Too Many Chefs in the Kitchen

Summary: When there is more than one person in charge, ensure you are providing a unified front.

Do people in your business have to report to more than one person?

Is your business based on a partnership – where maybe both of you don’t always agree?

Are you family operated?

These three scenarios can lead to confusion amongst your people.  In an ideal situation those at the top always agree on how to run the day-to-day business and have a common understanding of the strategy. Yes in an ideal situation. You have been in business long enough to know that “ideal” is rare.

Picture a kitchen where you have two or three chefs, when each is giving their own dish to prepare a great meal is had by all. However have them preparing the same dish together with each adding in their own ingredients without communicating — well the outcome most likely will not be edible.

You may not work in a kitchen but the same results will happen when leaders don’t focus on their dish but choose to contribute to the other dishes without communication. Your business, like a kitchen, will rely on communication within the leadership. The leaders of the organization need to work out differences in private before speaking to the staff.

Having this debate in front of other people can only lead to disaster.  Most importantly if you are not showing a unified front, people will get uneasy and wonder how the business can run in two different directions.

Call the family, partners and leadership together and create a plan everyone can follow.  Strategy must be reached by consensus with all involved moving in the same direction. Day-to-day operations will be different. Put one person in charge of operations and let them run with it – if you don’t agree with how they are handling a situation, speak to them directly do not get others involved. Each leader must focus on their specialty.

Essentially this follows the Golden Rule of leadership – Praise in Public, Criticize in Private. Just because many of you are at the top, the rules don’t change.

How have you handled partner, leadership or family differences with your staff?