Organizational Skills: A Must For Restaurant Managers

The restaurant industry is a hectic fast paced business atmosphere that requires not only attention to detail, but a sharp focus. As restaurant professionals, we all know this, and recognize the importance that strict organization has in restaurant management. As a result, on any job description for restaurant management, you’re sure to see a desire for “organizational skills” highlighted, but what does it mean? It’s much more than a simple buzz word used to generate interest in the job, it means something specific. Let’s take a look at the sorts of skills that make up this particularly hot skill.

What Makes A Good Restaurant Manager?

Managers know how to analyze the environment they govern. They look for influences, and recognize how each individual in the kitchen or on the restaurant floor contributes to the particular culture and needs of the business they run.  A good manager will be able to recognize what makes each employee tick, and recognize how the perceptions and attitudes of those employees will play off one another in a reciprocal way; reinforcing good behavior and cutting off the bad, essentially generating the very pulse of the restaurant.

Managers should also know how to set goals. Managers have to be able to understand the wants and needs of their team, because once they do, they can set goals and reward performance appropriately.  They can emphasize or undermine particular team dynamics that they get a feel for in order to produce more productive and reliable teams.  By keeping their eyes open and ears low to the ground, they stay ahead of any cultural issues that could crop up, nipping problems succinctly before they happen.

Think of Some of the Features That You Desire In a Manager

A good manager will have executable plans of action that take the dynamic of the restaurant, and the personality of their team into account.  Good managers have a history of successes, a record of doing right by their employers and the team that works under them.  Amazing managers, in turn, take it a step further and drive home the importance of the customer. For the most successful restaurants, the customer is not treated as a temporary convenience, but is an integral part of the organization as a whole. They too, are a part of the team, and need to have their needs and wishes heard for the restaurant to flourish.  When a manager does this, and can generate that thought in his team, customers cease to be an end product or task to be handled, and instead become just one more step in the health and happiness of the business on whole. Ultimately, as you can see, organizational skills can best be summed up as a unique ability to empower others; to generate excitement and increase productivity through a number of strategies.