Chase for good Attitude!
“As leaders we want to get into a mindset where we chase for good attitude.”, my mentor Chef Garry once explained to me.
“Chasing good attitude?”, I asked.
“Yes Marcel. Look for good behaviour and great performance at your workplace. If you have chased down good behaviour than reward it. Rewarding is conditioning for positive behaviour. Don’t forget, you will get more of what you reward.”, Chef Garry said.
Does this make sense to you Marcel?”, Chef asked.
“Yes, it does chef, I never looked at it this way. This is an interesting angle to look at rewarding.”, I stated.
“Here is another tip I can give you right off the bat: Reward immediately after you have noticed good behaviour. The sooner you do that so better because so more likely people will repeat this behaviour. Praise is free Marcel. It does not cost you anything. Keep this always in your mind.”, the chef shared with me.
Wow, what a statement. It is so true and simple. Praise is free. I will not lose anything if I praise. The opposite will happen. You will win. Your team feels that you care.
“People want to do good things by nature.” , Chef Garry continued. “Our job as leaders is to spot talent and find their strengths. If you see one of your staff behaving the way you like it, reward it. Say ‘Thank You’. Thank them when they did something right. When they messed things up, take it easy. Shit happens.”
“Here is a little quiz for you Marcel.”, Chef Garry said. “What type of reward actually do people prefer? Bonus payments, promotions or simple praise?”
“Bonus payments chef. Money is a good thing.”, I replied.
“Not quite right.”, Chef said. “People prefer straightforward praise over other forms of appreciation.”
“Wow, I didn’t know that. I would have never thought that.” I was surprised.
It was indeed an interesting morning chat I had with Chef Garry.
Later, during my own kitchen morning briefings, I often shared guest feedback, positive and negative. Together with my section heads I went through the different online review platforms like TripAdvisor or Booking.com. I am aware that everybody can check this feedback by themselves, but it was more effective when I did it in public. That gave me the opportunity to follow up on negative comments right away. When we received positive feedback from our guests, I appreciated my team and said “Thank you.” This was always especially important for me that I acknowledge and reward good behaviour and share positive feedback. Positive feedback from customer is in a sense also praising. That is the way I see it.
Praising progress and rewarding is one technique of good leaders.
Now, let us talk a bit about mistakes and failures. It is so easy to point fingers and start the “Blamestorm”. It is somehow inherent in human beings. It is a tricky thing.
When I was a young chef, I seldom appreciated anything, not others, not even myself. The attitude of gratitude was an alien concept for me. Over the years I learned to appreciate myself, other people, and other people’s deeds. This goes such a long way. Believe it or not, but there is still another level to appreciation.
“Most of us appreciate when things went well.”, Chef Garry once tried to explain to me. “This is great Marcel and a big step forward. But what if your cook made a mistake? What if he burned a steak for example? How are you going to respond? Scold him? Perhaps nobody trained him to cook the steak to its desired temperature. Maybe he just had a bad day. Maybe he did not care. There are many possibilities. It’s tricky right?”, Chef Garry asked.
“If you can find words of appreciation in any situation, no matter a project has failed or succeeded, is a great gesture. Especially in bad times people need support from the boss and others. And not only that. We then need to focus on what we can learn from this screwup. Be honest Marcel, are you doing this all the time? Are you trying to see the value when someone made a mistake and encourage him or her to look forward?”, the chef asked again.
“Definitely not chef, I would be lying if I would claim to do so.” , I said.
“When you appreciate a person, you act like a battery charger because you are giving them power and energy.”, keep this always in mind Marcel.
Thanks for reading my post!
Marcel
This post was originally published on: https://www.marcelr.com/post/chase-for-good-attitude
