The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - October 19, 2001

At the beginning of next week, I will be off to Vancouver, British Columbia to present a couple of programs at a distributor food show. It's a pleasant 3-4 hour drive from here which means that my child bride, Margene can come along. We'll stay for an extra day and make it a mini-vacation. How civilized!

SUPER WHO?
In the past few years, the Seattle Mariners baseball team lost pitcher Randy Johnson, outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr. and shortstop Alex Rodriguez, all arguably among the best skill players at their positions currently playing the game. The result? This year they tied the record for most wins in a season, a mark that had been unchallenged for 95 years.

A note from the Doc:
The team is more powerful than any individual player. It is tempting to put up with the disruptive antics of a "superstar" employee because their skills are so good, but you can't be afraid to cut loose a star player. The team may be stronger for it.

A LESSON IN LEADERSHIP
If you are not watching "Band of Brothers" on HBO, you are missing perhaps the most impressive programming ever created for television. It is a 10-part mini-series presenting the true story of a company of paratroopers in WWII, starting with the D-Day invasion. Produced by Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks and written by Stephen Ambrose, it has the level of finish, intensity and honesty of "Saving Private Ryan" . . . but that is not my point.

One of the characters is (was) Lt. Norman Dyke, a company commander. When the company was under fire, he either stayed tucked into his foxhole or ran off on "essential errands," leaving his First Sergeant in charge of the company. The First Sergeant's described Lt. Dyke as an "empty uniform" -- physically present, at least some of the time, but totally lacking in leadership. The narration summed it up nicely in two sentences that really struck me"Lt. Dyke is not a bad leader because he makes bad decisions. He is a bad leader because he makes NO decisions."

This got me thinking about bad managers I have known. When the place was slammed, they either hid out in the office or headed off on "essential trips" to the bank or the restaurant supply store or anywhere that would get them out of the place.

I may be preaching to the choir here, but the job of a leader is to lead . . . and that cannot be done from the rear. A leader has to be in front of the troops when they need leadership -- to assess the situation, assign tasks, answer questions and generally let the company know they are in good hands. It is critical that the leader makes decisions when they need to be made and shows no fear -- it is less important that all the decisions made are 100% correct or that the leader is afraid.

A question from the Doc:
Where are you when the bullets start flying?

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