President,
Turbo Leadership
Systems©
Train to gain a winning team
Shelley, supervisor for a restaurant chain in Yakima, Washington, told Session 4B of the Leadership Development Lab:
"In July 2009 I had just returned from vacation and my boss called me into her office to tell me the company had just terminated fifteen employees in one of our restaurants. She wanted me to take over that restaurant and get it back on track. In addition to the challenge of recharging this restaurant that had just experienced a major crisis, there was a national 'Super Saturday' contest coming up in two months that we had to prepare for. 'Super Saturday' is where we price products extra low for one day to drive up customer count – get customers in, bring customers back, and introduce new products. We use 'Super Saturday' to break the routine, prove how well we can function as a team when we are on purpose and fully aligned. I began immediately with back-to-basics training on all the operation's high performance activities - food quality, speed of service and all of our customer service elements.
"After two months of training, coaching and pumping up the team, they did it! They were in the top 2% of all USA McDonald's restaurants in the contest. In fact, our Ellensburg restaurant was listed in an article that appeared in USA Today. My crew was rewarded with prizes and a wonderful success celebration party. Most important of all, our team felt a sense of pride and accomplishment that only hard work, accompanied by celebrated success can bring. During the training months that lead up to 'Super Saturday,' our sales increased 8%. We also finished the month of the contest up 11.1% in sales. These are big numbers for us.
"The lesson I learned from this experience is when I give my team stretch goals, provide the basic training needed and believe they can reach them, they will. The action I call you to take is to set high goals and provide the backto- basics training needed to hit those goals. If your team needs advanced training, which is sometimes required to reach your goals, provide that training as well. Always operate from a place of believing in yourself and your team. In all of your stretching, training and preparation, continue to express trust in your team. With high stretch goals, you will have the joy of watching your team grow. The benefit you will gain is you and your team will be part of the select few, the 2%. You will see your name up in lights. You will set performance records the memory of which will last a lifetime. You will be successful and experience accelerated growth in every part of your career."
The Language of Leadership - Communicating For Results - For leaders who want to successfully communicate their ideas; provides a new definition of “communication”. Communication is the core skill required to successfully maximize the value of all resources. |
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