Member Blog

Do you realize how much pressure there is on the person who is writing the Law of Fun? You gotta bring your "A" Game if you are going to write about fun, but can we get real for a second? Training is not always fun. There it is. I said it. Most of the time in fact, training is a chore. It's often something you HAVE to do, not anything you WANT to do. If you have been reading this series, you know that the better and more compelling you make your training programs, the more people will have the desire to learn what you are teaching.

After managing through Hurricane Katrina as President and COO of Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, I was asked by CHART to present the leadership lessons learned at a CHART conference. My presentation was entitled, “Lessons from the Eye of the Storm.” Given the events of the past few weeks, CHART once again asked if I could share those lessons with our amazing and giving CHART community. The leadership lessons from Katrina are still leadership lessons I use and teach in my consulting practice with teams today. The following are what I call the “High Cs of Crisis Leadership..."

We’ve all seen it happen. It’s a busy day at your hotel, and everything is running smoothly as the staff hustles to take care of the guests. But then, in the middle of this well-choreographed routine, you notice one employee pull out a cell phone and start talking or texting.

I have a CHART logo compact mirror with “Visionary Trainer” written across it. It was an Atlanta conference gift. While using it the other day, I thought about what it means to be a visionary trainer or leader. It involves having a vision, being accountable for executing said vision, creating engagement with others around the vision, and commitment to carry out the vision.

Patrick Yearout is interviewed by QSR Magazine on this topic. For Patrick, having different generations on staff is an essential part of success. It provides diversity of knowledge and perspectives, which keeps the brand relevant. Members of Generation Y are often tech-savvy and can help provide fresh insights on products, marketing, management styles, and more.

The ironic thing about the Law of Brevity is the word brevity itself. In its essence, it means short, compact, and concise. So it’s a longer word for “short,” but it means to keep it short? Okay, but for our purposes The Law of Brevity is a fancy way to say, keep your training programs and learning initiatives short & concise. Also, it sounds way better than The “Law of Short."

Like almost every other hospitality organization, Rubio’s has a dress code for its employees; ours consists of clean and wrinkle-free shirts, blue jeans, nametags, non-slip shoes, and an assortment of related grooming and conduct standards. And like almost every other hotel or restaurant company, our employees occasionally struggle to follow these guidelines. Sometimes they forget their shirts at home, sometimes they spill salsa on their pants while working in the kitchen, and yes, sometimes they show up looking like they slept in their work clothes (sigh).

Ultimately, we CHART trainers have a responsibility to intentionally create and maintain an environment for the growth and development of healthy and effective organizational culture. Through a number of internal discussions, and seeking input from many CHART members, here are a few of the shared questions I have found that help us dig deep into Culture creation. Perhaps they will spark some discussion within your teams, too!

In the world of hospitality, too much sitting is not something that most employees have to worry about because they are typically very active helping, serving, directing, cooking for, and cleaning up after guests. Most of them rarely sit down, and if they were to count up their steps, I’m sure some of them easily reach 10,000 when working a long shift. But what happens when operations folks get promoted up into training positions?

Four years ago, I wrote a column for the CHART blog encouraging hospitality trainers to attend the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, and I feel that all of the reasons I listed in that piece are just as relevant today. The event provides a venue for those on the training side to forge stronger connections with their colleagues in operations, familiarize themselves with new vendors that offer products and services for managing and delivering training, and sample some amazing cuisine in one of the country’s best cities for restaurants. Here are 5 great nuggets of advice I picked up from attending the various CHART member sessions.

Whether you’re presenting to a large audience or speaking at a meeting, you want your message to be clearly heard. You want people to believe in your credibility. Sometimes you just want to get through it without making a fool of yourself. Public speaking is a greater fear than death for the average person, but fortunately, it is a learnable skill. It is also one of the keys to attaining executive presence and all of the benefits that come with that.

After 40 years in training and development, it’s time to confess. It started at a simple interview in 1972 when I was asked to be a Food and Beverage Trainer. I just graduated from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and was successfully managing a high-volume Swiss German Restaurant celebrated by locals as one of the best places to eat in Las Vegas. Why would I want to leave success to work for Holiday Inn hotels as a company trainer opening hotel restaurants? Why indeed would I want to take a 50% cut in pay and what exactly does a food and beverage trainer do?