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Employee Management
Mike’s Monthly Tip: Employee Thrive Mode
The post-pandemic malaise is in full effect. Without seeking to knock on a ton of wood, it would appear that the pandemic is drawing to a close. Or as close to an end as possible. Will it ever be entirely over? Who knows? Probably not, but it’s...
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Employee Management
Building Blocks: Bite-Sized Lessons in Pizzeria Leadership
“Leaders become great not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.” — John Maxwell, bestselling author/speaker/leadership coach. Often, I’m asked to share my secret for success. It is a humbling question — and...
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Employee Management
Mike’s Monthly Tip: They did it the wrong way. Now what?
Fixing a behavior in the workplace I had a recent situation where a person posted a bad photo of a slice of our sausage pizza served to them at lunch. It only had three pieces of sausage instead of the typical seven per the recipe. The knee-jerk reac...
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Employee Management
Building Blocks: 3 Steps to Improving Employee Recruiting and Retention
Steve Jobs, who knew a thing or two about growing a business, once said: “Recruiting is hard. It’s just finding the needles in the haystack.” And the legendary co-founder and former CEO of Apple spent a lot of time hunting for those needles, es...
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Employee Management
Mike’s Monthly Tip: Inversion Dynamic, Lead by Example
Lead By Example — Employee Leadership It’s imperative to lead by example. The way you act in your restaurant will determine how the rest of your crew performs. When you’re upbeat, fast-paced, enthusiastic and positive, it’s natura...
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Employee Management
Mike’s Monthly Tip: Tighten Up or Loosen Up
This month, it’s time to tighten up, or it’s time to loosen up. Think about all the things you are fanatically interested in and even maniacal about. Loosen up on that stuff a little bit. If you’re an absolute stickler for punctuali...
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Employee Management
Mike’s Monthly Tip: Systemized Graciousness
I highly advise copying the systemized practices of the major restaurant players. I DO NOT suggest copying their mass-market food style or lack of personal touch. However, interestingly enough, the big players are now factoring personal touch into th...
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Employee Management
Building Blocks: How to Conduct an Interview
Nick Bogacz, founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh You’ve done all the hard work, and finally, job hunters are calling you. Now what? I like to break down the process into a few steps. But, first, if you reca...
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Employee Management
Employee Morale Roundtable Discussion
In today’s labor market, morale needs a boost The refrain since the pandemic began is “We can’t find good help.” We see pizzerias daily shortening hours just so the owners and staff can get a break. While a plethora of factors have worked in ...
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Employee Management
Nurture Young Talent at Your Restaurant
It’s a humbling endeavor to hire people. It’s on par with being a good coach, or teacher, to aspire to be a good boss. After working jobs you might not have liked growing up, with people you didn’t choose and a boss who did things you didn’t ...
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Employee Management
Building Blocks: Strategies to Incentivize Your Staff and Promote Retention
Among the most significant business consequences of the pandemic is an epidemic — a hiring epidemic. While we haven’t been immune to this nationwide problem, we’re weathering it better than other restaurants, so I am frequently asked how we hav...
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Employee Management
Mike’s Monthly Tip: Welcoming New Employees
The Warm Blanket Approach to Welcoming New Employees The hiring problems of the last year have not subsided. I still see businesses hiring the way they always did. Most business owners know it isn’t like it was in 2019 anymore and that there needs ...