It was 5 am in the morning when Yayas and I met in the kitchen. She looked sleepy. It was still dark and raining cats and dogs. Yayas was one of my kitchen trainees when I worked in Batam, Indonesia. We both had an important job to do this morning. We had to prepare breakfast for a Japanese business delegation which stayed with us for the next 3 days. These people had a tight schedule. We needed to make sure that everything went smooth. The breakfast buffet would be served at our Club Lounge at the 12th floor.

I picked Yayas to assist me this morning
because she had a great attitude. She was always on time, very dedicated towards
her work and hard working. Yayas had a pleasant personality. She was a young
and tiny little girl, about 18 years old. If you saw her you would have never
thought that she works in the kitchen, because of her fragile appearance.

After Yayas and I met, we set up the
breakfast buffet together. I was running her through the process and explained
everything in detail. My idea was to train Yayas on how to set up and run the
buffet by herself the next day.

Normally I would have never picked a
trainee for this job, but I had no other chef available. I trusted her. She was
reliable. The great thing with Yayas was that she always asked a lot of
questions.

“Chef, why do we have to put the cheese
platter on ice?” or “We serve sliced fruits, so why do we display fruit compote
as well chef?”

I liked when she asked these questions,
because they made sense. It showed me that Yayas was interested and thinking. I
knew why I picked her to help this morning.

After we had set up the breakfast buffet
and double-checked last details, I gave her some final instructions. I went
back down to the main kitchen and advised her that I will be back from time to
time and check on her. I also offered Yayas my assistance.

“Give me a call if you need help with anything,
ok?!” I said to her.

A few hours later the breakfast was
finished. I was proud of Yayas’ performance.

“Good job Yayas, well done!” I appreciated
her.

She managed to supervise the breakfast
buffet all by herself. This is what I secretly hoped for.

“How did you like it today?” I enquired.

“It was fine chef.” was her short answer.

“I am happy to hear that,” I said.

Now I knew that I could go ahead and put
her in charge for the remaining 2 days. Yayas would handle this important
Japanese business group. She would set up the breakfast buffet and supervise
it. At 6am the next morning, I went up to the Club Lounge to check on her. That
was it. She handled the rest.

I delegated the job to her. Delegation is
another crucial skill we need to learn if we want to become effective leaders.

When you want to delegate a task, it is very important that you explain it well to the person you want to delegate it to. Make your expectation clear. It is crucial that you monitor and check from time to time. The employee needs to feel your guidance. You need to be reachable if there are any problems. Answer any questions.

Why people don’t delegate? I can speak only
for myself here. When I was younger, I thought, doing it myself is more
efficient. Why should I waste my time to explain another chef something in
detail when I can fix it myself in seconds? Keep in mind that the kitchen is a
high paced environment. Pressure is enormous and guests want to be served
quickly. It can get hectic. There is no time for long discussions, debates and
explanations, right?

WRONG!

We have to learn to work smarter not
harder. Doing everything yourself shows that you are not smart. It may be a
quick fix solution for a certain situation. It is definitely not a solution for
the long run.

Give space! Trust. If you are not able to
trust your team member then don’t delegate. I think most of the time it is not
the problem of the employee that you cannot trust him or her. It is YOUR
problem when you can’t trust. Too many times I heard people say “I cannot trust
him or her. I rather do it myself.”

As leaders, we have to be able to put faith
in somebody. There will never be a guarantee for anything. So how will you know
if someone will perform or not? You simply won’t. You don’t know if you don’t
try. There will be no progress if you cannot trust people and put faith in them.

I have seen it with so many chefs and with
myself. We want to fix our problems ourselves. You can, but this is an
inefficient way. You cannot deal with everything. You have a team four brains
are smarter than one.

Just because you are the team leader does
not mean that you are the team’s super brain. Unfortunately, there are some
people who think that way. That’s the wrong approach. Use your team. Get
everyone involved. That’s the power of team work. Too many chefs spend too many
hours in the kitchen just because they are not able to train their staff
properly and delegate tasks to them. No wonder these guys suffer from fatigue
and burn out after a while. We can avoid this.

Learn to delegate!

P.S. Check out my website www.marcelriemer.co for more great
content!

Want to learn more about delegation
and other leadership fundamentals?

I am happy to announce that I am
currently producing my online course “Leadership in
the Kitchen”.

This course is schedule to be released
by end of this year on Udemy, the world’s largest online learning platform.

Hungry for more kitchen wisdom? Check out my new
book “Slamming It Out! How I got
shit done in 5* kitchens” at: https://amzn.to/2MB8NZc

Now available as eBook and paperback version!

Thanks for reading!

Marcel

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