Why Your Team Doesn’t Buy In — and How to Fix It

This job would be so much easier if it weren’t for the people - the customers, the bosses, and the employees. Unfortunately, the reality is that this job requires us to handle difficult personalities from top, bottom, and side-to-side. As restaurant managers, the group that we can have the most influence over is our employees, and its usually the group that gives us the biggest headache. Being able to influence a team to work for you instead of against you is one of the greatest skills you can learn as a manager. The technique is to develop employee buy-in. In this post, I’ll explain to you what employee buy-in is and how to develop it in your crew so you can cut down on the stress of the job, because I know that’s what we are all truly looking for.

Employee buy-in is the concept of getting your crew on board with you as a manager and the goals of the restaurant. This is not about mere compliance with systems and policies, but the development of a helpful attitude in your crew. Now, you may already be thinking that this is an impossible task, but let me show you how I’ve been able to do it.

First off, it’s important to note that this concept greatly deals with the culture that you develop in your store. I’ve spoken about this a few times, so I’ll link my post where I specifically talk about the culture of a restaurant or chain here.

Often times, an employee buys into the culture of a restaurant based on their own personality. You, yourself, have probably based a lot of your own job satisfaction based on the culture that your company pushes you to create. Whether it be fun and “pop” or motivated and “old-school”, you know that some crew members fit in and some have trouble finding their place, regardless of their work efforts. This limits your own ability to influence employee’s job satisfaction and therefore their buy-in to your own management style. Regardless, here are the techniques you can use to help develop your crew’s eager want to help you and your goals.

When I was first starting out as a manager, I thought I could develop employee buy-in by being everyone’s friend and working hard to lead the crew from the front lines with the rest of them. For me, this didn’t work out so well as I’ll explain later. After my failure, I felt very confident that being “buddies” with the employees was the very wrong way to go and you would only give up all your authority in the store. I wasn’t totally wrong, but I wasn’t totally right either.

When I began to work at a breakfast restaurant, I saw, with my own eyes, how to make it happen. The general manager there seemed to be best friends with all the employees and even text them like friends. It was amazing to me to see this technique actually successful. When I asked her about it, she explained to me that employees want to feel connected to their boss as a person instead of working for a face of a corporation. This is what she was able to talk about personally with the employees that gave her that incredible power. The younger generation is much more motivated by meaning than money, so if you can connect with the younger people about your personal vision to do good in the world, they will be much more enticed to actually work towards the goal. This is how being friendly with your employees can actually develop your crew.

That may be already common knowledge to you, but it’s important to remember that as a boss you need to maintain strict boundaries. Some places I’ve worked at have been so strict on boundaries with employees that they have set policies that a manager ought not have any conversation with employees concerning anything other than work and may not have any communication with employees outside of work, including exchanging phone numbers for any reason whatsoever. This is a very old-school way of doing management, and it’s going by the wayside in terms of efficacy, however, some older people and even some more conservative younger people prefer having a work environment that is strict towards goals. I’ve noticed that employees that can live up to such strict policies are usually employees worth keeping. Those employees actually look up to and respect a strong leader that can develop such an intense focus on the work to be done. They want a boss – a strict leader who will take responsibility and lead them to a tight-run ship. For these employees, it’s important to wear that hat so they can feel safe knowing they’re following someone they can respect. Even though there remains a feeling that you are part of a machine, some employees actually enjoy feeling like they are part of that, working upwards towards progress.

For me and my own personality, I’ve been able to blend these two extremes together to something that looks more like a mentor. I aim to develop respect through mastery of job and focus on my work. I maintain high standards and keep people accountable to those standards. This creates a great environment for the hard-workers. However, I also maintain a fair and fun environment at work. I let the employees choose the music they want to play in the kitchen, and I let the kids be kids. On a group level, we all have the same common goal and standards, but on an individual level, I look to them as people and aim to speak to them the way they would like to be spoken to. For some, they like to be asked to do something. For others, they like to be told. The key is becoming familiar enough with your crew to know which management style they like and respond to the best. This helps the employee feel important both as an individual and part of a team. Once the employee feels as individually important to the goal itself, you will have employee buy-in and your crew will start working for you, and you can spend more of your time and energy on the other tasks your bosses have for you.

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