Training director: set clear goals - or you're just asking for trouble

Nation's Restaurant News, June 19, 1995 by Theresa Howard

CHICAGO - Goal-setting is a simple, yet underused, strategy in establishing sounder restaurant operations and reduced turnover.

"Goals are about deciding a destination and taking control of those things that will help you get to the destination," said James Lee Henderson, director of training and development for Rafferty's Corp., a 10-unit casual dinner-house operation based in Bowling Green, Ky.

Whether the objective is improved service, reduced turnover, greater customer frequency or employee satisfaction, setting a goal is critical in helping to execute a business strategy. "Restaurants can be a revolving door for employees and managers. What we've got to do is focus on setting, planning and achieving those things that we set out to do to help progress toward common and shared goals," Henderson added.

Addressing an intimate audience as part of the NRA's 1995 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show, Henderson advised listeners to examine their own personal goals as a reflection of how they apply goal-setting to their business lives in "Employee Goals: Key to Company Success."

"If you work in an organization with no clearly set goals, then you probably face many pitfalls," Henderson noted. Recalling a meeting when his own organization was questioned about its goals, Henderson said not one person out of nine could agree on the company's common business goals. "We were asked one single question, and the answer took all afternoon. Among nine of us, with more than 100 years of combined experience in the restaurant industry, we couldn't decide what business we were in."

Such difficulties arise from communication issues in which the goals are not only blurred but also poorly disseminated throughout an organization, Henderson said. "As an owner or manager, you have to make sure you know your own goals, but the most difficult thing is to communicate how to get those things done."

Henderson applied a few basic lessons in goal-setting to help listeners more clearly define and execute their own goals. A study that tracked the lives of the 1955 graduating class of Yale University revealed that only 3 percent of that class had written down goals. Nonetheless, that 3 percent had achieved more in social accolades and wealth than the combined balance of its class had.

"The hard part is writing the goals down because if you don't write them down, you can change them," Henderson pointed out.

He also warned that in establishing clearly defined goals, they must be specific and measurable. "You have to set up solid methods to achieve those goals for managers as well as hourly employees."