The secret to being a successful restaurant owner. The answer? Find someone who gets stuff done. As an owner, you can’t do it all yourself. It’s just impossible. Plus, it’s not your job to do everything in the restaurant. Your job is to lead and take on more strategic activities such as marketing and development of growth paths. To do this successfully, you must identify or hire someone on your team who can be relied upon to get you up and running with systems and get things done. Many times, owners choose someone they think will be a great implementer, but they turn out to be the opposite. What’s the opposite of an implementer? A saboteur. They stop all progress dead in its tracks, and they have all the excuses for doing it. How do you know if you have an implementer or a saboteur? Click below to listen or scroll to keep reading.
That’s what I’m talking about here. How you can identify if your implementer is actually a saboteur.
What I’ve learned coaching independent restaurant owners since 2003 is that you, as the restaurant owner, are not built to implement systems, stick to it, hold people accountable. Most restaurant owners I know want to chase that shiny object rather than make sure everyone’s following a checklist every day. And there’s nothing wrong with that. You just have to recognize that’s who you are. Plus, that isn’t your job. The restaurant owner’s job is to lead the team, work on budgets, grow the company.
That’s why you must have an implementer, someone right next to you, right by your side, who gets the systems all put in place, trains the other managers and holds them accountable for you. But what you have to watch out for is the implementer disguised at the saboteur. What is that?
The saboteur will delay your growth as a leader and the growth of your business. The saboteur undermines your ability to make positive change happen in your business. Whether they’re doing it on purpose or not, their actions or inactions, when left unchecked, will ultimately ensure you fail implementing changes and new systems that will take your business to the next level. Saboteurs fight for the status quo because they don’t want anything to change. Life is good for them. You have left them to be what you thought was a good manager, a good employee, but in reality, they’re not.
That’s what makes this process really difficult. You’re looking at somebody square in the eyes thinking that’s one of my best people, there’s no way in heck this person is a saboteur. Before you dismiss it completely, let’s review the four types of saboteurs so that as you’re looking at your team, you can recognize any of these signs.
First is the excuse maker. They say things like, I don’t have enough time. I need an office day. All this work, all these systems you’re asking me to put in place, I need time. Or they’ll say it’s too hard. Like I’ve been working so hard, so many hours, adding the stuff just makes it too hard. It’s too much work. Or my favorite. We don’t do it that way. They subscribe to the most dangerous phrase in your business: that’s the way we’ve always done it. Or they insist that your restaurant is different. They say your coach, David Scott Peters, whoever he is, right, he doesn’t understand we’re different. That the proven systems that work for every kind of restaurant in every kind of location won’t work in your restaurant. But you’re not different. You’re a restaurant, aren’t you? They just don’t want things to change.
Second is the negative talker. They say things like, “This isn’t going to work” before you’ve even tried. They kill morale with negative talk. You’ve heard it from someone. “Can you believe these guys? What they want to put in place? How many hours we’re already working? What it’s going to do?” Blah, blah, blah, blah. They hate the change so they nit and pick with all the employees. Management is whining to the line employees, changing your culture and just taking it straight down the tubes. They ask “why” at every turn and not like a curious two-year-old. It’s a cynical why. Why do we have to change? Why what’s wrong with what we’ve been doing? And this person often is so smart. They know everything, like how to do recipe cards, inventory, all this stuff. They know everything. They’re just so damn smart. But you’ll notice, they aren’t doing any of it.
The third saboteur is the thief. They start off by stealing your time. They delay the process. Oh, yeah, I’m going to get that done. Delay, delay, delay. The delaying and lack of progress robs you of thousands of dollars every single month. It’s robbing you of your personal time because you’re investing more and more time in this person to make sure it gets done. And sometimes it’s physical theft. They actually take the money out of the drawer, out of the safe. They steal your product, and they know if you start putting systems in place, they won’t get away with it anymore. They’ll be found out.
The fourth and final saboteur is the two-talker. When they talk to you everything is affirmative. They tell you, “Yeah, absolutely!” With excitement. “Oh yeah, I can’t wait. That’s a great change. I can’t wait to implement that in the business. This is going to be awesome. Oh yeah.” They give you an impression of excitement. They show you they care. But in reality, the answer is really, “No, this isn’t going to happen.” They don’t do the work, even after looking you in the eyes and telling you they’re on board and will get it all done.
Your saboteur will self-identify in about three weeks but it is probably more like three months before you actually see it because you are a “social worker.” You’re built to give great hospitality, to take care of people. That’s who you are. Your staff isn’t any different than your customers. The trouble is it leads to you making your own excuses, giving the benefit of the doubt to your employees when it’s not deserved, especially your managers. Many times you feel trapped because you don’t know how you’ll get anything done or find any extra hours in the day.
The thing is, they’re at a different level and should be held to a higher level, a higher standard of what your expectations are. As you implement, you set goals for each system and you hold them accountable to the goals you set together. You give them a month to learn how to do the work and follow the system you’re implementing. If in the second month, if the work isn’t getting done, the goals aren’t being met, and all you’re hearing is excuse, excuse, excuse, whine, whine, whine, you have a choice to make. You have to decide whether this manager has reached a point of not being able to do the job. It might be because they just can’t do it, or they just don’t care enough. If they’re saboteur, it’s that they don’t care about you and your restaurant.
You want to make sure you have the right people on your team, that they fit my company culture, but you also have to make sure they can do the job you hired them for.
Look at your management team. Specifically, your implementor, the person who you think is going to help you get stuff done. Are they really in Implementor or are they really a saboteur? Most time they look like the same person. What’s different is the actions they take or don’t take, and the excuses they make or don’t make.
When you finally decide you’re ready to change, that you’re ready to stop being a prisoner to your restaurant, that you deserve to have freedom from your business, you can’t afford to have the process of implementing systems stop in its tracks because one, two or three employees on your team say it’s too hard. You must become the leader your restaurant needs. And to be that leader, you must have an implementor.
If you want to move your business forward, you must know the difference and be able to make that change if you’ve got the wrong person on the team in that spot.
Tune into this episode of the podcast to hear how an implementer behaves and how a saboteur behaves and how to know which one you have. I offer steps to follow to ensure everyone is prepared so that only the saboteur shows themselves.
Click the podcast player above to listen in, or you can watch the video on YouTube, click here to download the latest episode.
Read the full transcript.
Hey there restaurant pros, it’s David Scott Peters and welcome to episode 18 of the Restaurant Prosperity Formula. I’ve been coaching restaurant owners since 2003 and the Restaurant Prosperity Formula is based on what the most successful restaurant owners I’ve worked with do on a daily basis to achieve their success. The basic premise of the formula centers around achieving prosperity, freedom from your restaurant and the financial freedom you deserve. To achieve prosperity, you have to follow a very specific formula made-up of leadership, systems, training, accountability, and taking action.
Today’s topic centers around one of the most important things you can ever do in your business, and that’s be able to identify do you have an implementer or do you have a saboteur? In this episode, I’m going to dive into this very sensitive topic. How do you know that the manager who’s so excited about change, implementing systems, helping you take your business to the next level isn’t actually who they say they are? I’m going to talk about how you can identify if they’re actually a saboteur. Let’s get started.
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know how important it is to find your implementer. This is the person who helps you get **** done. What I’ve learned coaching independent restaurant owners since 2003 is that you, as the restaurant owner, are not built to implement systems, stick to it, hold people accountable to those systems. You just aren’t. See, you’re built to lead the team, work on budgets, grow the company. You want to chase that shiny object rather than make sure everyone’s following a checklist every day. And there’s nothing wrong with that. You just have to recognize that’s who you are. And the importance of, I always teach, having an implementer. Someone right next to you, right by your side who gets this information, the systems, gets it all, puts it in place, trains the other managers, holds them accountable for you.
But over the years, I spent a lot of time talking about the implementer. What I don’t do enough of is talk about the person who looks like an implementer, but they’re actually a saboteur. A saboteur. And what is it that a saboteur is? What do they do to you? Well, that’s what I want to talk about today. How to recognize you have a saboteur as soon as possible so they don’t delay your growth as a leader and the growth of your business.
First, what is or who is a saboteur? Well, the saboteur undermines your ability to make positive change happen in your business. Whether they’re doing it on purpose or not, Their actions or inactions when left unchecked will ultimately ensure you fail implementing changes and new systems that will take your business to the next level. They fight for the status quo. They don’t want anything to change. Life is good. You have left them to be what you thought was a good manager, a good employee, but in reality they’re not. And that makes this process really difficult because you’re looking at somebody, looking square in the eyes, thinking, that’s one of my best people. There’s no way in heck that person is a saboteur.
So let me identify four different types of saboteurs so that as you’re looking at your team, you can recognize any of these signs.
The first saboteur I want to talk about is the excuse maker. They say things like, I don’t have enough time. I need an office day. All this work, all these systems you’re asking me to put in place, I need time. Or they’ll say things like, it’s too hard. Like I’ve been working so hard, so many hours, adding this stuff, it just makes it too hard. Or my favorite, we don’t do it that way. Like, you know, they subscribe to the most dangerous phrase in your business. That’s the way we’ve always done it. They come sometimes look at you and say, there’s just too much work. Isn’t that similar to the other ones? Yeah, they’re all the same, but different ways of whining.
My next favorite is, but you don’t understand. We’re different. You know, hey, your coach, David Scott Peters, whoever he is, right? He doesn’t understand. We’re different. What? You’re not a restaurant? You don’t have people and product and it’s all about hospitality. The envelope, how you deliver service. What you’ve got on the menu, that’s different, but you’re not different. You’re a restaurant, aren’t you? We have the privilege of creating memories.
Number 2, that next person is the negative talker. Oh, they say things like, this isn’t going to work. Before they even try, it has failed. It’s not going to work. They’ll kill morale with negative talk. Can you believe these guys, what they want to put in place, how many hours we’re already working, what it’s going to do, blah, blah, blah, blah. They hate the change. So they nip and tuck and ********. And oh, they do it with all the employees. Management is whining to the line employees, changing your culture and just taking it straight down the tubes. This person, well, they ask questions like, why at every turn? not like a curious two-year-old. Why? They want to learn. Why? That little cynical whine. Why do we need to do that? Why do we have to change? Why? What’s wrong with what we’ve been doing? And this person often is so smart. Oh, I know everything. Oh, I know how to do recipe cards. I know how to take inventory. I know how to do all this stuff. They know everything. They’re just so damn smart. Then why the hell aren’t you doing it? Right?
The third saboteur is the thief. They start off by stealing your time. They steal time. They delay the process. Oh yeah, I’m going to get that done. Delay, delay, delay. Which is robbing you of thousands of dollars every single month. It’s robbing you of your time, your personal time, because you’re investing more and more time in this person to make sure it gets done. They rob you. They steal your money. Now, sometimes it’s physical. They actually take the money out of the drawer, out of the safe. They steal your product. They take your money. But they could be stealing you, robbing you by delaying right through their paycheck because you’re paying them to get the job done, but they’re not. And here’s the deal. The thief They must stop the process. This change you want to do, they got to stop it. Why? Because they’re going to be found out. Right? You implement systems, you put in change, eventually you’re going to say, oh, I’m not getting it done. I’m in trouble. Or I’ve been stealing and I can’t hide it anymore because you’re actually tracking numbers. You’re putting measurements in place.
The 4th and final saboteur is the two-face talker. To you, right to your eyes, everything is, yeah, absolutely. With like excitement. Oh yeah, I can’t wait. That’s a great change. I can’t wait to implement that in the business. This is going to be awesome. Oh yeah, I buy in. Like they’re yes, All about excitement. They’re there. They show you that, man, they care. But in reality, the answer is really no, this ain’t going to happen. Because they don’t do the work. They technically, this 4th saboteur is kind of belongs in all three that I’ve mentioned before. They all come down to the same thing. They’re going to excuse away why something didn’t get done. It’s just how they approach it, whether in a positive or negative fashion.
See, your saboteur, they’ll actually self-identify themselves in about 3 weeks. Now, I get it. It’s probably three months for you to actually see it. really see it because why I call you a social worker. We’re built to give great hospitality to take care of people. That’s who we are. So we want to give the benefit of the doubt to our employees, especially our managers. Like we need these people. We often think, how am I going to work any extra hours? I need this person. And they’re in management. They should be a different level. Well I’m going to agree they’re at a different level and should be held to a higher level, a higher standard of what your expectations are.
So as you implement, let’s say we do a budget and we say in month one we’re going to implement the key item tracker. Why? We’re going to prevent theft in the kitchen. The waste tracker. Why? We’re going to stop ******* mistakes on a daily basis. We’re going to identify the mistake today. We’re going to stop it today, correct it so we don’t do it tomorrow, the next day, the next day, and lose the same amount of money by burning steaks, ruining pizzas, over ordering tomatoes and seeing that they’re spoiled, they’re rotten. That waste tracker really matters. We’re going to implement the restaurant checkbook guardian, that system that I teach that allows you to give up ordering without giving up your checkbook. Hey, here’s based on our sales forecast, based on our target food cost, based on our actual sales that have come in the door and the food we’ve purchased. Hey, the next delivery, no, the one after that. Here’s how much money. money you can spend for this delivery. Get you from this order day to the next delivery day. Here’s how much money you have and I’m going to give you $500 more than that. One penny over, you cannot place the order without finding me and asking for permission because you’ve put the key item tracker in place, you’ve identified theft, you’ve put in the waste tracker, you’ve saw mistakes and corrected them. And so when you go over budget, you’re going to tell me what you found, what you did to correct it. And then I can determine whether you need to order that food or because I know we don’t have money in the bank account, I can stop you dead in the tracks.
Well, that first month, if you followed any of my podcasts, any of my YouTube channels, seen me speak, or you’re one of my members, you know that I talk about we’ve got to have a budget, the importance of a budget to give us those targets. Well, that budget translates into ordering on budget. And we are going to teach our managers in month one of that budget. We can’t hold them accountable. They don’t know what the job is, how to do it, how well it should be done, more importantly by when. Until they demonstrate they understand that, we can’t hold them accountable.
So in month two, in the budget process, I’m going to say, hey, we’re dropping their food costs two to three points. I guarantee people a two to three-point drop in their food costs without recipe cards, without shelf to sheet inventory, without heavy lifting. because we’re actually paying attention to our purchases and the product we have in store. We’re not ordering over budget. We’re finding problems and fixing them. And it’s magical.
But here’s the deal. Month two, when I start holding someone accountable, they’re going to go, I’m going to see that they’re not doing it. Hey, why aren’t you doing it? Excuse, excuse, excuse. Whine, whine, whine. We’re different. It’s too hard. I need more time.
Now I get it. It takes time to learn something new. That’s why I give them the full month before I start to hold them accountable. As long as I train you on what your job is, how to do it, how well it should be done, more importantly by when you demonstrate back to me you’ve got it, then we’re in a position where I can start to hold you accountable or as I call it, answerable. Because you know you’re J-O-B. You know your obligations, right? You’ve proven you can do it on your own. You make a decision you’re going to do your job or not, and ultimately you’re accountable or answerable for doing the job or not, right? The resulting consequences of doing the task or not.
Well, if I keep coming up to that deadline and it’s not being done each order, each and every order, and there’s nothing but excuses, even though this person may go, oh yeah, I’ve really got this. Well, there’s a point in time I’ve got to decide whether this manager has hit a point or reached a point of don’t know versus don’t care.
See, don’t know is my fault. People learn differently, auditory, tactile, visual. Best trainings have all three involved because some people have to see it or read it. Some people have to listen, they hear it, they got it. Some people have to do it. Well, I don’t know how everybody learns. So if we can incorporate all three of those in, I’ve got a better chance of somebody learning what needs to be done.
But either way, as soon as they miss it in that training process, that might be strike one. They miss it again, strike two, strike three, or upon the fourth strike, depending on what your disciplinary process is as they don’t get it and don’t do, we now can identify don’t know versus don’t care because each time there’s a strike, I retrain somebody. I coach them, I coddle. I want them to be successful. I’ve invested money, time. They fit our culture. I want this person. I’m going to do everything I can, but I can’t lead a horse to water and make them drink. That employee, that manager has to make the choice for themselves.
And as we keep hitting these deadlines and they don’t get things done and I hold them accountable, well, in a very short period of time where I said three weeks, you really know? But because you’re a social worker, you want to give them a little extra rope. Maybe it’s your fault you didn’t train them. To get to the point that you figured out they don’t care, it might be 3 months. But as soon as we get there, as they keep missing deadlines, we’ve got to understand that they can’t keep coming up with excuses. Hey, why didn’t you do this? Well, it was too hard. I didn’t have enough time. This happened, whatever. You might as well just tell them, tell me it was locusts. Right? Not the dog ate my homework. Locusts. I tried to do this and a swarm of locusts stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn’t break through the locusts. There was dead bugs on my face everywhere. I couldn’t make it through and get the task completed. Because it doesn’t matter what the answer is. It’s an excuse. An excuse is an excuse. You didn’t get it done. And we need you to get it done.
Now don’t get me wrong. If you run into a challenge and we’re in the process, you ask for help. I will take the shirt off my back. I will help you. But if you get to a deadline and you failed the launch, you didn’t do anything, you want to give me an excuse? Tell me yes, you want to do it, but you don’t take action? That’s a real problem.
And this person often blames others. Those excuses are, well, we were short 2 cooks. Oh, Sally, the server didn’t do this. The other manager didn’t do that. It’s always somebody else. So blame game, blame game, blame game. Can you start to identify that you might have a saboteur on your team, even if it’s your fault? At some point in time, they’ve either got to move out of that position or be promoted to customer. See, I want to make sure I have the right people on my team, that they fit my company culture, but I got to also make sure they can do the job I hired them for.
So here’s the deal. Look at your management team, specifically your implementer, the person who you think is going to help you get **** done. Are they really an implementer or are they really a saboteur? Right? Because they look like the same person. What’s different is the actions they take or don’t take, the excuses they make or don’t make. you can’t afford to have your business stalled. You can’t afford to have the process of implementing systems stop dead in its tracks because one, two, or three employees on your team say it’s too hard. You’ve got to become the leader your restaurant needs. And to be that leader, you’ve got to have an implementer. But you need to be able to identify that you might have a saboteur.
I can give you an example. I’ve got members who we’ve brought on into the system. They’ve had an implementer and deep into the process, we’ve really identified we need to make a switch. We need a different implementer. Because while they were really gung-ho, and again, sometimes the saboteur doesn’t do it on purpose. They’re just not built to get it done. And we’ve had to make that change. But the key is, doesn’t matter. As long as we keep moving forward, as long as we identify that we need to make the change, that’s important.
So maybe you’re in that position now. You’ve got people who you love, they love you, and you think can do the job, and hell, they tell you they want to do the job, but they’re not. And instead of buying into those excuses, it’s time to identify your saboteur. Let them self-identify.
So if you want a step-by-step process to know if you have an implementer or a saboteur on your team right now, make sure you check out episode 17 of my podcast. This is where I go in and teach you how to successfully delegate, how to hold your management team accountable. Because here’s the deal. Accountability is the key to knowing if you have an implementer or you have a saboteur. And if you want to move your business forward, you must know the difference and be able to make that change if you’ve got the wrong person on the team in that spot. Make sure you listen to Podcast 17, but more importantly, listen to this one over and over and over again until you can say, I can identify these four different saboteurs and I won’t let them stop my business. You’ve got this. Now go out there and kick some ***.
Hey, that was an awesome episode. I want to thank you for taking the time to take action on building a better, more prosperous restaurant.
Before you go, I want to give you these three thoughts. One, 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. Two, I have something I need from you. Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you happen to listen to podcasts. By leaving us a review, other restaurant pros seeking out this information are able to find it. I read the reviews, and hearing how this information has benefited you does wonders for me. And 3, if you find any of the discussions helpful, share them. The more restaurant pros who have access to them, the better we become as an industry. For more restaurant resources or to get in contact with me, connect with me at davidscottpeters.com. Be passionate about what you’re doing. Be persistent, but more importantly, become better and help everyone around you become better and your restaurant is going to kick some ***.
If you’re tired of not being able to leave your restaurant because no one else knows how to run it, I want to make sure you know it doesn’t have to be that way. You can leave your restaurant. It is possible to build a team of people who know how you want the restaurant to run. With these trained and responsible people in place, you can give yourself time away. What would you do if you had time away from your restaurant? Would you sleep better? Would your relationships improve? Would you feel more relaxed? These are all things you deserve to experience as a business owner. It’s why we own our own businesses. If you would like to learn how to own a restaurant that doesn’t depend on you to be successful, click the link in the description to watch a free training course that teaches you exactly what you have to do. Also be sure to subscribe to get my weekly tips and watch these two videos to get more information and guidance for running a successful restaurant.
Audio file
restaurant-owner-secret-to-success-is-to-find-someone-who-gets.mp3
Transcript
Hey there restaurant pros, it’s David Scott Peters and welcome to episode 18 of the Restaurant Prosperity Formula. I’ve been coaching restaurant owners since 2003 and the Restaurant Prosperity Formula is based on what the most successful restaurant owners I’ve worked with do on a daily basis to achieve their success. The basic premise of the formula centers around achieving prosperity, freedom from your restaurant and the financial freedom you deserve. To achieve prosperity, you have to follow a very specific formula made-up of leadership, systems, training, accountability, and taking action.
Today’s topic centers around one of the most important things you can ever do in your business, and that’s be able to identify do you have an implementer or do you have a saboteur? In this episode, I’m going to dive into this very sensitive topic. How do you know that the manager who’s so excited about change, implementing systems, helping you take your business to the next level isn’t actually who they say they are? I’m going to talk about how you can identify if they’re actually a saboteur. Let’s get started.
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know how important it is to find your implementer. This is the person who helps you get **** done. What I’ve learned coaching independent restaurant owners since 2003 is that you, as the restaurant owner, are not built to implement systems, stick to it, hold people accountable to those systems. You just aren’t. See, you’re built to lead the team, work on budgets, grow the company. You want to chase that shiny object rather than make sure everyone’s following a checklist every day. And there’s nothing wrong with that. You just have to recognize that’s who you are. And the importance of, I always teach, having an implementer. Someone right next to you, right by your side who gets this information, the systems, gets it all, puts it in place, trains the other managers, holds them accountable for you.
But over the years, I spent a lot of time talking about the implementer. What I don’t do enough of is talk about the person who looks like an implementer, but they’re actually a saboteur. A saboteur. And what is it that a saboteur is? What do they do to you? Well, that’s what I want to talk about today. How to recognize you have a saboteur as soon as possible so they don’t delay your growth as a leader and the growth of your business.
First, what is or who is a saboteur? Well, the saboteur undermines your ability to make positive change happen in your business. Whether they’re doing it on purpose or not, Their actions or inactions when left unchecked will ultimately ensure you fail implementing changes and new systems that will take your business to the next level. They fight for the status quo. They don’t want anything to change. Life is good. You have left them to be what you thought was a good manager, a good employee, but in reality they’re not. And that makes this process really difficult because you’re looking at somebody, looking square in the eyes, thinking, that’s one of my best people. There’s no way in heck that person is a saboteur.
So let me identify four different types of saboteurs so that as you’re looking at your team, you can recognize any of these signs.
The first saboteur I want to talk about is the excuse maker. They say things like, I don’t have enough time. I need an office day. All this work, all these systems you’re asking me to put in place, I need time. Or they’ll say things like, it’s too hard. Like I’ve been working so hard, so many hours, adding this stuff, it just makes it too hard. Or my favorite, we don’t do it that way. Like, you know, they subscribe to the most dangerous phrase in your business. That’s the way we’ve always done it. They come sometimes look at you and say, there’s just too much work. Isn’t that similar to the other ones? Yeah, they’re all the same, but different ways of whining.
My next favorite is, but you don’t understand. We’re different. You know, hey, your coach, David Scott Peters, whoever he is, right? He doesn’t understand. We’re different. What? You’re not a restaurant? You don’t have people and product and it’s all about hospitality. The envelope, how you deliver service. What you’ve got on the menu, that’s different, but you’re not different. You’re a restaurant, aren’t you? We have the privilege of creating memories.
Number 2, that next person is the negative talker. Oh, they say things like, this isn’t going to work. Before they even try, it has failed. It’s not going to work. They’ll kill morale with negative talk. Can you believe these guys, what they want to put in place, how many hours we’re already working, what it’s going to do, blah, blah, blah, blah. They hate the change. So they nip and tuck and ********. And oh, they do it with all the employees. Management is whining to the line employees, changing your culture and just taking it straight down the tubes. This person, well, they ask questions like, why at every turn? not like a curious two-year-old. Why? They want to learn. Why? That little cynical whine. Why do we need to do that? Why do we have to change? Why? What’s wrong with what we’ve been doing? And this person often is so smart. Oh, I know everything. Oh, I know how to do recipe cards. I know how to take inventory. I know how to do all this stuff. They know everything. They’re just so damn smart. Then why the hell aren’t you doing it? Right?
The third saboteur is the thief. They start off by stealing your time. They steal time. They delay the process. Oh yeah, I’m going to get that done. Delay, delay, delay. Which is robbing you of thousands of dollars every single month. It’s robbing you of your time, your personal time, because you’re investing more and more time in this person to make sure it gets done. They rob you. They steal your money. Now, sometimes it’s physical. They actually take the money out of the drawer, out of the safe. They steal your product. They take your money. But they could be stealing you, robbing you by delaying right through their paycheck because you’re paying them to get the job done, but they’re not. And here’s the deal. The thief They must stop the process. This change you want to do, they got to stop it. Why? Because they’re going to be found out. Right? You implement systems, you put in change, eventually you’re going to say, oh, I’m not getting it done. I’m in trouble. Or I’ve been stealing and I can’t hide it anymore because you’re actually tracking numbers. You’re putting measurements in place.
The 4th and final saboteur is the two-face talker. To you, right to your eyes, everything is, yeah, absolutely. With like excitement. Oh yeah, I can’t wait. That’s a great change. I can’t wait to implement that in the business. This is going to be awesome. Oh yeah, I buy in. Like they’re yes, All about excitement. They’re there. They show you that, man, they care. But in reality, the answer is really no, this ain’t going to happen. Because they don’t do the work. They technically, this 4th saboteur is kind of belongs in all three that I’ve mentioned before. They all come down to the same thing. They’re going to excuse away why something didn’t get done. It’s just how they approach it, whether in a positive or negative fashion.
See, your saboteur, they’ll actually self-identify themselves in about 3 weeks. Now, I get it. It’s probably three months for you to actually see it. really see it because why I call you a social worker. We’re built to give great hospitality to take care of people. That’s who we are. So we want to give the benefit of the doubt to our employees, especially our managers. Like we need these people. We often think, how am I going to work any extra hours? I need this person. And they’re in management. They should be a different level. Well I’m going to agree they’re at a different level and should be held to a higher level, a higher standard of what your expectations are.
So as you implement, let’s say we do a budget and we say in month one we’re going to implement the key item tracker. Why? We’re going to prevent theft in the kitchen. The waste tracker. Why? We’re going to stop ******* mistakes on a daily basis. We’re going to identify the mistake today. We’re going to stop it today, correct it so we don’t do it tomorrow, the next day, the next day, and lose the same amount of money by burning steaks, ruining pizzas, over ordering tomatoes and seeing that they’re spoiled, they’re rotten. That waste tracker really matters. We’re going to implement the restaurant checkbook guardian, that system that I teach that allows you to give up ordering without giving up your checkbook. Hey, here’s based on our sales forecast, based on our target food cost, based on our actual sales that have come in the door and the food we’ve purchased. Hey, the next delivery, no, the one after that. Here’s how much money. money you can spend for this delivery. Get you from this order day to the next delivery day. Here’s how much money you have and I’m going to give you $500 more than that. One penny over, you cannot place the order without finding me and asking for permission because you’ve put the key item tracker in place, you’ve identified theft, you’ve put in the waste tracker, you’ve saw mistakes and corrected them. And so when you go over budget, you’re going to tell me what you found, what you did to correct it. And then I can determine whether you need to order that food or because I know we don’t have money in the bank account, I can stop you dead in the tracks.
Well, that first month, if you followed any of my podcasts, any of my YouTube channels, seen me speak, or you’re one of my members, you know that I talk about we’ve got to have a budget, the importance of a budget to give us those targets. Well, that budget translates into ordering on budget. And we are going to teach our managers in month one of that budget. We can’t hold them accountable. They don’t know what the job is, how to do it, how well it should be done, more importantly by when. Until they demonstrate they understand that, we can’t hold them accountable.
So in month two, in the budget process, I’m going to say, hey, we’re dropping their food costs two to three points. I guarantee people a two to three-point drop in their food costs without recipe cards, without shelf to sheet inventory, without heavy lifting. because we’re actually paying attention to our purchases and the product we have in store. We’re not ordering over budget. We’re finding problems and fixing them. And it’s magical.
But here’s the deal. Month two, when I start holding someone accountable, they’re going to go, I’m going to see that they’re not doing it. Hey, why aren’t you doing it? Excuse, excuse, excuse. Whine, whine, whine. We’re different. It’s too hard. I need more time.
Now I get it. It takes time to learn something new. That’s why I give them the full month before I start to hold them accountable. As long as I train you on what your job is, how to do it, how well it should be done, more importantly by when you demonstrate back to me you’ve got it, then we’re in a position where I can start to hold you accountable or as I call it, answerable. Because you know you’re J-O-B. You know your obligations, right? You’ve proven you can do it on your own. You make a decision you’re going to do your job or not, and ultimately you’re accountable or answerable for doing the job or not, right? The resulting consequences of doing the task or not.
Well, if I keep coming up to that deadline and it’s not being done each order, each and every order, and there’s nothing but excuses, even though this person may go, oh yeah, I’ve really got this. Well, there’s a point in time I’ve got to decide whether this manager has hit a point or reached a point of don’t know versus don’t care.
See, don’t know is my fault. People learn differently, auditory, tactile, visual. Best trainings have all three involved because some people have to see it or read it. Some people have to listen, they hear it, they got it. Some people have to do it. Well, I don’t know how everybody learns. So if we can incorporate all three of those in, I’ve got a better chance of somebody learning what needs to be done.
But either way, as soon as they miss it in that training process, that might be strike one. They miss it again, strike two, strike three, or upon the fourth strike, depending on what your disciplinary process is as they don’t get it and don’t do, we now can identify don’t know versus don’t care because each time there’s a strike, I retrain somebody. I coach them, I coddle. I want them to be successful. I’ve invested money, time. They fit our culture. I want this person. I’m going to do everything I can, but I can’t lead a horse to water and make them drink. That employee, that manager has to make the choice for themselves.
And as we keep hitting these deadlines and they don’t get things done and I hold them accountable, well, in a very short period of time where I said three weeks, you really know? But because you’re a social worker, you want to give them a little extra rope. Maybe it’s your fault you didn’t train them. To get to the point that you figured out they don’t care, it might be 3 months. But as soon as we get there, as they keep missing deadlines, we’ve got to understand that they can’t keep coming up with excuses. Hey, why didn’t you do this? Well, it was too hard. I didn’t have enough time. This happened, whatever. You might as well just tell them, tell me it was locusts. Right? Not the dog ate my homework. Locusts. I tried to do this and a swarm of locusts stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn’t break through the locusts. There was dead bugs on my face everywhere. I couldn’t make it through and get the task completed. Because it doesn’t matter what the answer is. It’s an excuse. An excuse is an excuse. You didn’t get it done. And we need you to get it done.
Now don’t get me wrong. If you run into a challenge and we’re in the process, you ask for help. I will take the shirt off my back. I will help you. But if you get to a deadline and you failed the launch, you didn’t do anything, you want to give me an excuse? Tell me yes, you want to do it, but you don’t take action? That’s a real problem.
And this person often blames others. Those excuses are, well, we were short 2 cooks. Oh, Sally, the server didn’t do this. The other manager didn’t do that. It’s always somebody else. So blame game, blame game, blame game. Can you start to identify that you might have a saboteur on your team, even if it’s your fault? At some point in time, they’ve either got to move out of that position or be promoted to customer. See, I want to make sure I have the right people on my team, that they fit my company culture, but I got to also make sure they can do the job I hired them for.
So here’s the deal. Look at your management team, specifically your implementer, the person who you think is going to help you get **** done. Are they really an implementer or are they really a saboteur? Right? Because they look like the same person. What’s different is the actions they take or don’t take, the excuses they make or don’t make. you can’t afford to have your business stalled. You can’t afford to have the process of implementing systems stop dead in its tracks because one, two, or three employees on your team say it’s too hard. You’ve got to become the leader your restaurant needs. And to be that leader, you’ve got to have an implementer. But you need to be able to identify that you might have a saboteur.
I can give you an example. I’ve got members who we’ve brought on into the system. They’ve had an implementer and deep into the process, we’ve really identified we need to make a switch. We need a different implementer. Because while they were really gung-ho, and again, sometimes the saboteur doesn’t do it on purpose. They’re just not built to get it done. And we’ve had to make that change. But the key is, doesn’t matter. As long as we keep moving forward, as long as we identify that we need to make the change, that’s important.
So maybe you’re in that position now. You’ve got people who you love, they love you, and you think can do the job, and hell, they tell you they want to do the job, but they’re not. And instead of buying into those excuses, it’s time to identify your saboteur. Let them self-identify.
So if you want a step-by-step process to know if you have an implementer or a saboteur on your team right now, make sure you check out episode 17 of my podcast. This is where I go in and teach you how to successfully delegate, how to hold your management team accountable. Because here’s the deal. Accountability is the key to knowing if you have an implementer or you have a saboteur. And if you want to move your business forward, you must know the difference and be able to make that change if you’ve got the wrong person on the team in that spot. Make sure you listen to Podcast 17, but more importantly, listen to this one over and over and over again until you can say, I can identify these four different saboteurs and I won’t let them stop my business. You’ve got this. Now go out there and kick some ***.
Hey, that was an awesome episode. I want to thank you for taking the time to take action on building a better, more prosperous restaurant.
Before you go, I want to give you these three thoughts. One, 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. Two, I have something I need from you. Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you happen to listen to podcasts. By leaving us a review, other restaurant pros seeking out this information are able to find it. I read the reviews, and hearing how this information has benefited you does wonders for me. And 3, if you find any of the discussions helpful, share them. The more restaurant pros who have access to them, the better we become as an industry. For more restaurant resources or to get in contact with me, connect with me at davidscottpeters.com. Be passionate about what you’re doing. Be persistent, but more importantly, become better and help everyone around you become better and your restaurant is going to kick some ***.
If you’re tired of not being able to leave your restaurant because no one else knows how to run it, I want to make sure you know it doesn’t have to be that way. You can leave your restaurant. It is possible to build a team of people who know how you want the restaurant to run. With these trained and responsible people in place, you can give yourself time away. What would you do if you had time away from your restaurant? Would you sleep better? Would your relationships improve? Would you feel more relaxed? These are all things you deserve to experience as a business owner. It’s why we own our own businesses. If you would like to learn how to own a restaurant that doesn’t depend on you to be successful, click the link in the description to watch a free training course that teaches you exactly what you have to do. Also be sure to subscribe to get my weekly tips and watch these two videos to get more information and guidance for running a successful restaurant.