ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - May 20, 2005

It's always amazing how time flies when you are having fun! It seems like our three weeks just started and yet we are already more than halfway through the trip. It is still too early to know if this one will be remembered for what we saw, what we did, or what we didn't do.

It will almost always be marked by who we met. In the end, we are travelers, not tourists, and it is always about the people along the way.

LIFE IN ITALY
One more week to go on the Italian odyssey and it hasn't gotten old yet. From the looks of the first replies to the May survey, it is time for most of you to get on a plane and join me! (Hmmm. Maybe I should organize a trip or two during the year to give you an excuse. What do you think?)

There are good business reasons to do it, aside from just slowing down and clearing your head. In my experience, there is nothing like getting outside of your own culture to open your eyes to fresh ideas and possibilities. If you run an ethnic restaurant, it puts you closer to the source of your cuisine and the experience that it produces.

I appreciate that it can be tough to get away. Back in another life, I was the typical independent restaurant owner working 16 hours a day and unable to leave. What I came to realize (see my dissertation on the Super Summit below) was that the need to be there was my own fault, not an inherent requirement of being an independent operator.

If the world cannot turn without you in the restaurant, you have a problem -- you are working for the restaurant. In my humble opinion, you will only discover the true joys of the business when your restaurant is working for you! For that to happen, it means that you are going to have to take some action that is different from what you have been doing up to now. Nobody is responsible for your success but you!

If you think you cannot afford it financially, that is another problem. Margene and I can take our time off overseas because of the frequent flyer miles I build up during the year. If I had a family and no free flights to work with, I am sure my itinerary would be different, but I would still get away. If your business does not generate enough money to support that, it is time to take another look at your business -- it is not working for you.

Do you see a pattern here? What good is being your own boss if your life is more restricted than if you were somebody's employee? The purpose of having your own business is for it to support the lifestyle that you want to live. If that is not happening, get busy and change it.

Life is too short to spend it all at work. Go home. Get to know your mate. Watch your kids grow up. The restaurant is not who you ARE, it is what you are doing for a living. How you DO it is a statement about who you are. How well it allows you to live the kind of life you want is a statement about whether you are working for the business or whether it is working for you.

As one of my old professors at Cornell said one day, "You are working to make a living. Make sure you have some time to live." Good advice then. Good advice now.

Follow along on the daily diary of the Italian trip.

POINT/COUNTERPOINT
In my EHC of April 29th, I talked about the idea of using the walls of your lobby to promote yourself and the services you offer by displaying raving reviews from the press and past clients. Don Payne of Family Buggy Restaurants has a different take on the idea. He wrote:

I agree it is good to put up a complimentary press clipping, but I think there is a big negative to putting up a lot of them. The managers and staff start looking "back" at what has been accomplished instead of having their focus in front of them.

I have observed restaurants that have cleaned out their archives and posted glowing reports all over the restaurants. They usually fail shortly thereafter. Not because of the articles on the wall, but because they think they have reached the top. They don't realize the top is never reached for long unless you keep focused on what needs to be accomplished, and not what you did yesterday.

One man's opinion, 40 years of success, and my good reviews are in a box where they will stay.

THE MAY SURVEY
Since I am taking most of the month off, I thought it would be interesting to get a handle on how often the average independent restauranteur -- or however you might describe yourself if you are not actually running a restaurant -- manages to get away and for how long.

Before you decide to pass on this one, consider that the information collected can help you know if your business is working for you ... or if you are working for your business! What you do with that bit of information is up to you, but the only way to get an honest picture of life in the trenches is if everyone takes a second to fill in the blanks.

Unless you are a very slow reader ... or have a super slow Internet connection ... it will take less than two minutes. Just this once, go for it!

Add your thoughts to the May survey.

CREATING THE EFFORTLESS ORGANIZATION
"The results of this program were completely unexpected. I connected with this as a business. But I was very pleasantly surprised that the listening skills and understanding about presence allowed me to solve a problem that has been going on between me and my wife for three years. As soon as started practicing truly listening and being present, our relationship moved up four or five levels. We are now communicating and appreciating each other much more.

"I came to understand that it was me and my inability to be present and listen that was causing the problem. It is so exciting to be able to come to a program like this and learn something that is totally unexpected and solves a long-standing problem -- in this case with my wife and partner. It's extraordinary.

"The program did two things for me as it applies to business. It affirmed some principles that I have believed in and tried to practice. I also had two major insights that will greatly help our business." -- Rick Riccio, Director of Operations, Washington Square Group, Huntsville, AL

A Note from the Doc:
Rick and his boss were so impressed with the April Super Summit that they are both returning for the June session ... and bringing four of their key managers. In my book, this is a powerful testimonial.

By now you are probably tired of hearing about the Summit. You may even just skip over this section of the EHC. It is your business and your choice -- but I find that very often we resist making the changes that we know we most need to make. Maybe it is a reluctance to break out of the comfort zone (although in my experience the shifts that happen in the Super Summit are completely painless.) Maybe it is just the fear of losing the excuses as to why your life is the way it is.

Whatever the reasons, I can assure you that nobody who completed the Super Summit in April would change their decision to attend. They are now seeing fresh possibilities for their businesses and their relationships that they just missed before. Rick Riccio's comments above are typical of what we hear ... and are my own experience as well.

Super Summit 2005 will help you develop a new frame of reference ... from your own insights, not from someone else's "good ideas." This will awaken your natural "people skills" which will lead to a calm mastery of the human factor in your work -- even when you are faced with totally new situations, demanding guests, difficult staff, or just your own natural human ups and downs.

Best of all, this will all happen in a way that will enhance the productivity and morale of your staff, improve the well-being of your guests and put more money on your bottom line. In short, you will be able to get more done with less work in a manner that will seem effortless ... and restore balance to your life in the process! That is the simple -- and powerful -- promise of Super Summit 2005.

If this sounds like your idea of a good time, you owe it to yourself (and your family) to find out what Robert Kausen and I have planned for a small group of people on June 6-7 in New Orleans. To do this, just read the information on my website, complete the online application and we will set up a telephone interview to discuss the program.

If I am persistent in promoting this event to you, it is because the understandings you will gain will allow you to change your personal and professional fortunes just as surely as they enabled me to change mine nearly 20 years ago.

However, this is the last program that we have planned. We will offer something similar again -- we have to -- but it will be at least a day longer and come with a significantly higher tuition. Even then it will be a bargain ... but why not get the results sooner rather than later? Click on the link below and get the details while there is still time to act.

Get the whole story on the Super Summit.

THE PERPETUAL QUESTION
What did you learn from your staff today?

My perpetual question is really a lot deeper than it may sound.

As Rick Riccio's comments above suggest, improving your listening skills may be the most valuable management talent you can develop ... and you may not get it at all. It all depends on how serious you are about finding out what you and your company are really capable of becoming.

I promise you that the most effective managers I know can give a fresh answer to this question every day -- no problem. If you do not have a response readily at hand, what does that say about the quality of your listening?

I will continue to collect your answers to this important question. Just click on the link below and contribute your answer for the common good.

What did YOU learn from YOUR staff today?

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