How Creating a Culture of Trust Benefits Top Restaurateurs

To be truly successful, owners of multi-unit independent restaurant companies must feel free to leave the office and their restaurants — either for a vacation or simply for a day for some creative brainstorming time — without worrying. They need to know that the people surrounding them can be trusted to do what is best for their restaurants, guests, and employees.

Developing such an atmosphere of trust feeds capability, opportunity, and strategy. Without it, your ability to grow your business is limited.

Recently, I have been telling you about my research — finding there are three key factors to independent restaurant company success: Capability, Opportunity, and Strategy. When you have them all, you can achieve your dreams — personally and professionally.

The Power of Attraction

Also in my research, I have found that trust is a critical setting for these factors. Why is it that the best independent restaurateurs operate in an atmosphere of trust? They know that living their business and life without a great set of people around them — with people they don’t trust — drains energy away from ownership’s creativity, leadership, and personal flexibility and freedom.

Who wants that?

Trust attracts the right kind of people — the ones you want to work with. It retains them. An atmosphere of trust also quickly exposes people who do not have your best interests at heart. They become good turnover — quickly.

Follow my checklist of below Ten Elements of an Independent Restaurant Company’s Atmosphere of Trust to find out if you’re developing and operating a business based on trust.

Ten Elements of an Independent Restaurant Company’s Atmosphere of Trust:

1. You can depend on your people doing the right thing, which helps you sleep well at night.
2. You feel your team can achieve its goals as currently constituted.
3. Your company has anecdotal folklore about teamwork, camaraderie, and culture.
4. You can feel the good vibes when you walk into any of your restaurants.
5. There is a free and open exchange of information and ideas in your company.
6. You operate in a low-drama environment.
7. Your people know you have their best interests in mind.
8. You know that your people are committed to your mission and each other.
9. People and disagreements are treated with respect.
10. People who are new to your organization notice the difference and want to stay forever.

How does your organization rate on these ten factors? Would improving on them have a positive impact? Where do you start to get better? When are you going to do that?