Click Here for our FREE Pre-Shift Meeting Planning Template.It's downloaded 26,000 times daily by leaders to plan and execute effective pre-shift meetings!
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Brand New and available right now: Multiunit Leadership-in-a-Box Kit. This awesome customizable kit allows your trainers to teach your franchisees and area managers with the same slides, videos, style, content, templates, research, interaction and activities that Sullivision uses in its popular $20,000 Multiunit Leadership workshops. It's like having the experience of over 1000 multiunit leaders and franchisees in one box. Just open and develop your teams immediately to improve people, performance and profitability across diverse markets. Click HERE to learn more.
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Follow Sullivision on TWITTER (@sullivisioncom; get your quote of the day), LINKEDin and YOU TUBE
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My 3 Songs.  Every month I like to share a three-song mix of interesting music that I’ve been listening to. A combo of music overlooked, recent, classic and new, and I think that Sullivision.com visitors might enjoy them as well. July-August Mix: Don't Shoot (I'm a Man) by Devo (the boys are back with a catchy summer pop tune), Car Seat by Two Tons of Steel (full-throttle modern rockabilly), and Truck Drivin' Man by The Bottle Rockets (nitro country-billy) Download ‘em. It’s the best 3 bucks you’ll spend this month, guaranteed.
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The Unit Manger's Bill of Rights...by Jim Sullivan

 An open letter to foodservice owners, operators and Area Supervisors from your unit managers.

Hey Boss. It’s me. Remember when you said at our manager meeting last week that running a restaurant is not rocket science? That being a restaurant manager is like wearing a Speedo at the beach; anyone can, but not everyone should?  I know you were just trying to be funny, but the inference left me and the other managers a little bit steamed. Sometimes we wonder if you overlook how much we truly accomplish everyday in relation to how little we’re given and the resources we work with. It may not be “rocket science,” but I’d love to see a NASA engineer step in for just one shift and do what we do. I’m not saying we’re heroic, but the results we deliver are often quite miraculous.  

The fact is that being a restaurant manager is maybe the industry’s toughest job. It’s not just the Freudian Smorgasbord of characters and personalities we have to interact with and shape experiences for daily, it’s the cumulative emotional labor, intractable problems, imperfect processes, constant demands, variable expertise, creative challenges and endemic fire-fighting that makes this job such a bear. 

I know you read books and attend conferences that encourage you to get your managers to transform into leaders. And naturally there’s a brand new sure-fire three-easy-step “system” that will accomplish this transition in no time. Hey, we’re all for it too. Who wouldn’t prefer to “lead” rather than manage, and build teams instead of worrying about labor budgets, and train more instead of...well, hearing you complain about our labor budgets. But the fact is your new system and expectations are sometimes way out of whack with my daily reality. Most days I tackle shifts in which the science of management trumps the art of leadership; two crew members are late, a delivery is short, a fryer’s on the fritz, the health inspector shows, but a cook doesn’t. Unfortunately then you called about whether I’d read that article you just emailed about New Age Leadership and what was I doing about it. That was right after that customer spilled coffee on the other one, Jess cut her finger, the car broke down in the drive-thru lane during lunch rush, and the busload of coupon-clutching Seniors came in. Well, the truth is, I was just trying to keep the train on the track, money in the till, customers happy, nobody hurt and smooth all the ruffled feathers. But I consider that a good day. Could I do better? Absolutely. But can you meet me halfway here? I’m either too proud or too scared to ask for help most the time, so maybe sharing the following short list of basic manager’s rights with you--our Owner/Area Supervisor--will help us all be more productive and profitable.

Time out. As I struggle to get everything accomplished, you often suggest that I simply work harder. But “working harder” doesn’t improve skillsets I may not have or improve focus you did not provide. If you could help me get better at prioritizing and getting the big rocks in place, we all achieve more; you, me, the crew and the customer. If I can learn how to free myself from constant fire-fighting, my productivity rises and stress decreases, so give us tools to better manage both time and priorities.

Parity and balance. New rule: before you introduce into my workday a new “better way” or additional paperwork or duties to perform you must take an equal number of other duties or paperwork away.

Before we try the new thing let’s make sure the old thing isn’t just broken. Too many owners or area managers look for a more powerful engine instead of first fixing the leak in the boat. The system may be effective, but it’s being applied incorrectly. Maybe I have some ideas on this since I implement and oversee the systems shift after shift. Just ask. I’ll tell.  See the next point.

Empower my brain. Teach me how to think instead of all the time telling me what to do. Too often you give us answers to remember rather than problems to solve. You hired my brain too. I say let’s engage it. Thank you.

Respect my day off. Please keep the false urgency to a minimum. Your priority du jour should first be considered in context with all our other goals before it’s added to my priorities on my day off via an “urgent” phone call or email. The more time I have to replenish my energy the better your return on investment. So please don’t call me on my day off. We need to go home and be with our families too.

Make tacit knowledge explicit. “Knowledge” isn’t power, shared knowledge is. Please devise a system whereby my fellow managers and I can share best practices on a regular basis. What do my colleagues know that would make me specifically better at something I’m not currently good at?

Hire power. You want me to recruit and retain high-performers and cut turnover in half? Fine, then teach, train and coach me better on how to get do it and give me the right screening tools and resources so that I can do it most efficiently. 

Ground me, don’t grind me.

Appreciation is like an insurance policy; it needs to be renewed every now and then. Sixty hours a week of restaurant managing is tough enough. Please don’t wear me down further with little encouragement or recognition—especially for the small victories we deliver everyday. Who gives care to the caregiver...if not you? Good managers are like spouses; if you don’t show appreciation they’ll go somewhere else. Use purpose and not just personality to lead us.

Thanks for listening boss, and I hope this doesn’t sound whiny, because that’s not what I intended. I’m not asking you to stay out of my way, I’m asking for clearer direction, better resources, daily encouragement and focused coaching. After all, if we’re not it in together, we’re not in it to win it. Whoops, gotta go, somebody just called in sick.

Jim Sullivan is a popular speaker and consultant on service, sales-building and leadership. You can get his free monthly enewsletter and product catalog at www.sullivision.com.

--DIRFT: Means Do It Right the First Time. One of the things you can control in a downturn economy is executing the operational fundamentals better than your competitors. “Practice” doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. If it ain’t a ten, make it again. Practice with team members before every shift via the pre-shift meeting. Check out the hour-long Jumpstart DVD or our best-selling The Shift: How to Plan It, Lead It, Make It Pay DVD. Show your unit managers how to plan, deliver and improve your daily pre-shift meetings and make every shift a profitable one. Be sure to download our FREE daily pre-shift meeting planning template.Training is your secret weapon. Never practice on the customer. 

 Get Jim Sullivan’s free monthly e-newsletter of leadership best practices  

 --2010 Leadership Training: get stronger faster If your team is suffering from a lack of real-world  effective leadership training in these challenging times, check out Multi U, Sullivision's brand new 6 hour online leadership training e-learning course powered by DiscoverLink and Nation's Restaurant News. Hundreds of foodservice leaders and multi-unit managers have taken it and the results have been outstanding. You can check out the free demo or take the course at www.sullivision.com/multiu The course is an ideal leadership training tool for Regional Managers, franchisees, Executives and high-potential GMs.
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With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world today, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed last week. Larry LaPrise, the man who wrote "The Hokey Pokey", died peacefully at age 93.   The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin.  They put his left leg in.  And then the trouble started.
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Truths About Our Industry:
The restaurant business is like oxygen: if you're alive you'll use it.
Different is not always better, but better is always different. 
Never Practice on the Customer.
Training is our secret weapon!
Speed is not everything...direction counts.
Marketing is a philosophy, not a department.
Know the difference between busy and being productive


For a POSTER of more great quotes like these, CLICK HERE.

SULLIVISION'S "Greatest Hits" Vol 2 NOW on Sale: get our 3 best-selling products: the Mind Your Own Business book (over 220,000 sold), the Jumpstart Pre-Shift Meeting DVD and the QuoteZilla DVD together and SAVE $20 plus get free shipping:  Only $121! Click on "Products" to the left. 

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