CindyHeilman
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Oct 1, 2010, 10:37 AM
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Define Company Values with Dining Best Practices
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By Cindy Heilman, MS, DTR
One thing I enjoy about teaching service training in Senior Living Communities is that each class brings together a unique blend of people who vary by age, gender, culture and previous work experience.
Every training session brings with it a new set of dynamics.
And yet, a common discussion is emerging when we talk about building stronger relationships.
Many participants don’t really know what their company’s values mean.
This brings me to my fourth best practice for dining success in this series of five.
Number Four: Company leaders must make it a point to define, remind, and demonstrate core company values daily.
Merely hanging a list of words that represent company values around the building with the expectation that staff will look up the definitions and decide on their own how to behave, simply does not work.
Training to Company Values
The manner in which we treat each other is driven by our values. That’s why companies establish values – to communicate clear direction and shape the behaviors of staff.
In a recent class I was asked: What’s the difference between Empathy and Sympathy?
Empathy is often listed as a core company value in senior living communities, which is why I have been surprised by the number of staff who are unclear and curious about the definition of the word.
For Kind Dining® training purposes, I define empathy as imagining yourself in the other person’s shoes to experience how they feel and working to accept how they feel in the moment. It involves understanding what another person is feeling or thinking. It requires emotional investment in the relationship.
Sympathy, meanwhile, involves having similar, or parallel, feelings with another person.
The words have different meanings, but many people associate them together and confuse them.
In senior living communities we uncover a deeper need to understand how to apply Empathy.
Another value I often see posted is Respect, admiration given by others.
Because of my age I automatically hear the voice of Aretha Franklin belting out those letters in her infamous song: R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Respect for others, parents, teachers, people in authority, elders, co-workers.
The definition of the word has not changed in a generation, but it seems attitudes have. There are numerous situations in the dining room where showing respect for others needs more attention.
This example came up in a recent class: The setting was an independent dining room in a CCRC, serving restaurant-style service to several hundred residents.
Often during lunch service the dining room manager, executive chef and dining room director attend mandatory executive level staff meetings. Company leaders consider it the best time of day for executive members from various departments to gather.
Meanwhile, there is a person left in charge of the dining room. The problem is that lone person is an old-guard server who refuses to show his younger co-workers any respect.
You can imagine where that leads. There is blatant miscommunication, a lack of attention to serving details, hurt feelings. The servers become preoccupied with one another and lose their focus on the residents. The level of service falls off.
Service excellence and continuous improvement starts at the top. Executive leaders must value and respect the significance to residents of providing the highest quality service in their dining room. Taking key leadership out of the service arena lowers the value in the eyes of staff.
By not quickly addressing disrespectful behaviors, employees lose trust in their managers. Confusion spreads. Valuable energy and resources are wasted.
Do as I say not as I do
Every parent knows their children learn more by emulating parental behavior than dutifully listening and obeying. Children often need to hear direction more than once, just as staff need to be reminded daily of how the company expects them to act.
Server-to-resident relationships and server-to-coworker relationships frequently require reconnections to company values in order to improve service. Supporting service training is a GREAT way to achieve that.
Cindy Heilman, MS, DTR, is the CEO of Higher Standards, an Oregon-based hospitality company. Born from her vision to transform residential meal priorities and dining for senior residents, Cindy has created her experiential training program Kind Dining ®.
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(This post was edited by CindyHeilman on Oct 7, 2010, 9:42 AM)
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