Put a face on your culture
Last Mother’s Day, Saccone was working at one of his restaurants during brunch and found himself in a bind. A sudden maelstrom of guests and orders sent the kitchen into pandemonium,
and dishes piled up everywhere.
Just like the vice president from Hauck’s younger days, Saccone
rushed into the fray to help, with similar results: His employees
were stunned, but it sent a message.
“I was basically cleaning plates and stacking for the dishwasher last
year,” he says. “I did it simply because they needed help for about a
45-minute period.”
If you want to establish a thriving culture, Hauck and Saccone
say you have to serve as a living, breathing example for everyone
to see. That doesn’t mean you should always drop what you’re
doing to work in your plant, cold call clients or even wash dishes.
Saccone says if he stopped to help each of his approximately 750
full- and part-time workers, he would have worn himself out a long
time ago. Instead, simply be willing to interact with your management team and employees to exemplify your cultural canon.
“Whenever that possibility arises that you can put your face to
the name, we believe you need to do that,” Saccone says.
“It puts a human face on the company for the staff,” Hauck adds.
“People really look and respond to people.”
Put aside your pride in the process. You’re not going to convince
anyone to follow your lead if you refuse to tread on the same
ground.
“It all kind of starts when you check your ego at the door,” Hauck
says. “Take your plaques off your walls or your degrees. It’s not all
about you. The organization is what made you successful. It’s really the people below you that really make it all happen. The people
are the ones in the engine room making it go.”
If you actively engage your employees and serve as a living representation of your company’s culture, you should be able to
spread those tenets to other locations during expansion. Just be
sensitive to any fallbacks in the process, and don’t hesitate to slow
growth to shore up any gaps that develop along the way.
“Stay focused on what your first objective always was when you
first started,” Saccone says. “You know when you’re growing too
fast. Everybody feels it. You feel it yourself. Maintain your principles.”
Hauck adds, “If you feel any kind of slippage at all where people
are not getting it and the company’s culture is not getting through,
that mission statement is not fully executed, be prepared to take a
step back. You’re better off having X amount of units that do very
well and get the result that you want than double X and the whole
thing is going to hell in a handbasket. Just be very sensitive to
growth. When you feel the stumbles and rumbles, be ready to pull
back a little bit. Not everything is about being the biggest. It’s about
being the best.”
HOW TO REACH: Hyde Park Group, (216) 514-1777 or www.hydeparkrestaurants.com
