurant, so you can account for your team if you had to do an evacuation, if it was not power, if it was a tornado or an earthquake or a hurricane, or whatever it was, making sure you can account for your team and care for your team in all kinds of crises, I think, are really important also. So, all right, so Amanda, you’re walking through the dining room, you’re a general manager, you see a guest, kind of, looking around, wondering what’s going on. You walk up to the table and approach them, and you know, they’re very angry, very upset. What do you do?
Amanda: One of my favorite things was, when someone said, you know, “You’ll never make this guest happy,” I love a challenge. I believe that if you lean into the oldest thing in the book, which is LAST, Listen, Apologize, Solve, and Thank. And listen to listen. Listen to truly empathize with why the guest is upset. You know, the best leaders listen to listen and not to respond. And it’s really showing that empathy, softening your voice. Sometimes it’s kneeling down. It’s making them feel like they’re truly heard and then truly apologizing.
And it’s not about being right or wrong, and that’s something I would emphasize with newer managers. This isn’t a—nobody’s going to win this. This isn’t an argument. This is about listening, truly apologizing and being sorry for whatever is happening, and then figuring out the best way to solve the issue. What is going to make this guest happy?
I once had a lady tell me, years ago when I was a GM, that we had an item last week that we no longer had. Now, that item was never on the menu. Could I have said, you know, “You’re crazy. We’ve never served that here. I think you’re really mixed up.” But what I did was I steered her to another item, and I said, “This is really good.”
I just think it’s important that leaders understand that it is never, ever about being right because that is the fastest way to inflame a guest versus just it’s about making sure that person walks out happy. And then really thanking them for bringing it to your attention and bringing it full circle, saying, “Hey, I really appreciate you bringing this to my attention and then giving me the opportunity to make this right for you.” That goes a really long way.
Danny: Yeah, it’s not always about, “Well, I got to give you a free meal or buy your meal.” I mean, there’s a lot of ways to solve it, right? And just the empathy and listening, right? So, anything else you want to add, Eric?
Eric: No, I think Amanda crushed that. She’s really, really good at that kind of stuff. Even when we’re walking through restaurants today as consultants and she picks up on the vibe of a table so well and spends time with them. And then the owner goes, “Hey, what happened there?” And she just explains it, and the guests leave entirely happy. So, it’s a lot of fun to witness that and see it happen live, too.
Amanda: You know the oldest saying, Eric, right, unhappy guests can turn out to be our most, you know, loyal guests and raving fans in the future. If we can course correct that guest, we have made a guest for life and a fan for life.
Eric: Absolutely.
Danny: Yeah, and just one other thing to add there, I think keeping your team aware, especially people at the front door, they hear things, they hear somebody grumbling on the way out, try to stop them, have a conversation, get them back. And I think empowering your team is the Nordstrom model, where nobody leaves unhappy and we’ll do anything we can to make it right, no matter who you are, and I think that empowerment, I think, is critical in teaching and coaching your team how to do the same thing that Amanda just described it, right? So, I just want to do a little recap here. I think we’ve covered a lot of really good material in these two sessions. So, I’ll start with Amanda. If you had parting words, if this was your last time you were going to be a trainer or a mentor or a coach to somebody, what would you tell them?
Amanda: In terms of all of the things that we talked about, I feel restaurants that operate the best lean into their systems and not people. And so, I know we really talked a lot about people. And Danny, you and I spent some time in the last few months with a client, and they were completely people dependent and not system dependent. They told us that they have this person, this person, this person, and this is going to keep the restaurant going. And it was interesting that you kept having to sort of redirect the conversation and say, “Well, if you didn’t have these people, what is the system? How would we keep this thing going?” So, I would say, lean into your systems, right? People don’t rise to the level of their training; they fall to the level of their systems.
Danny: Yeah. Or, and we ran into this also, Amanda, is where, well, I have this person, so we’re going to do this policy, as opposed to having the policy and finding the right person to execute the policy that you need to have. So like, you hire somebody new, and everything changes. And that person leaves, you hire somebody else, and it’s like, you’re all over the map as opposed to staying true to who you are and staying true to your systems, and training people the right way. All right, Eric, going to be a tough act to follow. What do you got?
Eric: I want to add on—I don’t know about following, I’ll just continue the conversation—so we have a saying where we’re tough on systems and easy on people, right? So, we had a project, and the owner was very hands-off and he didn’t have a great idea of what’s going on in his restaurant, and he was really reliant on his people, and his people had no systems in place. We came in, we wanted to implement systems and tools and get everything set up the way it should operate. And thank God we did because the people who were in place decided one day that they no longer wanted to be in place.
So, guess what? Had we not been there and implemented systems and tools, that restaurant probably would have crumbled a little bit. They would have come back, but it would have been very hard on the people who stayed, very hard on the owner, and it would have been difficult for all involved to continue down the path of success that they were working towards.
Danny: No, that’s really good. You know, and again, it gets back to consistency, especially if you’re a multi-unit because if you don’t have systems, you have no consistency, and you know, you just can’t manage that way because every one of them runs differently, so each one’s an independent restaurant, right, so it drives you crazy. Anyway. Well, I would like to thank you guys. This has been a really fun session. We’re going to continue this.
I really think we should talk about how to hire the right people, and in the future, we’re going to talk about finances, we’re going to be talking about social media, back-of-house operations, we could spend hours talking about front-of-house training, and operation, so stay tuned for some new things. Reach out if you have ideas, if you have a subject that you would like to have us talk about. We are an open book. We want you guys to be successful. So, reach out info@therestaurantroadmap.com. I’d like to thank Amanda for all of your time and all your wisdom and all the throw-down mic points that came up. Thank you so much.
Eric: You’re very welcome.
Danny: All right. Eric, thank you as usual. And stay tuned everybody. We have a lot more to come. It’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be fun. So, everybody have a great day, and we’ll talk to you soon. Take care.
Eric: Bye, Y’all. Have a great day.
Eric: Bye, everyone.
Danny: Thanks for tuning in. We hope today’s episode gave you valuable insights you can put into action. If you have questions, want more info on today’s topic, or need support with your restaurant-specific challenges, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out anytime at info@therestaurantroadmap.com, and visit synergyrestaurantconsultants.com to explore our services, sign up for our newsletter, and catch up on past episodes. Don’t forget to follow and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook so you never miss what’s next. Do you have feedback or a topic you’d like us to cover? Contact us. We’re here to help make the world a better place to eat.