Right And Left-Brain Management Style

Different management styles can originate from the left or the right side of the brain. The left side has an irritating devotion to numbers, analysis, logic, etc, concerning itself with cash flow and the dire consequences of mismanagement of finances. The right side deals with more romantic ideas and imagination rules.


Right and left-brain Management Styles

Have a look at this model of a company using left-brain management styles, called British Risk Aversion Plc, or BRA:

• New ideas are regularly dismissed

• The organization is not always concerned with external needs

• The emphasis within the organization is on problem solving

• Stability and experience are the most valued attributes within the company

• The good of the organization is put before the success of the individual

• Command and control are the dominant processes

• It is practically impossible to change the corporate mind-set

Now compare with this model of a right-brain company, ACE – Adventure Corporation of Europe:

• Creativity and new ideas are welcomed

• The company focuses mainly on the needs of the customer

• The emphasis is on taking advantage of new opportunities

• Motivation and innovation are among the most valued attributes

• The company's aims and those of individuals are largely aligned

• All staff are granted autonomy and are able to show their initiative

• Minds and policies regularly change, according to circumstance

ACE is much more fun place to work than BRA and much more likely to embrace the new because the whole outfit is geared up to do just that.

However judging by a show of hands, members of an audience I addressed recently were more likely to work in a company resembling BRA rather than ACE.

The measured prudence of BRA has to be combined with the dynamic venturism of ACE for a knockout left-right combination of management styles.

Passion for a Better World

Too often our sensibilities are assaulted and bludgeoned by all that seems bad in the world -the T.V. bulletins of the day's horrors, the full, graphic story we get by watching the eleven o'clock news.

in reference to:

"Too often our sensibilities are assaulted and bludgeoned by all that seems bad in the world - the T.V. bulletins of the day's horrors, the full, graphic story we get by watching the eleven o'clock news."
- The Greatest Gift (view on Google Sidewiki)

A Captive Audience

It's more cost effective to use in-store marketing to encourage repeat business and increase sales than it is to attract new customers. This is called four-walls marketing, this approach includes suggestive selling, in-store advertising and other marketing tactics that take place within the four walls of your operation.


Here are the four steps to four-walls marketing.

1. Market to your internal customers —your employees. Start by treating staff members well and getting their buy in. Make employees partners in your marketing efforts. Ask for their input, Reward workers for participating in activities like distributing fliers or selling gift certificates.

2. Subtly influence customers through zone merchandising. Every restaurant has specific areas—or zones—that you can use to influence customers. This concept, called zone merchandising, offers numerous promotional opportunities. Some key zones include:

• The lobby. Set up easel posters, mobiles, standing displays or dangling advertisements to promote specific menu items before customers are seated.

• The counter. Advertise items on cash-register toppers, menu boards, counter cards and your specials board.

• The carryout window. Give customers take-home menus and magnets with your restaurant's name and phone number.

• The dining room. Have servers point out specials and signature items. Use dessert trays, wine displays and free samples to entice customers.

• The table. Use table tents, place mats and napkins to brand your restaurant.

3. Strategically design your menu. Did you know that your menu can influence customers to buy more—and to order your most profitable items? What the eye sees, the eye buys, One-page menus should feature your most profitable items in the middle of the page, surrounded by a graphic box to make them stand out. Two-page menus should feature your most profitable items on the upper half of the second page, because that's where guests' eyes drift first.  Make menu copy brief and enticing. For example, an item featuring your "chef's special recipe" will tempt customers.

4. Keep in touch with customers. Send coupons, information about special events and birthday cards to customers in your database. E-mail blasting is a great tool Start by collecting customer information. For example, hold a random drawing for a free lunch and require customers to fill out an entry form with their name, address, birth date, etc.

Some things never change when it comes to the traditional way of increasing average checks and retaining customers in a restaurant. Nothing may be able to replace the personal touch in an "inpersonal world" driven by the high tech.

Passion of Expressing Ourselves

.There are some important words and phrases we seem to have great difficulty with. They are everyday words that they get caught between our good intentions on one hand and our inhibitions or fear of rejection on the other.

in reference to:

"There are some important words and phrases we seem to have great difficulty with. They are everyday words that they get caught between our good intentions on one hand and our inhibitions or fear of rejection on other the other."
- http://belovebepresent.blogspot.com/2011/01/passion-of-expressing-ourselves.html (view on Google Sidewiki)

Say That Again? Seven Things Never to Say to Your Customers

I recently stopped at a local hardware store for a new bolt for a wheelbarrow. The only metal pin they had was too long. So, an assistant gladly volunteered to cut it down to size. As he was sawing away, one of the managers waddled past, scowled and snapped: "Doesn't he have a hacksaw at home?"

Honesty is the best policy and you should always be thruthful, but there's a difference between being truthful and being downright rude. A snarling attitude towards customers will not get you repeat customers. Good customer loyalty is the lifeblood of any business and comments like this only drive customers away.

We've all been on the recieving end of these sorts of remarks and customer service faux pas from businesses of all types and sizes, but that doesn't mean it's acceptable. We all have bad days, but that shouldn't become the customer's bad day too. Poor customer service loses business - fast. Here, based on my own stumbles down the rocky road of verbal iscues, is a sample of things that a client or customer or guest should never, ever hear from you or your staff:

1. "Why are you doing that for him?" This is pretty much what the hardware manager's flip remark meant. It may seem ludicrous to say it, but service for a customer - be it run of the mill or beyond the call of duty - should never be questioned in front of the person with the Visa card in hand. A business person that questions service like this will appear rude and entirely dismissive of customer service - a sure fire way to lose business.
2. "Are you sure you can afford this?" On a trip to a beautiful paradasiac destination, I wanted to surprise my wife by reserving the honeymoon suite at a luxury hotel, the Front Desk Manager, cajoled a member of his staff at the desk to "make sure he knows how expensive that suite is" before I even inquired about the detail of the price, which by the way I already knew. Of course- customers need to know the price of an item prior to purchase and that information is common courtesy, but beware of the connotations of suggesting an item is priced beyond a customer's means. This can taken as a direct insult.
3. "What an idiot that last guy was!" This was muttered by one server to another in a restaurant, as I was ready to pay for our tab. Needless to say, not every cient or customer is cherubic, but commenting on them to another employee - or even worse, a customer - is grossly unprofessional. This is tantamount to "bitchiness". People buy from people, and prefer to buy from people they like. Nobody likes to hear another customer sneered about. It makes customers feel uneasy, as they'll think you might say that about them when they leave your business.
4. "We don't have it." however siccint, this is a repeat offender, said most recently when I asked a grocery assistant if they carried a particular brand of olive oil ( after her four-word reply, the grocery assistant stared past me glassy-eyed as though she were looking for ships on the horizon). of course, businesses run out of stock or may not offer certain services or item, but just hearing "no" or words to that efect is tantamount to adding "And stay out!" Don't leave things hanging like that.
5. "What a _____name." (Choose "different", "funny", "unusual", "bizarre"", etc.) Don't misunderstand me, I know I have a, shall we say, esoteric last name. But I don't adore the attention I get when a niwit callously belittles my family moniker-belittling my very own identity. It would be far more diplomatic to ask how a person's name is pronounced correctly.
6. "I haven't a clue about what I'm talking about, but I'll rumble on regardless." this is the Brand X version of any number of ill-concieved remarks, ranging from the bank clerk who loudly gives a customer her mutual fund recommendations ("I hear you can make money in them!) to the doctor's office receptionist who tells a patient that she may need a biopsy.
7. "I only work here." This cliche' -most recently uttered to me by a waiter after the wrong meal was delivered for the third time -should be forewver buried. In four wretched words, an employees conveys a complete absence of enthusiasm or involment, let alone a willingness to address a problem. This does not bode well. All staff should ensure they know their own area and can politely pass a customer 's query on to the right person should it fall outside their area of expertise.

10 Resolutions For managers and Employees

Now is the perfect time to reflect on the past year, especially as it relates to your job.


1) Pay attention in class.

Treat every day at work like a school day. Be sure you learn something and make yourself more productive by what you've learned. It doesn't have to be skill-set related. It may be as simple as understanding how to work with specific peers (emotional intelligence). Whatever you do, take mental notes. Don't go through the day like a sleepy zombie.

2) Look for the next rung.

You need to excel at your job. This is how you gain credibility. But the key to career happiness is to understand your next step. Career patching is critical if you're to remain engaged on the job. Be sure to schedule discussions with your manager to get clarity on the next challenge. If it's not going to happen for you on your specific team or in your company.

3) Understand company goals.

Make sure you understand how your job contributes to your company's business objectives. Are you in a revenue-generating role? A brand awareness role? Is your mission to delight the customer? Clarity on how your job fits into the big picture will give you inspiration and a sense of accomplishment -- and will make your "small successes" feel like you're making much more of an impact.

4) Be ethical.

Bring integrity to your job. Whether you're running the company or cleaning the bathrooms, be honest in all you do. Don't call in sick just to get a day off. That's stealing. Put in an honest day's work. Be accountable. If you're working remotely, be sure you're working. Do what you say you're going to do. Be on time. Honesty and reliability mean a lot to your team members.

5) Stay fit.

Try to break a sweat for 20 minutes, three days a week. Go for a walk at lunch. Join a gym. Lift weights. Go for a run. A healthy body makes a healthy mind. Exercising increases blood flow to the brain. It gives you ideas. You'll be more productive at work. Best of all, you'll feel great.

6) Stretch your role.

From time to time, think how you can go above and beyond. Are there projects outside of your defined role that you could help with? Be proactive and ask to join. Better yet, come up with your own ideas and work with your manager to implement them. If you're a hamster, step off the wheel and poke your head out of the top of the cage. Stretch a little. This won't go unnoticed.

7) Manage up.

Make sure you and your manager are in firm agreement on what you're doing. Be proactive and get on his or her calendar to ensure you're meeting or exceeding expectations. Don't assume your manager is paying close attention. There are bad & good managers. If there's a disconnect between what you're doing and your manager's expectations, you're part of the blame. Don't wait until review time. Why take this chance?

8) Manage Across.

Your colleagues are important. Even if you're in a role where you work primarily alone, be sure to make time to understand your peer's roles and how they go about their job. Show an interest. Don't just choose a few friends and become part of a clique. High school is over. Be friendly and courteous to all workers in your organization. You never know when you may need them. Or be reporting to them.

9) Communicate.

Don't leave people waiting for answers. If you're in an e-mail environment, return e-mails promptly. Let people know what you're doing. If you're working on a project, always ask yourself who needs to know about this. Then tell them. Talk to people. Give people the heads up. And when someone helps you out, be sure to thank them. It's amazing that this even needs to be on a list but bad communicators are everywhere. Don't be one of them.

10) Make time for play.

Have fun. Work hard, but smile while you're doing it. No one likes a Grinch (especially this time of year). This doesn't mean disrupting the workplace by acting like an eighth-grader. Instead, approach each day with a positive spirit and stay loose. When you leave the office or workplace , have some fun. Enjoy you friends. Make time for them. Make time for you. It's called work-life balance. All work and no play makes ... well, you know.

Is Your Company Striving for OK?

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? But it happens every day in food service operations around the world. It is a pet peeve of mine when a manager comes striding to my table and asks the insane question, "Is everything OK?"


What's wrong with this picture, you ask? Let's break it down:

Everything? Is the manager asking if I am satisfied with the political, economic, ecological and sociological status of humanity? Or maybe the manager thought that I was about to burst out crying and was attempting to offer help?

What about the word OK?

By definition OK means the minimum acceptable level. I doubt seriously if the mission of any company is to strive for the minimum level of customer service! So when the eager manager excitedly receives the expected "yes", knee-jerk answer to the knee-jerk question, the manager goes away pleased. But should the manager be pleased?

I think not.

I don't blame the manager. He or she was trained that way. Indeed, it was probably pounded into him or her to visit every table. 100% table visitation. Asking everyone in the restaurant if "Everything is OK" is like a prime directive in most restaurant chains.

What's so wrong with wanting to get the opinions of all your customers?

First of all, when you ask 'Is everything OK', you're not giving the customer an opening to respond. Instead, it becomes a formality, like the greeting of "How are you?" You don't really expect an answer, except for the polite "Fine".

Of course, visiting every table in most restaurants doesn't give you any time to actually stop and listen to the customers! By running around and asking "Is Everything OK?" you can quantify the experience, and give yourself a false sense of accomplishment by making your 100% table visitations.

It is like the owner of a hotel demanding that the hotel manager keep the hotel full. All the hotel manager has to do is keep reducing the price of the room until the owner's results are accomplished. Never mind that the hotel is losing money. It may be full now, but it sure won't be around for long.

Don't get me wrong; The concept of customer feedback is right, but the execution and results are dangerously wrong. By getting a stock response from a hastily asked question, you've learned nothing about the customer's experience that night. And what if everything actually WAS just "OK"? In today's market, will a so-so "OK" experience guarantee that the customer will come back? Of course not.

Here are four rules to follow when asking about your customer's perceptions of your service:

1. Allow time to listen, don't just go through the formality of asking.

2. Ask specific questions, not general, sweeping statements.

3. Use a superlative that you want to be identified with to the customer. Was your service excellent? Fantastic? Outrageous? Set your sights high not low. Never OK.

4. The quality of the effort is worth far more than the quantity of effort.

It's time that the hallowed expression "Is everything OK?" was finally laid to rest.