How to Define Culture in Your Organization

Tyler and I have been privileged to explore Mexico for over a decade, discovering its vibrant culture with each annual visit. From savoring local dishes to experiencing the warmth of Mexican hospitality; it's breathtaking scenery that draws us back every year - not forgetting all those colorful beach stalls selling homemade goods! Tucson reminds me a lot of Mexico, maybe partly because of its Mexican influence. But it's more than that. There is a ton of pride in local; in fact, 67% of restaurants in Tucson are locally owned! The people here are warm, welcoming, and incredibly supportive of newcomers looking to slow down and take in a little more sunshine.

As I spend more and more time getting to know local restaurants in Tucson, I find myself reflecting on the culture of the companies I’ve worked for as well as the cultures (some great and some not so great) that I've created in each restaurant I’ve worked in. I’ve spoken with many business owners who are eager to define their culture for their business but are not sure where to start. I thought I’d spend time today diving deeper into the importance of culture in business and providing an exercise on how to Define your Values for your business.

The influence of culture is an undeniable force that shapes the way we think, act, and interact with each other, and this impact can be observed not only on a country's broader societal norms and values but also on the day-to-day operations of small businesses like restaurants.

As a restaurant owner, your team is the backbone of your business. However, it’s not just about making sure everyone works hard - you need to create a positive culture that fosters growth and development. Culture is what sets your restaurant apart from the rest, and it’s essential to define what it means to your company. In this blog post, we will explore how to define culture in your organization and how to implement it in a way that enhances your team's performance.

Start with a Clear Vision and Values

Culture begins with a clear vision of what you want to achieve for your restaurant. Establishing values such as integrity, teamwork, respect, and fun provides a foundation for creating a culture of success. By sharing your vision and values with your team, you create a sense of purpose that ties everyone together. Use these values to evaluate your actions, make decisions, and hold your team accountable.

Encourage Communication Through Openness

Communication is key to any relationship, and the relationship between an employer and their team shares communication at the forefront. To build a strong culture, create an open-door policy where team members can come to you with concerns, ideas, or feedback at any time. With openness comes trust and respect, giving your team the freedom to express themselves and contribute to the success of your restaurant. Monty Moran talks about the importance of being vulnerable, curious and empowering his team in Love is Free. Guac is Extra. Check out chapter 14 about communication.

Implement Training and Development Programs

Investing in your team's training and development is critical to your restaurant's success. Set up educational programs that teach specific skills and strategies for your team members to perform their jobs successfully. By providing opportunities to learn, grow, and improve, you instill a sense of value that motivates them to do their best. This not only benefits their personal growth but also contributes to the growth of your business. Many tech companies such as Toast and 7Shifts have downloads you can use to create training programs. One thing we did at Snooze and Sweet Cow that was very effective were monthly manager workshops that focused on leadership skills training and company initiatives. The time we set aside for our managers helped them prepare for important conversations they needed to have with their teams and build a network and community of their peer leaders.

Set the Tone with Leadership

The culture of your restaurant begins with you. Be a positive role model for your team by setting the tone for their behavior and reflecting the values you want to emphasize. Demonstrate humility, accountability, and empathy in how you treat your team and customers. Develop a leadership style that inspires your team to do their best work and achieve their goals and don’t be afraid to be messy.

Celebrate Success and Have Fun

Lastly, make time to celebrate successes and have fun with your team. It’s essential to enjoy what you do and to remind team members of their accomplishments, big or small. Celebrating achievements shows that you value their contributions and that their hard work pays off. This boosts morale and fosters a positive culture that inspires everyone to keep working hard.

Creating a positive culture in your restaurant takes time and effort, but it's well worth the investment. By establishing your vision and values, encouraging open communication, providing training and development opportunities, setting the tone through leadership, and celebrating successes, you build a cohesive team that’s motivated and excited to work. By working to create and maintain a strong culture, you’re investing in your restaurant's success, your team's happiness, and your customer's satisfaction.

What is Stopping You From Investing in Yourself?

As much as I love the hospitality industry, I do need to dog on it for a second. Leadership development resources in the restaurant business are lacking, leadership development programs are nonexistent, and management training programs don't set you up for long-term success. Many of us in the industry did not get a college degree in Hospitality Management to get where we are today. Many of us have had to rely on the examples of other managers around us to show us how to lead, and how not to lead.

 In my opinion, if you want to invest in your leadership skills and grow your career, you have to do it on your own. There are a few major problems with this though:

1. What if you don’t know what leadership qualities you need to work on?

2. What if you don’t have the courage to ask for development because you aren’t great at asking for help?

3. What if you don’t know where or how to look for resources?

Throughout my career, I have faced each of the issues discussed above. I have always had a desire to become a better leader and focus on self-improvement, but I struggled with identifying where to begin. Instead, I relied on my superiors to provide me with opportunities for growth and became resentful when they did not meet my expectations. In some instances, I convinced myself that I was too busy or lacked the motivation to invest in my own development. Looking back, I recognize that this behavior did not align with being a good leader.

Over the years, I have spoken with several leaders who lack experience in performance reviews and understanding their leadership style. As a result, it becomes difficult for them to identify their strengths and weaknesses as a leader. If you are one of those leaders and want to enhance your leadership skills, check out the helpful tools that I have used in the past.

Here are some quick and free tools you can use to improve your self-awareness, get feedback from your boss and team, and work on your mental wellness.

1. Mind Tools offers a quick and free Emotional Intelligence Assessment and Instant Development tools. I love Mind Tools, as you can search for any leadership topic you may need help with, such as “how to give a performance review.”

2. To gain insight into your leadership abilities, I suggest asking your boss to specify three areas in which you excel and three areas in which you could improve, along with specific examples for each.

3. To gather feedback from your team on what's working and what's not, I’ve included my Start, Stop, Continue Exercise. Keep in mind that your team may not feel comfortable giving you direct feedback, so consider asking your boss to send out the exercise instead.

4. Check out CHOW, which stands for Culinary Hospitality Outreach and Wellness. CHOW is a Denver-based non-profit that offers many free resources, such as Zoom and in-person peer support meetings, wellness partners, and wellness app resources, to anyone who works in the hospitality industry.

5. Visit my website's Blog or Bookshelf for more leadership resources such as books, podcasts, and websites.

Investing in yourself doesn't have to be difficult. Taking small steps, like scheduling some time for self-care each day or week, can go a long way towards improving your overall wellbeing and achieving success on the job. As you begin taking care of yourself and making sure that your needs are met, you'll find that it becomes easier to stay motivated at work, reach goals faster, and lead a happier life. With dedication and persistence, investing in yourself will pay off both emotionally as well as professionally!

Your challenge: Ask yourself which area in your life you’d like to invest in and take one tiny step toward that investment.

How to Empower Your Employees and Create Lasting Success

A few weeks back, I was speaking to a friend in the industry and asked what her biggest challenge was as a Director of Operations in a Multi-Unit Organization, and she said empowering their employees to act like owners. I have a client in Tucson who owns two businesses in food and beverage, and is expanding, who is struggling with the same thing.

These conversations have made me take a hard look back at my career and those around me who rose up to become leaders in the industry. They had one thing in common: they were empowered.

I have worked with many leaders during my career who have learned the art of empowering people; it takes time, trust, practice and guidance. During my time in management, I have always sought out the next supervisor, AGM, Executive Chef, GM, Sous Chef or Regional Manager. In many one-on-ones with the management teams I have led, I commonly asked the question: “Who is next on the bench?” Building a bench of leaders within any organization is essential to keeping your culture alive in a local organization—in my opinion.

I am currently reading the book Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara and resonate with his mindset, approach to hospitality, taking care of guests, and empowering his people. In Chapter 10, Will talks about how he strengthened his team and the guest experience by identifying people among his team who were passionate about different aspects of the restaurant.

He put someone in charge of the beer program who was just 21 years old. He also put someone in charge of CGS (China, Glass and Silverware), who changed out their glass racks and reduced the cost of glass by cutting down on breakage. Furthermore, he put someone in charge of their coffee, wine and cocktail programs to ensure that the quality of beverages perfectly complemented the quality of food being prepared in the kitchen.

I haven't finished reading the book, but I can only imagine that this empowerment of employees led to an enhanced experience in every area of the restaurant and increased trust, communication, employee engagement, retention, and loyalty.

One of my favorite personal stories of empowerment is about an incredible bartender and human, Adam Hodak. Adam was hired to be part of the opening team with me at Osteria Marco in 2007. Adam was described to me as a high-volume "beer and shot" bartender. Something sparked in Adam, while working at Osteria, and he started learning about classic cocktails and molecular gastronomy. Adam would play around with different ingredients, taste the staff on new cocktails for the menu, inspire other bartenders to create drinks, and create custom cocktails for our guests. Adam started participating in cocktail competitions, lighting up our palates with hot, spicy peppers whenever he could.

Adam went on to become the Beverage Director for Bonanno Concepts, became a Managing Partner and now owns his own bar in Denver called The L. 

Adam was not the bar manager at Osteria; he was a bartender who was passionate about learning more about cocktails, and we gave him the space and encouragement to do so.

If you are sitting at the table with your leaders asking, “Who is on the bench?” and they say “no one,” then I would call bullshit. Your leaders are either; not asking the right questions, having the right conversations with their team, or there is a bigger issue. Everyone has something to offer this world, and I bet if you spent 30 minutes getting to know that employee on a personal level, you would discover what that is and make your organization better.

What would your organization look like if you empowered your team to think like owners?

How to Find Relief from Anxiety

For the first time after abstaining from drinking, I struggled with mysterious sensations and a total lack of understanding as to why. These episodes occurred at random times for no apparent reason. My body felt like it was buzzing inside out; my vision could not zero in on single objects; my hustling mind seemed impossible to quiet or concentrate during activities such as car rides with hubby and shopping trips around Ikea (where I used to shop with a cocktail in my Yetti). Moreover, those anticipatory pre-work jitters that typically come off Sunday nights were amped up tenfold alongside an incessant heart thumping when headed to airports for vacations - it was frustrating.

At first, I shrugged off the signs of anxiety that were manifesting in my body and mind. But eventually they became so intense and persistent it scared me enough to want to get curious about potential solutions. I am firmly against medicating myself unless its absolutely necessary and really wanted to find a natural solution. 

After researching what could be causing my symptoms, I came across a definition for this condition: Anxiety is characterized by excessive worry & fear accompanied by physical discomfort such as rapid heartbeat and breathing, sweating, or feeling tiredness. Armed with knowledge about how to tackle these feelings naturally was an empowering way for me to understand how I could start to manage these feelings. 

I had heard of anxiety before, but was clueless about its effects and what to do for it. Unfortunately this led me to doubt anyone who mentioned being anxious or suffering from the condition - thinking they were making excuses to not follow up their obligations, like showing up for their shifts. But through further research, I discovered that reducing coffee intake might be a good remedy; something which came as quite a surprise given my moderate coffee consumption. I usually drank two cups in the morning followed by an espresso later on in the day when I was feeling stressed or had a long day ahead of me. 

After years of coffee consumption as a way to wake up, I decided to give it a break in order to see if there was any difference. Surprisingly, only 3 days without caffeine made me feel better - my racing mind slowed down and those jittery feelings inside disappeared. My breathing seemed deeper while focusing on tasks felt easier than before! 

Even today, when anxiety pops up from pushing myself too far or being under stress, cutting out coffee for 2 days does wonders for calming that feeling almost immediately. If you are interested in learning more, I’ve provided a resource for you below.

Tips on How to Manage Anxiety