Foodservice Consultant publishes third Cupola Consulting article

We are proud to announce that the third article of our series on maintaining professional standards in foodservice has been published in the Q319 EMEA issue of FCSI’s Foodservice Consultant magazine. This third article is about planning for the first 100 days in a new management role.

Foodservice Consultant is the multiple award-winning magazine from the Foodservice Consultant Society International. The Q319 issue is available here as a digital edition: https://secure.viewer.zmags.com/publication/8496b1bc#/8496b1bc/88

If you’d like to cut straight to our article, we’ve copied it below:

You’ve landed the job – now about that first 100 days plan….

Congratulations. The preparation, the CV, the dynamite interview technique all paid off and you got the job.

Of course, you have a first 100 day plan that you’re going to work through carefully haven’t you? As it rarely works like that, consider this….

Your new ‘reports’ - some of whom didn’t want you there anyway, will test your resolve with a mix of issues that were never mentioned at interview. Who might resign now you have arrived? You don’t yet know how valuable they are to the team so how hard should you fight to keep them?

Your boss – who couldn’t wait for you to start so he could delegate stuff that he either can’t be bothered to do or actually can’t do, will be keen for you to hit the ground running. He will expect this as a test of your action orientation and how quickly you can integrate. Did he actually remember anything from your interview presentation?

Oh and you’re probably on three months’ probation so you have a finite period to show some positive outcomes.

That does sound a bit bleak doesn’t it and of course it’s not always like that but it should remind you to have a starting plan and stick to it unless circumstances really dictate otherwise.

First job - get your team together, orient them to your strategies and way of thinking so everybody understands the new order and work out quickly who are your potential allies and vice versa. Secondly, hand them some challenges to enable you to understand the achievers from the journeymen. Don’t get me wrong, most teams need a mixture of high performers and steady Eddies.

Keep your 100 day plan live and mark your achievements against suitable timelines so you have a progressive reporting schedule – also work out how your new business likes to measure results and get with their programme.

Congratulations also Mr. Employer. You have presumably landed the person you needed to fill that role that’s been preventing you from achieving your goals. You now have the option of letting him loose in the organisation or carefully nurturing his talent to achieve a subtle blend of his 100 day plan and your focus on his three month probation period … and beyond.

Now is the time to work with him to ensure he understands the culture and fits right in or does he become a disruptor? At this early stage it’s up to you to make sure he can fulfil his potential within the organisation. Misalignment now is expensive (not only financially) because his success or failure sends out a powerful message to the rest of the company and maybe up as far as the Boardroom. You do not want to be repeating this process for this position again any time soon.

Finally the recruiter; if one is involved. Candidate found, screened, proposed, aligned with the target, employed and your job’s done. Collect fee and retreat. If something goes wrong you’re not likely to refund your fee, are you? At worst you will find another candidate at ‘no charge.’ Wrong. You have a very valuable role to play in today’s world.

That example is the old way, albeit many recruiters still see it as the norm. Instead, encourage the candidate to stay in touch with you and use his insights and feedback to make yourself more valuable to the company for future work. Endear yourself to the candidate and you could work with him again when he’s next in the market. Perfect circle.

This is the classic three legged stool scenario – if one leg fails the whole stool will collapse.