🌱Mentally Fit Hospitality (What 'The Bear' is Not)

A 2 min read.

Picture this: a cramped kitchen filled with the clanging of pots and pans, the constant shouting of orders, and the hurried footsteps of overworked chefs. The air is thick with tension as the team struggles to keep up with the relentless pace of dinner service. Mistakes are made, tempers flare, and the pressure mounts with every passing minute. This chaotic scene, vividly portrayed in the TV show The Bear, is a stark example of an unmentally fit team.

In such an environment, the toll on mental health is palpable. Stress and burnout are rampant, and the team’s ability to function effectively and harmoniously is compromised. Unlike the fictional portrayal in The Bear, a mentally fit team operates with resilience, clear communication, and a balanced approach to challenges.

If the scenario above feels uncomfortably familiar to you, I can help. Let’s connect at christinlmarvin@gmail.com

What is Mental Fitness?

Mental fitness refers to the state of your mental health and well-being. It involves the ability to manage emotions effectively, cope with stress, and maintain a positive outlook on life. For restaurant owners and operators, mental fitness is crucial as it directly impacts your ability to lead and maintain a thriving business.

Being mentally fit means having the resilience to bounce back from setbacks, adapt to changes, and maintain emotional balance during tough times. It allows you to regulate your emotions, maintain healthy relationships with your team, and achieve important goals.

Like physical fitness, mental fitness is not a static state but a continuous process requiring ongoing effort and attention. It can be improved with regular practice and the right strategies.

Mental Fitness in the Hospitality Industry

In hospitality, we pride ourselves on being some of the hardest working, most adaptable, and highly functional people around. We juggle long hours, manage countless problems during shifts, and run every station with expertise. We are true badasses!

However, this relentless drive comes at a mental cost. Managing costs, ingredients, product consistency, and guest satisfaction is an all-encompassing task. It’s easy to carry work home, both mentally and physically. As leaders, we often extend our guidance beyond our shifts, sometimes even on our days off.

Over the years, I’ve realized that while I excel at giving, I struggle with receiving – whether it’s help from others or time for myself. My passion for hospitality stems from a desire for connection with both staff and guests. I love saying yes to guest requests whenever possible.

I've spent much of my career pushing forward with relentless ambition, always striving to prove myself. Yet, in hindsight, the times I allowed myself to slow down – to meditate, exercise, or simply rest – were the periods of greatest growth and success. Balancing rest and action has been key to building resilience and achieving sustained development. As I reflect on my journey, I realize that these small changes made a significant impact on my well-being and effectiveness as a leader. Here are three practical tips to help you and your team achieve mental fitness:

3 Tips to Achieve Mental Fitness

1. Prioritize Self-Care:

Just like scheduling a staff meeting or a service shift, make time for self-care. Whether it's meditation, a massage, or a workout, prioritize activities that help you recharge. Self-care isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity for maintaining mental health and resilience.

2. Set Boundaries:

Establish clear boundaries between work and personal life. Learn to say no when necessary and delegate tasks to your team. This not only prevents burnout but also empowers your staff by giving them more responsibility and trust.

3. Practice Mindfulness:

Incorporate mindfulness practices into your daily routine. Simple techniques like deep breathing, mindful walking, or a few moments of meditation can help you stay grounded and reduce stress. Mindfulness enhances your ability to handle the pressures of the hospitality industry with a calm and focused mind.

Painting the Picture

Now, imagine your team again, but this time in a real restaurant setting. The kitchen is a hive of calm efficiency, with chefs collaborating effortlessly. The front-of-house staff glides through their tasks, intuitively meeting the needs of every guest. Communication is clear, energy is positive, and the restaurant operates like a well-oiled machine. The atmosphere is welcoming, guests are delighted, and your team is both capable and connected.

This is the power of mental fitness – a harmonious, efficient, and resilient team, ready to face anything. Prioritize mental fitness, and watch your restaurant and team flourish like never before.

To learn more about mental fitness, email me at christinlmarvin@gmail.com

P.S. 

For more leadership development, here are some additional resources for you:

1. Tune into the No Hesitations Podcast Episode 32 : How to Lead with Clarity : 5 Strategies for Effective Restaurant Management

2. To grow your leadership in just 5 minutes a day, join my 12 Day Leadership Challenge.

3. Contact me for a strategy session about overcoming your biggest challenge at christinlmarvin@gmail.com and start transforming your mindset, your restaurant, and your life today!

🌱 3 Powerful Ways Meditation Transforms Restaurant Leadership

A 2 min read.

In the fast-paced world of restaurants, stress and pressure can often feel like constants. As restaurant owners and operators, you're juggling a mountain of tasks, managing a different team everyday, and ensuring guest satisfaction—all while striving for growth and profitability. Incorporating a simple practice like meditation into your daily routine can provide significant benefits, enhancing both your personal well-being and business operations. Let's explore three key benefits of meditation and how just 10 minutes a day can transform your life and leadership.

1. Reduced Stress

Stress is a common challenge in the restaurant industry. The daily hustle, unexpected issues, varying sleep schedule and long hours can take a toll on your mental and physical health. Meditation is a powerful tool for reducing stress. When you meditate, you engage in deep breathing and mindfulness, which helps calm the mind and body. This practice activates the body's relaxation response, lowering cortisol levels and reducing the impact of stress.

How Could This Impact Your Business?

Lower stress levels mean you can think more clearly, make better decisions, and maintain a positive environment in your restaurant. A calm leader sets the tone for the entire team, leading to improved morale and productivity.

If stress is impacting your performance as a leader-I’ve been there and can help. Let’s connect at christinlmarvin@gmail.com

2. Increased Patience

Running a restaurant requires immense patience every single shift. Whether you're dealing with a challenging guest, a vendor issue, or staff conflicts, maintaining composure is crucial. Meditation enhances your ability to remain patient by training your mind to stay present and focused, rather than reacting impulsively.

How Could This Impact Your Business?

Increased patience allows you to handle stressful situations with grace, leading to more effective conflict resolution and better relationships with your team and customers. A patient leader is viewed as reliable and trustworthy, fostering a more cohesive and motivated team.

3. Enhanced Problem Solving

In the restaurant industry, quick and effective problem-solving is essential. Meditation sharpens your cognitive functions, improving your ability to think critically and creatively. By regularly practicing mindfulness, you enhance your capacity to approach problems with a clear and open mind, considering multiple perspectives and solutions.

How Could This Impact Your Business?

With enhanced problem-solving skills, you can address operational challenges more efficiently, innovate menu offerings, and streamline processes. This proactive approach can lead to increased guest satisfaction and overall business growth.

Busting the Myth: You Don't Have to Be "Good" at Meditation

A common misconception about meditation is that you need to be "good" at it or achieve a certain level of expertise to reap its benefits. The truth is, meditation is a practice, and like any skill, it improves over time. The key is consistency, not perfection. Even if your mind wanders or you find it difficult to stay focused, the act of meditating regularly can still provide significant benefits.

The Power of Just 10 Minutes a Day

You might wonder how much impact a short meditation session can have. Studies show that even 10 minutes of meditation a day can lead to noticeable improvements in mental clarity, emotional stability, and stress reduction. This small investment of time can yield substantial returns in your quality of life and business operations.

Resources and Apps to Get Started

Ready to incorporate meditation into your routine? Here are some free resources and apps to help you get started:

1. Headspace: Offers a variety of guided meditations, including a beginner's course.

2. Calm: Provides guided meditations, breathing exercises, and sleep stories.

Incorporating meditation into your daily routine can be a game-changer for both your personal well-being and your restaurant operations. By reducing stress, increasing patience, and enhancing problem-solving skills, meditation helps you become a more effective and resilient leader. Remember, you don't have to be an expert—just 10 minutes a day can make a significant difference. Give it a try and watch how this simple practice can transform your life and business.

Interested in learning more about improving your personal well-being and restaurant operations? Let’s connect at christinlmarvin@gmail.com

P.S. 

For more leadership development, here are some additional resources for you:

1. Tune into the No Hesitations Podcast Episode 32 : How to Lead with Clarity : 5 Strategies for Effective Restaurant Management

2. Contact me for a strategy session about overcoming your biggest challenge at christinlmarvin@gmail.com and start transforming your mindset, your restaurant, and your life today!

🌱 Mastering Mental Fitness: Transforming Chaos into Calm for Hospitality Leaders

A 3 min read.

Picture this: It’s a busy Friday night at your restaurant. The kitchen is backed up with orders, guests are waiting in the entryway as you are running behind on their reservations, and there’s a mistake in a large party’s bill that needs your immediate attention. Your stress levels are through the roof. You feel overwhelmed, reactive, and it seems like the chaos will never end. You snap at your staff, your decision-making is impaired, and the whole team feels the tension.

Now imagine the same scenario, but this time, you’ve invested in your mental fitness. You remain calm and composed, effectively communicating with your team, delegating tasks with clarity, and solving problems with a level-headed approach. The kitchen still has a lot of orders, the guests are still waiting for their tables, and there’s still a mistake in the bill, but your response is different. The energy you bring to the situation helps diffuse tension, keeps your team focused, and ensures the night runs smoother despite the challenges. This is what mental fitness looks and feels like.

What is Mental Fitness?

Mental fitness refers to the capacity to respond to life’s challenges with a positive rather than a negative mindset. It’s about strengthening your mind to handle stress, improve decision-making, and maintain emotional balance. Just like physical fitness requires regular exercise, mental fitness involves practices that build resilience, focus, and positivity.

Shirzad Chamine, in his book, Positive Intelligence, introduces the concept of mental fitness through the framework of identifying and managing our inner saboteurs. Saboteurs are the voices in your head that generate negative emotions as you handle life's everyday challenges. They represent the automatic patterns in your mind for how to think, feel, and respond. Your Saboteurs cause all of your stress, anxiety, self-doubt, frustration, restlessness, and unhappiness.

If stress, anxiety, frustration, self-doubt and unhappiness is impacting your performance as a leader-I’ve been there and can help. Let’s connect at christinlmarvin@gmail.com

Saboteurs and Their Impact on Restaurant Leaders

Chamine identifies ten saboteurs, each with a unique way of manifesting in our lives. As a restaurant leader, understanding these saboteurs can help you recognize how they might be affecting your work and your team.

1. The Judge: This is the master saboteur that finds fault with yourself, others, and your circumstances. As a leader, the Judge might make you overly critical of your staff’s mistakes, harsh on yourself for any perceived failures, and constantly dissatisfied with how things are running.

2. The Stickler: This saboteur is a perfectionist, pushing for flawless results. In a restaurant setting, the Stickler can cause you to micromanage your team, become overly stressed about minor details, and create an atmosphere of pressure and anxiety.

3. The Controller: The Controller wants to take charge and control everything. This can lead to you being overbearing, not trusting your team, and causing frustration among your staff due to your need for control.

4. The Hyper-Achiever: This saboteur ties your self-worth to success and achievements. As a restaurant leader, the Hyper-Achiever might drive you to set unrealistic goals, work excessively long hours, and neglect personal well-being and relationships in pursuit of success.

5. The People Pleaser: The Pleaser tries to gain acceptance and affection by helping, pleasing, or rescuing others. In your role, this can lead to overcommitting, resenting your team for not working as hard as you, saying yes to every request, and burning out because you’re trying to keep everyone happy.

6. The Restless: The Restless is constantly in search of greater excitement. As a leader, this can result in you frequently changing plans, being easily distracted, and not following through on long-term strategies, causing instability for your team.

7. The Avoider: The Avoider focuses on avoiding difficult and unpleasant tasks and conversations. This can manifest as procrastination on important decisions, ignoring performance issues with staff, and delaying necessary but uncomfortable conversations.

8. The Victim: The Victim feels emotional and temperamental as a way of gaining attention and affection. As a restaurant leader, this can result in you feeling constantly overwhelmed, complaining about how hard things are, and draining your team’s energy with negativity.

9. The Hyper-Rational: This saboteur values the rational mind over emotions and relationships. You might focus excessively on data and logic, neglecting the emotional needs of your team and failing to connect with them on a personal level.

10. The Hyper-Vigilant: The Hyper-Vigilant is constantly anxious and vigilant, fearing that something will go wrong. In a restaurant setting, this can make you overly cautious, stress out your team with your constant worry, and prevent innovative and bold decisions.

Transforming Your Leadership Through Mental Fitness

By identifying these saboteurs, you can start to counteract their negative influence and strengthen your mental fitness. Here’s how focusing on mental fitness can transform your restaurant leadership:

1. Improved Decision-Making: When you’re mentally fit, you’re able to approach problems with a clear, calm mind. This leads to better decisions that are thought through and not driven by stress or panic.

2. Enhanced Communication: A mentally fit leader communicates more effectively, with empathy and clarity. This helps build stronger relationships with your team and improves overall morale.

3. Stress Management: Mental fitness practices, such as mindfulness and self-awareness, help you manage stress better. You remain composed under pressure, setting a positive tone for your team.

4. Boosted Team Performance: As you become more positive and supportive, your team is likely to mirror this behavior. A positive environment boosts productivity, creativity, and overall performance.

5. Increased Resilience: Mental fitness builds your resilience, helping you bounce back from setbacks quickly. This quality is crucial in the dynamic and often unpredictable world of hospitality.

6. Greater Work-Life Balance: With improved mental fitness, you’re better equipped to set boundaries and manage your time effectively, leading to a healthier work-life balance.

How I Can Help

As a coach trained in mental fitness, I can guide you through the process of identifying and managing your saboteurs. Together, we can develop strategies to enhance your mental fitness, leading to improved leadership skills, a more positive work environment, and a thriving restaurant.

Through one-on-one coaching and leadership workshops, I offer tailored support to help you:

- Identify and counteract your saboteurs: Gain awareness of the negative patterns holding you back and learn practical techniques to overcome them.

- Build mental fitness: Develop habits and practices that strengthen your mental resilience and positivity.

- Improve leadership skills: Enhance your communication, decision-making, and stress management abilities.

- Achieve work-life balance: Learn to set boundaries, manage your time effectively, and maintain a healthy balance between work and personal life.

Investing in your mental fitness is not just about improving your well-being; it’s about creating a positive ripple effect that impacts your entire team and restaurant. Reach out today to start your journey towards becoming a mentally fit and highly effective hospitality leader.

Interested in learning more about mental fitness? Let’s connect at christinlmarvin@gmail.com

P.S. 

For more leadership development, here are some additional resources for you:

1. Tune into the No Hesitations Podcast Episode 32 : How to Lead with Clarity : 5 Strategies for Effective Restaurant Management

2. Contact me for a strategy session about overcoming your biggest challenge at christinlmarvin@gmail.com and start transforming your mindset, your restaurant, and your life today!

____________________________________________________________________________

Chamine, Shirzad. Positive intelligence: Why only 20% of teams and individuals achieve their true potential AND HOW YOU can achieve yours. Austin, TX: Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2016. 

🌱 Unlocking Your Restaurant’s Potential: The Power of Intuition

A 2 min read.

Picture this: You're standing in your bustling kitchen during a busy dinner service when suddenly, a gut feeling tells you to check on the new sous chef. Without any obvious reason, you follow that instinct. When you arrive, you find them struggling on the line, nearing the edge of a meltdown or walkout. Your timely intervention not only saves the night but also strengthens your relationship with your team.

Running a restaurant isn’t just about the day-to-day grind; it's about tapping into your inner resources to make decisions that can elevate your business and develop your team. While data and logic are vital, there's another powerful tool at your disposal—your intuition. Learning to harness and trust your intuition can lead to more inspired choices, smoother operations, and a stronger, more cohesive team. Here’s how developing your intuition can make a significant difference in your restaurant.

What Is Intuition?

Intuition is often described as a gut feeling or an inner knowing that guides your decisions without conscious reasoning. It's that quiet voice that tells you to hire a particular person, change a menu item, or address an unseen issue in the dining room before it escalates. Developing this skill can provide you with a competitive edge in the restaurant industry.

If you’d like help developing your leadership skills, let’s connect at christinmarvin.com/contact

Why Intuition Matters

1. Better Decision-Making: Intuition can help you make quicker and more confident decisions, especially in high-pressure situations.

   - Example: During a chaotic service, you might sense that a new dish or cocktail needs to be pulled from the menu for the night. Trusting your gut, you make the call, preventing potential customer dissatisfaction and maintaining the evening's flow.

2. Enhanced Leadership: A leader who trusts their intuition is often seen as more decisive and confident.

   - Example: When a valued team member asks for feedback, your intuition helps you deliver constructive criticism in a way that motivates rather than discourages them. This builds respect and trust within your team.

3. Improved Staff Development: Your intuition can guide you in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your team members, allowing you to provide better support and opportunities for growth.

   - Example: You have a feeling that one of your servers, bartenders or hosts has management potential. Despite their lack of experience, you start mentoring them, and they quickly prove to be a capable and enthusiastic leader, enhancing your team's overall performance.

How to Develop Your Intuition

Here are some practical steps you can take to tap into your inner knowing:

1. Meditation and Mindfulness: Regularly practicing meditation can quiet your mind, creating space to make it easier to hear your intuitive thoughts. Even 5 minutes a day can make a big difference.

2. Pay Attention to Your Gut Feelings: Start noticing when you have gut feelings and take note of the outcomes when you follow them. This practice can help you become more attuned to your intuitive signals. Start small and practice making gut decisions in your personal life.
3. Reflect on Past Decisions: Think about times when you’ve made decisions based on intuition. What was the result? Reflecting on these instances can build your confidence in trusting your gut.

4. Journal Your Thoughts: Writing down your thoughts and feelings can help you clarify your intuitive hunches. Journaling can be a powerful tool for accessing your inner wisdom.

5. Spend Time in Nature: Nature has a way of grounding us and connecting us to our inner selves. Take regular walks or spend time outdoors to clear your mind and boost your intuition.

6. Seek Silence: In the hustle and bustle of restaurant life, finding moments of silence can be challenging but crucial. Create small pockets of quiet time during your day to listen to your inner voice.

7. Trust Yourself: Building intuition is about building trust in yourself. The more you rely on your intuition, the stronger it will become.

Putting Intuition into Practice

Imagine you’re considering a significant menu change. The data might show that certain items aren’t performing well, but your intuition could tell you that a twist on a classic favorite might just be what your customers crave. Or perhaps you sense that a team member, though struggling now, has great potential if given the right support. Acting on these intuitive insights can lead to breakthroughs that data alone might not predict.

Developing your intuition isn’t about ignoring facts and figures; it's about complimenting them with a deeper, more instinctual understanding of your business and team. By honing this skill, you can make more balanced, inspired decisions that can propel your restaurant to new heights.

Start today by taking small steps to listen to your inner voice. You might be surprised at the clarity and direction it can provide.

Interested in learning more about intuitive leadership? I can help. Let’s connect at christinlmarvin@gmail.com

P.S. 

For more leadership development, here are some additional resources for you:

1. Tune into the No Hesitations Podcast Episode 32 : How to Lead with Clarity : 5 Strategies for Effective Restaurant Management

2. Contact me for a strategy session about overcoming your biggest challenge at christinlmarvin@gmail.com and start transforming your mindset, your restaurant, and your life today!