Sunday, August 14, 2011

Pret A Manger's fresh take on fast food

Who said that low paid workplaces does not have enough motivation?
Who said there is little growth in Fast food chains?
Who said that in low paid jobs, there is less focus on training or doubts that the personnel are not trainable?
Whoever said that Big Chains do not care enough for their staff?
Read on......i bet you will have at least one takeaway....3 Cheers to Pret A Manger


British sandwich chain keeps lines short and employees energized

Something weird is happening inside a Pret A Manger sandwich shop on Broadway in New York.
It is not all those unfamiliar British sandwiches, thin and understated, with ingredients like free-range egg mayonnaise and avocado-and-pine-nut filling.
No, it is the employees. The cashier is asking New Yorkers how they are doing -and genuinely seems to want an answer. The guy who is throwing out the garbage offers customers cups of water.
The manager swings by to commiserate about the sweltering weather.
This is fast food? In New York?
Pret A Manger, the British chain, has gained a foothold in New York's McWorld of burgers and fries, where you can fun-size this, combo that and, face it, sort of expect sullen service.
Next to, say, McDonald's, Pret A Manger amounts to a fleck of relish, if that. Last year, Pret posted sales of £327.5 million, or about $534 million. The take at McDonald's: $24 billion. But Pret A Manger -the name means ``ready to eat'' in French -is slowly expanding in New York and other cities with its own brand of grab-and-go food and, more significant, a fresh approach to fast-food service.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Managing teams

PRADEEP CHAKRAVARTHY
Leaders must ensure that every team member pitches in and is committed to completing the task on hand.
From my interactions with many newly-promoted leaders, I find that more often than not at a junior /mid-level, one of their greatest challenges is that they have to, for the first time, lead a team of people. Often, some or all of these people may actually have been their peers in the past. That makes it all the more difficult. However, today work has become so complex and the scale so vast that the most efficient leaders and managers are those who get work done and visions translated into reality by a lot of people and not by themselves. Yes, the day of the individual contributor is not over, but very often, in organisations, those who lead large teams become more visible and powerful.
Task focus is important since the effectiveness of the team is going to be measured by the satisfactory completion of the task. What has to be done, why it should be done and how it should be done are key questions the team lead and all the team members alike will have to answer. Who does what is also important. As is the question of when, which fellow team member must be consulted or just informed. Whether the team members have all the hardware and software to perform the task is a key question. Some members may want much more than what is really needed or can be given and clear answers on these are important so that expectations are clear.
People are the essence of the team and they will, more than anyone else, define the success of the team. How do they see the end vision, do all the team members see the end vision the same way or is it like the proverbial blind people feeling different parts of the elephant and seeing different things? Do the people in the team see the task as a tick off or do they see it as fulfilling a greater purpose for themselves and for others could also be instrumental in affecting their levels of commitment.
Successful practices in managing teams try to balance the tasks and the people aspect. I have personally found many successful leaders intuitively good at the Blake and Mouton model and the Full Range Leadership model that looks at both transformational leadership and transactional leadership.
Whichever model is used, successful managers of teams spend time chalking out the end success criteria in detail so that everyone knows and agrees with it, and everyone knows who has to do what and by when. They also have regular reviews and persistently ensure the balance between the job getting done and the people, both learning new skills from it and feeling emotionally connected to the task that is done.
(The writer works with the Infosys Leadership Institute. This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated July 11, 2011)

Thank You

Friday, July 22, 2011

Develop the 4 Qualities of an Inspirational Leader


Leaders need vision, energy, authority, and a natural strategic ability. But those things don't necessarily help you inspire your employees to be their best and commit to you as a leader. Here are the four qualities you need to capture the hearts, minds, and spirits of your people:
  1. Humanness. Nobody wants to work with a perfect leader. Build collaboration and solidarity by revealing your weaknesses.
  2. Intuition. To be most effective, you need to know what's going on without others spelling it out for you. Collect unspoken data from body language and looks given across rooms to help you intuit the underlying messages.
  3. Tough empathy. Care deeply about your employees, but accept nothing less than their very best.
  4. Uniqueness. Demonstrate that you are a singular leader by showing your unique qualities to those around you.
Source : HBR.org . Thank You.