This Small Business Advice was given during an Online Counseling session.
The question was:
I am a new asst. manager of a restaurant, and its not going very well. I assume I need what you call A Small Business Advice.
I have a staff of either very young girls or older women and I can’t seem to find middle ground. The young girls like to laugh and have fun; the older women are very uptight. I need to get the older women to understand that I am in charge.
Please help me relay respect for me from the older women and to the younger ones to respect their jobs.
First, here are some remarks regarding the method of our communication:
Online Counseling is a professional intervention method that is flexible enough to address many difficulties which clients present to the online professional, such as: career dilemmas, adjustment issues, fear of failing, sense of helplessness, difficulty to plan or to commit and work related stress & anxiety issues.
And relating now to the specific question, the client was assured that the main problem is not her, but her manager.
It was my opinion that my client should take the following Small Business Advice to her manager, in order to motivate her to construct do the entire job somewhat better:
1. Arrange a very detailed set of missions and assign who is responsible for each (could be a team). Specify levels of standards (quality) and ways of measuring the work / results. This is the MBO (Management By objectives) method. It does take some good hours!
2. Use the team approach in order to further refine the various chores. Let the staff be a partner of the plan. Support them in their input.
3. Build your own team, using well prepared weekly meetings (30-45 minutes).
4. Last but not least: approach the business’ owner for a reasonable budget, regarding professional assistance in the above process. A real Small Business Advice requires time! Whatever I just specified sounds easy, but you ought to use a professional.