The vast majority of organizations have a shortage of leaders. Not a shortage of managers, but a shortage of leaders. There is a prevailing thought pattern in many companies that managers are what is needed. We used to be one of those companies. We thought that a manager was the solution to all of our problems. Managers to tell everyone what to do, to measure their progress, to enforce the rules. The best of them help ensure that the workload is distributed fairly and that sales and expense targets are met, the worst of them…well, the worst of them we could talk volumes about. The ones who live in their own little world and don’t even manage let alone connect with their team. The ones who are inflexible with their rules and don’t allow creativity. The ones who think they deserve the respect because they have the title. The ones who have no idea how to motivate or inspire their people. The ones who end up costing you dollars and loss of talent through their incompetence.
Someone in the organization has to wake up. If it is the top dog, great, but it doesn’t have to be. For us it began with an amazing individual who came to work in our restaurants. He is one of the people that I can see was sent to me at exactly the right time, for us and also for him. He embodied the work ethic that James and I share, but beyond that, he has an energy and a yearning to do more for others and to help them along their journey as he had been helped. He saw the coming and going of many people in our organization who we had placed in positions of management that were unable to lead. He continued caring and building and connecting, in spite of the chaos around him. He brought a young man on board who started as a dishwasher, and in that most difficult position in our organization as far as straight physical labor and mental fortitude, proved himself to be a superstar. Within a year he had helped this young man grow into a kitchen manager. How did he do this? Not by teaching him the nuts and bolts of how to run a kitchen, although that of course plays an important part. Instead, he encouraged in him the most important part of being a leader. How to connect.
We all communicate, but CONNECTING is where the magic happens. It happens when you work side by side with someone, when you are there to support them WHEN THEY NEED IT, not when it is good for you. It is when you know that they have 2 kids, or that their wife suffers from depression, or that they are helping to support their parents and disabled brother in another country. When they trust you and you trust them, to be there for each other as human beings, not just in the workplace. Leadership is many things, most of all to continue growing and learning, but it all starts with connecting. This is what we are teaching at our restaurants, we are taking responsibility for the 80+ people that are working with us, giving them tools that they can carry with them on their journey, whether they stay with us or not. Not everyone is at the point in their lives where they are ready to step up and lead, but we love them all the same nonetheless. We have a commitment to share with them what we have learned, to lay the tools out for them to pick up and do with them what they will. This is the culture at Denica’s Real Food Kitchen. This is why I wake up early every day. This is why I am here.
“A Dream You Dream Alone Is Only A Dream. A Dream You Dream Together Is Reality.”
– John Lennon/Yoko Ono