What makes a good leader?

Recently, National Restaurant Consultants CEO, Richard Weil, participated in a Webolutions executive roundtable, a leadership workshop that added to his many years’ experience in teaching leadership skills. The following includes his workshop take-away, coupled with his expertise in coaching restaurant managers and owners.

Engage your senses.

A good leader utilizes the senses. If you think about all the body’s senses, and the organs connected to those sensibilities, there are clues about leadership. For example, we have two eyes; two ears; two nostrils. There are two sides to the brain. We have four heart ventricles, we have thousands of tastebuds. But we only have one mouth–there is a reason we only have one mouth!

Whole person action. Group success.

Enrolling all of your senses into business strategy makes for a strong leadership formula. Our vision forms our strategies, and our strategies determine our tactics.

The vision should relate to your core values and beliefs. Perhaps this stems from a tagline, something all of your staff can easily memorize, understand, and apply. When crafting your vision, consider what it is leading toward.

• Leads to purpose: when and where are you going?
• Leads to mission: expectation setting.
• Measurable: find success together.

When individuals focus on something bigger than themselves, engaging their whole selves, they find what a group can achieve together. This group mentality, this shared engagement, births common strategies–action steps that everyone can take. As Teddy Roosevelt said, “Complaining without a solution is simply just whining,” but crafting solutions together yields productive solutions. 

When your solutions are formed in this way, you don’t just come up with action steps, you create S.M.A.R.T. tactics: an action plan that is specific, measurable, accountable, realistic, and timely.

Know when you need more help.

Great leaders aren’t afraid to reach out for advice. Want to help your organization through greater leadership moving forward in 2020?   Want to be sure you have the language around your business’s vision, core values and beliefs? Do you want to effectively communicate with your staff, finding common ground in your strategies and tactics? Contact a restaurant consultant today.

Photo by Andreas Klassen on Unsplash