Building an effective management team is one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of running a restaurant. Strong leadership ensures operational efficiency, boosts staff morale, and creates a thriving culture that drives long-term success.
In season 2 of The meez Podcast, Elizabeth Meltz, a seasoned people and operations leader, shared invaluable insights on how hospitality leaders can develop cohesive, high-performing restaurant management teams.
Elizabeth's expertise shines through her leadership roles on the boards of various organizations championing the hospitality sector and women's empowerment. As the founder of EM PATH, a company dedicated to refining leadership, culture, and management in hospitality and beyond, Elizabeth continues to influence and inspire the industry.
6 Tips for Elevating Your Restaurant Management
Whether you’re aiming to improve food safety, foster leadership skills, or create a lasting workplace culture, these six tips will help you build a team that delivers results and confidently navigates challenges.
1. Create Buy-In and Engagement
Elizabeth’s approach combines practical training, operational experience, and a deep understanding of how restaurant teams actually work. She recommends focusing on strategies that engage staff, connecting the work or policy with what is important to them, and making it fun!
Some key components of her approach included:
- Competitions & Gamification – Encouraging staff participation through score-based challenges to improve compliance.
- Prioritization of Risks – Differentiating between urgent issues and minor ones to build trust with the team.
- Clear Communication – Ensuring information is easy to understand and accessible to all staff members.
Always explain the WHY: why is something being done or why is it important. Avoid overwhelming your team with every minor rule; instead, focus on building good habits that will lead to long-term operational success.
2. Prioritize Training Your Junior Leaders
One of the biggest challenges in hospitality is that many professionals step into leadership roles without formal management training. They enter the industry because of their passion for food and service but suddenly find themselves responsible for leading a team often without the right skills or guidance.
To address this gap:
- Offer Leadership Training Early: Don't wait until someone is in a management role to teach them leadership and communication skills. Start mentorship programs that guide employees through the transition.
- Differentiate Between Managers and Leaders: If you're very organized and can communicate well, you can be a good manager, which isn't the same as being a good leader. Recognizing and developing both skill sets can create a more effective team dynamic.
- Provide Clear Leadership Development Paths: Give employees access to professional development, including management workshops, coaching, and leadership resources. A structured path makes it easier for them to grow into their roles.
- Encourage a Feedback Culture: Leadership isn’t just about making decisions; it’s also about listening. Regular check-ins and structured feedback loops help managers adjust and improve their leadership approach.
By prioritizing leadership training, hospitality businesses can create a more supportive and functional work environment, reducing turnover and improving team morale.
"People get into the field because they love food or they love service, and they end up managing people. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling widgets or serving food or cooking food, people make the operations run. And they’re often not equipped, not interested, not good at it, or weren't taught."
3. Conduct a Culture Audit for Real Change
A common frustration among hospitality leaders is the gap between their intentions and the actual workplace culture. Business owners may think they’re fostering a supportive and inclusive environment, but if employees feel differently, that disconnect can lead to disengagement and turnover.
To audit your culture, make sure to:
- Go Beyond Standard Surveys: While engagement surveys provide data, they often miss the nuances of workplace dynamics. Elizabeth's approach at EM PATH includes conducting one-on-one interviews with key team members to uncover deeper insights.
- Identify Recurring Themes: Patterns in employee concerns, whether about communication breakdowns, lack of training, or unclear expectation, point to systemic issues that need to be addressed.
- Involve the Leadership Team in Solutions: Successful change comes from collaboration. If you come in from the outside and say, ‘You should do this, this, and this,’ people aren’t bought in. But if you present findings and ask, ‘How can we solve them?,’ that’s when the solutions stick.
- Measure Progress Over Time: Culture shifts don’t happen overnight. Regular follow-ups and continued discussions ensure that improvements are sustainable and not just a one-time initiative.
A well-executed culture audit can be a game changer, helping hospitality businesses align their values with their daily operations, resulting in happier employees and a stronger workplace culture.
"Over and over again, I saw well-intentioned founders who would project their intention and then look at what was actually happening on the front lines or in the field, and the intention wasn’t landing. There wasn’t the impact they expected."
4. Be Curious: Get Beyond Positions—Find Interests
People often state what they want without considering being clear about why they want it. Elizabeth recommends adopting a common mediation technique that involves moving beyond positions to uncover deeper interests. This type of mediation opens the door to creative and mutually beneficial solutions.
Here’s how to approach a conversation:
- Don’t Assume the Problem is Obvious: A dispute may seem about one thing, but deeper needs or concerns are often at play.
- Ask More Questions: A mediator’s job is to guide people to express their real concerns, often through reflection and reframing. “It sounds like you were hurt by that,” Meltz might say to help someone feel heard.
- Uninterrupted Time Can Shift Dynamics: “We start with uninterrupted time,” Meltz explains. Each person gets to speak without being interrupted, which can break the cycle of talking over each other.
“We focus on positions and interests. There’s a famous story about two kids fighting over an orange. The mom or the dad's instinct is to cut it in half. But the reason they want the orange is different. One wants it because they’re thirsty and wants the juice. The other needs the orange peel for a science project. What you assume is the problem is not always the problem. So that's a lot of what we do. We take what the person is saying, what they want or need, and dig underneath”.
5. Don’t Be Afraid of Conflict
Mediation only works when both parties engage with an open mind. As a trained mediator with the New York Peace Institute, Elizabeth has seen firsthand how simply showing up can shift the outcome of a dispute.
Some key benefits of mediation include:
- Willingness to Participate Matters: Even if one party initially seems hesitant or resistant to engage in mediation, their presence alone signifies a willingness to open a dialogue and potentially find common ground.
- Hearing Each Other is Powerful: In situations where emotions are running high, mediation provides a safe and structured environment for parties to express themselves and feel heard.
- Mediation Isn’t About Picking Sides: A mediator acts as a neutral facilitator, not a judge or arbiter. Their role is to guide the conversation and help identify potential areas of agreement. They do not make decisions for the parties.
- Unexpected Outcomes Happen: Mediation can help parties see things from a new perspective and find creative solutions that they may not have considered on their own. This can lead to mutually beneficial outcomes.
When both parties come to the table with even a little openness, resolution is far more likely.
“My job is literally to help people hear each other. “My job is literally to help people hear each other. I'm repeating back what is said but in someone else’s voice.. You’ve been hearing this person, someone who's caused you harm, conflict, or pain, and now you're hearing it in another voice. You’re feeling validated simultaneously because you’re hearing your own words.”
6. Use DISC Assessments
By leveraging DISC assessments, Elizabeth helps teams identify their natural working and communication styles. This framework allows individuals to work better together, adapt to different situations, and resolve conflicts more effectively.
What is DISC?
The DISC assessments help individuals and teams understand different working and communication style, categorizing people based on four traits:
- Dominant (D): Task-focused and fast-paced, often results-driven leaders.
- Influential (I): People-focused and fast-paced, bringing energy and persuasion.
- Steady (S): People-focused and more reflective, prioritizing harmony and consistency.
- Conscientious (C): Task-focused and detail-oriented, emphasizing accuracy and organization.
Instead of labeling behaviors as "good" or "bad," DISC provides an objective framework for understanding and explaining individual differences. Identifying where individuals fall on the spectrum helps uncover potential points of friction or synergy within the team. This insight into team dynamics allows for a more effective approach to collaboration and conflict resolution.
DISC also enhances adaptability by highlighting the difference between a person’s natural behavior and how they adjust in a work setting. This understanding can provide valuable insights into burnout risks and areas where people may be overextending themselves.
Additionally, DISC promotes self-awareness, allowing individuals to better navigate interactions with diverse personalities while supporting leadership development. This enables managers to tailor coaching and feedback to each team member’s unique style.
"Your natural style is basically how you show up in the world. Your adapted style is how you show up when other people are around. In a work context, it’s how you feel you need to show up to be successful. Sometimes that adaptation works, but sometimes people end their day completely exhausted because they’re spending so much energy trying to be someone else."
Conclusion
Elizabeth Meltz’s approach to restaurant management offers a roadmap for building stronger, more resilient teams.
From fostering leadership development and improving workplace culture, her strategies serve as a reminder that great management isn’t just about running operations smoothly. It’s about empowering people to do their best work.
Listen to the full conversation with Elizabeth Meltz on The meez Podcast
