Before your mind starts spiralling to dim lights, red roses, dark chocolate, delicious dinner and the beautiful aroma from those scented candles, I want you to snap out of that thought process – we’ll only focus on the empty tables and how they look 😊.
When was the last time you went to a restaurant or walked past one? How was it – full or empty? How did you feel?
An empty restaurant could be telling us a number of things: (1) I am too important and I am reserved for an important and exclusive function; (2) I only open at certain times, you are welcome to visit me in those times; (3) I am trying my best to look as presentable as I can be, so that you see and visit me; (4) I welcome all at any time, when you are ready and we’ll serve you best; etc. There are so many messages that an empty restaurant could be telling us.
One that comes to my mind, especially in the current gloomy economic times, is that a restaurant with empty tables is saying “I need your attention!! Please come visit me!!” and in most cases people wouldn’t really visit it even though the chairs and tables look cosy and comfortable. Why?
What could be the reason for the non-visit to the restaurant? Could it be simply that the restaurant is open to anyone but not someone? I think it could be the latter! In a world filled with so many options, if you are for anyone, you may miss the right customers and get no one coming through.
So, one counterintuitive thing that the restaurant could do, is to reduce the number of tables and chairs and only allow a few people to come in, at a specific time. In this way, the restaurant’s performance and its popularity are likely to go up.
This insight is important to individuals, especially in team setups – know it all, but focus on doing one thing really well. This is easier in large organizations. So, what does one do when the organization is small and the resources to specialize are not there? The best starting point is to stop, step back and look at your daily or weekly activities, ideally get someone to look at those activities with you. Once that is done, then you become accountable to them on how you cover them – it is tempting to try do everything at once, and by doing that you become a restaurant with empty tables, unable to fill any of the tables and at the end of the day feeling like you have done and achieved nothing.
The key!!! Reduce the number of tables that you need to serve, serve those that you are excellent in, and allow others to serve those you are not good at. In that way, the tables you serve become equally sexy as those that you don’t serve! And you get more and happy returning customers.
#coaching #valuesystems #highachievers #businesscoaching #topofmindthursdays