10 Basic Rules for Old and New Employees in an Organization

10 Basic Rules for Old and New Employees in an Organization

1. Assume independence and couple it with common sense - anyone (both new and old employee) should assume independence but always act with common sense when dealing with day-to-day work load.
2. Exercise Maximum Tolerance - when dealing with people (both old and new), always exercise maximum tolerance, patience is really a virtue, extend patience at all times and understand where a person is coming from, remember their priorities may not be our priorities but all factors will affect the end-result of the organization.
3. Use Positive Reinforcement - The golden rule "Reprimand in PRIVATE and Praise in PUBLIC". Humiliation will not do any good, it will just worsen situations. Emails and other electronic communication means are made to augment the gaps in actual communication and not to extend frustrations or personal grievances. It is always good to talk in person.
4. Respect Holidays/Leaves and after-office time/lunch time/ and any personal time outside work-related activities - Use SMS to notify intention on individual business, person who receives SMS should in turn reply to signify their status whether free to talk or free to exchange SMS. If urgent and important, a call is necessary--always be apologetic and excuse yourself for any possible inconvenience to the person on the other line.
5. Ask the right questions to the right people - If you are confused and do not know what to do, ask the right person, seek other's advise as to whom should a question be directed to, so it can be answered intelligently and completely.
6. Perform each tasks diligently and with caution - always communicate, ensure that tasks accomplished are noted by the members of your team. Performing tasks given should always be at top quality as they are expected to be done that way.
7. Prioritize - list down tasks according to importance, not just to you, but to the one to whom you should deliver them to.
8. Initiate - Do not wait for others, if you feel a task is needed or an update is relevant to be secured, be the one to voice it out and demand for answers.
9. Do not patronize gossips and politics - we are not talk show hosts nor politicians, we are corporate people with dignity and honor. Gear away with gossips and office politics. Stay true in front and at the back of all your superiors and subordinates.
10. Contemplate, Make Amends, and Thank people - Organizations' best assets are the people comprising it. Contemplate on individual contribution and group abilities, Apologize and make-up for shortcomings and miss-outs, and never fail to thank people who contributed to a positive outcome of a particular project.

What Slows Us Down

Being involved in several projects and seeing the bigger picture inside the organization is something to be thankful for. Most of the time, people who are immersed in different scenarios face challenges that are also beyond their control. These challenges make it difficult for an individual to progress and be able to accomplish tasks assigned to him/her.

While most tasks will greatly involve one’s talents and abilities, many are still dependent on the decisions of other people in an organization or the circumstances faced daily by a particular employee.

In trouble-shooting dead-locks and reasons for slow execution, I enumerated a number of reasons on what seems to slow things down:

Lack of Direction/Too Much Direction

Anybody without direction would probably get lost at a certain point, for a project to be successful, a CLEAR and PRECISE direction is needed from the start. On the same note, too much direction will only confuse people, making it harder to move and proceed.

VIP’s

Very Irritating People who wants to be Very Important People – these are people who cannot compromise, they always have their own schedules and expect other people to always adjust to their convenience. These people slow down action items and communication patches needed to run a certain project.

Lack of Exposure and Experience

Not all projects are easily understood. Some projects are dependent on experiences of the Head and also of the subordinates. If members of the team are not exposed on the concept of a particular project or they havent even experience things in real life, there would also be challenges in effective and fast execution.

Wrong pieces used

Just like in the game of Chess, the player (Leader) should know what pieces to move and when to use them. When doing projects, team selection is important to assess, there are certain people who might not fit a particular project and there are those that would perfectly blend in

Long and Useless Meetings

In every project, meetings are required in order to plan and do checking. However, meetings consume time, time is essential to project execution and so taking time and putting them to proper use is very important. Long meetings, meetings about personal grievances, meetings on complaints to contractors and suppliers, will just make things worst. Meetings about SOLUTIONS, PROGRESS, AND POSITIVE REINFORCEMENTS are just the meetings needed. Keypoint: Conduct meetings only if things to be discussed cannot be done over email, personal phone calls, or a group decision is inevitably needed to be solicited.

Indecision

One of the biggest challenge when you join a project is the ability of your Head to decide. Decisions are needed to be made in accordance with the grand plan. When a Head fails to decide logically and on the right time, delays are sure to happen.

Shame and Blame Game

During crunch time, coaches (sports) say things that challenge the team to fight till the end of the game, to never give up and strategize. When doing projects and you reach crunch time, throwing in the blames on people will only reap shame, shame will demoralize people and demoralized people will eventually give poor outputs. When we deal with people, no matter how professional they are, we should always consider the human factor. This is the hard drive, this is where people get the urge to push and do more. Blaming people and shaming them in front of others will not do any good, but will definitely do much damage and furthermore slow things down.

Essentially, the organization should be designed as an institution run by professionals. Able to withstand all challenges and meet the goals of each projects both in Micro and Macro level. But many organizations still need to focus on the items that I have enumerated above. These items, when dealt with accordingly, can collectively be a good key in execution’s speed and the accuracy of the results.

Don't forget the other 45

Disappointment comes from a failed expectation. Most of the time disappointment occurs when a task or set of tasks are not carried out the way they're supposed to.

Leaders are those people who see through. There's always more than meets the eye. But for many, they are blinded by things that feed their disappointment.

I normally delegate around 50 tasks a month to my Area Managers. As we move on with our day-to-day work loads, my Area Managers will sometimes fail to execute a task according to plan, normally, I get disappointed at these situations leading me to call the attention of my Area Managers.

One day I realized that I have been punching a hole to the tank of motivation of my Area Managers, meaning, as I go on and get mad because of disappointments, I was looking at the mistakes rather than those good things and accomplished tasks. This is heart-breaking for a subordinate.

To understand this concept, a Leader needs to have an open mind. We are all human and the word "perfect" or "perfectionism" will drive us nuts if we stick to it. Out of the 50 tasks that I normally delegate, let's say 5 of those were not carried out properly or were not even accomplished. Normally, I would get mad, but another way to look at the situation is to take a look at the other 45 tasks. If these tasks were diligently executed and results were amazing, then you have a good subordinate worthy of commendation. In the same angle, if you will see things this way, you will be a great boss.

Remember that organizations function in the way you design them, and so by looking at the other 45 items rather than the 5, you will realize that soon enough, you will be having a well-motivated team, unafraid to take risks, and willing to accept challenges.

On the other hand, if you focus on the 5 rather than the 45, your key heads will lose their grip, you will have a bunch of rookies because of mass resignations (high turn-over rate), and eventually as great castles lose its pillars, your organization will collapse. So long for great CEO's and COO's who often times focuses on the 5. They will never win against us who think and appreciate the other 45.

Conditioning the Race Horse

The Restaurant Industry is like a big race track, the expectators are our indirect and direct customers. The Race Horses are the Key People in the organization.

If we value winning, conditioning the race horses will be an advantage.

In an organization, the key people should be treated as precious race horses, capable of running and withstanding the pressure of the race. In the same manner, as they are treated to ensure that they are capable of racing, they should also be conditioned. These key people should be well-compensated, benefits should meet the standard in the industry, and in most cases should exceed the expectations of a key person.

Most organization wants a faster horse, a stronger one, but as other gets some faster horses, they opt to save on premium food and maintenance (as these items are translated to compensation and benefits). Faster horses should be provided with the best possible food, vitamins, exercise, a comfortable stable, and all the things the horse will need to be in top shape for the race. Horses with less maintenance though, may still join the race, these horses are provided with the standard food, maybe cheaper vitamins, exercise will just be occasional, a cold stable may be given, as for the other things, well the horse may get them if by chance he wins a race.

During the race, the well-conditioned horses stand up with pride, confident that their ability and background will support them throughout the race. Meanwhile horses with poor maintenance-provisions stand uneasy, not sure if they can finish the race, or if they do, will they be pulling those carts like the Philippine Kalesa as a consolation.

These horses become elements as soon as the race start, a typical scenario during a tight battle in the Restaurant Industry, well-compensated key heads will always have the best motivation in creating and implementing brighter ideas. They are also pro-active making the organization see what's ahead. Investment of the owner becomes visible by the results that these horses bring. They may not always win the race, but they will never finish last.

On the contrary, horses with lesser maintenance will be eating dust during the race, they will think more about complaining on how they were treated prior to the race, as much as this, they will also think about the treatment and possible beatings they can get after they lose the race.

Now, let's recap. Organizations with successful brands all have race horses, the challenge is how to sustain them. The answer is very simple, Condition them, treat them well and remove the issue of compensation and benefits on the daily problems of these individuals, otherwise, the organization that will not invest on these items should prepare in loosing every time there's a race.

The Truth Behind Experience

When I was introduced to the Restaurant Industry, I was astounded with the way how things are running according to the needs of the guests.

Most of the time during my younger years, I would look at my Restaurant Managers and the Assistant Managers and wonder endlessly how life would be if I'll be in their position.

The younger you are, the better it is to start finalizing where you want to be. I have finalized where and what I will be since the date I graduated from college.

The truth is, I wanted to go higher as fast as I could in terms of position level, I did the best I could to expedite the process. I was successful in that goal.

But there came a time in my career that I also encountered several dilemmas because of my limited experience in the field. I realized then that no matter how hard I study, no matter how hard I try to adjust, Experience will always hold a key point in my work output especially in decision-making and the realistic approach inside the restaurant.

I have seen several people now suffering in silence because of lack of experience. Although background supports their field especially in education, I find these individuals slowly being eaten by fear and disguise, the "know-it-all" attitude, the game of pride.

So how do we deal with this kind of people? The answer is simple, TEACH them. Teach them so they may know the difference between right and wrong, teach them about the system. There will be occasional resistance, endure as long as you can and still teach. If the resistance from these individuals exceeds the tolerable level, then let them go. They will learn things the harder way in another avenue anyway.

Experience is something solid, a foundation which enables you to identify critical points and the proper course of action.

Experience combined with technical know-how, logical reasoning, and people skills, will create better professionals which later on will form the best organization.

 

 

The Unending Search for Service Excellence

Written September 15, 2010

In my years in the Restaurant lndustry, both in Operations and in Training Department, I am usually tasked if not to upgrade, well, to maintain a very good line of Service experts or frontliners.

The truth about Service is that "it is a passion, rather than a sequence". It is carried by many as the robotics of the modern world, when in reality, Service is still and will always be, a two-way street. A give and take relationship between the service provider and the guests.

Service is excellent when "expectations are met and at times exceeded". But reality bites, no matter how a restaurant imposes its culture and service package, there would always be "difficult guests". These guests are those guests who I will rename as "opportunity", from them, we can sample and challenge the best of our resources, the best of our energy, and most importantly, the best of our PATIENCE. 

While most Restaurants today developed the SEQUENCE of Service, many still forget that the sequence will always have its loop holes. The sequence is only as good as the "executioner" or is only as good as the service provider.

I pity those people who are poor in understanding that hospitality industry is all about accommodation, it is also about learning and educating guests about the proper manner when dining in a Restaurant or staying in a hotel.

Simple terms dictate that "perfectionism" in Service is fatiguing and will always boil down to demoralized and robot-like employees. Sequence are guides, but should be altered in accordance to a specific situation in order to "meet and exceed guests expectations"