Bit on Management

Okay so this blog isn’t actually about beer. I wanted to share with you a little bit about my mangement philosophy. At the Porter we have weekly mangement meetings and at each meeting I try to elaborate on one of my tenants of mangement:

Ace Every Shift

Inspire the Staff/ Connect with a staff member

Gain a new regular

Get the Big Picture

This week we are going to cover Ace Every Shift. In case you’ve never worked in the restaurant industry, there’ s some excitment, some stress, a lot of talking to people (staff, guests, co-workers) a lot of repetitive work and a little bit of glory!

Here’s the preview of Friday’s management meeting:

I believe you create your own reality. Today you work at The Porter. You work to earn a living, but
also to learn things and prepare yourself for future jobs. I know many of you want to own your own
restaurants and businesses. I choose managers who are interested in owning their own businesses
because I know you are “self motivated.”

Let’s talk about “self motivation.” You do everything because you are self motivated. You show up to
work because you told yourself that you need to go to work today. You show up even if you don’t feel
like it or would rather do something else. One might argue that you show up to work because otherwise
you’d lose your job. But you can choose to lose your job. Everything you do is your choice. Including how you see the world.

So I encourage you to see  The Porter as your own business. When you walk in the door for your shift, this restaurant is yours. Maybe there are things you would do differently, or think can be improved, you have the power to do that. 98% of the time (unless it’s too expensive,) Nick and I will be happy to help you effect positive change at The Porter.

Before I owned The Porter, I would try to take ownership of all my positions. When I was discouraged
or tired I would think to myself, “if this was my business, what would I do to motivate myself today?”
Because the truth is you are not magically motivated when you own your own business, you have to
continue to self coach and motivate through difficult situations/times.

Currently as managers you get that pat on the back occasionally from Nick and I, whether verbally or
through a raise and hopefully it helps get through the tough times when you’re not feeling like working,
or being at the Porter or entering inventory for the 40 millionth time. As a manager though sometimes
you don’t get that from anyone and it has to come from within.

A manager I once worked for said “The best marketing is to ace every shift.” Acing a shift means
different things to different people. To me, it meant coming in, greeting the staff in a positive way,
executing my set up checklist in a timely fashion and to the best of my abilities. Having a great and
motivating pre-shift with the staff and then working a great shift. If it is busy, then talking to customers
while assisting the staff, if slow then working on cleaning projects with the staff and talking to the few
customers that are in. Trying to find ways to go above and beyond. Trying to leave the business better
than when the shift began.

We all have days we are just trying to make it through the shift, but the goal is to have as few of those
as possible. It is also our goal to motivate our servers to “ace every shift.” We all know when someone is
off, sometimes addressing it with them can prevent them from have a an entire night “off” rather than
on and plugged in.

Thus concludes my philosophy on Acing Every Shift, future discussions will talk about ways to motivate
yourself, or things to do on an awesome ace shift!