The Bernstein Perspective: Leadership Training

Bringing out the best in your people is more essential than ever before.

By Charles Bernstein, Editor-at-Large -- Chain Leader, 12/1/2004

Chain restaurant companies face a deep shortage of strong people. Roger Herman, an expert on work-place trends, showed the demographic trends to attendees of the eighth annual People Report Best Practices Conference in late October in Dallas. There are too many jobs and too few capable people to fill them, and it’s going to get worse.

“We can no longer treat people as robots,” Herman asserted. “Do your people have that sense of pride?

I suggest that they don’t have enough of it and too often don’t believe the work is meaningful. We must turn that around.”

Herman urged operators not to fall into the trap of hiring people “just because they are warm bodies. Everybody is going to be recruiting now. Assuming the economy is finally moving upward, you need to woo the best people. Most of all, you need employees who care about the customer.” He suggested creating career opportunities rather than just jobs, and tapping untraditional labor pools such as retirees.

Preaching to the Choir
Some of the human-resource managers were looking for ways to help their executive teams back at headquarters understand the relationship between people and the bottom line. And the CEOs and other top executives at the conference, who already “get it,” seemed open to learning more ways to help their employees.

Kathleen Wood, president of the Elliot Leadership Institute, noted that one of the methods to recruit and retain quality people is formal, industry-specific leadership training. “We spend plenty of money on conferences, holidays, gifts and parties, and we are fine in real estate and marketing,” she said. “But where is the budget for executive leadership?”

According to Wood, less than 29 percent of people in the restaurant industry have had “real leadership training.”

Many chains have such high turnover, Wood said, that there is not enough time for development. She declared that companies must make the time for potential leaders. “And we must have a development plan for each individual,” she asserted.

Up with People
Applebee’s Chief People Officer Lou Kaucic, emphasized that the industry can improve its reputation as an employer by working together. “Other casual-dining chains are really allies of ours,” he said. Applebee’s and its competitive set are mostly all the same, but Kaucic said his company wants to be noticeably better. It does that by focusing on the employee experience as well as the guest experience. He noted that Applebee’s CEO Lloyd Hill “put in better people, has a passion for service and a relentless focus on people.”

Dr. John Izzo, author of Awakening the Corporate Soul: Unleashing the Power of People at Work, is an expert on creating inspiring work places. “People wake up in the morning and want to do good things,” he said. “If you care, you will have a good feeling. Get in touch with that feeling. Have a willingness to be tough, but make sure you enjoy the trip and spread leadership. It has to run through your blood. You need it and want it as much as anything.”

Indeed, leadership and constant training to bring out the best in your people are essential, more so than ever before.