5 Important Restaurant Management Skills

Restaurant Management Skills

Every well run organization starts at the top. Sometimes, managers are brought in from another restaurant. And more often than you think, regular employees are promoted to manager.

But which restaurant management skills separate the good leaders from the great ones? What’s more critical – organization or people skills? And what tools or resources can help enhance the most important restaurant manager skills?

RASI can assist with honing and improving restaurant management skills – particularly in the field of full-service accounting applications and other business-friendly tools. We’re here to help any restaurant manager round out their skill set with the best support structure around. Let’s look at some common restaurant manager attributes and skills, how to refine the skills needed for a restaurant manager, and more!

Essential Attributes of a Great Restaurant Manager

Here’s a handful of characteristics every manager needs – learn and master these, and you’re on your way to perfecting all the skills needed for a restaurant manager!

1. Decisiveness. From deciding on the right supplier to making the latest shift schedules, all restaurant managers need to be decisive – yet fair at the same time. “The buck stops here” is a quality all effective leaders share, and a restaurant manager is no different.
   
2. Flexibility. Nothing ever stays still in the restaurant industry. Unexpected lunch and dinner rushes, prompt call-offs, challenging supply issues – you name it, restaurant managers deal with it. The ability to adjust on the fly, all while remaining calm in the center of the storm, defines all the best managers.
3. Professionalism. Everyone in the restaurant looks up to the manager. By having an aura of professionalism and authority, it’s easier to handle day-to-day responsibilities. Lead effectively, and your employees will follow.
4. Empathy. Don’t let professionalism take away the human touch. From disgruntled employees to angry customers, it always helps to empathize with a particular point of view. Empathy helps with conflict resolution, inspiring your team, and much more!
5. Honesty. Be a straight shooter – with employees and customers. Act with integrity at all times, whether you’re managing the books or working on employee relationships.

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Critical Restaurant Management Skills

An effective restaurant manager is the ultimate jack of all trades. Like a time-honored recipe, or your menu’s most popular item, it takes the right ingredients to make it work. Applying those skills to everyday management tasks is a good start. Here are just some of the things a manager is responsible for:

• Labor management – including payroll, shift scheduling, and the like. And don’t forget retaining the top talent!
• Ensuring a smooth supply chain – even the best customer service won’t fix a kitchen without the tools to succeed.
• Menu costing and control
• Inventory management
• Customer service – handling complaints, PR, etc.
• Compliance – all managers set the tone with integrity. This is critical, especially with ever-changing compliance laws & regulations.
• Handle the books – P&L statements, data analysis, cash management and more.

Building a Support System for Restaurant Management Skills

Aside from hiring the right people, the skills needed for a restaurant manager don’t stop with human interaction. It helps to have a complete support system in place for things like POS integration, data analytics, accounting, payroll and more. The bad news? There’s no single master class to master all of these areas at once.

The good news? RASI empowers restaurant managers with everything necessary to help round out any management skill set! One of our core focal points is to ensure that our clients have access to the best education possible to learn operational and accounting best practices that allow you to set attainable and realistic goals, tactics, and measurements for your teams. Like every capable restaurant manager, our services are also flexible, adaptable, and people-friendly!

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Request a demo today, or contact us to learn more! We’re here to help any restaurant manager win with the absolute best accounting platform you’ll find anywhere.