Teaching a Man to Fish
by Rui Esteves on 29/11/07 at 6:51 pm
3 comments
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”
Chinese Proverb
My clients are in the food business. I hear them complain all the time about staff. I get phone calls asking where they can find good people and how I managed to find mine.
The answer isn’t easy to hear. You have to realize that more often than not the employer can be the problem. I’m not going to get into labour strategies and practices or offer any kind of advice on how to be a good boss… but here’s an example of what I’m talking about…
You start a wholesale bakery. You employ a few (would-be) bakers and train them up. After a few months, business is pretty good and you decide to deputize one of your more experienced guys to take care of things while you focus marketing. After a few weeks you start getting complaints of poor quality, so you decide to investigate and find that your staff has taken the liberty to make your recipes ‘easier’. You throw your toys and start bitching about staff.
When you trained your staff, did you teach them some basics about what makes a good business? Did you show them examples of good and bad products? Did you ask them why the sushi restaurant on Smith Street was packed every night while the one on West Street had no customers? Or did you just show them how to bake bread?
When you hired your staff you did one of two things:
1) You hired them when they knocked on your door
2) Poached from someone else
So, your staff either has bad habits from their previous employer or they could have come from Khayelitsha where baking ciabattas for white people isn’t exactly meaningful or part of their culture.
The moral of the story? EDUCATE. Teach them a little about what you know about business, good service, quality and why they are important and where they can add value…Sure there are bad apples in every orchard, but if you take the time and effort, it will pay off and you will end up with great staff that are committed to your cause.
Another Chinese proverb: “Man who goes to bed with itchy bum wakes up with smelly finger”
We’re all fed up with crime, so help change your community by getting involved in education.
Rui Esteves was the co-founder of Vida e Caffé, one of the fastest growing quick service food businesses in South Africa. After selling Vida, Rui created Collective São Gabriel, a luxury beer range with a strong emphasis on traditional and natural brewing. Rui is out to change the world as we know it. View more articles by Rui Esteves.
Wanda
Nov 30th, 2007
I have found that one of the biggest secrets and most frequently ignored or abandoned actions in creating a team that has real business buy-in, who really want to be there and be better, is educting them constantly, creating space and time for them to absorb and think about your business and giving them the freedom to contribute whilst ensuring that the standards and quality of service are not compromised.
The secret is finding those people who have the right personality traits and natural inclination towards growth and learning. that is the key and then anything is possible! Apathy and complacency are business killers. Old cowboy proverb says: you can take a horse to water mate but ….
Fred
Nov 30th, 2007
A smart guy told me that delivery, performance and attitude within an organisation is a direct reflection of its leadership.
Dylan
Dec 3rd, 2007
One of my businesses is involved in manufacturing beach house furniture… Quality is really important, so i try my best to get my staff to feel proud of what they are manufacturing, I invite them to come out of the workshop and visit the showroom and see what they have made and achieved.