Positive Accountability
Accountability in the workplace is often seen as a means of enforcing rules, but when approached positively, it becomes a powerful tool for growth, trust, and motivation. Positive accountability encourages employees to take ownership of their responsibilities, fostering a culture of transparency, teamwork, and continuous improvement. In this blog, we explore how constructive feedback, goal-setting, and recognition can transform accountability into an empowering force. When teams embrace accountability as a shared commitment rather than a form of control, businesses experience higher productivity, stronger collaboration, and long-term success.
Jim Laube
Throughout my career, I've had lots of conversations with restaurant managers who've told me that one of the most difficult and frustrating parts of their job is getting people to do what they're supposed to do consistently all the time. Often this is due to a lack of accountability.
In fact, when I hear that, I ask them on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your restaurants level of accountability with one being the lowest and a 10 being total 100% accountability? Most rate themselves at six or less.When your restaurant's level of accountability isn't at least an 8 or a nine, you're actually telling your staff you really don't have to do your job the right way every time.
One thing we know about managing people you get what you tolerate, in fact, every issue you have with poor performance, lack of consistency Or team member problems is very likely due to a lack of accountability on the part of management. For managers to understand this because accountability drives behavior and a lack of accountability leads to poor performance and unwanted behaviors every time..
But it gets worse because non accountability also causes morale and turnover issues. Your star team members notice when some people are allowed to get away with sloppy work and trust me, it frustrates them and it often causes them to leave. So why is there a lack of accountability in many restaurants? One reason is that most restaurant managers have never had any training on how to respectfully and effectively hold people accountable.
In addition, holding people accountable can be difficult or uncomfortable for some managers. They think that their team members won't like them if they hold them accountable, when in fact just the opposite is true. The failure to hold people accountable for any reason means you'll never build a great restaurant.
When managers learn how to hold their people accountable, they quickly discover that the vast majority of their staff actually wants to be held accountable to high standards. They really do
Let me be clear, this course is not about some vague, feel good management techniques. These practices are real and they work. Holding people accountable is an invaluable and necessary skill in creating a positive, high performance workplace for your people and exceptional dining experiences for your guests. In fact, your restaurant success depends on it.
Take this opportunity to improve the leadership skills of your entire management team, building a culture of total 100% accountability Is the surest way to positively impact every aspect of your restaurant.