Teach Your Staff to Ask for Help & Never to Hide Mistakes

Remember the old saw, "What you don't know can't hurt you"? When it comes to the suspicious comings and goings at the business on the corner, the cliché probably holds true. But when it comes to what is going on in your dining room and the service your guests receive, nothing could be further from the truth.

When a staff member needs help and he or she doesn't let anyone know, or worse, when someone makes a mistake and conceals it, service suffers. And that means your business suffers.

As a manager or operator, it is in your best interest to instill in your staff the idea that it is OK to ask for help. Better yet, impart to them that you fully expect that they will sometimes need help and that when those occasions arise, you expect, even require that they ask for it. Of course you have to be willing to be a hands-on operator, or the system won't work. You have to be available and willing to make cappuccino, open a bottle of wine, deliver hot food, or whatever task needs doing, without making the person asking for help feel like he is a burden or is incompetent. If you give that impression, very few servers are going to ask for help, even when they're going down in flames.