Restaurant Staff Follows the Standards You Accept

Speaker A: Foreign. Hey there restaurant pros. It's David Scott Peters and welcome to the Restaurant Prosperity Formula Podcast. For over two decades, I've been guiding restaurant owners to success with the proven principles of something I call the Restaurant Prosperity Formula. I originally created the formula based on the daily practices of the most successful restaurateurs I coached, and it's now the foundation of what I teach restaurant owners like you so so you can achieve success. What do I mean by success? Success is a restaurant owner who dictates the terms of their life and their bank account instead of the restaurants dictating those things for them. Success as a restaurant owner has freedom from the restaurant and the financial freedom they never thought possible. How you define success is up to you, but I do know the way to achieving it is using the Restaurant Prosperity Formula. This season, I'm diving even deeper into the core elements of the formula. Leadership systems, training, accountability and taking action. Along with my insights, you'll hear from special guests, industry experts, and inspiring success stories from fellow restaurant owners who've turned their businesses around and found their definition of success. In this episode, number 157, we're talking about how small misses become the standard in your restaurant and how to coach the first miss before it turns into culture, cost leaks and hospitality breakdowns. Let's get started. But first, a word from our sponsor. Boost your restaurant's performance with the service, with styles, secret shopping program. Get comprehensive reports with photos, customized visit templates, a vast network of experienced shoppers and a fantastic scoring system so you know exactly what your guests are experiencing. You control the frequency and rotation. No minimums, no contracts, no cancellation charges and and no hidden fees. Enjoy industry leading reporting and scoring software plus a 10% discount off the price and your first shop is free. Set up a quick call today at www.servicewithstyle.com dsp. Your restaurant does not lower its standards all at once. It lowers them one ignored miss at a time. The side work gets skipped. Nobody says anything. The portion is too big. Nobody corrects it. The closing checklist is half done. Nobody follows up. The guest waits too long to be greeted. Nobody coaches it. The prep list is ignored. Nobody asks why the manager misses a labor cut. Nobody reviews it. And every one of those misses teaches the team something. It teaches them what matters. It teaches them what does not matter. It teaches them what is actually required. It teaches them what they can get away with. And eventually the miss is no longer the exception. It becomes the standard. That is what we're talking about today. How small misses become culture how ignored misses turn into cost leaks, hospitality breakdowns, and accountability problems. And how to coach the first miss before it becomes the way your restaurant operates. Because the first miss is the coaching moment, the repeated miss is the pattern, and the ignored miss is, well, it is permission. Let's start with something every restaurant pro has experienced. You walk through the restaurant and see something small. A ah, service station is not reset. A bathroom check was not well, it was skipped. A cook is over portioning fries. A bartender forgot to record waste. A manager did not complete the shift notes. A server left without finishing side work. The host did not quote the weight correctly. The line was not wiped down between rushes. Nothing dramatic, nothing that makes the building fall over, nothing that feels worth stopping the world for. So you let it go. You tell yourself, I'll deal with it later, or they know better, or it was a rough shift or I don't want to be nitpicky or I'm tired of being the bad guy or my favorite lie. Restaurant pros tell themselves it's not that big a deal. Except it is not. Because the one missed task destroys the restaurant. It doesn't. One missed bathroom check does not bankrupt you. One oversized portion does not ruin food costs. One skipped side work task does not destroy culture. One missed labor cut does not sink the business. One bad table touch does not end hospitality forever. Um, but the pattern will. The repeat will. The silence will. The permission will. Will. Because the team is always learning. The restaurant is always training them. Not just through your handbook, not just through your meetings, not just through your checklist, not just through what you say in pre shift. The restaurant trains people by what gets corrected and what gets ignored. That is why small misses matter. A miss is not just a mistake. A, uh, miss is a moment where the team finds out whether the standard is real. When the standard is missed, the team looks for the response. Maybe not consciously, maybe nobody says it out loud, but they're watching. Does the manager notice? Does the manager coach? Does the owner follow up? Does the standard matter when the restaurant is busy? Does the standard matter when the person who misses it is a strong employee? Does the standard matter when the manager is tired? Does the standard matter when the owner is not in the building? That is the test. And if nothing happens, the team learns. They learn the standard is optional. They learn the checklist is flexible. They learn the portion guide is a suggestion. They learn the labor target is a nice idea. They learn the side work only matters when somebody complains. They learn hospitality only matters when the guest gets angry. They learn Accountability means nothing. Or it only means something when David finally loses his mind. And that is not accountability. That is delayed frustration with a soundtrack. So let's break this down. There are three stages of a miss. The first miss is information. The second miss is a pattern. The ignored miss becomes permission. The first miss again is information. That means when somebody misses a standard for the first time, don't jump straight into anger. Don't assume bad intent. Don't immediately decide the person is lazy, careless or out to ruin your life. Maybe they were never trained. Maybe the standard was not clear. Maybe the tool was not visible. Maybe the manager did not inspect. Maybe the station was set up poorly. Maybe the rush exposed a weak process. Maybe they were guessing. Maybe they knew the task but did not understand why it mattered. Maybe they made a mistake. That happens. Restaurants are pressure machines. People miss things. So the first miss gives you information. It tells you where to inspect before you blame the person. Inspect the structure. Was the standard clear? Was the person trained? Did they know what done looks like? Was the tool where the work happens? Did someone own the follow through? Was there a cadence? Was the mis inspected? Was the standard protected? That is leadership. Not soft leadership. Real leadership. Because real leadership does not just react to the symptom, it diagnoses the cause. So let's say the closing checklist was not completed. The lazy answer is the closing team doesn't care. Maybe, but start with better questions. Was the checklist clear? Did the team know which tasks belonged to which person? Did the closing manager inspect before people left? Was the checklist in the right place? Was there a standard for what completed means? Does anyone coach the mission the last time it happened? If the answer is no, you may not have an employee problem. Yet you may have an installation problem. Same thing with food cost. Let's say a cook is over portioning fries. You could say they're wasting food. True, but ask better questions. Do they know the portion size? Is there a portion tool? Was the portion demonstrated? Is the correct scoop available? Is the manager checking plates during the shift? Has anyone explained how a little extra food on every plate turns into real dollars? If not, the first miss is information. It tells you where the standard is weak. Same thing with hospitality. A guest waits too long to be greeted. You could say the host dropped the ball. Maybe they did. But was the greeting standard clear? What is the time expectation? Who backs up the host when the stand gets busy? Does the manager watch the door? Was the host trained on what to say when there is a wait? Does the team know hospitality starts before the guest sits down. The first miss is information. Use it, do not ignore it. Do not explode over it. Coach it. That brings us to the second stage. The second miss is a pattern. Now we have something different. If the same person misses the same standard again, or the same task keeps getting missed by multiple people, you are not dealing with a, uh, one off anymore. You are seeing a pattern. And patterns need management. A repeated miss tells you something is still broken. Maybe the coaching was not clear. Maybe the follow up did not happen. Maybe the manager is not inspecting. Maybe the employee does not believe the standard matters. Maybe the system is too complicated. Maybe the wrong person owns it. Maybe the consequence is missing. This is where restaurant pros often fail. They notice the second miss get annoyed, complain about it, and still do not correct it properly. They say things like, uh, we've talked about this. You know better. I shouldn't have to keep repeating myself. How hard is it to do side work? Why can't they just follow the recipe? Why do I have to babysit everyone? I get it. I really do. But frustration is not a system. Being annoyed does not protect the standard. A ah manager venting in the office does not change behavior on the floor. The second miss needs a stronger response than the first miss. Not louder, stronger, more direct, more specific, more documented, more followed up. The first miss might be. Here's the standard. Here's what happened. Here's what needs to happen next time. The second miss might be. We coached this yesterday. It happened again today. I. I need to understand what is getting in the way. Because the standard is not optional. That is different. It says we're not drifting. It says this is being watched. It says the old way is not automatically coming back. This second miss is where you decide whether you are going to protect the standard or negotiate with it. And be careful. Your team can smell negotiation if you say the standard matters, but tolerate the miss. They know if the checklist matters only when you're mad. They know if portion control only matters when food cost is high. They know if labor targets matter only after payroll. They know if hospitality matters uh, only after a bad review. They know the team is not stupid. They may not say it, but they know what is real. That brings us to the third stage. An ignored myth becomes permission. This is the part that creates culture, not the mistake, the permission. What you do not correct, you permit. What you permit, you teach. What you teach, you become. That's that line. Matters. What you do not correct, you permit. What you permit, you teach. What you teach, you become. If side work is Skipped and nothing happens, you teach side work is optional. If recipes are ignored and nothing happens, you teach recipes or uh, suggestions. If managers miss labor cuts and nothing happens, you teach. Uh, labor targets are not real. If the dining room is not inspected and nothing happens, you teach the clothes is negotiable. If comps are not explained and nothing happens, you teach. Discounts do not require accountability. If a guest has a poor experience and nobody follows up, you teach hospitality is reactive. And then months later you look around and say, how did we get here? One ignored myth at a time. That's how. Culture is not built only on your values. Culture is built by your tolerance. It is built by what gets repeated. It is built by what gets protected. It is built by what gets ignored. That is why the small miss matters. Because the small miss is usually where culture starts drifting. Not in a dramatic moment, not in some giant betrayal in the small. Stuff the little stuff that we got busy Stuff the I'll fix it tomorrow stuff. The it's not worth the argument Stuff the they know what I mean stuff. That is where standards go to die. Right there in the small mess. Nobody wants to coach, so how do you coach it? Let's make this practical. I want your managers to use a simple coaching format. Five parts. Here is the standard. Here is what happened. Here is why it matters. Here is what needs to happen next time. Show me you understand. That's it. No speech, no drama, no character assassination, no sarcasm festival. Even though I know sarcasm is tempting and sometimes deserves its own dessert menu. Just correction. Let's say the closing checklist was not completed. The coaching sounds like this. Here's the standard. Before any closing server leaves, the closing manager inspects the station and signs off on that side. Work is complete. Here is what happened last night. The coffee station was not reset. The trash was left full and the opening team had to fix it. Here is why it matters. When the close is incomplete, the opening team starts behind the restaurant looks sloppy and the standard becomes optional. Here's what needs to happen next time. You do not leave until the manager inspects and signs off. Show me you understand that is coaching. Not yelling. Not. You guys need to do better. That means nothing better. How better win better According to whom? Specific coaching beats vague frustration every time. Let's use a cost example. A cook is over portioning an item. Here is the standard. This item gets 6 ounce portion using this scoop. Here's what happened. During dinner, I saw multiple plates go out with portions above the standard. Here's why it matters. Over portioning Quietly raises food costs, creates inconsistency for the guest and makes the recipe costing useless. Here's what needs to happen next time. Use the correct scoop on every plate every time, even in the rush. Show me you understand. Clean, specific, no drama. Now let's go on to hospitality. A uh, host quotes 20 minutes when the actual wait is closer to 45. Here is the standard quote honestly and communicate delays early. Here's what happened. We quoted 20 minutes. The guests waited over 40 and nobody updated them. Here's why it matters. The guest feels ignored before they even sit down. And the server starts with a frustrated table. Here is what needs to happen next time. If the quote changes by more than 10 minutes, update the guest before they before they have to ask. Show me you understand. That is how standards become real. They are not real because they are printed. They are real because they are coached. And the first coaching moment should be fast. That does not mean reckless. It means timely. The best coaching happens close to the behavior. If you wait three weeks, you are not coaching. You are. You are hosting a cold case investigation. Nobody remembers the details. The employee gets defensive, the manager gets vague. The the standard feels random. Coach it while it's fresh, calmly, specifically, privately, when appropriate. And then follow up. Because coaching without uh, follow up is just a conversation wearing a manager shirt. Follow up is where the standards get protected. If you coach the portion standard today, someone needs to check the station tomorrow. If you coach the closing checklist tonight, somebody needs to inspect the next close. If you coach the host quote standard today, the manager needs to watch the host stand tomorrow. If you coach the waste tracker today, somebody needs to check whether it gets filled out next shift. That is how the team learns. You mean it not because you had one powerful conversation. Because the standard is still there tomorrow. That is the part most restaurant pros miss. They coach once and think good, handled. Maybe, maybe not. The team is going to test whether handled means handled. The restaurant is going to apply pressure again. The rush will come, the call out will happen, the truck will be late, the new person will need help, the manager will get distracted and the standard will either hold or drift. Your job is to protect it until it becomes normal. Now let's talk about consequences. Because wherever, whenever I'm teaching coaching, someone hears it as this. So we just keep coaching forever? No, absolutely not. Endless coaching is tolerance with a nicer outfit. If the standard is clear, trained, owned, visible, cadenced and coached and the person still refuses to do the work, then you have a people problem. Now accountability has to move. That might Mean a documented warning. That might mean changing someone's role. That might mean taking a shift away. That might mean removing responsibility. That might mean termination. You do not protect a standard by coaching forever. You protect a standard by being fair and clear. First make sure the standard was installed. Then coach the miss. Then follow up. Then if the behavior does not change, apply consequences. That is not harsh. That is leadership. What is harsh is making your best, um, employees work next to people who ignore the standard and suffer no consequences. What is harsh is making your opening team clean up after a week close every morning. What is harsh is letting one cook over portion while another cook follows the recipe. What is harsh is letting a manager ignore labor targets and then wonder why profit is missing. What is harsh is telling your team standards matter while proving they do not. That is the stuff that damages culture. Consequences are not the enemy. Inconsistency is the enemy. Unclear standards are the enemy. Ignored misses are the enemy. Now here is where this connects to your managers. Your managers need to understand that seeing the miss and doing nothing is a decision. They may not think of it in that way. They may think they are avoiding conflict. They may think that they are being nice. They may think that they are too busy. They may think that the miss is too small. But when a manager sees a standard missed and does nothing, they just participated in lowering the standard. That is a strong sentence and I mean it. A manager who sees the miss and does nothing is not neutral. They are teaching. They are teaching the team. The standard can be skipped. That is why managers must be trained to coach the small misses, not just the big blow ups. Not just the cash shortages. Not just guest disasters. Not just employee drama. Small misses because small misses are, uh, where culture is shaped. I want you to think about your restaurant right now. Where are the small misses you've been tolerating? What are they? Be honest. Not the giant projects. Not the huge strategic problems. The small stuff. The things that you walk past and silently resent. The thing your manager complains about but does does nothing to fix it. The thing the team knows is they're supposed to do that is supposed to happen but is learned. It probably won't be inspected. Maybe it's side work. Maybe it's portioning. Maybe it's the manager log. Maybe it's waste tracking. Maybe it's line checks. Maybe it's restocking. Maybe it's the table touches. Maybe it's greeting times. Maybe it's recipe cards. Maybe it's labor cuts. Maybe it's closing standards. Pick one. Not all of them, one and ask, what standard is being missed? Is it clear? Has it been trained? Who owns it? Is it visible where the work happens? When is it inspected? Has the mist been coached? What follow up, uh, is required? That is the work. Not rage, not blame. Not another meeting where you say, guys, we need to do better. Please retire that sentence. Do better is not a standard. It is, uh, a wish with a disappointed face. If you want better, define better, train better, inspect better, coach better, protect better. That is how standards change. So here's your action step. For the next seven days, I want you and your managers to use what I call a first miss coaching note. This does not need to be complicated. It can live in your manager log. It can be a section in your shift notes. It can be a simple Google form. It can be a clipboard if you still enjoy paper cuts and mystery handwriting. I don't care where it lives. But when a standard is missed, answer five questions. One, what standard was missed? Two, who or what was involved? Three, was the standard clear and trained? Number four. What coaching happened? Number five, what follow up is required? That is it. Five questions. The goal is not to create paperwork. The goal is to make sure the mist does not disappear. Because when Mrs. Disappear, patterns grow. And when patterns grow, culture changes. For seven days, capture the first miss, not to punish people. To see the truth. You may discover your standards are not clear. You may discover your managers are not inspecting. You may discover employees were never properly trained. You may discover one person keeps ignoring the same standard. You may discover one station is always the problem. You may discover the system is too hard to follow during pressure. Good. Now you have something to manage. That is the point. You cannot protect a standard. You do not inspect. You cannot coach. A miss you do not name. You cannot fix a pattern you refuse to see. So start small, Find one standard, watch for the first miss, coach it quickly, follow up. And if it keeps happening after the standard is clear, trained, and coached, then move to consequences. That is accountability without drama. That is leadership. And that is how you stop small misses from becoming the standard. Because remember this, the first miss is the information. The second miss is a pattern. The ignored miss becomes permission. And what you permit is you teach. So be careful what your restaurant is teaching. Remember, Restaurant Prosperity is about freedom for your restaurant and the financial freedom you deserve. I'm, um, David Scott Peters. Thanks for listening to the Restaurant Prosperity formula podcast.

Speaker B: Hey, that was an awesome episode. I want to thank you for taking the time to take action on building a better, more prospect, prosperous restaurant before you go. I want to give you these three thoughts. 1. By combining leadership and taking action with systems and training being checked by accountability, you are on your way to creating prosperity for you and your restaurant.

Speaker A: 2.

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