The Attitude of Gratitude
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Angus Winchester about the importance of bar managers recognising the good work of their staff and regularly celebrating their collective successes.
Mother Theresa once said that "There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread" and I believe it’s a universal human desire to be at least acknowledged and recognised if not celebrated and adored. In my continued experiments in both personal and professional life I have found that being good at giving praise, recognising other people’s achievements in a meaningful way, and generally having “an attitude of gratitude” is both an amazing tool to help run a successful business and have a happier life. But it takes practice.
“A Pat on the Back is far more effective than a Kick in the Ass”
On the smallest level giving praise for good work is one of the questions asked when measuring Employee Engagement. Too many managers spend their time looking for incorrect behaviour in order to correct it. Whereas giving praise for a team member doing what they have been trained to do is in fact a far more effective tool to improve results – “a pat on the back is far more effective than a kick in the ass” so the saying goes. One of my teachers once told me to put ten coins in my right pocket and during a shift I had to identify and praise ten employees for good behaviour. Each time I did I could move a coin from one pocket to the other. I “won” when I did this each night. And what I found was by looking for good behaviour I saw so many wonderful examples that made me proud of the team. Whereas before I was looking for, and only saw, mistakes. And when I witnessed the pride in my team-mates faces when I complimented them on a well done job – be it a properly made cocktail, a smiling guest after an interaction or praise given to me about them – I recognised the responsibility I had not just to ‘run a good bar’ but to help support the humans that work for me and be a force for good in their lives.
Pay Attention to the Positive
On a larger level I have written about the power of a good ‘Pre-shift’ or “Line-up”: we inform the team about the night ahead, instruct them about any new items or processes, try to inspire them for the shift ahead but also recognise either the team, or even better individuals, by reading reviews and giving feedback about good behaviour. The recognition portion – if done well – is certainly a great inspiration and motivating force. And for our managers writing the End of Day report that summarises a shift for those not there we enforced a rule that every negative comment or interaction for the night had to be balanced with a positive one. In that vein the report was not dominated just by problems that needed to be fixed but also by positives that made all the hard work worth it.
As an aside at this level, a dear friend used to have an alarm set for 2pm every Friday to remind him to send an email to someone who he was grateful for. From the delivery guy who was a ray of sunshine, helpful or professional every time to the boss of a local coffee shop praising a good employee that he interacted with every morning, he found a profound sense of well-being in giving praise.
Celebrate yourself!
But it’s perhaps on the largest scale that recognition can do the most good. We as an industry are very good at helping people celebrate (birthdays, anniversaries, engagements, holidays etc.) yet we seem to be quite bad at celebrating ourselves. Yet the best in our business work just as hard at creating a celebratory work culture as creating new cocktails. From businesses that close for a few weeks each year and take the team on holiday to those that grant a team-member a paid day off on their birthday (and for the younger ones a guaranteed day off the next day) to the best in the business who run Peer to Peer Awards.
Peer to Peer Awards
Far different to corporately decided (and generally meaningless) “Employee of the Month” a good “P2P Award” is decided by the staff – all the staff. For big operations this might be four awards a year (Front of House, Back of House, Management and Overall). Simply run every staff member has to nominate three people for each award but also list a reason why they are nominating them. Scores are tallied and a winner emerges. In many years of running these, I have never heard a complaint about a winner – plus you get a vast list of the positive behaviour shown by your team. When I think back to the awards ceremonies I attended, the hair on my arms stands up when I remember how overwhelmed I was by the behaviour my team showed and what other teammates thought was meaningful.
Regular Expression of Appreciation
I have found the “best people” are the ones who have an attitude of gratitude which means making the conscious habit of expressing appreciation on a regular basis for big and small things. I have also found the best operators are those who practice this attitude of gratitude not just regularly but every time they can. Increasingly these days we are considering what it means to be a manager versus being a leader and it’s this trait – over all others such as awards, experience, and skill – that defines amazing leadership.
