We usually picture a restaurant manager as the person monitoring the staff, the one enforcing standards, or the safety net when things break down. While those tasks fall under their purview, that perspective is merely the tip of the iceberg. The truth is, the real purpose of the manager isn’t just managing things. It’s making the system work.
The work, in its majority, is invisible.
Restaurants are systems that never really stop. You have the order, cooking, the service, turning tables, repeat. At first glance, it looks like nothing is going on. But actually, there is a system that needs to be managed every day.
The purpose of the manager is to manage this system.
He’s not supposed to micromanage every single move, but keep everything clear, everyone knows where they are responsible and how they should function, without any unnecessary confusion. Without the right management in place, the tasks that you thought you could do without much effort can take so much longer, and what used to be a small problem, a nuisance you have to deal with, could stop the entire system from working.
What I think is the biggest job of the managers is looking ahead, to be prepared for the events that will happen, to try to prevent those problems rather than to fix them once they have occurred.
Busy hours do not start in an instant, but grow over time, staff pressure doesn’t appear out of nowhere but it increases slowly, shortages and other similar events do not occur immediately but they result from decisions made in the past.
By learning this you will be able to react faster and prevent the event from causing the same damage as last time. That is the ability of the manager, to think about the next step, to anticipate, rather than to wait and watch.
One of the most important skills of the manager is his ability to make informed decisions even if he can’t be sure or even has little information. Restaurants are busy places that require fast decision-making, and waiting for all of the required information could slow things down. You also have to be able to avoid making a decision so quickly that you create other problems down the road.
Good managers balance out those two factors. He is guided by his experience, but not by his gut only; he follows his plans and is sure that they are the way to follow so that even in the middle of that confusion he can make a well thought out decision that fits his restaurant.
What affects the work environment is the behavior of the people around him. Restaurant staff members are not just working for him; it’s a system with roles that depend on each other. If something is broken, or communication has failed, everyone has to feel the effect.
The manager plays a significant role in creating a better work environment and atmosphere. The role of the manager is not to tell people what to do, or how to do, but to make the conditions that will help them work more easily and efficiently.
There is also the balance of having enough control, but letting them do their work. Too much control slows you down, and too much freedom can cause you trouble and inefficiency.
Good management keeps you both under control and free, so you have the space you need to act on them, but they will still stay within your plans. Without a proper balance between the two the system is unstable, and cannot be properly managed.
The role of the restaurant manager can also be improving your daily work, rather than just dealing with whatever is thrown at you. Daily tasks can easily take over your life, and not leaving time for reviewing and adjusting things. If we don’t find out the areas in which we could do something better, we can’t know when to fix them.
A good manager creates that opportunity for you. He keeps an eye on things, makes sure that nothing major is going on without him knowing, and makes those small steps towards a better work, that improve the daily functioning of the restaurants.
There is also the stress, both physical and psychological that can affect you while running a restaurant, especially when things are busy. If we do not manage them in a good way, this pressure could affect us, or even the people working with us, and that could affect our performance.
The role of the manager here is to set the example, and to be calm when it is required.
And finally, everything works together. The system is managed, we think ahead of time, we can make the decisions that will help us work better, we communicate with each other, work under control and with freedom, improve the daily work, manage stress, everything together.
When this system is managed well, everything that happens in a busy evening is under control and is easy to fix. It does not feel chaotic. If it is not managed well, then every single day you feel like you are doing it for the first time, and it is a different battle every time.
The point is, the role of the restaurant manager is not to manage people or tasks, but to manage the system that everything is connected. If that system is managed well, you don’t just work, you work without worrying, and in the busiest situation you can still get everything done perfectly.