A recent episode of The Food Network show “Restaurant Impossible”, reaffirmed an important lesson about managing: employees want their bosses to trust them, and there’s nothing like delegation to show trust. Conversely, when trust isn’t present, it can crush an employee’s spirit … and his/her performance right along with it.
Restaurant Impossible
On the program “Restaurant Impossible,” chef Robert Irvine works with once-thriving and now-floundering restaurants to turn them around (in 48 hours or less). This particular episode told the story of a once-successful family steakhouse that had lost its way—with the husband-and-wife ownership team working more and more hours and seeing fewer and fewer customers. Chef Irvine helped the husband see that his need for control was one of the central problems in the operation.
For example, the owner spent hours each day portioning out the meat into eight-ounce filets, 12-ounce chops, etc. When asked why he couldn’t have his chefs do this as part of their daily routine, he replied: “Because I have to do it.” When asked how long his chefs had been with him, his answer was a stunning “25 years each.”
Wow—25 years and he didn’t even trust his chefs to trim meat! Not surprising, they weren’t empowered to come up with daily specials, either. However, when Mr. Irvine convinced the owner to let the chefs trim the meat just once, they did so perfectly … on the first try. When they were asked to create a daily special, their passion, pride, and energy practically jumped through the screen, completely changing their entire demeanor—and the atmosphere of the restaurant along with it.
Moral of the Story
Schools aren’t restaurants, of course—but they are organizations with employees. Those employees can either be empowered and engaged, or distrusted and dispirited. School administrators always have a choice. They can:
- take the time to support teachers and staff with coaching and mentoring, or they can fail to find the time due to other pressing “emergencies”;
- make sure that all teachers and staff have meaningful growth plans, or hope that growth happens randomly or by osmosis; and/or
- they can delegate a myriad of administrative tasks to those who are better skilled at handling these details, or they can horde responsibilities and end up being a bottleneck that limits progress.
We warmly encourage all administrators to not mirror the manager who doesn’t trust his chefs to trim meat after 25 years. Be the leader who empowers the team to deliver great student, parent, and peer experiences that add to the life of their school and to their own growth and satisfaction. It’s all about delegation … and trust.
Additional ISM resources of interest
ISM's Monthly Update for Human Resources Vol. 10 No. 2 Rethinking Faculty Performance Evaluations
ISM's Monthly Update for Human Resources Vol. 10 No. 10 Leading by Teaching
ISM's Monthly Update for Human Resources Vol. 10 No. 6 Design All of Your Employee Systems Around “Characteristics” (The Zappos Example)
Additional ISM resources for Consortium Gold Members
I&P Vol. 31 No. 4 Faculty and Support Staff: Mutual Respect and Support
I&P Vol. 30 No. 8 From Entrenched Faculty to Committed Teachers
I&P Vol. 37 No. 7 The Faculty Culture Profile II
I&P Vol. 36 No. 2 Understanding Faculty Culture Differences Across School Divisions
