Setting Expectations

Eleven Madison Park’s struggling team needed more than instructions to improve. Employees needed to feel appreciated, know what managers expected, and trust that everyone would face the same standards. They also needed to know they had a place in the restaurant’s future. If managers treated employees as barriers to change, they would weaken the very team they needed to make those changes.

Invite Your Team Along

Laura’s warning helped Guidara see how serious the restaurant’s problems were. She was good at finding ways to solve problems and spoke up for her staff. She also challenged Guidara directly when he pushed too hard, when someone needed care, or when he focused on the wrong thing. Laura never complained, so he took her warning about conditions at the restaurant especially seriously.

Leaders need trusted people who will tell them when they are falling short. Laura could do that because she cared about both the work and the people doing it. By speaking up, she helped Guidara focus on what the team actually needed.

At Union Square Hospitality Group, taking care of one another came first. To rebuild the team, managers needed to show that they meant it. That meant setting clear expectations, applying discipline consistently, and inviting employees to help build something exciting.

Christopher Russell had shown how to do this in his first speech as general manager at Union Square Cafe. He told employees that he loved the restaurant and would put its interests first. Usually, that would benefit individual employees too. But protecting the restaurant allowed him to look after the whole team, instead of favoring one person at everyone else’s expense.

Guidara admired Russell’s enthusiasm and his honesty about what employees could expect. He wanted to give a similar speech at Eleven Madison Park. First, though, he needed to understand the people he would be asking to follow him.

Leaders Listen

“Don’t cannonball. Ease into the pool.” A new leader should take time to understand an organization before trying to change it. Talent and ambition cannot replace knowing how people work together or why things have gone wrong.

Laura and Sam gave Guidara accounts of life inside the restaurant that he could trust. But he still needed to hear from others. In a new workplace, people may describe the same situation very differently. A complaint about a manager might show that the manager leads poorly, or it might mean that the people involved have different priorities. Listening to many people gives a leader time to work out which explanation fits.

Sitting down with people also builds trust. Giving someone time shows that their experience matters, even if the leader disagrees with some of what they say. Employees are then more likely to believe that the leader has their interests in mind when making changes.

Family meal—the staff’s shared meal before the restaurant opens—offered another chance to listen. Guidara later asked managers to sit among the staff instead of together. That way, they could hear ideas and concerns that employees might never raise in a formal meeting.

Find the Hidden Treasures

A reputation for poor work does not tell a leader everything an employee can contribute. Some employees would eventually need to leave. But first, the leader had to look for skills that nobody had noticed or put to use.

A comparison with leadership in Vietnam helped explain this responsibility. In business, leaders can choose their teams, even if they start with people someone else hired. In war, leaders are assigned a team. Its members may not want to be there, and the leader cannot simply fire them. A bad decision also has far more serious consequences than delivering a dish to the wrong guest.

That comparison encouraged a closer look at the people already on the team. Before deciding that someone cannot do the job, a leader should check whether that person has a strength the organization has overlooked. Their current work may not show everything they can do.

Keep Emotions Out of Criticism

The One Minute Manager, which Guidara gave to people he promoted, offered practical rules for feedback. When correcting someone, talk about what they did rather than attack their character. Give praise in public, and feel free to show genuine excitement. Give criticism in private, without anger.

Public praise encourages people to repeat the work that earned it. Eleven Madison Park made recognition a regular practice with the monthly Made Nice Award. The full management team chose one kitchen employee and one dining-room employee who had done something exceptional for guests or colleagues. Employee of the Month awards at places such as McDonald’s inspired the idea. Even if those awards get little attention, it is worth keeping a regular time to recognize good work.

Managers also need to correct problems regularly, before frustration builds. Employees were encouraged to raise concerns before they became too upset. Managers were expected to address problems when they first appeared, before repeated irritation made them take those problems personally.

The wrinkled-shirt example shows what can happen when a manager waits. A young manager wants employees to like him, so he says nothing when a server arrives in an unironed shirt. The server’s shirt is still wrinkled the next day, and the next. By day twenty, the manager sees it as disrespect toward the restaurant, the team, and himself.

But nobody has told the server to change anything. The manager has grown resentful over an expectation he never explained, so the eventual conversation is likely to go badly. On the first day, he could have taken the server aside and calmly asked him to iron the shirt upstairs before family meal. That would have made the standard clear without starting a confrontation.

Employees cannot read a manager’s mind. Correcting problems promptly and privately makes holding people responsible a normal part of work, rather than an occasional angry outburst. It also gives employees a fair chance to meet the standard.

Every team member should still receive more praise than criticism. Otherwise, feedback becomes discouraging. If a leader cannot find more successes than shortcomings to discuss, the employee may need better coaching. Or the coaching may have failed, meaning the role no longer suits that person.

Managers help people feel safe when they treat them consistently. Employees should not have to guess whether their manager will stay calm today or take a bad mood out on them. Caring deeply about the work can sometimes lead a leader to give feedback badly, but it does not excuse that behavior. When this happens, the leader should apologize for how they spoke while standing by any fair criticism.

Thirty Minutes a Day Can Transform a Culture

A daily thirty-minute meeting gives a leader regular chances to help individual employees work as a team. In restaurants, these meetings are called lineup or pre-meal. They can cover practical information, but they can do more than assign tasks.

Managers need to explain why the work matters, remind everyone of shared standards, and celebrate progress. A well-run pre-meal meeting gives staff energy and encouragement before they care for guests. Guidara saw the same opportunity in dentists’ offices, insurance companies, and moving companies. Regular communication could change how their employees serve customers too.

Preparing for the meeting should also show care. During his first week, Guidara stayed late to make the lineup notes clear, organized, and attractive. He wanted staff materials to get the same attention as the lavender honey–glazed dry-aged duck served to guests. Employees would have little reason to take his call for excellent work seriously if he did not put that care into his own meetings.

Stories helped show employees what this care could look like. When Guidara was paying for a haircut, his barber offered him a choice of gin, vodka, or whiskey. He chose whiskey. The barber gave him a shot in a tiny disposable cup, like one used for mouthwash at the dentist. The unexpected gift left Guidara smiling, so he told the story at pre-meal that afternoon. It showed how a small, playful act of generosity could make an ordinary haircut feel different.

Meetings began with the team enthusiastically returning a greeting for the day, such as Wednesday. They ended with a wish for a good service, to which the staff replied Oui, following French kitchen tradition. The enthusiasm in that response helped show whether the meeting had raised people’s spirits. The barber’s story had.

Finding time for meetings was difficult. The restaurant was struggling, so a full meeting could feel as futile as rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic: it seemed unlikely to help with the serious problems around them. Managers warned that a thirty-minute meeting would leave too little time for side work. The answer was to simplify that work by using an easier napkin fold or a less elaborate butter presentation. Time for the team to communicate mattered more than keeping every presentation detail.

Set Them Up to Succeed

When employees struggle, managers need to consider whether they are making an effort. Someone who is trying deserves substantial help, even if their results currently look like those of someone who is not trying. Pushing ahead too quickly without giving that help can slow the whole restaurant down.

Food and wine tests showed how to put this approach into practice. Guidara rejected the managers’ first proposed test because it was so difficult that he did not think he could pass it himself. Tests should check that staff know what they need to know and feel confident using that knowledge. They should help employees become knowledgeable and confident, not be designed to fail or embarrass them.

Once employees had support and knew what was expected, Guidara could clearly invite them to help change the restaurant. The aim was to make Eleven Madison Park one of New York’s best restaurants and create a four-star restaurant for the next generation. The work would be demanding, but the team would try to make it enjoyable. People who wanted that challenge were invited to stay. Those who did not would get help finding a job that suited them better.

Following Christopher Russell’s example, Guidara promised to be fair and consistent. He also explained that the restaurant’s needs would guide his decisions. Employees could then choose whether to take part, knowing what the team hoped to achieve, what standards they would need to meet, and what support they would receive.