In the ecosystem of entrepreneurship we glorify and practice a certain kind of paranoia about our businesses. We are never happy and always suspecting we are behind, or broken in some secret way that we need to find. The result is that, even when we arrive to a good place, our ability to recognize it and rest in it is …
What happens when we build into our systems exceptions for the less than desirable habits of staff? Well for starters we rob that staff member of the opportunity to grow and receive correction to meet the standards. We then rob our business of reach its potential as we now erode the foundations from the inside. Lastly we rob the customer …
The temptation for fast-track people during training is a very common one. I would go so far as to say that, half of the reason we see the inconsistencies and quality of product and service issues we do today, comes from pushing people through training and putting them on bar when they are not equipped to succeed. Today on Shift …
I hear the word “vibes” used as a stand in for a lot of different things. Most often it is used to describe a somewhat ambiguous sense of good feelings or peace of mind around a culture or a person. The idea is great, but the issue is that without having specific and meaningful definitions of what brings those vibes …
All too often we are likely to stick with the comfortable and known dysfunction or the habitual neglect of important areas of our business, than to take the uncomfortable but needed step of fixing and bringing life into those areas. In fact, I believe avoidance of taking action on those areas in need of attention is the first step in …
You may have the best advice and information, but then your delivery can often fall flat or even have the opposite effect. This is very common in the cafe leadership environment where things are busy and our emotions feed into how we speak. Today on Shift Break we will be talking about how to start paying attention to and adjusting …
If we want our staff to succeed, we have to give them clear target to aim for. Unfortunately shocking number of cafes have what I would describe as invisible targets that only appear once the arrow is released. No wonder managers and other staff feel that winning at work is a rigged game. In today’s Shift Break we will talk …
Integrity is hard to identify unless you are actively looking for and working on it. But what is “it”? Well, in some ways it is consistency, but that is not enough. Integrity is more than production of the same thing the same way, it is more related to the mindset and spirit behind that consistency. In coffee, we have a …
If we know anything it is that striking a balance in our communication is very difficult. It often feels like we are neglecting affirmation for fear of not addressing issues, or we neglect addressing issues and challenging our staff because we worry about how they will take it. So we stick to simply working a lot and mostly doing both …
Leading and managing are only as effective as your knowledge and understanding of the who, what, and why of your cafe. Sadly many people with the title of manager or in positions of leadership are going day-to-day putting out fires, chasing down tasks, but never getting ahead in developing and supporting their staff in meaningful ways. Today on Shift Break …
