Hi and Hello Evolved Leaders! Your host TK here! Today's episode is all about Preshifts and why they are so darn important!
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Show notes here:
Preshifts- Why they are an integral part to your daily shift
Unexpected things happen in the restaurant every day - call outs, 86’ed items, specials, equipment breadowns you name it.
Teams that plan ahead can avoid the stress and hair-pulling kind of chaos that we have all seen.
Having a pre-shift is important for 3 key reasons:
- Preparation for the day and alignment
- Directing your crew to a common goal and mindset
- Setting the tone for the shift
Think of a preshift as a huddle before a big game. The study time students use to prepare for a big test. The training session athletes do before competition. Preshifts are in the same ball park. Without that huddle, study time, or training session, people would be left goal-less and not as prepared as they could have been.
- What to include in your pre-shift?
- This varies from day to day but a good guideline to follow is to ensure your pre-shifts have:
-Praises – choose an MVP from the day prior or give someone a shout out. This starts the meeting out positively and will help motivate employees for being recognized. Be specific and sincere.
- Review any previous goals from the day prior
- Business updates – 86’ed items, any specials, any equipment down, big events in the community, owner visits, weather, anticipated Guest flow etc.
- 1-2 goals. Don’t give your team an expansive 5 goal checklist. Chose the most important ones you have to accomplish today. These should be geared around sales driving, team work, and Guest satisfaction.
- Preparation is key to a pre-shift. Be sure you have a few bullet points ready to discuss which will help you keep on track and not forget any important updates.
- Delegate the preshift- Delegating to a high performing Team member will help with their development and establishment as a leader in your restaurant. I’ve seen great return on delegating this to a hipo.
- Be sure to give your notes and bullet points to the team member so they have talking points. Being unprepared and unexperienced in pre-shifts will lead to feelings of being overwhelmed and will negate any future decisions to do preshifts from that team member.
Lastly – keep them consistent and to the point. Keep them less than 5 minutes in length.
Post shifts – Why are they important? – Recap the day, celebrate same-day wins, and solidifying the goals and expectations – more of a likelihood it becomes a long-term memory.