How to Stop Being the Bottleneck in Your Restaurant
If your restaurant can’t function without you, you don’t own a business. You own a job that never lets you leave. Let’s talk about how you as a restaurant owner about how to stop being the bottleneck in your restaurant and finally get your time back.
Most restaurant owners believe, “If I don’t do it, it won’t get done right.” That belief feels responsible, but it’s expensive.
When everything runs through you, decisions slow down and managers stop thinking. When you answer every text message and every question, you train your team not to think for themselves. They learn quickly that it’s safer to ask the owner than to make a decision. So they stop owning problems and start passing them up the chain – to you.
That’s why you get those text messages the moment you finally sit down to dinner with your family or friends. Five minutes in, your phone buzzes. You excuse yourself to take the call and by the time you get back, everyone’s already eaten. You feel like you’ve let everyone down. I know that feeling, and it’s not why you got into this business.
The good news is this can be fixed.
Delegate outcomes not tasks
The first fix is delegating outcomes, not tasks.
Most restaurant owners say things like, “I’m delegating ordering,” and then hand someone a checklist and hope for the best. That’s not delegation. That’s task dumping.
Instead of saying, “Place the food order,” I want you to say, “You own food cost.”
See the difference? One is a task. The other is an outcome.
Yes, we still train the step-by-step process for how to place the order the right way. But the real goal isn’t just completing a task. The goal is hitting a key performance indicator, staying on budget and making money.
The same goes for shifts. It’s not “run the shift.” It’s “you own the guest experience.”
When managers own the guest experience, they don’t wait for Yelp, Google or TripAdvisor to tell them something went wrong. They fix issues in real time. That ownership gives your managers power, and it takes pressure off you.
Create one clear implementer
The second fix is creating one clear implementer.
If you’ve followed my work for any length of time, you know I’m not trying to get restaurant owners to do all the work themselves. I want you to learn the work. I want you to understand the systems.
Then you need one person who helps put those systems in place.
This implementer executes the systems, follows the checklists, trains others and reports the numbers back to you. They help hold people accountable.
When you have the right implementer, your job shifts. You stop managing everyone and everything. Your job becomes leading the leader.
Replace daily interruptions with weekly structure
The third fix is replacing daily interruptions with weekly structure.
Daily interruptions keep you reactive. Weekly structure makes you proactive.
This often looks like a weekly manager meeting. In that meeting, managers come prepared. They know their numbers. They know their challenges. You set priorities, coach performance and hold them accountable.
With clarity, consistency and communication, your managers get better every week. As they grow, you gain freedom.
The real shift you need to make
Here’s the shift that matters most.
If you don’t let others lead, you guarantee burnout.
If you have to answer every question, if you have to be in the building or your restaurant doesn’t run right, you’re a prisoner. At some point, you’ll think, “I’m done. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
That’s not what I want for you, and it’s probably not what you want either.
Your restaurant doesn’t need you to be the hero. It needs you to stop being the bottleneck in your restaurant and be the leader.
Be sure to visit my YouTube channel for more helpful restaurant management video tips.
