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 expert in sustainability and operational efficiency, offered valuable insights into how culinary leaders can develop restaurant management teams that work cohesively and thrive.
Elizabeth Meltz, a Pioneer in NYC Sustainability
Elizabeth started her career at Del Posto, where she transitioned from working in the kitchen to creating the role of kitchen manager, streamlining processes like payroll and ordering.
As sustainability and health department regulations became more important, she implemented these initiatives across other B&B Hospitality Group restaurants, leading to a corporate role overseeing sustainability and food safety.
Through her leadership, Elizabeth Meltz has demonstrated the critical role strong, well-trained management teams play in shaping a restaurant’s success.
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 Food Safety Procedures that Engage Staff
Elizabeth’s approach to food safety programs combines practical training, operational efficiency, and a deep understanding of how restaurant teams actually work. To implement effective food safety measures, she focuses on strategies that engage restaurant staff while reinforcing best practices.
Some key components of her approach included:
- Mock Inspections & Grading – Conduct regular internal audits to prepare teams for health department visits.
- Competitions & Gamification – Encouraging staff participation through score-based challenges to improve compliance.
- Prioritization of Risks – Differentiating between critical food safety hazards and minor infractions to build trust with the team.
- Integration with Sustainability – Aligning food safety practices with eco-friendly initiatives, such as switching to safer, more sustainable cleaning products.
- Clear Communication – Ensuring safety protocols are easy to understand and accessible to all staff members.
A successful food safety program requires buy-in from your staff. You can achieve this by focusing on the most critical risks and explaining why the rules are important. Avoid overwhelming your team with every minor rule; instead, focus on building good habits that will lead to long-term operational success.
“I feel very strongly, particularly in New York, that the health department has a list of 7,000 things. 2,000 of them are direct threats to public health. My approach has always been: this is something the health department will bang you on, and it's unsafe, right? And we want to protect public health. And this is something the health department will get you on, but it won't affect public health as much."
2. Prioritize Formal Leadership Training
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 because 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 just, you know, were never 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. Mediation Works When People Show Up in Good Faith
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.”
5. Get Beyond Positions—Find Interests
People often focus on what they want without considering 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. The other needs the orange 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”.
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.
"The great thing about DISC is they also do your natural style and your adapted 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
