Just Think

It’s About People

In a stellar restaurant the separation from good to great is primarily created through the ability to cultivate a team of intellectually invested people who have a common goal. A goal to provide hospitality in a way that delights their guests. This goal applies to all hospitality businesses, it can apply to a small mom and pop hamburger shop and to a five star restaurant, to a Surfer Hostel and a Luxury Resort. The principles are the core, the facilities are the tools to deliver.

When an establishment has a clear set of goals, what it wants to deliver, what is the specialty, what the public will understand it to be, and how the team can stay within these parameters, finding the right people to take part will be easier. Once they are part of the team and allowed to create and deliver, there may be coaching moments to keep them on the path to deliver the goals, but they will more often push the project further than need coaching.

Its a win win.

This is not a trick, it is a plan. One that delivers the autonomy and patience to the team members to pursue an area of interest to them for profit and enjoyment. This is the idea. Creating the opportunity for someone to join the team who is doing what they love as their occupation.

This is a job for someone who has vision, belief, and the ability to take a well intentioned leap of faith. We are not cherry picking ripe figs from the branches of a tree that grew in our backyard without any care. We are cultivating, watering, pruning, and enabling these team members to blossom and grow into their potential. When they do, they will benefit, our guests will benefit, and the business will benefit. Without all three, how successful are we?

The architecture of your team, is your responsibility, it is the most challenging and most rewarding part of building these unique establishments. To my teams, I look forward to the big steps in front of us as we all grow, and deliver experiences that delight our guests along the way.

I am Spirocks on Twitter.

Great Restaurants Thrive on Cultural Diversity

Spiro Pappadopoulos

To say that I have been fortunate to be part of several great restaurant teams would be an understatement. Diversity was a characteristic of all of them. Restaurants are commonly raved about for their food, decor, location, and drinks. What truly sets apart the great from the good is the people. The team that delivers the experience is what the architects of the best restaurants spend the most time focused on.

The more diverse the team, the more likely that future stars, great ideas, and ability to overcome obstacles is present.

Diversity is fun. — Diversity means a new perspective for everything.

Innovation, stability, creativity, and future leaders are born of diverse teams.

I spend a lot of time working on team building, looking for greatness, weeding out bad seeds. All these activities are done in the name of trying to create depth and a pathway for people to advance. When I examined the best teams I have been a part of I noticed that the stars of our organizations today were frequently someone who joined us from a disparate background. They were a source of diversity, and brought a fresh perspective. Now they are a leader, and an integral part of who we are. A restaurant is the product of the people who are working there today, no more, no less.

Diversity can help you achieve higher highs, but it also helps you avoid pitfalls. This concept is simple in theory as Seth Godin wrote about a little while back:

About half of all the bananas consumed worldwide come from the same tree.

Not the same type of tree. The very same tree. The Cavendish, which has no seeds, is propagated by grafting or cloning. Which means that they’re all identical. If you’re a mass marketer, pushing everyone to expect and like the very same thing, a thing with no variation and little surprise, this is good news indeed.

Until, of course, a fungus comes along and wipes out the entire monoculture.

It’s tempting to want all your bananas to be the same. To have all your employees be clones of one another, your products to be indistinguishable commodities, each conforming to the dominant narrative of the day.

But variation brings resilience and innovation and the chance to make a difference.

What is Diversity?

We typically think about racial diversity as it is a dominant theme in our culture and news these days. But diversity in it’s full sense comes in many forms. For an intellectual, case study based read on the ways that diversity helps an organization; make sure you have read The Medici Effect. For many it is the definitive book on these topics. Frans Johansson, the author, even has some references to the success of diversity in restaurants. Here is his take on diversity:

Cultural diversity does not only imply geographically separated cultures. It can also include ethnic, class, professional, or organizational cultures. The mere fact that an individual is different from most people around him promotes more open and divergent, perhaps even rebellious, thinking in that person. Such a person is more prone to question traditions, rules, and boundaries—and to search for answers where others may not think to. ― Frans Johansson, Medici Effect: What You Can Learn from Elephants and Epidemics

Think about your restaurant, how diverse a group is there, what can you do to increase diversity?

Innovation and greater success are there for you if you can.

I am Spirocks on Twitter.

Mother’s Day

Spiro Pappadopoulos

Mother’s Day.
Thanksgiving for our most personal relationship.
Our mother, nourisher, protector, teacher, counselor, consoler and chief celebrator.
As my Dad used to say:
“When she says jump you say: how high? She used to wipe your ass.”
A mother is the rare combination of sacrifice and intense love all in your direction.
She gives of her body, time, and mind as much as we are willing to receive.
Our pain is her pain, our success her pride, our children her reason.
There is no children’s day, that is everyday without pause.
Mother’s Day.

Thank you to my Mother, you are my definition.
You showed me what being a mom means, and allowed me to know when I met one.
Thank you to my wife, you are the greatest gift our son could receive.
I am in awe of how deftly you walk the line of devotion and discipline.
Happy Mother’s Day.

Remember moms play multiple roles in the movie of your life, this Mother’s day.
They all played a role in who you are and the life you live.
Thank you Diane.
You raised a gem who has taken the love you embraced her with as a child and carried it on.
Thank you for un-waveringly being you.

Adrienne, mom with your own style, and nouna to Christos. We are all blessed to have your flair for originality throw us off a step and alter our perspectives.

Happy Mother’s Day.

The relationship a mother has with her children is timeless.
We yearn for that love in a way that brings us together.
Christos has the amazing opportunity to be held by his great grandmother.
It’s something I never knew, and could never take for granted.
Nonni, we love you, Happy Mother’s Day.

Each of you who raised your children and gave them all the love:
Happy Mother’s Day!

I am Spirocks on Twitter.

The First Question We Should Ask When Starting a New Business.

Spiro Pappadopoulos

WHY?

The basis for asking WHY we are doing what we are doing is to avoid a deep-rooted flaw in the way we build, brand, and market our new business. That flaw could lead to a division between what our customers, employees and community stakeholders truly care about and what he business stands for.

Answering the simple question, Why? Will guide us as we build this brand to be the most admired, profitable, and case study inspiring brand possible. To achieve this we must realize that our financial success and ability to survive the test of time lies not in chasing earnings or in trying to sell more “whats” to more “whos,” but in aligning our offerings and values with the “why” of our customers.

So, Why?

I am Spirocks on Twitter.

360 Degree Feedback Explained

Spiro Pappadopoulos

WHAT IS 360-DEGREE EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK?

Often referred to as 360 reviews or 360 assessments, 360-degree employee feedback provides a all encompassing view of an employee by gathering feedback from an employee’s whole team. That includes their manager, peers and direct reports. Sometimes, external salespeople or vendors who work one on one with the employee are included as well.

WHAT MAKES 360-DEGREE REVIEWS DIFFERENT?

This multi-direction feedback differs from what typical annual performance reviews provide in the following ways:

Omni-Directional look. Standard performance reviews involve the employee getting feedback directly from their manager. While a manager’s perspective is likely t be the most important, it’s is also limited. 360-degree feedback involves feedback from many team members, providing a well-rounded feedback loop for an employee. Let’s face it, people act differently around their boss than around their subordinates and peers.
Forward-looking. An accepted rule of thumb is that traditional performance reviews evaluate what has happened; for that reason they are backward looking – how have employees performed in relation to their goals. That is very different than 360-degree feedback, which is less evaluative and more forward-looking – what is this employees’ skills, triumphs, strengths and yes weaknesses. What can the individual do to take developmental steps and become even better.
Constructive Feedback with a Positive Vibe. The overwhelming tendency is that an employee’s peers are much less likely to provide negative or even constructive feedback if they think it will negatively impact someone’s standing in the company negatively. For that reason well constructed 360-degree assessments include many non-evaluative questions and that can prove essential to getting honest feedback.

ARE 360S IMPORTANT?

360-degree multi-directional assessments comment on important competencies and provide valuable insight for managers, as peers and direct reports provide priceless developmental feedback that may not otherwise be shared.

When the goal is measuring valuable employee skills and attributes, few exercises are as effective as 360s. With them we can quantify things like, teamwork, leadership, interpersonal communications, decision-making, delegation, and collaboration. By their very nature our jobs are a continual journey, we can cop-out and only dig deep enough to see how well employees get their jobs done, instead of taking the leadership role by helping them develop into the most productive employee they can become. 360s help paint a picture that allows managers and employees look at competencies that enable them and their organizations as a whole get better.

—– Thanks for checking this out hope it explained 360s in a way that can help. -Spiro

I am Spirocks on Twitter.

Dear Christos, about your Baptism…

Spiro Pappadopoulos

Yesterday we baptized my son Christos in the church where his godmother and I both were baptized and where the man he is named after grew up as an altar boy. We were lucky to do so in front of his loving extended family and friends.

Once the baptism began, I realized he was in my presence but I wasn’t in control of him for the first real time as a parent. I felt as though he was outside of my bubble, a place where his beautiful mother or I wasn’t 100% able to intercede and soothe him.

Those moments were his first chance to be himself and handle things. For better or worse, and in rapid succession, he would be:

held by a stranger
completely naked
anointed (rubbed down with oil all over his body)
dunked three times into holy water
have oil tapped on him again in honor of the father the son and the holy spirit
have a few pieces of his hair cut off
then handed off to be cleaned up.

It could understandably result in a very angry child, whose participation would need to supersede coerced and morph into forced, or… it could go better than that. This video is the baptism process happening.

Needless to say I was proud of how my little man, who came into the day unknowing, handled himself and stood tall in the water.

The last time I stood in that spot, it was to say goodbye to a Christos who had stood right there as I was baptized. A man whose pride in me is still a source of motivation to this day. His words of love and expectation, of stewardship and determination, and of irreverent strength and humanity, now have a renewed purpose for me.

My Christos, your Dad is proud of the way you participated yesterday, the way you stood tall in the water, and the way you handled the first moments where it was up to you to do things your way. You are on your way and together we will find the path of your youth, I promise to guide you with all I have and look forward to the day you can show me the way somewhere new.

You are a source of an intense pride that I have never known before, thank you.

– Love Dad

P.S. In particular his grandparents have been such an enthusiastic part of his early days, and immeasurable help to his mom and I, that I must say thank you right here for all you have already done. With you as role models we have a lifetime of catching up to do.

I am Spirocks on Twitter.

Dear Chefs and Bartenders – part 2

Spiro Pappadopoulos

“I’d rather play Chiquita Banana and have my swimming pool than play Bach and starve.”—Xavier Cugat, born 01-01-1900

There is a point in time when creating something that people want, in an extremely well done way trumps doing something you want to do regardless of whether it is wanted. That point in time is when you decide this is a career to make a living and not a hobby.

Happy New Year. Make it Delicious.

I am Spirocks on Twitter.

Dear Chefs and Bartenders

Spiro Pappadopoulos

John Tesar has a few words for you:

Delicious is more important than creative because everything’s been done before. You’re not going to reinvent the wheel. At this point, after the post molecular era and the compositionist era, where basically commercial artists have gone into the food business because its more lucrative for them financially. A lot of the artsy fartsy food is beautiful in pictures and some of it is beautiful in its presentation, but it’s soulless in the eating of it. Because it’s composition, it’s not cooking.

Amen. Happy New Year. Make it Delicious.

-Spiro

I am Spirocks on Twitter.