[00:00:00] One of the most important things I do in my program, the P3 mastermind, I think, is that I help restaurant owners step back, let go, delegate and outsource the tasks that can be delegated and outsourced so that they can focus on their area of genius, focus on the things that only they can do or the things that they really love to do. And so that means passing off these tasks to capable individuals. But trust is a very complex, very nuanced word. And I want to talk about this on today's episode because I'm seeing it come up more and more. I hear owners say this proudly all the time. Well, but you don't understand. I trust my managers, but I think what they really mean is, I hope my managers make the same decisions I would. And hope is not leadership. And today we're going to dismantle one of the most expensive misunderstandings in restaurant leadership. That's what's on tap today. On restaurant Strategy.
[00:00:56] There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
[00:01:27] Hey, everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy podcast. Two episodes every single week, helping you level up, build a more profitable restaurant. You guys know I write books. I wrote the Restaurant Marketing mindset. My second book comes out beginning part of 2027. I give talks, I run a membership site, but I also work hand in hand with restaurant owners all over the country. I run something called the P3 mastermind. It's a group coaching format where we have an incredible network of restaurant owners. To date, in the last five years, we've put over 500 people through the program. There are currently almost 150 people enrolled in the program, spread across four unique groups. Groups. This program has grown, not because I'm such a cool person, but because the program works. We help struggling restaurants, restaurants that are stuck at single digit profits or 10, 11, 12%. We help them hit consistent, predictable 20% returns. If you've got a busy restaurant, if you are full every night, people love your food, but you're not making what you deserve. Isn't it worth a conversation? The way you start that conversation is to Visit our website, restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule. Grab some time on the calendar. You'll chat with me or someone from my team and let's just see if you're a good fit we'll ask each other a bunch of questions. There is no pressure, but if we can help you, we'd love to be able to help you again. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com Schedule as always, you'll find that link in the show notes.
[00:02:54] Now, what's the food cost for your third best selling entree?
[00:02:58] Don't know. But with Margin Edge, you could know instantly. See, Margin Edge is a complete restaurant management software. It's something that I recommend to all of my clients looking to improve their profitability. And guess, guess what? We show up every week talking about profitability. See, with Margin Edge, you just snap pictures of your invoices and you get real time data for every area of your business. You can see plate costs in real time. You get a daily P and L, your inventory count sheets are automatically updated. It saves you a ton of time and it lets you make really informed decisions. My client, Gather Brewing, Mike and Rachel, they started using Margin edge and within 30 days, their food costs dropped from 38% to 28%. I don't have to tell you that that is real savings. There's a reason I recommend Margin Edge to so many of my clients. It's because I know it works. So if you're interested in learning more or want to see how Gather brewing went from 38 to 28% food costs, head over to Marginedge.com chip you'll get to see the restaurant. Watch a really great video that outlines their journey implementing margin edge again. Marginedge.com chip that link, as always, is in the show notes.
[00:04:09] Now, we're talking a lot about trust. We're talking about delegation. We're talking about leadership and management. And here's what I want to say right at the top. Trust without structure is gambling.
[00:04:21] Trust without structure is chaos.
[00:04:24] See, trust is emotional, but structure is operational.
[00:04:29] Most owners skip structure because they fear micromanagement or because they're afraid it's going to take too long or it's going to be too cumbersome. So they say, well, you know, they know what to do.
[00:04:40] But what to do lives in your head, not theirs. That's why we have manuals. That's why we have SOPs. That's why we've got training programs. See, I don't want to trust anyone. I want to build structure that as long as my managers work within, they can't help but succeed.
[00:04:57] And most of your managers are just guessing under pressure. See, when expectations aren't explicit, managers guess. I know because I've been there. I've been on Both sides, managing managers, and I have been the manager. When expectations aren't explicit, the managers guess. And guessing creates inconsistency. And inconsistency is expensive.
[00:05:19] Different shifts, different standards, different outcomes. That's not empowerment. That is a level of stress that you don't need and your people don't need.
[00:05:29] Likewise, delegation without clear definitions is really abandonment. See, delegation can be a form of stepping away.
[00:05:39] But mostly delegation is about defining decisions, setting priorities, and creating guardrails. Anyone in the P3 mastermind knows I talk a lot about guardrails. The whole point of the program, one of the big things we teach is to show you how to implement an operating system. We call it the P3 scorecard. It's a tool we give everyone in the program, then immediately puts guardrails on the business. So you're never going to fly off the cliff. At worst, you're just going to ding up against the guardrail and sort of scrape up the car. Fine, you can survive scrapes. You can't survive flying 7,000ft to your death.
[00:06:14] So delegation is not just about stepping away. Not unless you've defined the decisions. You've set priorities and you've created guardrails. Without any of that. See, managers either freeze or they freelance. And I don't have to tell you that both are really expensive, and we'll drag you back into the operation. Tell me how many of you guys feel that when you sort of let a little bit too much line and you're like, oh my God, what's happening? I've been away for 30 days. And this and this and this and this, you start seeing things that, that are, that have wandered away from center. It's because you weren't clear, you didn't put guardrails. So instead of just hitting the guardrail, coming back to the center of the lane, they were flying off the cliff.
[00:06:57] See, personality driven management doesn't scale. See, when everything is subjective meaning, feedback feels personal, accountability feels unfair, conflict gets avoided. Does any of this resonate?
[00:07:10] Systems remove the emotion and they create fairness. So the thing is, I want personalities in my business, but I want the personalities to come out in the hospitality, not in them. Going rogue and making decisions on their own. I want to give them a rubric, a framework, an algorithm, right? If this, then that, that's what an algorithm is. If this happens, then this is what we do about it. And yes, there's going to be some variability, but we have to try to account for as much of the issues as possible.
[00:07:44] And that's the structure we give our team so that the personality can show its face at the front door. Personality is when we make small talk with a table, when we bring out the, you know, the birthday cake, all of that. There's plenty of ways that people get to be themselves.
[00:08:00] We got to take all the guesswork out. And it's very freeing for your managers when you do it. Give them structure so they know how to operate, and then it's very easy for them to let their personality shine through in all the most important areas.
[00:08:13] Again, systems, the structure help to remove emotion, and they really create fairness.
[00:08:22] Now, running a restaurant means juggling a lot. You've got staffing, you got inventory, you got customer service, and of course, finances.
[00:08:29] In all of that, sales tax has to be done. And while no one plans to miss a deadline or miscalculate a payment, mistakes happen. And when those happen, they lead to penalties, they lead to fines, and, yeah, added stress. That's why there's Davo by Avalara. See, Davo integrates with your point of sale system and automatically sets aside the sales tax daily, giving you a clear view of your actual cash flow. Then, when it's time to file, Davo files and pays your sales tax on time and in full, guaranteed. So no more last minute scrambles or costly mistakes. Just seamless automation. Thousands of restaurants trust Davo, and with a 4.9 star rating on G2, it's a proven solution. Your first monthly filing is free with zero commitment. Get started
[email protected] RestaurantStrategy. As always, you'll find that link in the show notes.
[00:09:27] Now, when we talk about delegation, when we talk about passing off tasks and trusting our people, one important thing we need to acknowledge is this, that owners almost always, always become the bottlenecks. And they become the bottlenecks mostly by accident.
[00:09:44] See, if managers escalate everything, it's not incompetence. It has to do with uncertainty. The thing is, they just don't know what right looks like. They're not sure what they're supposed to do, so they ask. You're always getting texts and phone calls and people are tapping on your back and your shoulder and saying, hey, can I run this bio? Hey, can I ask you a quick question? Hey, quick question. Hey, can you tell me, hey, where did like a million times a day? Is this resonating? Is this giving you hives? It's sort of like when I sit with my wife at the bar and she used to be a bartender for 10 years, and she hears the Service bar.
[00:10:14] You know, machine going off and she's like, she's like, I have to go over and take care of service bar. She's like, that bartender is ignoring service bar. The tickets are stacking up. Servers are going to be screaming at him soon.
[00:10:24] I know. You know what this feels like? When managers are constantly texting you, calling you, or tapping you on the shoulder. It's not because they, they don't know, they're not good. It's uncertainty. They don't know exactly what to do. You haven't told them. It's not a management fail.
[00:10:39] I want you to hear this. It's a leadership failure. That's what I mean. You become the bottleneck. You're trying to pass off and delegate, but you, by doing it the wrong way, become the bottleneck accidentally. See, structure actually creates freedom. And that's the paradox, right? It sounds counterintuitive, but the clearer you are, the less needed you actually are. The better the decisions are, the calmer the operation becomes. See, structure is, is not, you know, this, this like micromanage over, you know, heavy handed thing.
[00:11:13] It's control. And that is actually your job. That's what leadership is.
[00:11:18] It's setting vision and parameters, vision and structure. Put another way, I talk a lot of the restaurant owners of my program talk a lot about two words, oversight and support. That's actually what your job is. Not the doing, but the overseeing and the supporting. And that can be huge if you let that happen. So if you're going to delegate something, you got to make sure they know exactly what to do, how to do, when to do it, and why. It's important that they do it in the ways that you've outlined. You got to make sure all the questions are answered. This is where a bible or a, you know, an LMS is helpful. Or even just creating a custom GPT, you know, brain dump from your brain into, you know, a chatbot that people can go in and ask all the questions, hey, where do we keep this? Hey, what do we do this? What's the plumber we use? All of that can be just locked into either a binder or a program.
[00:12:08] That's the structure we're talking about. So here's the real shift. Trust should be the result of clarity, not the substitute for it. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to ask what decisions do my managers hesitate on? And that's where clarity is missing. Great way to do this is, is in every manager meeting. So hopefully you're doing weekly manager meetings. With your leadership team, your management team, at the end of the meeting, or maybe in the beginning of the meeting, say, what was one decision you had to make this week that you were unclear about? And it's not about a gotcha. What you're trying to do is identify the gaps in your leadership. How can you be better for them? You won't know that unless you ask, hey, what were you unclear about? Got you. I probably could have helped there. Next time you come across that, we have to do X, Y, Z, and let's create an SOP for that. Let's put it in the binder, let's get that into the LMS so that you never have that question again. And so anybody else on the team or any other future managers we bring on, they don't have that question either. You do that with your leadership team of three, four, five managers every single week. So you're getting three, four, five decisions that they weren't really clear on this week. You are, you know, you're rapidly increasing the learnings because all that stuff can be notated and dumped into, you know, dumped into a binder, dumped into an SOP packet, dumped into a program.
[00:13:28] So again, what managers, you know, what decisions did my managers hesitate on this week? And you ask them that, say, which decisions did you have to make that you were unclear about?
[00:13:38] And you listen to what they did, and then you give them the support, the feedback of that. If your restaurant only runs well when you're present, you actually don't have a trust problem. You have a leadership problem. And it all has to do with the systems and structures that you have not yet set up properly.
[00:13:55] Good news is, and I say this all the time, if you are the problem, you also get to be the solution. And that's incredibly powerful. It's an empowering thing.
[00:14:04] If you are the problem, and this is about identifying areas where you are the problem, then you also get to be the solution. You get to fix the thing that you screwed up. And guess what? This is one area where no one else can fix. Only you. This is a really good use of your time. Not building schedules, not doing inventory, not all of that, but figuring out how to give people, the algorithms, the rubric to make better decisions. Then you will actually be able to trust not just your managers, but you'll be able to trust the system that you've set up so that anybody who steps into that can succeed.
[00:14:39] All right, guys, I appreciate you being here. Thank you very much. Again, I want to remind you about the P3 mastermind I gather restaurant owners from all over the country onto a call every single week. We have four unique groups. Nearly 150 people enrolled in the program. I give you the numbers just so you know are not alone.
[00:14:57] There are a lot of other people out there struggling and they, what they have all in common is that they raised their hand to ask for help. We you need a room where you can ask the stupid questions, where you can get things right and get things right pretty quickly. We always ask for a six month commitment for everybody coming into the program. But I think you'll find most people stay much longer because they see the value. I think the average, the average length of a membership is like 22 months. But I think you'll find that within the first 90 days you'll see a huge change in, in your business. That's just not me talking, that's me sharing real stories, real numbers. Having done this for as long as I've done it again, I appreciate you making part of your week. If you want to go learn more about the P3 mastermind, it's RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com schedule Appreciate you guys. I'll talk to you soon.
