How Delegation Builds Strong Managers and a Stress-Free Store

Have you ever considered the possibility that your help is actually more hurtful than truly helpful? In my experience, this is very true. If you give too much of yourself, not only will your crew begin to have expectations of assistance (which always leads to frustration), but they will also never learn the necessary skills of management. It is your responsibility to equip your managers with the most skills necessary to be successful at their jobs, so it’s imperative to help them learn these problem-solving skills which come only from you stepping back and letting them create their own solutions for their own problems.

This may sound a bit anxiety-inducing, but sometimes, you need to not answer your phone. Rather, your goal ought to be that you do not need fear if you turn your phone off for a movie or family event. You want to build a trust in your team that they can handle any situation without you having to always be available to provide guidance or even come into the store and help out. If you’re anything like me, the possibility of that probably has both a huge fear attached to it. But it also has a bit of hope, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it sound nice to be able to relax and not have to worry about your store when you’re away? So long as it can be pulled off, it’s like a dream come true. So let’s find some ways to get to that peace of mind.

Of course, you can’t just dip and say “figure it out and don’t call me” – you’ll have to ease into this. Think of it as slowly taking the training wheels off your child’s bicycle. There will be times when you leave the store for the day and say, “call me if you need me” and they will call you. And you will pick up the phone. Starting out, they’ll have more questions. They may ask you to come work the rush with them because they feel short-staffed of the rush is too intense. You’ll be tempted to rush in and help them, but you will need to instead tell them, “You got this.” They’ll have trouble and they will probably feel frustrated with the newfound lack of assistance that you are giving to them by leaving them to work a rush without you, but eventually they will feel more highly skilled and they may even want to show off their independence from you.

Slowly as you let them handle more and more responsibility without your assistance, they take on that responsibility themselves. You stop sending text-reminders to order truck or input invoices. As you shift from reminding them to do their work to checking their work after its already done, they begin to realize they have to rely on their own focus for the job instead of yours. The store begins to run smoothly without your actions at all. That is when you know that your job as a general manager is a success – you come into work and just notice that all is running smooth. It’s like a fairytale to some managers, but this whole blog is about encouraging those non-believing managers to have faith that through their efforts, they can have a stress-free store.

Frustration and anger come from unmet expectations of help. Prepare yourself for a new resentment that comes from your crew when this method begins. They will start to claim you are not doing any work or not pulling your fair share. Remind yourself that this behavior coming from your employees is an entitlement to assistance rather than an honest critique of your work. The key to combatting this resentment that is coming your way is to maintain a strong encouragement to your employees that the power to get work done is within them. The reason they are frustrated is because they feel they cannot do it alone. The success in this method lies in letting your employees know and believe that they have all the power within themselves to handle whatever the business may bring. They need faith in themselves. If you have earned enough respect, they will believe you when you tell them they can handle it.

You are not just delegating simple tasks to people – you’re delegating the whole responsibility of things. There will be screw-ups and you will have to account for them, but the mess-ups need to happen and the consequences need to be felt, not only for you but for them as well so they can truly see the impact of the difference between focus and distraction. If you decide not to send that truck-order reminder and the truck is forgotten, you may have a big issue on your hand. You will also suffer consequences and maybe a chewing from your boss, but understand these are growing pains. Don’t take the solution all on yourself. This is the time to explain to the assistant who was supposed to order truck why the lack of focus is so consequential. Let their penance be to make the drive to pick up other product from other stores and groceries. To avoid that pain a second time, they will be more focused in reminding themselves that the truck needs to be placed. Instead of taking on the task and the punishment yourself, you have just developed an assistant manager to be more responsible in the job and clearing out the anxiety in your head. You’re one step closer to not worrying about whether truck was even placed – you have a crew that can handle it.

This is how you set yourself up for success. By developing your individual crew members’ own capabilities, you can rest your own. That’s how to really turn this job into a stress-free one. Help them if they are truly drowning but let them splash around a bit - it only makes them a better swimmer and you a better lifeguard. Now enjoy your night off.

Don’t forget your nightly entry in your Restaurant Management Sanity Journal! Get yours here!