Leadership

The Gordon Ramsay Recipe @ Work

By Robert Gerrish

Updated on: August 12, 2008 / 6:57 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

Last week I tried to imagine how we'd all fair if foul-mouthed, Gordon Ramsay burst in and saw us at work. When he goes for the jugular he generally focuses in on these areas:

Passion
Offerings
Competence
Support
Value
Choice

So let's get our knives and forks out and get stuck in.

1. Passion
So is passion showing up sufficiently in your business? Is it as prominent as the day you started?

Passion attracts --- it attracts customers, good staff and countless opportunities.

If the fire of your passion has subsided somewhat, take steps to reignite it. Better still take leaps.

2. Offerings
If your customers are not buying what you're offering, something is out of whack.

Take a lesson from Gordon Ramsay's actions. Grab yourself a notepad and get out and talk to your customers and potential customers.

What are their major 'hot buttons' and to what extent are you answering them.

As Ramsay often demonstrates: get customers in the door chasing what they want; once they become fans you can up-sell and take them to a brave, new world.

3. Competence
So are you and your staff really up to scratch?

Putting focus on increasing skills is a great way to retain staff and it may just help you get back in touch with that important ingredient from point 1.

4. Support
From some research we undertook recently at Flying Solo, we know that business owners continue to try and do everything themselves. Not a good idea.

You simply cannot be chef and front of house. Get the right people around you and be aware that as Gordon discovers, they're usually already there--just not being utilised effectively.

If you're struggling, Google "How to delegate" and sit somewhere quiet --- away from people, emails and phones. It is possible.

5. Value
Another thing us GR devotees regularly witness is the distinction between those who provide 'as little as possible for the money' versus those who provide 'as much as possible for the money'.

So where do you sit?

6. Choice
Offering a wide choice is fine so long as your customers can make sense of it and your staff can handle it.

If you're forever seeing people scratching their heads or asking for clarification when confronted with choice it's probably time you looked at reducing the menu.

Make it easy to satisfy an appetite and your 'kitchen' will never be quiet.

Now stop %$#&$#@ around and get on with it! As Gordon would say.