Being a Leader

On the very first day of Intro to Management we learned what a great leader is and what they most certainly are not. Every thing that was was mentioned on the powerpoint about what makes a good/bad leader, matched two of the four Sous Chefs at my externship site.

The Four Seasons is a corporate chain of hotels. Most supervisory positions from hotel to hotel are transfer ins. However, my Executive Chef believed in hiring from within. Half way through my externship, a supervisor was promoted to Sous Chef. Unfortunately, he did not last very long. He was so concerned with following standards set by the hotel that he made busy nights miserable. For example, the hotel has a standard that it must take no longer than 12 minutes after the ticket is fired to be brought out to the guest. Well, the only problem with this standard is that it is impossible to follow when 2-10 tops walk in and everyone of them orders a 10 oz well, which did happen one night. Other Sous Chefs that I worked with understood, that it is going to be impossible to follow that standard. His other critical flaws were textbook. He did not listen, did not motivate, no feedback, and he was a "boomerang" manager. His last day before "resigning" he went over the edge and pushed a cook who then went to Human Resources. Next day, he was gone.

On the other hand, a Sous Chef that I worked closely with during externship, was the complete opposite. He listened, motivated, gave a lot of feedback, and most importantly held the line together. He was always there to answer a question and was somewhat a mentor to me. He gave me advice and was always trying to get me to tell him where I saw my self 5-10 years from now. He would talk to me for an hour about life in general at the end of some nights and just constantly go back and fourth. However, even being this personal, did not impact his leadership abilities because when stuff had to get done he made sure people got it done and done right.

One of the key things that I observed while at the hotel was the amount of influence a Leader has on the outcome and flow of a night. If the leader was calm, the line was calm. However, as soon as the leader became nervous, the entire line got nervous and caused some hiccups throughout the night. This, to me at least, is very interesting. The psychological affect a leadership figure has on a group of people. Whether in a kitchen, on the battlefield, on the football field, or even in an office, it applies.

I will take everything that I experienced and observed during this externship in regards to management and apply it in the future.