A Leadership Lesson Lost

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  1

  coachrussell

  05/30/08 | Report as spam

  Too bad - must be the location

  I had a bad experience with partially cooked salmon at the El Segundo PF Chang's. The manager responded promptly with a new dish and did not charge me at all. Apparently your location needs some of my Success With People training. Thanks for sharing your story!
  
  David Russell
  www.SuccessWithPeople.com

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  2

  MiriamL

  06/02/08 | Report as spam

  RE: A Leadership Lesson Lost

  It is especially sad when a leader, directly responsible for a large business, dispays similar lack of skill. Recently, we were 2 couples meeting at The Mooring, a usually excellent-reputation restauant in Newport, RI. The reservation was made by the other, hosting couple, with a special request for a water-side table. We arrived very early, gave the host's name and were seated. The other couple arrived shortly thereafter, gave the same name, and were seated somewhere else, with neither the hostess nor the manager, who was at the door, noticing that half of the reservation-party had already arrived. We all sat separately, awaiting eachother for nearly 30 minutes when one called the other via mobile and realized the restaurant had mis-seated us. They joined us and we resumed dinner, with an excellent (I might add) wait-staff. No one apologized (except for the waiter, who acknowledged that "this also happened on Mother's Day"). Stopping by the manager's station mid-dinner, mentioned that I am from a family of restaurateurs and a business manager and asked for an explanation. The manager utterly shirked responsibility, claiming that "The gentleman told us you weren't here yet." (code for "It was the customer's fault") He missed an easy opportunity to be gracious and professional. No one came to our table to apologize to the host couple. A few days later, the host-wife wrote to The Mooring email address requesting an apology. It was the manager who wrote back, again, accepting true responsibility for the uncomfortable situation he caused- in fact, blathering on about how he (somehow assuming the writer was me) told me too much about how the error was due to the host's comment but never taking the leadership role so obviously required. As a lifelong student of leadership, this was a sad example of a person in a role of responsibility unable to take the helm (to your point- what if a fire or illness occured in that restaurant?) The board of stockholders of The Mooring should pay better attention to this leading variable in their business and offer coaching or replacement!

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  3

  MiriamL

  06/02/08 | Report as spam

  RE: A Leadership Lesson Lost

  (Re-posted to correct a typo)
  It is especially sad when a leader, directly responsible for a large business, dispays similar lack of skill. Recently, we were 2 couples meeting at The Mooring, a usually excellent-reputation restauant in Newport, RI. The reservation was made by the other, hosting couple, with a special request for a water-side table. We arrived very early, gave the host's name and were seated. The other couple arrived shortly thereafter, gave the same name, and were seated somewhere else, with neither the hostess nor the manager, who was at the door, noticing that half of the reservation-party had already arrived. We all sat separately, awaiting eachother for nearly 30 minutes when one called the other via mobile and realized the restaurant had mis-seated us. They joined us and we resumed dinner, with an excellent (I might add) wait-staff. No one apologized (except for the waiter, who acknowledged that "this also happened on Mother's Day"). Stopping by the manager's station mid-dinner, mentioned that I am from a family of restaurateurs and a business manager and asked for an explanation. The manager utterly shirked responsibility, claiming that "The gentleman told us you weren't here yet." (code for "It was the customer's fault") He missed an easy opportunity to be gracious and professional. No one came to our table to apologize to the host couple. A few days later, the host-wife wrote to The Mooring email address requesting an apology. It was the manager who wrote back, again NOT ACCEPTING true responsibility for the uncomfortable situation he caused- in fact, blathering on about how he (somehow assuming the writer was also me) told too much about how the error was due to the host's comment but never taking the leadership role so obviously required. As a lifelong student of leadership, this was a sad example of a person in a role of responsibility and authority in the service industry unable to take the helm (to your point- what if a fire or illness occured in that restaurant?) The board of stockholders of The Mooring should pay better attention to this leading variable in their business and offer coaching or replacement!

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  4

  sbabin

  06/04/08 | Report as spam

  RE: A Leadership Lesson Lost

  Definitely poor leadership demonstrated in this blog - lack of diligence on the owners??? part for not hiring a person with the appropriate management skills. This is typical of large chances that have a known brand and rep - unfortunately the larger the business the more it moves away from the basics...