Restaurant Management vs. Leadership: How Systems and Culture Work Together

Ever wonder why some restaurants run smoothly while others feel like constant chaos? It usually comes down to this: management vs. leadership. One of the most common pitfalls of restaurant management is not understanding what the difference between the two are when to use each one. The most important thing to know is that a manager utilizes systems to ensure ease and flow of operations, and a leader creates a culture of excellence within their restaurant consisting of a motivated and responsible crew. Though you are called a “manager” your job is to wear both hats. You cannot be an effective restaurant manager without being both manager and leader. Your ability to master both responsibilities is the key to your ability to master your whole position in this job.

A manager creates and implements systems. It’s done with a goal in mind to help establish a flow to solve a problem or improve on an established process. This requires a working knowledge of the operations process so that it can be improved upon. Systems can be written down and posted on walls for reference. This can look like rearranging a kitchen or walk-in or implementing policies for uniform or anything else that is a set system placed with the goal of making the job easier for each person no matter who the person is. Let’s run through both those examples so I can show you what I mean.

Rearranging a kitchen or walk-in affects the whole crew. The employees need to know where the food-goods are in the walk-in without the need to search for them. The reason for this is so that when rush comes, there is less time spent looking for things, and orders get to customers in a quicker manner. Most restaurants have a regular space for each food good in the walk-in so the employee searching for a specific food can go right to that spot each time that need that food. This is a system that a manager places. It reduces confusion and keeps everyone on the same page concerning the actual operations of the job. If you already have designated spots for all the food, adding labels or tags to those specific places is a system that increases on the clarity and is therefore a responsibility of the manager’s job. 

Implementing a uniform policy is also a role of the manager because of the nature of how it is universally appropriate to all employees. When you implement a uniform rule, like tucking in shirts, you are acting as a manager by creating a system that should be regarded whether you are the Manager on Duty.

Leadership is a different role in the restaurant played by the same person. As a leader, you ought to develop a culture of excellence in attitude of your crew. This requires understanding what motivates each individual employee and having a care for each of them. This is where care and understanding come into place. This can be both the most difficult and most rewarding part of the job because it requires you to dig deep into your own humanity to solve problems.

Leadership examples can include playing music in the kitchen, how you act towards younger and older employees, and leniency or strictness of the systems you create as a manager. It is how you motivate and deal with the crew themselves rather than the specifics of the job. Your leadership is what creates the culture of the store. It is just as responsible for the success of the store as your management. When things go wrong, how do you act? Are you calm and stoic through the problems, showing the employees that everything will be alright? Do you break down along with the employees and validate their complaints, leading to even more? What is the culture of the store you create? Whether you like it or not, your culture is very influenced by the leadership you bring to the restaurant.

Many managers try to be too much of one or the other, and it rarely works. Often a manager will create system after system and rule after rule, but then the restaurant develops a feeling like a prison with a never-ending list of rules and regulations, and often the managers and employees don’t feel like they can even do their work properly if they tried. No room is given for ingenuity and intuition. On the other hand, some managers try to let stores run themselves by hiring motivated people with ambition and talent. But without any sort of systems, there are no standards, and though all employees may be motivated to their goals, they are all individually motivated towards their own goals and the store’s goals come no closer. More often, a manager will try to create a culture of fun rather than a culture of excellence, thinking that employees will work hard if they enjoy coming to work. This also rarely works out, as without holding employees to set systematic standards, the store turns into a daycare, and that’s when higher-ups get even more frustrated.

Let’s return to the example of the uniform policy. This example gives us an opportunity to see how you can integrate both leadership and management in the same situation. In this example, your responsibility is to get all employees to tuck in their shirt. Whether you got this responsibility from higher ups or you think of it yourself, this is a goal you now have. The rule is to tuck in your shirts, but the system you create is how you are going to communicate it to your employees. Will you write a sign on the wall of the kitchen? Will you have a meeting and tell everyone? Maybe you will give everyone a handout and have them all sign it. Using your own creativity, you find a way to let everyone know about the new standard. Your method of communication is your system for communication, at least in this specific instance. That is management. You are managing the employees compliance of a set standard.

Now the employees have the responsibility to either come to work with their shirts tucked in or leave their shirts untucked. Now is the time for leadership, as you and I both know that there will still be plenty of employees who leave their shirts untucked. How will you react to the non-compliant employees? To answer this question, you will have to use your leadership skills. You may be lenient, hoping that the employees will get the picture eventually if you nag them enough. You may be strict and immediately write up all employees who show up with untucked shirts. You will probably be somewhere in the middle, but your own style of handling the enforcement of the new standard is your leadership, what many call management style.

Often, the company you work for already has ways of dealing with standards, but if you work at a less corporatized restaurant, you may be able to be more creative with your management style and how you choose to act around problematic employees or the difficult situations themselves. As companies create more and more systems to uniformly deal with the many problems they face, the role of leadership becomes more and more obsolete. This can be very frustrating for managers who truly want to shine and be creative in their work. My encouragement is to always stay within the bounds of your company. Moving outside of the management and leadership styles that your company looks for is often a good way to get fired. If you truly cannot deal with the boundaries the restaurant places for you, don’t worry – there’s so many restaurants looking for creative and innovative managers, and the good ones often reward better managers just like you. Keep searching for those places.

Both management and leaderships are skills needed to be excellent at this job. When you are able to see clearly what systems need to be in place and you know your crew well enough to know how to deal with them, your capacity to be a good boss is just better. There are so many styles of management and leadership out there, but my message to you is to not go with any one method, but to look for what works best for you and blend different things together to create a style that is truly your own. When you are confident in your own work, you can take ownership of your work, and when that happens, your work will feel so much more rewarding.