Counter-Offers Are a Sucker’s Play

By Kris Dunn · 03.15.2013

Retention is important for organizations.

Paying substantially more for the talent that’s currently sitting in your office is a total sucker’s play. Don’t confuse the two.

Let’s break this down a little bit. You found that diamond in the rough. You hired them, nurtured them and grew them to the point where they’re relevant in your industry, their profession, etc. Or maybe you just bought them from someone else at a price you considered at the time to be fair, right?

Either way, after a couple of years with you, they have more value on the open market. That means people are going to ping them and see if they can strip them away to another company. At which point many managers and companies start freaking out, even in reaction to the potential of a slightly above-average talent leaving the company to go to work for a competitor.

It all comes down to replacement cost. Can you find another cog to fill the gap with? If you can, you don’t freak out and you don’t counter with a raise that gets into the 20% range to save the referenced employee with another offer in hand.

In the Talent game, there are really two types of employees that warrant a counter-offer when they’ve told you they’re getting ready to accept an offer from another company:

Great Creators = the people who create what you sell, and I mean truly create. In a lot of companies, those are software developers. Good creators in any type of company that produces products and services are worth ten of their peers.

True Rainmakers = not salespeople in general, but people who have the ability to bring in business in a way that an average salesperson can’t. Generally, these people have networks that have been formulated in a way that’s different from the average sales pro. Normal sales pros bitch about the quality of the leads. True Rainmakers never seem to give a flip about the leads marketing is producing. Hmm.

Not everyone who creates or sells for a living is special. In fact, most are average. BUT – when you find a top tier creator or rainmaker, they are different. They can drive results for your company in ways that others can’t.

That’s why they’re the only people you should counter when they appear to be seriously considering another job. Everyone else’s replacement cost is too low to freak out about.  Accounting, Marketing, HR, Operations, Customer Service – you only save people in these areas if they qualify somehow as a creator or a rainmaker. Few will qualify.

Four final thoughts about retention and counter-offers:

1. You should pay people aggressively/fairly and provide career paths so talent can grow and get theirs at your company in at time frame that’s fair. I’m not talking about playing hardball when you pay people at the 17th percentile.

2.  You create a culture over time related to how you handle resignations and counters. If you always go into save mode, there are a lot of people who play games. If it’s crickets when even a solid player brings their notice, you’re going to stop “I’m taking another offer” games.

3.  Your tendency to freak out over average people resigning means you haven’t institutionalized knowledge transfer and operational soundness. The knowledge is in the average person’s head and nowhere else, thus your freakoutedness (that’ a word, I just made it up).

4.  For a great primer on who Creators and Rainmakers are and who is replaceable, look to the New England Patriots. Their creators are Tom Brady and Bill Belichcik, and everyone else (and they mean everyone) is replaceable. The goal should be to have our stuff together as organizations to the point where we can replicate great results with different talent – while protecting the creators/rainmakers.

Retention and counter-offers.  Don’t confuse the two.  Counters are a sucker’s play in most cases. If they’re not, we’ve got to look at our organization to find the answers why.

http://fistfuloftalent.com/2013/03/counter-offers-are-a-suckers-play.html

HR managers and headhunters see huntress of resumes each day from all levels of restaurant managers. They quickly stop looking for the right or perfect resume format. A properly laid out resume does not guarantee that the candidate will be a successful restaurant manager.  The most the resume format can identify is your personal choice.

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The resume should not be a job description. The HR manager knows the restaurant manager’s job description and assumes that if you’ve held the job, you’ve done the tasks. The recruiter wants to see where you’ve been, and your level of experience. They want to know whether your skills have developed a General manager, kitchen manager, etc… But if nothing catches their eye than they will move on.

At the most, you have 30 seconds to capture the recruiters attention. This is probably much shorter later in the day, and may be extremely short Friday afternoon.

Success and Accomplishments

Save the task details for the interview. Your successes will highlight your skill base, strengths, and weaknesses. They want to know the impact your decisions made on the bottom line.

Did you save the restaurant money?

Were you a problem solver?

Are you a team leader/trainer?

Will your skills save the company money/reduce outsourcing?

Did you increase revenue, reduce costs, reduce overturn?

Are you good at marketing and customer retention?

Are you a good organizer, planner?

Are you a good problem solver?

Do not try to be everything for every HR manager. Identify your greatest strength and focus on the skills and experience that show your ability to handle problems, and find solutions in this aspect of the job.

Tips and Advice

Instead of listing:

- tasks – focus on the outcomes

- education – highlight leadership skills

- achievements – recognize awards and acknowledgements

- experience – outline your personal development

It is important to realize that you won’t win every job in the job seeker campaign. It is dangerous to try to be ‘everything to everyone’ and hope to get ‘a bite’. Instead of trying to get ‘a’ job, work to win ‘the job’, your dream job.

Once you’ve developed the skills needed to manage a restaurant, successfully, and develop a strong team who are motivated and goal oriented, it is time to sell your skills.  The restaurant manager’s job requires good communication skills, and the ability to present projects and reports in a way that will sell ideas to the team, management, investors, and to the customers who walk through the doors each day.

The resume is the first place you have to highlight your skills.

Identify Yourself as a Serious Candidate

HR managers are less interested in what you have done for others, or what you have learned. They are interested in seeing what you can do for them. If you’ve followed this blog then you’ve seen multiple places that discuss your personal development. Invest some time in personal development. Listing coaching, courses, and career development steps you’ve successfully completed is a great way to alert HR managers to the fact that you are aggressively and seriously focused on becoming the solution to the restaurant’s problems, not another problem.

Identify Yourself as a Team Leader

The days when managers barked orders and punish poor performance are over. Today’s manager needs to develop their communication skills. They need to be able to motivate and encourage, not push. The stakes are high. The cost of replacing disgruntled employees is staggering. The cost of investing in training, and then having an employee leave because they do not feel empowered, fulfilled, or challenged is immeasurable.

A manager needs to be able to develop their team, encourage and motivate them, and create an environment that encourages longevity.  Even when this is done, the good manager understands that the team’s personalities, boundaries, and personal habits can undermine the team. They learn to identify problems and create solutions that will empower the team, and encourage them.

They understand that the reason to build a strong team is to reduce the loss caused by employee overturn, days off, conflict in the workplace, and resentment directed toward management.

Understanding these is only half the battle. It is important to learn how to condense that information into your resume. It is necessary to understand which skills will make your resume stand out above the crowd.

Leadership is a learned skill. The myth of the natural leader halts too many restaurant manager careers and discourages many restaurant professionals from aggressively seeking better jobs in the hospitality industry. In reality, the only true obstacle to becoming a restaurant manger is knowledge. Everyone may be at different stages of the leadership learning curve.

The plugged in leader understands the ‘life force’ behind a strategy and can anticipate what may go wrong, problems they may face, and create exit strategies, or a ‘plan B’. They divert problems before they evolve, and have prepared their team to execute a plan of action at a moment’s notice.

Here are 10 questions that will help you determine whether you are a critical leader and place you on the learning curve.

•           I am/not interested about execution within the group of people I am currently in.

Take the time to answer this honestly. Do you have influence and can guide people to perform better? If you are interested then you make things happen. If you are not interested then things happen around you and you ignore them, or gossip.

•           The organization is efficient.

If everything is good enough then you have no execution plan.  Can you see places where things can be improved. Can you envision and can imagine improvements. Do you have suggestions for improvements in every aspect of your life? Do you walk into a job and achieve more results than your predecessor

•           I enforce consequences of ineffective execution consistently

The problem with enforcement is that it imposes your level of integrity, belief system, and perceptions on another person. It is a self centered form of leadership management which disrespects those who are not fitting into your plan. Once this happens those around you stop believing in your dream. They lose their motivation. The strategy looses synergy and any serendipitous opportunities are lost as the team either abandons their leader, or withdraws inside themselves and stops contributing.

The Critical Leader learns how to motivate and reward good behavior, motivating their actions based on results. This forward moving form of leadership produces results. When a leader focuses on correcting inappropriate behavior they are in fact doing nothing more than trying to solve problems by force.

•           I break projects down into measurable, result focused goals

The final result may be the culmination of several goals. Leaders who fail often try to execute too many goals at one time. Leaders who succeed put all their efforts into achieving results. The successful completion of a goal is merely the symptom of an effective leadership strategy.

Any job in the hospitality industry can lead to a better career. There are very few ‘dead end’ jobs. Everyone is a job seeker at any given time, at any stage of the learning curve. We all have the opportunity to develop leadership skills. Each problem is an opportunity to learn our problem solving and opportunity development skills.

Leadership development is vital, but many people who are just starting fail in their first attempts because they lack the skills and knowledge needed to succeed. Both success, and failure are behavior habits. When a leader fails, they learn, study more, seek help, and try again. Often, people who are just learning to become managers become discouraged. The myth that some people are born leaders, or have a knack for leadership has kept many talented leaders from developing careers as restaurant mangers.

Controlling the elements of failure + Cause and Effect = Success

Many leaders fail because their plan is not congruent, realistic, and effective. The effective leader is willing to watch the day to day aspects of a business and measure their effectiveness based on results. The distant leader makes assumptions and tracks their success and failures – after it is too late.

Successful leaders share some common behaviors.

1. Listening

They have developed the art of listening. You can learn more about a person, problem, or situation by listening to people. Understanding what a person wants, or needs, can often reveal the solution to a seemingly unrelated problem.

2. Identifying Need

One of the easiest ways to gain control of a situation is by learning to identify what someone needs, then creating a solution that meets the needs. There are always multiple solutions to a problem. Finding the solution that meets your boss’ needs is a vital aspect of career development.

3. Finding Opportunities

The opportunities a successful person looks for are those that will meet the needs of their managers. Selling your ideas doesn’t depend on identifying an opportunity. It is more important to ‘sell the idea’ by identifying how it will solve your boss’ needs. For example, more training is necessary to reducing the time between ordering a meal and placing it on a table. This causes a problem for most restaurant mangers because it effects the bottom line, reducing revenue, and making it look like they are a failure.

However, your general manager is only focused on the bottom line and only sees career development as another expense. Selling the idea of training requires outlining the long term cost savings, return on investment (ROI), and how the general manger will be able to present this ROI as his/her personal success.

The hospitality industry is a highly competitive one. Whether you are looking for a job as a Chef, restaurant or general manger, or are carving a niche for yourself in another area of the restaurant industry, job seekers need to learn how to sell their skills to the HR manager.

There are many execution strategies. Most are good but fall short of producing results. This is because they tell people what needs to be done. They don’t tell people how to do it.  The ability to understand and execute a plan is important to selling your skills. The HR manager will not assume that all restaurant managers are able to redesign a restaurant, solve problems within a team, or pull a restaurant out of the red. Candidates need to be able to identify their strengths in their current job, and sell their solutions to current management. Then they need to document their ideas, measure their success, and record the results. These case studies will become a sales tool they can use for landing their next job.

Here are some basic fundamentals necessary in any career development strategy, and plan of execution:

•           Know your resources.

This is an excellent idea. Once a manager can identify their resources they are able to manage them effectively. This is still a backward thinking management strategy. It is designed to identify the results of what has been done in the past, not what can be accomplished in the future.

•           Find how to use resources in ways that open new opportunities.

The hospitality industry is always looking for new opportunities. People who learn how to solve problems, and find opportunities are valuable resources in today’s job market.

•           Look for resources that have been missed by others

•           Do not look for obstacles, problems, and assets but look for opportunities.

•           Include People in your strategy

The narrower your network the easier it is to topple the mountain. Everyone has something to contribute. Some of the greatest breakthroughs have been found when management stops to ask the people on the front lines what they need to do a better job, what complaints do they hear, or what would make the customer happy.

Part of making sure the right people is in the right place hinges on a leader’s ability to listen. People let us know what is important to them, what they need and want, and how to become a better manager in the things they don’t say as much as what they do say.  Learn to listen and to delegate. This training can start long before you ever sit behind a manger’s desk.

•           Effectively expect.

Establish a way to measure the results of execution. Do  not focus entirely on what has happened but learn to measure what is happening. Do not focus on whether a task is being completed, and by whom. Instead, focus on if the task is being done right. What is right? How is that measured?

This involves Strategic Evaluation. This cannot be done without first doing your homework. Again, knowledge is power. Even ‘gut instinct’ and intuition can be a primal part of an execution strategy.

•           Stay in the Real World.

The problem with dreams, goals and expectations is that they are self evident reflections of who we are at the time they are created and executed. They are often based on our personal wants, needs, and perceptions of reality

Ideas not coupled with action never become bigger than the brain cells they occupy – Arnold Glasgow

Many people would love to be a General manager, or restaurant manager but twill never reach this goes. They have the education and the experience, but they lack a fundamental aspect of the job which limits their ability to succeed – The ability to execute a critical leadership plan.

The first step to becoming a great manager is to learn what great management looks like. Knowledge is power. Learning everything about the job, at your workplace and others, is vital to developing the leader within yourself. Without stretching beyond what is currently ‘the norm’ the best you can hope for is to repeat the mistakes of the past.

When asking the average university graduate to describe a great manager they will give an endless account of the tasks that must be completed to manage a restaurant. They are well versed in the ‘day to day’ running of an establishment. Unfortunately, a manager makes or breaks their career on results.

The average person can run a restaurant but when asking them what they want to happen in the next week, month, or year – what will be the results of their business then they are mute. In fact, many people I talk to forget to list ‘still be in business’ as one of their goals.

The goal of Critical Leadership is to help managers assess their awareness of effective execution and how they can create a strategy which will help them land their dream job. One of the best ways to learn the art of critical leadership is to apply the principles to your job seeker strategy. Don’t be another person who just puts a resume ‘out there’ and hopes something will happen. Very few ‘top managers’ land their job by luck of the draw. Instead they implement a plan.

Success is a habit. The more you practice the more you succeed. The more you succeed the easier it is to make future plans succeed, and to sell future plans to the general manager and decision makers.

Experience is necessary. There are many ways to gain this experience. We’ve mentioned volunteering to help your current restaurant manager or general managers. After helping with a few projects and ‘getting your feet wet’ it is time to apply some of the principles learned in future projects.

If there is no opportunity to practice within your restaurant then try to find volunteer positions within related industries. Experience is only the beginning. The top managers need to sell their ideas, track results and goals, create benchmarks, and to present the final results in their best light. Once you can do the job then learn how to do the paper work. Corporations run on paperwork. After charting a few projects and creating case studies for them, then it is time to sharpen your presentation skills.

Continue through our series of career development articles. We are building a full course in restaurant management skills designed to help you prepare a portfolio that will ‘sell’ your skills to the hospitality industry. Please take time to contact us and find out how we can further your restaurant management career.

One of the obstacles to career development is the ability to turn plans into executable strategies. Colleges and universities spend years teaching managers ‘what’ they need to know to run a restaurant. They have a poor track record at giving budding restaurant managers the skills needed to turn those ideas into ‘real’ plans that can be executed in the real world.

Coming up through the ranks gives a restaurant manager a solid understanding of the obstacles and problems which arise when trying to direct a team and bring everyone on board to the manager’s ideas so that their plans can be executed easily and cost effectively.

The restaurant manager who is seeking a job in a high profile restaurant, or wants attract a management headhunter, needs to be able to blend both the ‘know how’ and the ‘knowledge’ into a strategy of success.

Job seekers need to do both, but they also need to present their skills in a way that a human resources manager can easily translate a resume into a set of measurable skills. One way to do this is to learn the Art of Execution and then use the skills learned here to create a resume that ‘solves problems’ instead of one that just lists past experience.

How to Become a Restaurant Manager

•           Establish a mindset of execution. People waste most of their day doing mundane tasks that do not generate a reward whether it be creation, financial, or social. People need to learn how to focus on tasks that meet the goal, and reduce the time spent on, or delegate those which are inconsequential.

•           More important, they need to learn how to do this without the ‘labour’ force feeling being treated like they are the low man on the totem pole. A pyramid is more stable than a flag pole. When the leader focuses more on people, the lower they are, then the performance increases. When looking at ‘input’ and ‘cost’ view the goal as a pyramid. Turn the pyramid over so it is a funnel to see how the rewards return to the ‘head’.

•           Be a leader. Let people choose their own destiny, but hold them accountable. Let them choose whether they want to participate and make things happen, or sit back and complete the mundane jobs. Once they choose, support them where they are. Like Morpheus in The Matrix who asked ‘The red or blue pill,’ every strategy needs one person who can influence the destiny of the entire team.

The introduction to these three skills can be learned in any performance coaching book. Once a person knows how to be a leader, they need to be able to manage others and encourage them to ‘get onboard’ with their plans. Show the HR manager that you are able to create, sell, and execute a plan successfully and you are one more step closer to your dream job.

The first step to building a high profile career, and fast tracking your restaurant manager career then you need to understand what a goal is. This doesn’t mean a personal goal, a short term goal, or a career goal. You need to understand what a corporate goal is. You need to understand how to identify a goal, outline obstacles, and explain the goal in a way that the board members and decision members will be able to understand what is needed.

The most important aspect of a corporate goal is the ability to explain the benefits and how the goal will positively effect the bottom line. If the decision makers cannot present your ideas to investors, the bank, or board member in a way that quiets any objections then the odds are good that the plan will never get off the ground.

What is a Corporate  Goal?

A goal can be anything you want to achieve. It is very rare that any plan will have a singular goal.  It is also important to prioritize and ‘problem solve’ in the early stages of the planning process. Not all goals are all worth chasing. Studying the ‘Art of Execution’ will help you understand what is necessary to planning and executing a plan.

There are some very defined elements to the art of execution that need to be adhered to if you want to change behavior patterns and learn how to turn your dreams into a tangible reality.

•           Avoid emotional based goals. The goal must be tangible when you finish or else you won’t be able to measure success. If the goal is not ‘real’ then the tasks needed to create a strategy will also be insubstantial. They will be swallowed up in the day to day ‘real’ jobs.

•           Eliminate goals that you cannot describe verbally and communicate effectively.

•           Eliminate goals that do not have benchmarks and milestones. Can you accomplish X by a certain date? If not, strike that goal from the list.

•           Scratch off solo goals. No one is an island. No one can build an empire single handed, or it isn’t an empire. You need to have input from others. You cannot do all the work alone. Once you have help you need to learn how to identify achievers and understand how to reward them so they will perform better.

Once you understand how to make plans it is important to practice execution. Once you can identify the different elements of a well designed plan it is necessary to study the Law of Execution. Many people are excellent planners. Sometimes they take months, even years, creating we well developed plan. Unfortunately, their plans never come to fruition because they lack the skills needed to turn their ideas on paper into tangible applications in the real world.

by: Marty Tarabar, CPC
marty@geckohospitality.com

How often do you hear these words?

As a management recruiter, we usually hear the opposite. Restaurant managers send us their resumes, looking for a new position.  When we call to do the initial interview, we always hear what ‘s wrong with their job.

• They are not appreciated
• Bonuses and raises were promised and not delivered
• They are stagnant in their current position with no room for growth

What’s great about recruiting for Gecko Hospitality is being able to place candidates in positions they love, where they get the opportunities they are looking for and the quality of life they are looking for.

Three recent placements come to mind.

Tony – After 8 years working in the contract services side of the hospitality industry, Tony decided to try his hand at managing a full service restaurant. He was very successful.  He was quickly able to build sales, increase profits and put together a good team of employees.  But, he was the only salaried manager at this privately owned restaurant. He had two shift managers who he could depend on, but the success of the restaurant was squarely on Tony’s shoulders.

He worked mostly closing shifts, leaving the restaurant after 2am.  I was able to place Tony with a local company, working 5 days a week, usually done by 5pm.  When I visited him just last week he was gushing with how wonderful his new position is and how much he enjoys working for his new company.

“I can’t thank you enough, I love this job”  he said.

Ralph – Opening up new hotels is a challenge and Ralph enjoyed it. He had opened new locations for a few different Hotel Management companies, but was longing for a place to call his own.  I’ve talked to Ralph a few times since we placed him at an established property. He had moved to take the position, but is ecstatic about his hotel, the management group he works for and the hotel ownership.

I e-mailed the owner after a recent stay at his hotel and he said “Ralph is doing a fantastic job with the hotel and how he has proven to be such a positive leader for the staff. Ralph has truly been a wonderful fit for us…”  Ralph absolutely loves his job.

Jeff -  I’ve known Jeff for over 6 years. We’ve spoken often, whenever I had a position I thought he might be interested in , I would reach out to him.  Every time we talked he would tell me about the goings on with his company. They changed the bonus structure, they reduced the number of managers, and  payroll was  getting tighter. After almost 8 years, he was no longer enjoying the company he had worked for.

We contacted Jeff about a new opportunity, in fact, he was the first person I thought of when the job order came in to our office. His skills were a match, the lifestyle was what he was looking for, and the owners of the restaurant shared the same beliefs .  His interviews with the new company were great and the owners were excited about bringing Jeff in to the fold.

Jeff loves his new job.

The right job is out there!  Sometimes you fall into it by accident and sometimes the job finds you.

I love my job!