I Challenge You This...
by Morreen Rukin Bayles

There are people who thrive on challenge and others who cringe at the sound of the word. Please don't cringe at the challenge I am about to present to you. This challenge should stimulate a fun, free way to motivate and encourage your staff and perhaps yourself, too.

Here's the deal: Pick a day. Any day. On that day your main focus is to catch your staff doing things right. When you succeed, tell them you caught them. Only positive things should be noticed on that day, unless something really bad is about to happen that would hurt a guest or employee. Make a scene, get excited, give out prizes and make it public in front of the guest.

You're probably wondering if I have "lost my marbles". I promise you I have not. In my 15 years working in restaurant operations, I tried this myself and was continually amazed by the results — amazed so much that I now pose this challenge to managers attending our development series.

Recently, we had a group of 20 attend the series where I presented them with the challenge. They looked skeptical at first, but by the time they left, I saw a few were convinced.

Four participants took me up on the challenge initially, and they returned to class the next week, excited to report their results. These are the results they experienced:

• Employees were more productive because they knew their efforts would be recognized;

• Servers increased guest-check averages because they were rejuvenated to sell;

• Guests made more positive comments to management about the morale of the staff; and

• The managers themselves had a less stressful day because more things went right than wrong.

Good news travels fast. By the time the night managers did pre-meal meetings, the dinner staff had heard about what happened during the day. They, too, were excited to be caught doing something right. It's invigorating. It's catchy. It's hard to stop once you've started. In fact, it's not a challenge after all.

If you decide to take on the challenge, we'd love to hear your success stories. And if by chance this didn't work for you, we'd be happy to talk to you about other ways to make it happen. Email your stories to mbayles@consultcrs.com or fax them to (610) 594-2068.

Morreen Rukin Bayles has led Creative Restaurant Solution, Inc. (CRS), since its formation in 1997.  She is a dynamic consultant who has built a team of experts who consistently impress clients with attention to detail, industry knowledge, and dedication to superior customer service.  Morreen and the team at CRS help companies decrease operating costs, increase efficiencies, and put more fun back in the business through operational consulting, creating and conducting dynamic training programs, and gathering employee and manager feedback through a number of surveys.