Time Management

Regain control of your time and life: the first principle of time management

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Managing your time was the #1 response to our top challenges survey.

It was #1 for solopreneurs and microbusiness leaders and #3 for small businesses of 11-50 people.

These results are not surprising.

You probably don’t have a full-time employee to manage your calendar.

You have to run AND grow your business at the same time. You probably don’t have middle management that runs your operations while you focus on growth.

The four horses of the 2020-pocalypse: COVID, economic shutdown, social unrest, and a divisive election have created a series of urgent, existential crises.

You give and give and give to help your clients, customers, employees, family members, and causes that are important to you.

Your time is the first casualty amidst these urgent demands.

To regain control, you need to follow the first principle of time management.

Pay yourself first.

That’s right, it’s just like any sound investment strategy. Pay yourself first.

Follow these steps to get back in control of your time.

1. Block off one- to three-hour chunks of time two or three days per week. Solid chunks of time are what you need to get growth-related things done.

2. Schedule these times on your calendar so that no one but you can override them.

3. Let your team know about your “growth time” [this time also gives them predictability – they know you are not going to parachute in on them].

4. Protect these chunks of time ruthlessly. You will find that you can address the vast majority of urgent demands outside of your growth-time.

5. Avoid the checkerboard calendar, where all you have are 10-15 minutes of white space at a time. It’s not enough to get anything substantial done. Putting four or five of these short blocks together, though, gives you a chunk of time to get sh!t done.

When you use this method, you will be amazed that the number of hours you work per week does not increase. It might even decrease.

By getting rid of your checkerboard calendar, you free up time during the day to do the heavy-lifting that you normally saved until after-hours.

You and your family and your team will be a lot happier and more productive when you pay yourself first.

 What is your top time management action step? Leave a comment here to let me know.

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If you want more action steps to regain control of your time, let’s set-up a call. You will:

1. Clarify your priorities so that you know ways to make the best use of your time and energy.

2. Uncover the hidden time and energy bandits that are robbing your bandwidth and emotional well-being so that you can put yourself back in the driver’s seat.

3. Get clear action steps using the pay yourself first principle so that you regain control of your time, talent, and energy — and your balance.

Schedule your call here or by using this link: https://callSLA.as.me/Chris.

John O’Grady in Forbes on what the play “Hamilton” teaches us about leadership

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John’s article for Forbes Coaches Council highlights leadership lessons embedded in the show’s memorable songs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/10/26/what-the-play-hamilton-teaches-us-about-effective-leadership/?sh=39b1907245f5

Rage

3 Steps to regain control from social media rage

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Outrage is bad for your emotional well-being.

It’s like snacking on anger all day long.

It’s bad for your business, too, because it sucks your time and depletes your energy.

Sadly, playing on outrage [if it’s outrageous, it’s contagious] is a television and social media business model.

You are the victim.

I’m a firm believer in a healthy sense of outrage.

You don’t cross certain lines with me – bigotry, disrespect, and predatory behavior are among them, as you know.

I’ll let someone know they’ve crossed the line, and I move on.

I’ve got people to serve and an impact to make.

Unfortunately, TV and social media want to absorb your time.

They hook you with that steady drip of addictive outrage. You lose track of time.

Some of my clients spent over ten hours per week on social media and cable news during the workday.

They didn’t realize it until they tallied the time during one of our mastery program sessions.

Imagine what you could do if you took even 50 percent of that time back and applied it to your priorities.

You’d start regaining control of your time and energy.

You would be more productive, less angry, and better able to grow your business.

Here are three action steps to regain control of your time:

1. Tally your social media and TV time for the past couple of weeks. Find out how much time you are investing in outrage.

2. Devote 3-to-5 minutes a couple of times per day to social media and TV. Get your fix and get out.

3. Pay yourself first. Set aside chunks of time each week to work on your priorities. Schedule everything else outside those time.

BOOM! Take these three steps, and you will be on your way to regaining control of your life.

If you want more action steps to regain control of your time, let’s set-up a call to talk. You will:

1. Clarify your priorities so that you know ways to make the best use of your time and energy.

2. Uncover the hidden time and energy bandits that are robbing your bandwidth and emotional well-being (yes, you lose emotional intelligence when you spend time raging) so that you can put yourself back in the driver’s seat.

3. Get clear action steps using the pay yourself first principle so that you regain control of your time, talent, and energy — and your balance.

The call is free for 7 people each month. I only ask that you make a small donation to your favorite cause.

You don’t need to tell me the cause or the amount, just that you donated.

You will feel great that you supported your cause :0)

Schedule your call here or by using this link: https://callSLA.as.me/Chris.

Focus: 4 action steps to regaining command of your time, talent, and energy

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If you want to nail your next 100 days, you need to focus.

Get command of your time, talent, and energy, so that you have predictable times every week to work ON your business.

You can get so carried away meeting everyone else’s demands that you allow your priorities to gather dust.

You spend your time on email, social media, and in constant firefighting.

You find yourself at the end of the day wondering where all the time has gone.

You don’t have enough time for the fire-prevention tasks that allow you to grow sustainably.

I’ll get to it tomorrow. Rinse. Repeat.

Stop the madness.

Here are four action steps to get out of the spin cycle.

1. Set your priorities. Maintain a top 3 so you don’t diffuse your efforts.

2. Put good ideas on a Not-Now list, so you maintain visibility, but don’t get distracted.

3. Make your Not-To-Do list and outsource, delegate, or drop everything on it.  

4. Weekly planning. Set aside chunks of time each week for you to work on your business. Make these the same days and times so that you build a natural rhythm and bring your best to these sessions.

Focus is part of the 8-step process so that you can nail the next 100 days, build momentum, and rack up wins, even in turbulence and uncertainty.

You will get this process during my free masterclass.  

Yes, it’s free and takes only ten seconds to sign-up. There are no sales, no gimmicks, just value for you.

Sign up now while this article is in front of you. You are one decision away from your next level of success.

Get the peace of mind that you have made time to work ON your business.

What is your top takeaway from this article? Let me know: chris@strategicleadersacademy.com

Decide – stop these common errors from killing off your best moves

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Decide’s Latin origin means to kill off or to sever.

To make a decision thus means to kill off the alternatives.

Common decision-making errors result in you killing off the better alternatives – they are short cuts to expensive failure

Here are two doozies.

Confirmation bias happens when leaders place excessive weight on data that confirms their pre-existing beliefs and discounts contrary information.

We are living this problem right now. 

People on one side of the political spectrum highlight worst-case data on COVID-19. Their opponents emphasize opposite data. 

So many “expert” assessments and statements by political leaders are tainted by confirmation bias that ordinary people like you and me lose faith in their credibility.

It’s not just a political problem.

I fell into the confirmation bias trap myself. 

I wanted to take people on leadership trips to Normandy battlefields. I know the impact these experiences have on leaders and teams, and I’m very good at delivering them.

I wanted to do a lot of good for a lot of people, so I was eager to get going.

I believed that a good social media campaign could lead to mass interest.

A digital marketing agency I hired felt the same and suggested that Facebook ads would be a winner. They had had success with Facebook ads before, with a life-coach. They believed that they could replicate the outcomes. 

We made a series of (really cool) videos, created a complicated sales funnel, and crafted the ads carefully. 

We launched the ads. The videos were really popular and we saw superb engagement rates.

No prospects. 

We needed to create enough volume, we told ourselves, and the ads would pay off. Even if only .1 percent were interested, one million views should lead to 1000 prospects. 

We spent more.

We got nearly 2 million views and 300k “likes.” 

No prospects. No buyers.

I finally shut off the ads.

It turns out that we had tapped into an audience that loved military history, but they were not leaders or buyers.

Most entrepreneurs and leaders go to Facebook to keep up with friends and family, not for business advice.

That was an expensive lesson. 

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We will discuss decision-making and seven more steps to nailing your next 100-days during my free masterclass.  

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Status quo bias, on the other hand, increases resistance to change, even if your situation sucks and your plan is failing.

Leaders perceive that the status quo is safe. After all, the executive team signed up for the approach at one time.  

Board members or executives poke holes in alternatives, shoot-down proposals, and emphasize the risks of change.

Some resist change for fear of being “wrong” in adopting the current plan. 

Others do not have an apples-to-apples comparison of risk, so they place more confidence in managing the challenges of the failing plan they know than in a proposed alternative that they don’t. 

Solo-entrepreneurs and small business leaders with status quo bias make a decision one day and then talk themselves out of moving forward the next morning. 

You get trapped in the hamster wheel.

Here are two action steps to deal with these problems.

First, assess your assumptions. 

Ask “what must be true” for the plan to work. Those are your assumptions. 

Do a sanity check on the validity of the assumptions.

Do the same with alternate plans. 

This approach gives you an apples-to-apples comparison of the risks and opportunities.

It also helps you check your confirmation bias.

Second, use premortems.

A premortem is a story or two about how the plan failed so that you can identify the indicators and warnings. 

Make those indicators and warnings part of your risk assessment.

When the indicators and warnings light up in the wrong direction, you know it’s time to make a change.

Red-teams or designated critics can be helpful, too, but I prefer the pre-mortems. 

Leaders may rationalize away the former because they are supposed to point out problems. 

They go with the plan anyway and lose the benefit of the premortem’s indicators and warnings.

The premortem is something the decision-makers own, so they are more likely to take them seriously.

We will discuss decision-making and seven more steps to nailing your next 100-days during my free masterclass.  

Yes, it’s free and takes only ten seconds to sign-up. There are no sales, no gimmicks, just value for you.

Sign up now while this article is in front of you. You are one decision away from making even better decisions :0). 

Get the peace of mind that you have decided to work ON your business. 

What is your top takeaway from this article? 

P.S. Do you want to nail your next 100 days? Of course, you do. Here’s the free training that will help you do exactly that. It’s perfect for solo-entrepreneurs, consultants, and micro-business owners.

You are one decision away from nailing your next 100 days.

What are you doing with the broken eggs?

What Are You Doing With The Broken Eggs?

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Are you trying to put the eggs back together or are you making omelets?

There’s a world of difference between the two approaches.

COVID-19 and the economic shutdown have wrecked the economy and created new social expectations.

People are unlikely to gather closely together until there’s a vaccine or herd immunity.

Open office plans – Good riddance.

Work from home or from remote locations is no longer scary. More employees are going to demand these options. Your culture needs to treat in-office and remote as equals or you will have two classes of employees.

Online conferences and training are productive and far less expensive than doing them in-person. There are trade-offs, of course, but leaders now have options.

It’s tempting to want to put the broken eggs back together, to return to the way things were in January 2020.

For some leaders, that’s reasonable.

For many, though, it’s a fool’s errand.

You will miss opportunities to restore your growth as you cling stubbornly to past practices and expectations.

You won’t adapt your flywheel, so your competitors will pass you by as you spend time, energy, and resources trying to recreate the past.

Your top talent will leave because you are out-of-step with people’s expectations. It’s like asking Millenials to accept a Mad Men workplace. Not going to happen.

Imagine what it would be like to be making omelets while everyone else is fumbling around with the eggshells?

This is exactly where you want to be – ahead of the curve.

Here are some practical questions to help you do that.

1. What emerging social and economic trends are affecting your customers?

2. What steps can you take to meet these new needs and expectations?

3. What trends, such as remote workplaces, are affecting your culture?

4. What steps should you take to meet these expectations?

5. What resources do you need to take these steps?

You got it. Five clarifying questions that help you make omelets when everyone else is staring at the broken shell and drifting yolk.

Stop over communicating

Stop Over-Communicating

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Overcommunicate is a terrible term, because it’s imprecise, confusing, and can lead to all sorts of goofy outcomes.

What, exactly, does overcommunicate mean: talk more, have more meetings, speculate out loud?

We have seen the outcomes of these kinds of practices. Some teams have tried cyber-micromanagement – keeping their people on an open video line all day.

Others have ramped up the frequency of meetings – many that have no clear agenda or outcomes.

We have seen the fear, anxiety, and confusion that comes from leaders speculating out loud, ruminating about internal deliberations, and providing fact-free timelines and promises.

Stop overcommunicating.

Start communicating clearly and building confidence that you’ve got the judgment to lead your team through the COVID crisis and into the recovery.

Here are some practical tips for doing that.

1. Set your cadence. Your rhythm of meetings and routines needs to be purposeful and predictable. These become your team’s handrails through the uncertainty as you cross the COVID-chasm below.

2.  Open channels. Make informal town-halls part of your cadence. Take questions from people during the session. Stick to the facts as you know them. Feel free to say, “I don’t know” and “We’re still discussing that and haven’t made a decision. I’m very interested in your ideas, too.” Make sure these are sessions where people feel safe to voice ideas, opinions, and concerns.

3. Get moving. Put together three-to-five simple scenario plans. What are the common elements? Once you identify those you can start moving forward. Identify the forks down the road and the information you need to know to decide which path to take.  

4. Keep everyone engaged. Let people know the what and the why as you get moving. Empower them to figure out how. This simple practice lowers the chaos, boosts confidence, and increases your command of the situation.

5. Watch, Listen and Learn. You’ve got two ears, two eyes, and one mouth. Watch and listen at least four times more than you speak. Ask questions and get people thinking and solving problems.

You got it. Five tips to stop the babble and build confidence in success. Bam!

How well are these tips working for you?  Send me a message and let me know.

Make a new mistake

Are you Ready to Make New Mistakes?

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Make a new mistake

Are you Ready to Make New Mistakes?

There are many reasons not to trust people who say they have never been wrong. Every leader who dares to grow, innovate, defy conventional wisdom, or make a positive impact makes mistakes and experiences failure. To err, after all, is human. We all make mistakes.

Good leaders, though, make new mistakes.

They learn and avoid repeating the errors they have made — especially the expensive ones. Your new mistakes, though, can be expensive. Some are catastrophic.

Leaders in a competitive market who rely solely on personal experience are particularly vulnerable to business-ending new mistakes.

They only learn in the school of hard-knocks where the tuition is really expensive. Sometimes those hard-knocks are knockouts.

How do the most successful leaders avoid these problems?

They learn from their own experiences and those of others. The very best leaders make truly new mistakes. They avoid the mistakes that they have made themselves AND they avoid the mistakes that others have made.

Reading is the fast track to learning from others.

How do you know which books and articles to read?

That’s exactly why we’ve created this reading list. It contains some of the best books and articles on Leadership, Culture, and Strategy, so you can avoid wasting time on nonsense.

We have also organized the list by theme, so you can focus on the issues most important to you.  For instance,

Our Leadership Themes include:

  • Lead Well: Trustworthiness, Respect, and Stewardship
  • Practice Empathy: Your Short-Cut to Gaining Cooperation
  • Take Responsibility: How to promote innovation
  • Connect the Why: Gain commitment through Common Purpose

Check out our Culture Themes:

  • Forge Balanced Teams: How to Strengthen Diversity and Inclusion
  • Align Values and Practice: What Happens in the Halls Trumps What’s Written on the Walls
  • Build Resilience: How to Bounce Back Higher
  • Stop Toxic Subordinates: The Altar of Short-term Results is the Fast Track to Failure
  • Position High Impact Leaders: Put your Top Talent in a State of Flow

How are these for Strategy Themes:

  • Strategy governs Plans: How to Make Sure the Dog Wags the Tail
  • Manage Silos: How to Avoid Letting Success Fall through the Cracks
  • Embrace Complexity and Uncertainty: How to Create and Seize Opportunity in Chaos
  • Courage: Developing the Strength and Wisdom to Decide
  • Learn and Adapt: How to Make New Mistakes

So, are you happy to repeat your errors and those of others…

Or, are you ready to make truly new mistakes?

Get the Reading List HERE

If you already have our Reading List, check out these webinars:

Wait? These webinars say they are for Cyber Security Leaders.

That’s true, but the same concepts work for anyone who leads human beings.

Ready to make truly new mistakes? Get the Reading List HERE

When you are ready, here are four great ways to work together

Speaking: Do you want a professional keynote speaker to talk with your team on leadership, culture, and strategy? I’ve talked to business, NFL, academic, government, nonprofit, and military audiences. I always tailor the presentation to you, so the message inspires action for you and your team. I’m a professional member of the National Speakers Association, which means I have a proven track record of professionalism and performance.

Training: If you want an even higher impact for your team, training and workshops are a great way to go. I teach teams and organizations on a range of Leadership, Culture, and Strategy themes, to include: how to elevate your team’s performance, how to build a culture of excellence, how to slash employee burnout and turnover, how to develop a winning strategy and how to prevent expensive mistakes. Programs for you range from half-day primers to three-day intensives, to include offsite at places like Normandy and Gettysburg.

Self-Directed Courses: Do you want your team to stay engaged on these key themes but do not want to send them away to an executive education course? We have a suite of online programs that are perfect for you. The courses are excellent ways to follow-up a training event to keep your team learning at your own pace.

Consulting: Do you want to improve your leadership development programs, build a culture of excellence, and create a winning strategy? Unlike the big, gucci, consulting firms that are slow, bureaucratic, and stick you with junior MBAs, I work personally with you and your team, so you get results quickly and cost-effectively with no hassle.

What results can you expect? Check out these video testimonials.
Reach out to me anytime you are curious about working together.

Victories that Matter

The Only Victories that Truly Matter are the Moral Ones

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The actual wins worthy of celebration in life are, in fact, the moral ones.

The Only Victories that Truly Matter are the Moral Ones

By: John O’Grady, Founder and Owner of O’Grady Leadership Consulting Services
Victories that Matter

An often-used phrase in sports is, “there are no moral victories.” This phrase is extolled by coaches, fans, and players alike whenever their team loses a contest. It places primacy on the score as the only outcome worthy of acknowledgment.  I am guilty of having uttered these words to youth teams I have coached, my daughter, who is an athlete, as well as teams I have been a member of. I suppose I did because it’s easy to adopt a catchy phrase without much thought, especially one so frequently used. As is the case with most unexamined things in life I have come to realize I have been wrong and exceedingly small in my thinking. Now that I am a little wiser, completing a career as a decorated combat veteran, and launching my leadership consulting business I realize that the only lasting victories are the moral ones – regardless of the score at the end of the game. The actual wins worthy of celebration in life are, in fact, the moral ones – I am now playing the long game. This concept became crystal clear for me while I observed the indomitable human spirit, brotherhood, and competitiveness of the Wagner College Football team as they lost their season opener, 24-21. This loss came to a twenty-one point favorite, University of Connecticut (UCONN) team.

This story starts back well before I even became associated with the Wagner program. It starts on 30 December 2018, when one of the young men on the team, Tyamonee Johnson, was senselessly and tragically killed while home for vacation from Wagner. The 22-year-old man, a father of a then two-year-old, recently graduated and decided to return to Wagner in pursuit of his Master’s Degree. All that changed on 30 December as did the contour of the Wagner Football teams upcoming season without their brother and teammate “T.”  The staff and the team faced their first tough choice of a new season… be consumed by the pain and senseless nature of this horrific event or take control and ownership for what they could control. They chose the latter in the coming days and weeks that passed as they navigated through this hard life lesson, resolving never to forget their teammate and friend. They decided to draw closer as a team, relish the precious moments together regardless of how difficult, and re-dedicate themselves to the rigors of the off-season, preparing for the season without “T.”

Fast forward to the last week in July of 2019 some seven months later.  I was invited to deeply embed with the football team in my capacity as a leadership and culture consultant. I spent a full eight days with the team during the start of summer camp. I was given complete access thanks to Head Coach, Jason “Hoss” Houghtaling, and Associate Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator, Del Smith.  I lived in the dorms with the players and ate meals with them. The dog days of summer start at 600AM and last until approximately 1030PM each day and I was present for all of it. The first thing that struck me about the coaching staff is that they intuitively understand that they are in the business of coaching people and teaching football.  This wasn’t something explicitly spoken, but as I observed them, it was exceedingly clear.  These were men of character built for selfless service for other men. They were deeply invested in the type of leaders they wanted the young men they coached to become. In fact, we spent an entire morning session discussing what it meant to be a “Wagner Man,” and another whole day discussing the topic of cultivating trust with intention.  Now, anyone who knows anything about summer camp or a football coaches’ life, in general, knows time is the most precious resource second only to players. The time investment and subsequent discussions during the week demonstrated how committed the staff was to building men of character, focusing only on what they could control and what was right in front of them each day with the statement, ‘What’s Important Now – W.I.N!”.  Many other staffs would prioritize X’s and O’s over everything else – not Wagner. 

Throughout the remainder of the week, I was offered the opportunity to have breakfast with Coach Hoss, where we spoke at length about leadership and cultivating a values-based culture. Additionally, I met with his leadership council of players where we talked about the season they wanted to have and what they were willing to do to achieve those goals.  I offered up they conversely consider what they would not tolerate while attaining their goals. Throughout this entire process, I sensed this was a unique group of people, invested in each other’s growth, first as humans and second as players, genuinely committed to a pursuit of excellence in all things – no excuses. 

In my parting speech to the team, I challenged them to do three of things as they moved forward. First, don’t sacrifice the future on the altar of today. Second, love your future self as much or more than you do your current self. Lastly, recognize the genuine miracle it was that they were present in this moment, despite the day to day grind, never forget this and understand they had a responsibility to treat it as a miracle – no excuses, put in the hard work and make the hard choices necessary to ensure that all three challenges were met. My promise to the team, “I’ll be watching, and I’ll call you out if you aren’t achieving your full potential.” 

Graciously I was invited back to travel with the team to their season opener.  Fast forward to kickoff, 24 August in the season opener at UCONN. What I witnessed for 60 minutes of football was a group of young men of character, led by men of integrity, fiercely compete.  It’s a small nuance, but it was clear these men didn’t only play with one another; they were playing for one another. They had 100 reasons to relent even before the start of the contest. But like back in December of 2018 they chose not to. During the game, they had another 1,000 reasons to lay down, fold, or quit. Instead, they decided to compete with an unrelenting spirit. Each time they made a conscious choice as individuals and as a collective to begin to define further the men they wanted to be, not just on a football team, but in life. They became winners in life.

For this experience, I became filled with an incredible depth of gratitude that is hard to accurately articulate. I am so thankful for having been able to witness up close this astonishing demonstration of what the human spirit is capable of and be a small part of their journey. It allows me to re-affirm my passion for working with athletes, coaches, and teams, helping guide them toward the best version of themselves. In doing so, I become a better version of myself. I am forever better and inspired because of the choices these men made, play in and play out, and how they departed the field with class.  

I am reminded of an Edwin Markham poem, “Creed.”  The following is an excerpt, “There is a destiny that makes us brothers; None goes his way alone; All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.”  In sports, the human spirit is offered the opportunity to express this symbiotic dance in ways rarely found anywhere else. We must never forget this. We should always celebrate this. This is the moral victory, far more impactful and everlasting, and ever-present regardless of the score, win or lose. Yes, there are moral victories. I witnessed one, and I celebrate it, you should too.

Email: John.ogrady@strategicleadersacademy.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/john-o-grady-leadership

Twitter: www.twitter.com/OG_Leadership

Why Help the Restaurateur?

Why Help the Restaurateur?

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Why Help the Restaurateur?

Why Help the Restaurateur?

Serving those who serve

Why am I passionate about helping the restauranteur?  After serving in the military for 23 years, why would I now choose to work with restaurateurs and quick-service franchisees?  The answer is quite simple: I want to continue to serve by serving those who serve!  Can you think back to some quick-service restaurant that broke the monotony of your day-to-day?  What fast-casual dining restaurant answers the age-old question of “what’s for dinner?”  Food remains integral to building relationships, our country’s economy, our culture, and our way of life. The restaurant industry is one of the most dynamic, cut-throat, and often unappreciated sectors in today’s marketplace. 

GUTS – Radical Courage

It is no easy road to be an entrepreneur entering such a demanding industry.  It takes real GUTS—radical courage—to join such a space.  Food expenses are rising.  Operating costs, to include the rising cost of wages, are a challenge. The increasing price of leased real estate is a looming foe.  In addition to these costs, the complex nature of marketing, sales, and communication make running a restaurant no easy task. Never mind trying to infuse a level of sustainable growth.  

Key Trends

In the NRA’s 2019 State of the Industry Report, they highlighted five key trends that continue to be at the forefront of the challenge:

  1. A competitive business environment.
  2. Staffing as a top challenge.
  3. Pent-up [customer] demand remains elevated. 
  4. Technology incorporation continues.
  5. Food preferences continue their rapid evolution.

Past performance does not dictate future success

Unfortunately, these trends do not soften the statistics of the past two decades either.  As you often hear it said, past performance does not dictate future success, but hindsight makes it clear that it is a significant challenge to be a successful restaurateur in today’s environment.   The numbers are staggering, with no relief in sight. Research has estimated some 60% of restaurants don’t survive their first year; Anywhere from 70-85% of restaurants either change the owner’s hands or go out of business in the first five years according to a 2005 study.  And personnel turn-over within the restaurant space is commonly observed to be as high as 70% annually. There is much to be gained as a restaurateur. However, it takes something special to not only survive but grow. 

How can I serve you best?

I have spent the past six months transitioning from my career in the Army and thinking about this VERY blog.  My aspiration: how can I serve YOU best?  I have visited a countless number of quick-serve and fast-casual dining restaurants.   I have watched and spoken to the men and women who are doing it, day-in and day-out, and my hats off to you! 

Three action steps

Here are three small things that may serve you well in your endeavor to be the best in your business:  

  1. Take deliberate time to reflect on this year’s five trends, and rate your restaurant? How are you doing in those challenge areas?
  2. Rank order them. Which presents you with the most formidable challenge? Is it staffing? Are you meeting customer demands? Are you integrating the newest tech? Is it staying food-relevant? Rank-order them, one to five.
  3. Do ONE thing about the top three. You can’t fix everything, but you certainly can do one to three tangible tasks to make your business better today.

You can do IT!

Don’t know where to start? Please feel free to reach out. You can do IT. Whatever IT is.