Another Leadership thought

“Leaders should be like great waiters and waitresses”.

You are at your table at a restaurant, and have finished your first course, and are chatting. Time goes by and your plates have not been cleared so you try to get the waiter’s eye. No can do. He is busy focusing on another table, and as he passes you, he has got his eyes down and seemingly ignores you.

Sounds familiar?

The great restaurants, delivering great service, employ waiters and waitresses whose peripheral vision, their ‘all-seeing-eye’, never stops working. They are busy at a table, however as they talk and serve that table their eyes are watching the rest of the restaurant. They are looking at all the tables, not just their tables, watching the customers for tell tale signs that the customer is finishing up a course, is ready for the bill, needs a top up, and if they cannot get there are signalling someone else to get to that customer. They are happy to go and serve a customer at another table, one that's not theirs, not to steal a tip, just to ensure that the customer is served. That customer served, and served well, comes back, becomes loyal, spreads the word.

That’s a good Leader. A good Leader’s not only focusing on the task and activity at hand but is also watching everything and everyone around them to get a feel for what happens next, for what they need to do, who they need to support, motivate, delegate to, encourage or to leave alone.

A Leader’s peripheral vision should be working at all times ensuring that those around them feel supported, engaged and recognised.