Here are some excerpts that I loved from his interview with Coolhunting.
When you come into a good environment, you tend to work better. You have to build an environment in which people are very comfortable.
Tools are very important, making sure they have all the tools they need. Give them everything that they need in order to execute at a very high level— whether that’s the kitchen, the dining room, the sommeliers or your administrative staff.
The hiring process is really the most critical part of building the team because you have to hire the right people.
You keep them an extra week or two to make sure that they really got it and you have 100% confidence in them, and they have 100% confidence in being able to do the job—because their confidence is just as important as yours. Each person has a different capacity for learning and training.
It’s a continuing mentoring process—not just in your profession, but in your life. The person should understand what’s expected of them. And if you do that, then that person is going to be with you for a long time. Unfortunately, in America and in many other cultures, we’re beginning to forget about our long-term goals for our short-term goals. The mentoring process is a lifelong process, and one that fascinates me.
If you do those three things correctly—if you hire them, if you train them, if you mentor them—then what’s the result of that? They become better than you are. If they’re not better than you are, then you haven’t really done your job.
Sustainability is such a misunderstood word because most people relate it to ingredients—that’s just not true. You have to realize that it’s not about ingredients, it’s about people and communities.
My job is to be able to choose the right people to supply me with my ingredients. If I choose correctly, then they’ve already taken care of the responsibility part.
source : Coolhunting
