Restaurant Leadership Podcast: Overcome Burnout, Embrace Freedom, and Drive Growth
Welcome to the Restaurant Leadership Podcast, the show that teaches you how to overcome burnout, embrace freedom, and drive growth
Your host, Christin Marvin, of Solutions by Christin.
With over two decades of extensive experience in hospitality leadership, Christin Marvin has successfully managed a diverse range of concepts, encompassing fine dining and high-volume brunch.
She has now established her own coaching and consulting firm, collaborating with organizations to accelerate internal leadership development to increase retention and thrive.
Each week, Christin brings you content and conversation to make you a more effective leader.
This includes tips, tricks and REAL stories from REAL people that have inspired her-discussing their successes, challenges and personal transformation.
This podcast is a community of support to inspire YOU on YOUR unique leadership journey.
This podcast will help you answer the following questions:
1. How do I increase my confidence?
2. How do I accelerate my leadership?
3. How do I lower my stress as a leader?
4. How do I prevent burnout?
5. How do I improve my mental health?
So join the conversation and listen in each week on spotify and apple podcasts and follow Christin on LinkedIn.
Voice Over, Mixing and Mastering Credits:
L. Connor Voice - LConnorvoice@gmail.com
Artwork by Solstice Photography, Tucson, AZ.
https://solsticephotography70.pixieset.com/
Restaurant Leadership Podcast: Overcome Burnout, Embrace Freedom, and Drive Growth
89: The Retention Secret No One Talks About: A Restaurant Leadership Coaching Session
Send me a Text Message. I'd love to hear from you.
What if the secret to reducing restaurant employee turnover wasn't about higher wages or better perks, but instead about how you show up as a leader?
In this compelling coaching session, I work with Emily, a restaurant COO navigating a significant leadership transition as her business partner embarks on a sabbatical.
Together, we craft a leadership development plan that starts with self-awareness and builds toward team empowerment. Emily candidly shares her journey, identifying five essential leadership characteristics she wants to embody: being motivational, direct, approachable, empowering, and energetic. Through thoughtful self-assessment, she discovers that empowerment represents her greatest growth opportunity – and potentially the key to reducing turnover in her restaurants.
The conversation reveals a powerful truth about restaurant leadership: when team members feel genuinely empowered, they take ownership, communicate more openly, and ultimately stay with the organization longer. For Emily personally, this shift from micromanagement to empowerment promises greater freedom, including the ability to step away from the business for meaningful personal time without constant worry.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is the practical framework provided for assessing your own leadership style, setting meaningful growth goals, and taking concrete steps toward becoming the leader your team needs. By modeling leadership development herself before asking her team to do the same, Emily demonstrates how creating a culture of growth and personal responsibility can transform restaurant operations.
Whether you're a restaurant owner, general manager, or aspiring leader, this episode offers both inspiration and actionable tools to help you develop your leadership skills and build a more stable, engaged team. Listen now, and discover how focusing on your own leadership growth might be the retention strategy you've been missing.
More from Christin:
Grab your free copy of my audiobook, The Hospitality Leader's Roadmap: Move from Ordinary to Extraordinary at christinmarvin.com/audio
Curious about one-on-one coaching or leadership workshops? Click this link to schedule a 15 minute strategy session.
Podcast Production: https://www.lconnorvoice.com/
In today's episode, I'm going to show you how to reduce the risk of employee turnover. I'm working with Emily, who's a client of mine, on designing her leadership style and creating a leadership development plan for her so she can lead by example, and then what we're going to do is do the same exercise with her entire leadership team. So there's accountability, commitment and empowerment and community through growing as a leader in their organization. The results of this are going to be absolutely outstanding and it's going to open up communication, it's going to enhance problem solving and it's going to make leadership development be a 50-50 path and partnership path for both the owner of the restaurant and every leadership layer within the organization. Enjoy Welcome to the Restaurant Leadership Podcast, the show where restaurant leaders learn tools, tactics and habits from the world's greatest operators. I'm your host, kristen Marvin, with Solutions by Kristen. I've spent the last two decades in the restaurant industry and now partner with restaurant owners to develop their leaders and scale their businesses through powerful one-on-one coaching, group coaching and leadership workshops. This show is complete with episodes around coaching, leadership development and interviews with powerful industry leaders. You can now engage with me on the show and share topics you'd like to hear about leadership, lessons you want to learn and any feedback you have. Simply click the link at the top of the show notes and I will give you a shout out on a future episode. Thanks so much for listening and I look forward to connecting.
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Speaker 1:If you're curious about this and want to learn more about how it could work in your space, visit gorti-inccom slash restaurant leadership podcast. Again, that's gorti-inccom slash restaurant leadership podcast. Emily, we are going to spend some time today coaching through how you want to show up as a leader, and we've been working together for a while. This is going to be fun to revisit. We've talked about it in short sentences and in many, many ways, many times, but what is important to you today about understanding how you want to show up as a leader?
Speaker 2:You know, the thing that's really important to me today and right now, honestly, is that I'm in this kind of pretty big transition as a leader at the moment, and so part of this has really been, I guess, redefining who it is that I want to be as a leader, because of a new role, as well as and as I'm like I'm preparing for this meeting with my whole leadership team tomorrow, where we really are kicking off this next part of the journey of me being in this new role, are kicking off this next part of the journey of me being in this new role as well as kind of trying to revisit some things that maybe we used to do that we really enjoyed and things that I used to do as a leader that I really enjoy that maybe we want to get back to.
Speaker 2:So it's a little bit of kind of column A and column B, which seem a little like they might fight kind of, because some of it is like new and growth and development and new role, but then some of it is stuff that I feel like was really great. You know, I've been in my role for 19 years with my company and so some things that I thought were really great from 10 years ago that I really missed. That I also want to bring back as a leader as well. So a little, a little bit of it's a very wide spectrum.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can we talk a little bit about your current position and this transition that you're getting ready to go through?
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally so. I, as you know, I'm currently the COO of Secret Sauce and I've been in that role and slowly so and have been in that role and slowly, gradually working up into that role for 19 years really, since we opened Stupid's Uptown. Owner of the company is now on sabbatical and really kind of handing officially, unofficially handing the reins over and really not having the kind of presence that he has had before. And the reason that it's a big deal is the day-to-day and the logistical like. I've been doing this job for a very long time, so it's not one of those where people are going to be like, oh, this is going to be brand new as far as like what my day-to-day looks like, but Josh's voice, which has always been very present in the company is is gone, like he's, he's fully I. I terminated him out of all of our systems yesterday or two days ago.
Speaker 2:Like he literally can't find, he can't access financial statements, he can't get into toast, like, even if he wanted to, he couldn't because I he is not an employee on any of our systems anymore. So so it's a pretty big transition just in terms of. I think it's more kind of figuratively than operationally, because I'm now, I'm the, I'm the last, last tier, whereas there's always been, there's always been kind of just one more tier of of things that I, of people, that I could bounce ideas off of, or if it was something that, quite frankly, that either I didn't feel equipped to deal with or didn't care to deal with, I could kind of like shovel it over to him. And I don't have that person right now, which is a big deal.
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Speaker 1:The 2025 show is where the future of food service comes to life. Don't miss it, and I hope to see you there. And you've been going through some incredible changes and structure. You know different leadership, structure changes in order to get ready for this, and so you've brought on a you know, a new director of operations. Your role is changing and your leaders. Things are going to change a little bit for them too. So we're going to start with doing this exercise with you today, and then the goal is that we do this with with your leadership team too. What, what's the hope and the impact that you you really want to see from their perspective?
Speaker 1:In terms of working with you or Just in terms of identifying their, their leadership style and really building a leadership development plan for themselves. Is I?
Speaker 2:really want to strengthen the teams to where they have the focus and the skills and the empowerment to function the two restaurants as independently functioning restaurants, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:For years and years, forever, we've always had this extra layer, this secret sauce layer that has functioned as everything from HR to shift coverage to really everything that they need and unfortunately it's been beautiful on a lot of levels.
Speaker 2:But there's also been this level of where my GMs haven't 100% been able to develop into GMs because there's always been me or always been something somewhat another layer to deal with, maybe some things the GMs should deal with, and same with chefs and things like that. So the first part is really some greater empowerment on how to make it to where Steuben's just operates as Steuben's and they don't care whether I'm around or not and Ace operates as Ace and they're just kind of these functioning restaurants that just take care of themselves. Would be a really big deal. And then the other part, on the leadership side of things and you and I have talked about this before is this idea of sustainability and getting back to slash, creating new slash, opening lines of communication, whatever that looks like to where my team is feeling supported by this environment in a way that it is sustainable for them to be here happily and productively for a very long time. And those are two. Those are like my two big ones.
Speaker 1:Love it Well. Kudos to you for showing up here first and doing the work yourself and then and leading by example. This will be, I think, really exciting for them to listen to and for you to share your development plan with them and to hopefully motivate and inspire them to really take this seriously and lead with that that focus and clarity to help the business be more sustainable and inspire them to really take this seriously and lead with that focus and clarity to help the business be more sustainable and empower them to be even better leaders than they are today, which is really exciting. Love it, Okay, Good, good, Well, let's jump in. So let's start with a leader that's really made a huge impact in your world. This could be someone that you know in the community, someone that you've worked with, someone you know, a boss, or someone that you've led, uh, that you just really admire. Let's talk about that person.
Speaker 2:Um, I mean, I guess I have two, so it depends on which one fits more kind of which direction you want to go. I mean, am I allowed to say, Josh, even though I'm kicking him out of my world, you can say whoever you want. You know, josh has had the hands down the most biggest impact on my life of any leader, and that's both professional and personal. You can after working with someone for 19 years and knowing him I mean, my ex-husband worked for him before I started working for him for five years before that, so I've known Josh for 25 years, right, um, so I would say he he's had a huge impact on me as an individual.
Speaker 2:The other one that comes to mind would be my general manager, my old general manager at ACE. Her name was Kate. Is Katie was. She's still around, she's just not my GM anymore. Her name's Katie. Um, she moved out to Portland and, um, she just had a huge impact on me just in terms of seeing the power of being a really awesome mentor for someone which I was with her. I really took her under my wing for like a full two years almost. She had never been a GM before and when she left us was the best GM we've ever had and we still have a great relationship and she still runs things by me and she still says thank you for everything that she learned here. So that was pretty, pretty empowering, and seeing where she's at now and what she's doing with her life is really inspiring as well.
Speaker 1:Awesome, those are great. What leadership characteristics does Josh embody?
Speaker 2:Um, you know, he, he has this eye for he just he sees things that no one else sees. That Well, sometimes you're like, oh my gosh, every single time you come in and you see something, which can sometimes be like soul crushing. But at the end of the day, he's also not wrong, Right, and he just he has this attention to detail. Um, he has very specific idea in mind of how he likes things done, Um, but he also is willing to um to bend based on what's best for the team and best for the company If it, if it doesn't quite fit in with what his head is at, where his head's at.
Speaker 2:So I would say eye for detail and seeing everything, flexibility. And he asks a lot of really great questions, sometimes almost to a fault, where you're like, oh my God, can you please stop asking questions, Just let me do my thing. But again, at the end of the day, he's not wrong with all his questions, which makes him just very thoughtful. He's not money-driven. It's always been about the people and the culture and the love of what we do. Okay, and that's a really good deal too.
Speaker 2:So we've got attention to detail, flexible I wrote down curious, thoughtful people focused, culture focused, anything else. I mean I could say a million, but those are. Those are probably the big ones. I mean, I have always said that he really taught me how to how to do business the right way.
Speaker 1:Okay, how about katie? What characteristics would you use to describe her?
Speaker 2:um dedication, um high energy, um she had a way of she could, her team would do anything for her. She had this way of just like rallying and it could be like let's go scrub the dumpsters. And they'd be like, yay, we love Katie Right, like the worst thing possible and it didn't matter because they just loved her so much.
Speaker 1:How would you describe that? What's that? How would you describe that in one word?
Speaker 2:What the staff felt, or or that characteristic of hers that characteristic of hers in one word, kristen. Um, I mean, that's a leader, right, that's a leader. To have people willing to follow you anywhere and everywhere and do whatever, whatever needs to happen, is pretty like amazing. Her team was so, was so dedicated to her. It was really like awe inspiring.
Speaker 1:What was it about Katie that inspired them to to follow it like that? Um?
Speaker 2:I mean, part of it was her age. I mean she's closer, she's very close, right, she's young, so they can relate, which I mean. That just is what it is. But she was always very positive, always very excited about what was going on, excited about trying new things, would call them on their bullshit, which I think was a big deal, and not in like a shitty way and just like a hey, don't do that Right, and they'd be like, okay, you're right. Um, she also and this wasn't this is not necessarily a positive thing, but she was here, she loved Ace so much so she was here to the point where I would have to like kick her out, be like you have to take a day off, but she just loved being here and I think her team could sense that that she, she just loved ace and she wanted to make it the best, greatest, most awesome place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I've got dedication, high energy, relatable, positive, excited, direct slash, tough love and present yes, okay. Hey there. Podcast friends. I hope you're enjoying these impactful conversations and leadership insights I'm bringing you each week.
Speaker 1:Before we dive back into today's episode, I want to take a moment and reach out and ask a small favor. That would go a long way in supporting the show. If you've been loving the content I'm providing, please take a moment to leave a rating and review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Not only does it make my day, but it also plays a pivotal role in helping the show grow. Your reviews boost my visibility, attract new listeners and encourage exciting guests to join me on the mic. So if you want to be part of my show's growth journey, hit that review button and let me know what you think. Thanks a million for being awesome listeners. What you think? Thanks a million for being awesome listeners. If you were going to pick five of these characteristics that you wanted to embody or you may have your own list from based off the work that we've done together, of how you want to show up as a leader what would those five characteristics be?
Speaker 2:characteristics be? I'll think of five. They may live. I can't remember what's on that list, but I'm 47 years old. I can't remember anything. I would say the things that I want to out of that list or what's in my head the five biggest ones for me list, or what's in my head the five biggest ones for me, um, motivational, um. What was the one for? Like holding people accountable, but in like a good way like direct slash, tough love.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, something like that, yes okay, direct, direct, uh-huh, motivational, direct, um, relatable, which to me, on my level, I think, just means more like accessible, um. You know, I know that I'm not necessarily going to relate on the same level that katie did to her 23 year old peers, but I do want to make sure that there's a comfort or comfortability with addressing me, um, or coming to me with there's, with there's things, um, um, uh. Empowering, I think, is a really big deal for me. I tend to want to do everything myself and I think it's a really big deal in this new role that I'm empowering other people to do the things that honestly they should be doing anyway, and probably high, I think, probably high energy, like I want to make. I want to make sure that I can exude just how dedicated and committed and excited I am for making these books. It's greater than they are. So I don't know if that's in the high end or I don't know what that is, but yeah, okay, so we've got motivational For me.
Speaker 1:That's good. Yes, yeah, we've got motivational direct. Um. And then I wrote accessible, slash, approachable, yeah, one of those words speaking to you more than the other I'd say approachable okay. And then empowering and energetic yes, okay. I'm going to ask you now to rate each of these on a scale of one to 10. So one is it's hardly showing up at all. 10 is you feel like it's firing on all cylinders every day. So what's?
Speaker 2:happening currently.
Speaker 1:Yep, yes, okay, yeah, where you're at today, exactly. So let's start with motivation Motivational when would you rate that on a scale of one to 10?
Speaker 2:let's start with motivation. Motivational when would you rate that? On a scale of one to 10? Um, I'd put that as a. I put that probably an eight. Okay.
Speaker 1:How about direct Um? I'd also put that at an eight, Okay.
Speaker 2:Approachable. You know this one's a funny one. I'd like to say 10 because I'm always just like come and talk to me and I'm here and I'm literally in the buildings all the time and the staff has my cell phone and my email, but anytime I check in with someone they're like I didn't. I was scared to talk to you, so I don't. I don't know, that's a, that's a funny one, cause my perspective is different than, and not my management team. So much, but, like the rest of the staff, Okay, sure, how about?
Speaker 1:how about empowering?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm working, I'm getting there. I put that one maybe a little bit lower, maybe like a seven.
Speaker 1:Okay, and energetic.
Speaker 2:I say a nine Okay. And energetic, um, I'd say a nine Okay. My energy is really good right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, how are you showing up today as a motivational leader at an eight? What does that look like?
Speaker 2:You know where. Why it's not higher is. I think that I'm working on my style in terms of what's. What I continue to realize and I think this is something that we've learned as leaders for years, and we continue to learn and learn is that everyone is motivated differently, and whether that's from an email or a text or a let's grab a drink or whatever that is. So I think it's only at an eight, because I do know that I need to put some more work into really making some additional connections, at least with my leadership team, on how they're best motivated so that I can work. I can work to do that better for them.
Speaker 1:Okay, how are you showing up as an eight as far as a direct leader goes, Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:You know I've always been really direct, um, but the interesting kind of shift that has sometimes takes place is, as a leader and depending on the timing and what your team looks like and the world and all that kind of stuff, sometimes you get a little worried to be too direct because, um, you're scared of losing someone, if that makes sense, um.
Speaker 2:So again, I think, circling back to kind of just communication styles with the team and making sure that I'm resonating there, but making sure that I am connecting on a personal level with my leadership team, because then if we already have that connection, then having the tough conversations is easier. That makes sense. So, you know, if there's someone that you haven't asked how they're doing in a few weeks, and then you just go up to them and be like, hey, you suck, the directness doesn't work right. But if you've got, if you've done some vibe checks, you've done some energy checks and you know what's going on in their world, and then you go up and say, hey, you know, I know you're going through it with your grandma, cause we talked about that yesterday when I just checked in on how you were doing. But these are some things that slipped through the crack yesterday that directness gets a little bit easier and that fear of them being like fuck this place and I'm walking out starts to kind of like dwindle.
Speaker 1:So how about uh approachable at an eight? How are you showing up today?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I feel like I show up really good. Kristen, Like I said, like my, I'm in the restaurants all the time. I chat with the staff, I say hi to them. They have my contact information. I'm always saying like let me know if you need anything. And maybe you know, like there's this theme that keeps coming back from. The other two is maybe just more of those me going to individual staff members and just doing quick, me initiating first and then maybe that makes the my approachability a little bit closer to what I think it is versus what they think it is. Okay, yeah, so I think there's. That's probably the opportunity there as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, how about empowering at a seven?
Speaker 2:I'm getting there, you know, with Ben, my new director of ops. He's only been here with me since the middle of December and, like I've shared with you before, he's only been here with me since the middle of december. Um, and, like I've shared with you before, he's awesome and he's he's showing up in great ways and I've been really pleased with where we've landed with him. Um, but a it takes a while to build a new dynamic, and so my, my ability to empower him to do more it. It honestly, it lies more on me as well as just building a new team dynamic than anything else. So, you know, maybe I don't know, you call it trust issues I don't know what you call it with him, but then also, but also then, with my, with my team. You know, it's actually funny that you asked this question. Um is a lot.
Speaker 2:Yesterday, I spent probably 45 minutes of my day sending emails to people and these are people that are on my team as well as external people that I'm waiting on things for literally saying the same thing hey, just following up. Hey, just want to see where we're at with this. Hey, you know, just just saying hi, you owed me this and I hate it. It's like the worst part of my job is having to follow up with people because inherently I'm someone that will say do this or I need this, and I trust that it's going to happen. And I'm not great about the follow-up because I just assume that everyone else in the world is going to follow up and do their job, but then they don't, and so then I don't trust that it's going to happen.
Speaker 2:And then so then a hard time empowering them to do more or do anything, because somewhere in the back of my mind I'm like well, you know what?
Speaker 2:I asked you to do this thing and I had to follow up three times. So here's where we're at Right, um, but maybe I just need to empower. I mean, I guess then that's Ben needs to be the follow-upper. He can spend 45 minutes a day on the email saying just follow it up, just follow it up, and then I just I just follow up with Ben. But again, it's such a new, it's a new relationship that we're still we're still developing in a really good way, though it's not because there's anything wrong, it's just time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, okay. Um, how about energetic at a nine?
Speaker 2:I'm feeling good. Yeah, I think I'm. I'm pulling a lot of energy out of this transition into um Josh going on sabbatical and it feels it feels really good. You know, I would say it's not at a 10 because I don't think anything can ever really be at a 10. There's always an opportunity for for some improvement and honestly energy level.
Speaker 2:10 might be a lot Um, so maybe a nine is good Um, but but overall and I think I you know Josh definitely sensed it before he left I don't think he would have left if I was at the same kind of energy level that I was last fall with everything. His comfort level of taking the sabbatical would not have been there. But I think I'm showing up in a really positive, great way. That feels really good Okay.
Speaker 1:Awesome, yeah. Unlock the skills to transform your leadership with the Hospitality Leaders Roadmap Move from ordinary to extraordinary, packed with practical strategies to lead with confidence and create lasting impact in your restaurant. Visit kristinmarvincom slash audio to download your free audio book today. Let's talk about where you want to be. So, again, let's go back to the scale of one to 10. So you're currently at an eight in terms of motivation. Where do you want to be?
Speaker 2:Um, I mean better at all of them. I mean again, I don't think. I don't know that I would ever say 10 on everything, on anything, because to me 10 indicates that I don't have any room for improvement, and I don't think that that's ever the case.
Speaker 2:Um so bumping, I mean bumping all of these eights to nines. Bumping everything to a nine would be, I think, to me probably the highest rating that I would ever put out there for myself, if we're not doing decimals, which I'm not doing- Okay, so we've got motivational, direct, approachable, empowering and energetic all at a nine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, that would feel great. Who?
Speaker 2:are you at a nine? From a motivational perspective, I'm really confident because I see that my team is feeling motivated and when they're feeling motivated then they're getting things done and then I'm able to empower them to do other things because they're motivated and then I have the confidence to. I have the confidence to trust that they're, that it's all happening Okay. So I think confident, yeah, of them, right.
Speaker 1:How about? About direct? Who are you when you're direct at a nine?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think it's a really similar theme. I'm direct, so that I'm holding people accountable and you hold people accountable and they feel empowered and motivated, they get shit done and then I trust them to do other things.
Speaker 1:How about approachable?
Speaker 2:Gosh, I feel like it's all the same word. It's all confident, right. Because when you're approachable, you feel confident that your team regardless of whether it's a server or a busser or the director of ops you feel confident that they will come to you when there is an issue that they feel like they need your support on.
Speaker 2:And that's a really big deal, right, because we've all been blindsided by that manager that comes to you and is like here's my two week notice and you're like Whoa, I thought we were all good and they're like well, no, I've been fucking miserable and I got to get out of here and like, oh my God, if you'd only talked to me a month ago we could have fixed this. Um, and that's that shakes your confidence right Cause then all of a sudden you're looking around at your entire rest of your team. You're like who's about to quit? Anyone could walk out at any moment. But if I'm feeling fully approachable by my team, then I'll have that level of confidence that we're really solid and that fear that they're all just going to walk out on, and not that I like I don't function in that, but you know what I mean. I don't wake up every morning like bracing myself that my entire team's walking out. That certainly doesn't like cross my mind. But yeah, it's happened to all of us before. Sucks.
Speaker 1:How about empowering who are you at a nine?
Speaker 2:Um, you know, if my, if I'm empowering my team, then I'm also feeling empowered to do the things that, honestly, I should be doing, rather than the things I'm doing that I haven't trusted to give to someone else. Um, so I'm, I'm I'm more in my role in terms of what, what I should be doing, more big picture thinking, more working on the business versus in the business. Um, enjoying my days off and not having to plug in and check in and see what's going on. Um, so I have more energy and I'm feeling rested and balanced.
Speaker 1:It sounds like there's a sense of freedom. Yeah, yeah, happy. It was a big deal.
Speaker 2:It's funny that you say that because you know I've been working. My oldest daughter is graduating from high school this year and I'd like to take her out of town this summer, so it's like a celebratory trip before she moves to college. And I'd like to be. I'd like to be gone for two weeks, and I don't. I haven't booked, I haven't been able to pull the trigger yet on buying these tickets, um, because I'm still don't feel like I have the freedom to do so yet. Um, so that's something. Yeah, that'll be a. That'll be a moment to celebrate when I push the the buy.
Speaker 1:Love it. You have to share that with me. And in energetic we talked about, you feel like you're at a nine and you want to stay consistent there. So which, if you were to pick one of these characteristics to focus time and energy on moving that needle from where you're currently at to where you want to be, which one would have the greatest impact on your leadership?
Speaker 2:Empowering. Okay, say more, you know that one Um, if my team is empowered, then my energy is great. And if my team is empowered, they are also motivated because they are feeling like they they have the empowerment to do what it is that they are feeling motivated that they wanted to do. Um, if my team is empowered, they're feeling empowered to come to me with good things or bad things, and know that it's safe to do so. So the empowerment is a really big deal on their end. And if I'm feeling like I have properly empowered my team, then my energy feels great and my confidence feels great and we're getting things done. And and and it's funny, right, you think about this that there hasn't been a mention of, like, any financial situation here, right, um, but at the end of the day, I know that if my team is empowered to do what they need to do, then the finances will follow suit. Yeah, and that would be great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's one of your big goals too. It is, I mean, I know, that's a big deal as a business owner and as a leader.
Speaker 2:I mean yes, you want all the altruistic, lovely, amazing things, which I adore and, honestly, is why I do what I do, but ultimately, if you can't do all of this and have a financially sustainable business, then what are you doing? That's not going to last long, right.
Speaker 1:So what's one tiny step you can take to move the needle on empowerment from a seven to a nine?
Speaker 2:from a seven to a nine Clear communication of my expectations and then follow through on those. If I can say to my chef you know what, for the last 19 years I have, I have analyzed food cost every week to make sure that we're all, everything's great. I don't want to do that anymore. I'm going to show you what I do. I'll show you what my expectations are on a weekly basis for it, and I would like you to do it moving forward, right. So communicate what needs to happen, share any kind of skill development that needs to happen around that, explain what I'd like to see and then move on.
Speaker 1:What's the expectation that you need to communicate clearly right now.
Speaker 2:That this is going to happen, that I'm, that I'm going to start empowering people more. I guess the the I need to give the expectation, that's the more big picture expectation of here's what, here's what's going to change and why. So you know, coming at you with some conversations and some AORs and some expectations, um, and this is what's going to happen in terms of follow-up and all of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:And when? Would you like to communicate that and how?
Speaker 2:Uh, that's happening tomorrow. I love when I can answer your question with something I've already put together. That's happening. It's happening tomorrow. Um, it's my first full kind of leadership meeting, um, that I'm hosting since Josh is on sabbatical, and, um, a lot of it is just my vision of what's, of some changes that I want to make, and nothing sweeping, nothing like ACE is a pizza restaurant now I'm not an Asian restaurant or anything wild like that but, um, just how I want to see the dynamic be and what the expectations are. So, uh, I will be communicating that as a full team meeting tomorrow at 9am, um, and I'm really excited about it.
Speaker 1:Perfect. So in 35 minutes we've just created a development plan for you and you're going to be able to communicate to the team that your main priority from a leadership development perspective is to work on empowering your team, and you're going to set very clear expectations for them tomorrow and then start delegating and teaching them the skills and following up to make sure that things are getting done as they need to, to your level of expectations and standards.
Speaker 2:Correct. Okay, yes, we were very efficient because my computer is about to die. Okay, perfect, maybe it's this program, I don't. I was at half battery and now it's like red.
Speaker 1:I don't know, it might be the. The video drains it. So these plans are beautiful because you can take this. You've got five characteristics to move the needle on. You're starting with one. You can come back to this plan over and over and over again, each year multiple times and continue to move the needle. So now you've got a personal development plan for yourself. You can share this with your team so they know what you're working on. We're going to build these for your team and they can share them with you too. So this is it's all about one tiny step just creating that awareness around how you want to show up as a leader, understanding where you're at today, building a vision on where you want to go and then just creating that path, which is, with each of those tiny steps. This is development.
Speaker 2:Cool, cool, cool, awesome. One question on that with the team, and I'm so excited that my team is going to have a chance to do this with you. It makes me, like, really happy, are you? Is it as the employer and the person that is funding, funding these sessions, do we? I mean, is it a requirement that they share with me, or do you give them that choice? Or like, what's the? What's the confidentiality expectation with all of this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, typically, because I do, because I so I've done this exercise with groups before.
Speaker 1:If I, if this is a ticketed event and it's kind of open to the public and I invite people to come in and do this as a group, I challenge them to take these plans back to their direct boss and share them so that there's collaboration and partnership together on this development, because it's wonderful if a leader can say here's what I want, but then the person that's leading them also needs to have a say, in my opinion, of being able to say here's how I'm going to support you and help you with this, whether that's through accountability and check-ins or providing additional resources in order to help that development come to success and fruition.
Speaker 1:Now, if somebody is doing a coaching session with me one-on-one, as you know, there's always confidentiality, unless we're recording, of course, for the show. There's always confidentiality there, and so, but also as part of that, I do challenge them to do the same thing and take this back to their boss because, again, just same thing as I said, there's responsibility. I believe leadership development, the responsibility falls on both the employee and the employer, and so you can't. You know it's going to be a lot more difficult if an employee holds that leadership development plan to themselves and there's so much more opportunity and potential if they're sharing it with other people so that they can celebrate those things and figure out what's getting in their way of being the leader that they want and then figure out how to overcome those challenges. So if somebody can really master a plan like this and then turn around and start teaching this to their other hourly employees or their other leaders that they're overseeing and create a culture of development throughout the entire organization, that's the goal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, yeah, no, that makes total sense. You know, we've done a lot of visioning in the past and writing visions, whether it's personal visions or professional visions, and one thing that I always wrap up with when I'm introducing the concept of visioning to people that are new is, you know, of course it's up to you, but I always encourage sharing it with someone so that you have kind of an accountability buddy, someone that can like ask you like, hey, how's it going with that kind of an accountability buddy? Someone that can like ask you like, hey, how's it going with that? Whatever you know learning how to macrame or whatever is on your vision, how's it going with that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, splash and I love this and this is something that you and I work have worked on so much Um I'm getting so much better about is just someone that you can celebrate your wins with Um, and that's a really big, that's a really big deal, and if you don't share it with anyone, then you don't have anyone to call you on your shit and you also don't have anyone to be like look what I did, so cool. Okay, I like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. It's also just really inspiring right To be around people that are working on themselves and wanting to get better and make the organization better. And who doesn't want to be in an environment like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, emily, thank you for showing up as powerfully as you did, really appreciate your time and can't wait to share this with the world, and that is going to do it for us this week. So, for anybody listening, please share this exercise with anyone that you know in the industry that could benefit. If you're driving, I challenge you to pull over, grab a pen and paper, do this exercise for yourself. Yeah, be safe and we will talk to you all next week. Thanks so much, awesome. Thanks, kristen.
