Daily pre-shift briefings

Start shifts with a quick stand-up so your team is on the same page for specials, bookings and duties, and let them know they all have a part to play in building a ‘together’ mindset.

It’s also an opportunity to share menu changes and delegate key roles to reduce confusion during service.

Get to know your team

In hospitality it’s often the small stuff that counts. Knowing your team’s names and asking them about their weekend shows them you care and reinforces a culture of mutual acknowledgement which can lead to engagement.

Get to know them and what’s happening in their lives to show empathy. Remember though, some will love being praised in front of the team while others might not.

Make them feel needed

We all need to matter because that notion of feeling significant is crucial, especially in a high-pressure environment like a professional kitchen.

Mattering gives us a sense of purpose which is a basic human need. If we feel we matter then we feel wanted and more engaged, which means we’ll always go the extra yard.

Praise and criticise wisely

Conflict happens in even the best run venues, but how managers handle it professionally and with empathy is what makes them stand out.

Rather than dishing out personal criticism, focus on behaviour and outcomes with a suggestion: ‘let’s find a better way to track orders’ lands better than ‘you always mess up’.

If you tell a member of your team they did a great job with a customer, emphasise what you liked about what they did. That way they’ll do it again and develop great habits.

Clarity matters

It’s important to be explicit about what individual and team roles are and what’s expected from each team member. Those might change as the business evolves, but by starting with and then fine-tuning the non-negotiables, your team will stay happy.

Recent studies show that if you tell people they will underperform, then they will. The opposite is also true, so make sure your team is in no doubt what you see as their strengths with constructive feedback because that’s aspirational and changes behaviours.

Speak out

Strong, caring managers encourage team members to ask questions, so make space for a couple of minutes’ post-shift feedback around what worked or didn’t.

This builds trust and creates a feedback loop that improves operations, but if staff don’t want to go public, consider a suggestion box or anonymous survey to catch issues early. Reviewing feedback and acting on it shows staff their voices lead to change.