Building a Culture of Feedback

In an industry where cultivating guest relationships is critical to success, operators often forget that developing positive relationships with the people serving those guests is equally, if not more, important. I learned this lesson during my first job as a line cook, often working 10 to 12 hours a day, five to six days a week. I loved the challenge of the job and found the pace exhilarating. But over the course of a year, I also found the work environment to be extremely inequitable, discriminatory, and not conducive to long-term success. There was no forum for providing feedback to the executive chef, nor any opportunity or interest in telling me how I might improve my work.

Without a culture of feedback, once a month or so, after a grueling shift, I would march into the chef’s cramped office – which was a closet under the stairwell – and threaten to quit. This happened several times over the course of six months until the last time I threatened to quit, he simply said…