Effective Leadership

One of the biggest factors in achieving success in your nutrition program, is to have a hard working and dedicated staff. Last year, we addressed ways to help your staff succeed when it came to following food safety procedures – but let’s take it to the next level. We want our employees to succeed because we care about them, care about who they are serving, and care about the overall organization. Excellent leaders in the school nutrition industry should care about all of these things.

Now that 2020 is in full motion, we wanted to offer three key tips on effective leadership and employee motivation. 

  • Listen

Listening goes beyond waiting for a pause in the conversation. If you are just waiting for your turn to speak, you are simply hearing. Your employees have a certain trust in you that should be welcomed with gratitude and appreciation. If they come to you with new ideas or any sort of complaint, then make sure you are understanding what it is they are saying to you. If you find yourself interrupting, you are not listening. If you find yourself without a solution to a problem, you aren’t listening.

Take the time to process what is being said to you, and go from there. 

  • Develop

Work with your employees so that they could one day be a leader themselves. Mentoring your staff can go a long way in preventing any potential employee turnover. Very rarely will you meet someone who wants to stay stagnant in their career. People are always looking to take the next step, take on more responsibilities, and to find purpose in their daily work. Don’t let that fire fade away in your staff – help it grow!

  • Communicate

Keep a consistent message communicated throughout your team. Explain the expectations you have set for them so as to avoid any confusion.  Whether you like it or not, your staff will always talk amongst one another. So whatever you say to one person, make sure you say the same to another. 

Overall, it’s important to remember that a leader is more effective than a “boss”, and typically sees better overall results from their staff.