Introduction:

Hey Restaurant Managers! Today, I’m going to give you three tips on how you can advance quickly to General Manager. I think we all know the obvious answer: it’s going to take a lot of hard work and take a few years or more depending on what type of restaurant or hotel you’re working in. 

3 Tips to Advance to Restaurant General Manager

The three tips I am sharing today are very important and when you hear them, they’re going to sound obvious. But, I promise, they’re not as obvious as ‘work hard’ or ‘show up on time’. 

1. You must be able to quickly earn the respect of your team. Obvious right? Maybe not! Let’s talk about the word ‘respect’ for a moment. Respect is not thinking: I will never ask anyone to do a job that I’ve never done myself. Sure you have to be willing to work hard and get in the trenches with your team, but that is not what respect is (I have other videos that will explain more about respect). Respect is about helping your employees achieve their goals. Sadly, most restaurant managers don’t even know what the goals of their team members are. If your team members aren’t telling you what they want, or they don’t know, then step in and help them figure out what it is. Then help them achieve their goals. 
2. You have to be able to hold your team accountable. I know this is sometimes a challenge for managers because on one hand they’re thinking, “I need the respect of my team, so I’ll be nice to them”. Or managers thing, “I’ll accept their excuses on why they didn’t do their responsibility because I can’t be mean to them and earn their respect.” These lines of thought are wrong! Holding a team accountable and earning their respect are two completely different things. The people that you likely respect the most in this world are people that have held you accountable, helped reach your goals, and held higher standards for you than you would hold for yourself. When we talk about accountability, we talk about being strict not mean. I don’t ever want you to be mean, rude, belittle any staff members, or say a bad thing about them! I promise, that has nothing to do with being strict. 
3. You have to be able to complete projects (on time). At the end of the day, being a manager is about getting things done day by day and task by task. You have to be able to complete, or at least facilitate, the completion of a project. You have to make sure that your team is doing their part and make sure that you are doing yours as well. If you are not completing the projects that are assigned to you, no one is ever going to give you more responsibility.

Quick recap:

1. You’ve got to earn the respect of your team and you have to earn it quickly if you want to grow fast. 
2. You have to be able to hold your team accountable, which leads to number three. 
3. You have to be able to complete projects and complete them on time. 

For some, these seem a little obvious; for others not so much. You might even be looking for something totally different than this. But, if you’re able to do these three things, the other stuff is going to be easy for you. You’re going to advance from wherever you are right now to General Manager faster than you think. Thank you and have a wonderful week!