May 2, 2014
CEO Newsletter
Te3am,
Over the last five plus years I have always tried to build a culture of open communication. From my perspective, speaking your mind should not take an act of courage. We all have a responsibility to make our company better so we can ultimately deliver on our brand positioning of Making It Better To Be There.
I recently read a great workplace study compiled by Gallop on the Top 10 Best Practices of Winning Organizations. They interviewed 300,000 organizations and over 2 million employees. Below is the list of the best practices. Please take a moment and assess which are living in your department or venue and which you need to work on. The reality is that we need all 10 best practices not just to be in place but to be proactively and aggressively developed.
- Provide Clear Expectations – set goals, layout the vision along with specific deadlines for your team. Make sure these goals are reflected in your team’s annual performance reviews as well.
- Provide a Good Safe Place to Work with the Appropriate Tools – make sure your team has the appropriate resources to execute their jobs effectively.
- Find the Right People and Reward Them Appropriately – make sure you have the talent and reward structure in place to deliver on our programs.
- Provide Opportunities to Use Skills – ensure our employees have the opportunity to grow and continue to develop their knowledge and expertise.
- Ensure Supportive Workplace Relationships – make sure your team knows you personally care about them, not just at work but in life.
- Have Pride and Commitment – feel passionate about the business and where it is going; bring the Centerplate Promise to life in your venue or department.
- People Have a Voice – encourage your team to speak up and have a say in driving ongoing performance.
- Getting Feedback and Recognition – everyone has an opportunity to give positive and constructive feedback. It is proven that winning organizations provide feedback weekly. Are you?
- Having Fun – yes we are serious about performance but we can have fun while being serious. Make sure you are.
- Engage Learning and Development – this should be a given for all our employees. Commit to their learning program and make sure you utilize Spark. Drive personal development to the next level for yourself and your team.
Take a hard look at these 10 best practices and make sure that you can look in the mirror and honestly state that you have them all in place. Then, state it again and commit to continually improving and taking it to the next level.
E3 moments of the week …
Congratulations to Gary Wattie on being named the 2014 Mickey Warner Award recipient by the National Association of Concessionaires! The annual award is given in recognition of leadership and significant accomplishments in the non-theatre concession industry. With nearly 20 years’ experience, Gary is a well-known and respected leader in event hospitality and having built excellent relationships and business partnerships with many marquee clients, is well-deserving of this award. Also a current member of the NAC Board of Directors, he will be honored in July at the NAC Membership Luncheon during the The Concession and Hospitality Expo in Denver.
Two student groups from Miami Beach Senior High worked at the Progressive International Miami Boat Show at the Miami Beach Convention Center earning more than $15,000 for the ROTC and MBSH Activities and Athletic Departments. The students worked in several areas including in the back of the house on food production and preparation and at our two new mobile cart concepts. The Walking Taco showcased two new signature show items, CubanQ Signature Burger and Coca-Cola Pulled Pork Sandwich, produced by Executive Chef Bel Miller and Executive Sous Chef Rodrigo Piedrahita, and the Top Dog Cart featured the West Virginia Dog, Florida Dog, BLT Dog and Red Hot Chicago. Great community involvement by Nick Tierno and our entire team in Miami Beach!
The first event of the season for the Legends Club at the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs was held this past weekend, following the team’s home opening game last Thursday. The lunch was provided by the team to kick-off the season and club members were happy with the treat, “I just wanted to drop y’all a note to say how much Dad and I enjoyed the Legends Club Member lunch. Everything was great – food, wait staff, bar staff, duffel bag disbursement – don’t think we could have asked for anything more!” Great job by Chef Belinda Bransom, Anthony Hill and our team members at Regency Furniture Stadium!
“A leader’s abiding challenge is to make people’s strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.” – Peter Drucker
Onwards!
