Restaurant Doctor Hospitality Resources
 

THERE'S GOT TO BE AN EASIER WAY TO RUN A RESTAURANT
How to Have a Successful Company ... AND A LIFE!

There's Got to Be an Easier Way to Run a Restaurant

 

Trade paperback, 170 pages, 6"x9"
Copyright 2016
Published by Hospitality Masters Press

order from amazon.com

 

AUTHOR'S SUMMARY:
It seems like businesses are getting harder to run, but the problem is not "out there" somewhere. There's GOT to Be an Easier Way to Run a Business shines a light on the unconscious assumptions most managers make -- notions that hinder effectiveness, increase stress and make the game of business less fun to play -- and suggests common sense alternatives that will allow you to be more effective with less effort ... and get your life back!

Among other things, this politically-incorrect book will show you:

  • Why you shouldn't waste time trying to motivate your staff 
  • How you create your own stress ... and how to materially reduce it 
  • How to foster a work environment where exceptional service happens naturally 
  • Why the helpful things you do for others may actually create more problems 
  • Why "working your list" effectively may actually move your company backward 
  • Why the best way to be competitive is not to compete

You owe it to your company -- and your family -- to read this book!

There's GOT to Be an Easier Way to Run a Business!
How to Have a Successful Company ... and a Life!

CONTENTS

Part 1 - INTRODUCTION
01. Help wanted
02. How to read this book
03. Of coaches and cops

Part 2 - OUT OF THE WEEDS
04. Lost in the weeds
05. Life on the beach
06. Out of the weeds

Part 3 - A FRESH LOOK AT MANAGEMENT
07. Leadership and Management
08. The Leader as a Compass
09. A Short Lesson in Leadership
10. The Power of the Vision
11. The Power of Impersonal Purpose

12. The Power of the Quiet Mind
13. Tell Your Story
14. Get the Herd Moving
15. Seek Alignment, Not Agreement
16. Be in Alignment With Your Guests

17. Chris the Dishwasher
18. Your Real Job
19. The Power of Presence
20. Motivation
21. Climate

22. The Day From Hell
23. Listening
24. The Benefit of the Doubt
25. Serve Your Staff
26. Value and Respect Your Staff

27. Value a Free and Clear Mind
28. Support Your Staff
29. Respect the Power of the Climate
30. Set a Personal Example
31. What's Your Problem?

32. Problem Solving
33. Finding Solutions
34. Give Your Job Away
35. How Rules Are Made
36. Sound Familiar?

37. Lazy People
38. Moving the Company
39. Columbo Management
40. Lists
41. Stress

42. Warning Signs
43. Pre-Determined Ideas
44. Start to Notice
45. Don't Compete, Excel
46. Tone of Voice

Part 4 - YEAH, BUT ...
47. Getting Acclimated
48. Out to Lunch
49. Non-Compliance
50. Freeing Up the Future
51. Reaching Agreement

Part 5 - WHERE TO FROM HERE?
52. The Daily Question
53. Fix the System, Not the People
54. Making it Safe
55. Dumb as Dirt
56. A Meeting of the Minds

57. The Meeting Mindset
58. Staff Meetings Step by Step
59. Monitor Your Meetings
60. Breaking Old Habits
61. Closing Comments

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK:

HELP WANTED (Introduction)

If you ran an honest ad for your job, would it look anything like this?

MANAGER WANTED
Must be willing to sell soul to the company, work 70-80 hours a week for little more than minimum wage, miss children's growing up, lose marriage, start drinking too much, live with stress and die of a coronary at age 53.


Do you think your phone would be ringing off the hook with eager applicants? Of course not ... and unless this is your idea of a good time, you don't have to put up with this sort of life, either.

Easy to say, but what else can you do?

My background is in the restaurant business, a labor-intensive, service-oriented industry that certainly has a reputation for demanding incredibly long hours from its managers. For that reason, most of the personal examples I give will be from that industry although I think you will find similar examples in your own experience.

The management model I learned was definitely one of 80+ hour weeks. I graduated from one of the country's premier hospitality degree programs, yet even in school -- as in every foodservice job I held -- I was taught that this is a killer business where you need to work 18 hours a day, eight days a week. I was told if I was not willing to make that kind of time commitment, I should pursue another line of work.

I never questioned it. I suspect most businesses have a similar myth passed down from one manager to the next. You may have bought into an idea like this, too.

The Cost of Misunderstanding
The cost we pay for this lack of understanding is staggering. It is measured in lower profits, reduced productivity, burnout, turnover, broken marriages, substance abuse and an impossible level of stress.

The sad truth is that a majority of the problems most managers deal with day after days are not inherent problems of their industry but rather very predictable symptoms of their level of understanding and their idea of what constitutes effective management.

Even as I was working myself to death (120 hours a week in one job!), I couldn't help but feel there just had to be an easier way to do what I was doing. I am definitely a hard worker but I am not a masochist, so I started looking for other approaches that might be more effective.

A New Model
Perhaps because I was actively looking for a better way, I crossed paths with some folks who were doing breakthrough work in understanding how individuals and organizations really function.

They helped me understand what I was doing in a different way and when I saw a bigger picture, I was suddenly off the old management merry-go-round. The human part of my work became effortless and the difference in my effectiveness was earthshaking!

Remember Columbus
I know it is easy to think, "In your dreams. It just isn't that easy." If you feel that way, let me remind you that in 1491, the world was flat! Everybody knew the world was flat -- it was a fact of life, yet just a year later, it was impossible to hold that view. So that little voice in your head that says, "There's GOT to be an easier way to do this," is right. Once your understanding shifts, your life, professionally and personally, will change forever.

A Blinding Flash of the Obvious
You already have the answers but you just don't see them yet because they are not where you're used to looking. The shift comes when you recognize simple, common sense truths that have been right in front of you all along but which, because of the way you were trained to think, you never fully understood before.

This book will examine the principles that can help you make this shift for yourself ... if you want to ... so buckle up and let's get started!