Who's in charge of your business?

Who's in charge of the business when you aren't there, and who's in charge when they aren't about?

Every good business structure includes a management tree. At the top is the owner(s). Just below, the CEO or General Manager. Underneath may be assistant managers, shift supervisors, trainers, salaried employees and new employees or temps. Any which way the hierarchy of your restaurant or bar shakes out, it’s very important that your entire staff understands who is in charge at any given time.

Not having a set chain of command leads to confusion. To a new employee, any person in your business already is someone to be obeyed and learned from. As I’m sure you know, different employees of yours have different methods for doing the same thing. One may be better, one may be worse. Either way, the only way things should be getting done is yours. This is only possible with accountability through creating a chain of command that allows you to police your systems and correct errors within the system.

When creating a system of hierarchy, avoid this one common mistake; do NOT give equal, shared authority to two different employees. Sharing authority equally creates stalemates and sets you up to lose track of who is accountable when the wrong decisions are made. He said, then she said; so who's right?

Create a management tree.

Don’t split authority.

Hold all your staff accountable.