Delegation and the Restaurant Manager
If you are in charge of a team you must have a good delegation technique. Some amongst us have it down to an absolute art form, while others constantly struggle to come to terms with it as the most effective management tool in a restaurant manager’s bag of tricks.
Your main job as a manager is delegation of tasks. For those who resist you are going to need a mantra. It will go something like this, ‘I must delegate,’ ‘I must delegate’. If you can think of a task that needs to be done and have the urge to ‘just go and take care of it yourself’, repeat your mantra (quietly to yourself) and staff it out. The moment you put your head down and get buried in a chore, three or four events will start to unfold behind you - little things, things you would have caught had you been watching and delegating.
You may feel as though you need to affirm yourself and your prowess as a worker to maintain face amongst your staff, or you have a new hire who is a fine waiter, very strong, proficient and personable and you may feel you need to assert yourself as top dog by proving you are the better waiter. It’s understandable but forget it. When something goes off beam because you’ve been measuring off against the new hire the owners aren’t going to sit him down and ask the big questions, or when table 22 calls you over and asks why they haven’t heard the specials and where the hell their pre dinner drinks are, are you going to look at them blankly and say, ’sorry, I was off doing half of section one?’
It’s not just about barking orders so you don’t have to do any of the work yourself; it’s about conducting the room. It’s getting the tempo right. You’re directing the waiters toward their next move. You’re making sure the bartender is seeing the dockets come in. You’re checking the junior is polishing the glassware perfectly. This is your responsibility and you must make sure you are staying alert to all that’s unfolding. Because don’t forget, when you’re in full flight everyone’s going to be looking to you for their lead, even more so in those moments when it starts to get a little wobbly and you’re about to lose a wheel.
Perfecting the art of delegation will set you free. It will be greatly beneficial to your time management and allow you to take care of all those things that keep your restaurant in good health.
