From Restaurants to Outsourcing — 4 Lessons Learned

All rivers lead to the ocean and so it goes with experience. What comes first cannot be taken away.

The things that make us who we are is a fascinating journey back in time, it highlights where the bumps lie in the road ahead. Everything that I’ve ever done makes me who I am today.

For me some of my deeply learnt experiences have been through operating, owning and working in restaurants, my first foray into business, I spent 10 years working hands-on in the restaurant business.

Here are some key take-away’s for me, excuse the pun, that apply to my day-to-day living and in my current business, Squid40:

Being of service

This for me is my bread and butter. It’s my number 1. Where would we be without this principle being part of our backbone.

The idea of contributing and providing, creating the physical and mental space for other people to be valued, respected, reassured and to know with confidence that they can be themselves and unwind.

This has to be a hallmark for any successful business and in my mind for success and fulfillment at every level of being.

The experience of working in restaurants taught me this in bucket loads.

Creating team cohesion

With cohesion we get coherence. The two are bed-fellows. Creating cohesion is about providing and being the glue.

In my mind this can only be done by being on the shop floor, working side-by-side, sharing the same experiences and being in it together.

You need to stay resilient, steadfast, good-natured and well humoured. You have to be the enabler that allows teams to flourish.

Smiling through adversity is what the restaurant business is all about and so it is in life and business.

Working on the shop floor, getting your hands dirty with the team, back of house, in the kitchen, the tables and orders are coming in thick and fast all day long.

It might get to overwhelm and then…there’s the in-between time, the glorious moments, the flash where life really shows up and everybody gets to unwind from all the hard work, all the various challenges being thrown at us and that feeling of being totally exhausted.

The most satisfying thing? Here we all are, we’ve been through it together, all working for the same goal — delivering exceptional service!

So what’s next? The playtime, the joking and the moments to reach out and care. It all adds up on every aspect, each needs to be refined and improved upon, marginal adjustments and awareness of synergies, stepping up and stepping forward.

Being adaptable & understanding

That’s another takeaway when working in tight teams and pretty much in any circumstance — learning how to accommodate for all the different circumstances, personality types and the myriad of things that need to be done.

It’s also about recognising that we all have our stories, our stresses and our strains.

Each needs to be respected and valued. My stresses, my tensions in many ways are no different to the person next door to me. It’s more about the mindset to frame and contextualise the stress points. Restaurants taught me that stresses are not facts, they have only meaning. Change the meaning and we change the intensity of stress. It sounds such a cliche but is so true, it’s a lifetime’s work to reiterate meaning.

This type of work is so valuable and being in tough spots and working in tight teams brings out the necessity for these skills in spades.

Having the right tools

Here’s one that is so often overlooked. Restaurants taught me the importance of “having the right tools”.

If you’re not providing the right equipment then please, please before any judgments are passed, please understand that if the chef doesn’t create a masterpiece then take a look at yourself first.

Are you providing what’s needed to get the job done well? No way an owner or a manager of a business can be critical to a chef for cooking a poor dish when he has low-quality ingredients or the wrong tools and equipment.

Here’s the thing though, it happens so often, we pass judgement without taking a look in the mirror first. Start with yourself.

Ask yourself what you can do better here, how can you provide what’s needed, where does your responsibility lie.

Be honest with yourself. It’s like that phrase about sending someone into cricket with one arm tied behind their back and asking them to hit a six — somewhat unreasonable to be critical when they don’t hit a home run.

Main pointers

What I’m getting at here is how for me at least, restaurants provided a great litmus test, ideal ground in which we stand or fall by how we adjust to the demands placed upon us, both physically, emotionally and yes at a more psychological level as well.

Without doubt, everything I’ve achieved boils down to the desire to learn, reflect and translate lessons into action.

My experience in the service industry lives deep within my core, it helps me manage the weekly back and forth between Bucharest and London, managing the Squid40' teams with enthusiasm, providing operational leadership and maintaining a constant focus on client success.

Changing mindsets to accommodate for adversity, always driven by the desire to be part of a team, to enjoy, to challenge, to learn and ultimately to be of service and deliver!

That’s why we do it, right?

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