Are They Your Best Employees?

Recently, a collegue recounted an experience she had working at another store. She said that the crew ran the store, not the management. I asked her what the GM thought about that, and she told me that the GM let the workers do it, and wouldn’t hear anyone telling her that this is wrong.
The two [...]

Habits 1 and 2 of Highly Effective People

The first habit of highly effective people, according to Stephen Covey, is to be proactive.  The second habit is to begin with the end in mind.  If more fast food managers adopted these habits, we wouldn’t have half of the problems with fast food managers that we do.
I first encountered the second habit in the [...]

10 Steps to Empowerment 10: Respect

I’ve heard it said once that you must seek first to understand, then be understood. This is the cornerstone of respect.
Respect is the perfect closing step to empowerment because each other point requires the manager to respect his employees. Clearly defining job responsibilities shows respect. Giving people the proper authority is a [...]

10 Steps to Empowerment 9: Permission to Fail

I’ve heard it said once that defeat can be more instructive than victory. A quick glance at history shows that the people who have achieved the most failed quite a bit. Abraham Lincoln ran for public office six times before he was elected. Thomas Edison tried 2,500 times to invent the light [...]

10 Steps to Empowerment 8: Trust

Once you’ve defined a person’s responsibilities, delegated enough authority to him, trained him properly, set a high standard,  given him the proper knowledge, and provided appropriate recognition and feedback, the next step is to simply trust this person to do the job.
Is it really that easy?  Of course not!  Trust is a very sticky issue, [...]

10 Steps to Empowerment 7: Recognition

Recognition works hand-in-hand with feedback.  The difference is that recognition is an actual reward for positive work performance, while feedback is a quick note on how work performance is progressing.  A One Minute Praising is good for both recognition and feedback.
Since a One Minute Praising might be the most effective low-to-no-cost method of recognition, I [...]

10 Steps to Empowerment 6: Feedback

I once heard it said to seek first to understand, then be understood.  When giving feedback to your employees, this statement is very true.
Feedback is the lifeblood of the fast food industry, and quite possibly the most important tool in the manager’s arsenal.   Feedback should be immediate, tailored to the individual, and continuous.
Feedback that [...]

10 Steps to Empowerment 5: Knowledge

The fifth key to empowerment is to give employees the knowledge they need to do their jobs.  If they’ve been properly trained, they know their responsibilities, they know the standard of behavior, and they have the authority to do their jobs, what good is all of it if they are lacking in important facts with [...]

Messed Up Orders: Two Views

Helium has two essays on messed up orders in fast food restaurants. One says that the employee and the customer are to blame. This one says that only the employees are to blame.
You’d expect that since I’m a fast food employee, that I would side with the first article.  Frankly, I think the [...]

10 Steps to Empowerment 4: Training

In my previous posts on the topic of empowerment, I discussed clear definition of responsibility, authority, and the importance of high standards.  Nothing can bring these steps together as powerfully as a good training program.  Training, however, is the most neglected management duty in all of fast food.  More often than not, trainees are placed [...]