Leadership Training with Limited Resources - By Patrick Yearout
Leadership is a complex concept that comprises many different elements. It involves creating a vision, communicating, influencing, taking action, making decision and achieving goals.
We need leaders in our restaurants and hotels. It is crucial that our people can take action and achieve goals every hour, every shift and every day.
When a restaurant or hotel lacks leadership, it can lead to chaotic shifts and unhappy guests, with managers having to continuously put out fires. People work long, long hours, they burnout and turnover is high.
When we provide leadership training, however, we can develop a staff that is ready, willing and able to step up and take charge. We can create motivated teams and well-run shifts that can help us to achieve our goals of loyal guests and a profitable operation.
The big question is: what is the most effective method for training leaders?
Common training strategies include e-learning programs, leadership classes, public speakers, training DVDs and videos, but these can be costly in terms of both money and time. A more practical approach would be to use on-the-job training strategies that can work within a limited budget and are relevant to employees’ career goals. Managers can provide opportunities to practice leadership skills in realistic situations, and most importantly, use these everyday strategies to create a long-term solution that grows talent a little bit more each day.
First we have to look at recruiting and hiring considerations so we can make sure that the organization is getting the best possible employee. Hiring managers need to think beyond the entry-level position and consider if the candidate has the potential to do well as a leader? They can start by assessing applications for thoroughness and professionalism. Next, when creating interview questions, they need to use ones that are open-ended and neutral and judge the responses – positive responses come from positive people, and positive people will make the best leaders in your organization. Some of those questions might be ones such as:
