Think Your Restaurant GM Is The Best? They Better Have These 5 Traits.

High performing restaurant GMs are increasingly hard to find. And given turnover in the industry, once you develop or find them, you have to keep them as well.

How can you tell if your GM is a keeper?

These are the 5 most important traits for a restaurant GM:

Proactive

Good GMs react very quickly to address issues. Great GMs anticipate issues before they even arise.

Successful GMs will be planners and on top of inventory, staffing, menu updates, and any marketing campaigns.

They will multi-task and can answer phones one minute, while speaking to customers the next.

Ideally, GMs should set-up technology systems and monitor business metrics in real-time to identify outstanding issues. When used in combination with the eye test, this method can be effective to evaluate the status of the restaurant.

Proactive and regular communication is important as well, so that the rest of the team is as up-to-date as the GM.

Customer-Oriented

The best GMs go above-and-beyond to put customers first.

A customer will always remember exceptional service.

In order to put customers first, GMs must understand them by talking to them, watching their behaviors and actions, and studying the data.

Checking in on customers regularly allows GMs to get a high-level review of customer experience, both from what they say and by how they say it.

Watching customers allows GMs to understand customer behaviors. Good GMs subtly watch customers, especially for behavioral patterns, and then problem solve to fix any issues.

Finally, data shows customer reviews, preferences, trends, and behaviors that are not easily detected by the prior methods. Data analysis can also assist with analyzing individuals who choose not speak up during their time at the restaurant. It’s always good to confirm data insights anecdotally.

Team-Invested

If your GM cares about your team, they may leave. If your GM doesn’t care about your team, they WILL leave.

Employees work harder for a GM that cares. It is hard to fake caring, and especially over a long period of time. The best way for the GM to care is to actually care.

The best GMs invest in their teams as much as their customers, and care about their employees and their employees’ career growth. There is only so much one person can accomplish, but if GMs can successfully motivate their team, they can expand beyond their capabilities to really improve customer experience and increase profit.

Business-Minded

Speaking of profit, GMs should have a keen business sense.

Will adding a menu item help? How about combining two tables?

Good GMs consider how various decisions affect profit.

When in doubt, GMs can always leverage the data to understand what works. Successful GMs use a mixture of experience and data to support business decisions.

Positive

Finally, outstanding GMs have a positive and caring attitude.

GMs should demonstrate leadership and serve as an example for the rest of employees to follow.

Employees will be looking to see what GM do during tough times or after setbacks, and if the GM throws in the towel and quits, others will likely follow.

GMs should consistently make extra effort to stay positive and appreciate their employees. If they do, they will be well ahead of the curve.

Thanks for reading! :P