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 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 [...]

One Minute Goal Setting

I finally started reading Ken Blanchard’s The One Minute Manager. My original idea for a book was to re-tool Blanchard’s work specifically for the fast food environment. But then I thought that I should write something a bit more academic for my first published material.
Now, reading The One Minute Manager has got me [...]

10 Steps to Empowerment 1: Clearly Define Responsibility

At Wendy’s, managers were to use a “tool” called TTM–Talk To Me.  No one ever actually defined this “tool” while in training, and district managers were very nebulous as to how one should use it.  Training indicated that a manager was only supposed to TTM his employees, not actually do anything–but let me tell you [...]