What You Can Learn About Leadership From Jon Taffer

One of my favorite Sunday routines is watching the Bar Rescue marathon. Bar Rescue is a reality show that features Jon Taffer, a hospitality industry consultant who specializes in bars, pubs and nightclubs. Taffer offers the staff his professional expertise, and renovates failing bars in an effort to save them from going out of business. For me, it’s encouraging to see the turnaround, the creative ways he reinvents the bars and the manner he rallies teams together and gets them on the right track. The leadership student in me sees a familiar pattern in each episode though. In every episode, a failing bar, restaurant or club has an owner who either does not care enough to manage his bar or is too busy trying to appear to be what he calls a “big shot”. In the most extreme cases, the owner will do both. The ones who don’t care enough won’t be present in the establishment, they will either hide at home or in their office or they won’t train their staff and hold them accountable. The owners who want to be big shots will drink in their bars, give away drinks and carouse with female customers. In both cases, they will allow their business to deteriorate into filthy dives that new customers would never choose.

Leadership expert and author John Maxwell reminds us that, “Everything rises and falls with leadership”, in the cases of failing bars and restaurants, and in your organization. Usually for the same reasons. You don’t need to work at a bar to have a leader who does not care enough to manage their team. In your organization, you may have a boss who does not hold himself to a standard and does not hold anyone else to a standard either. You may have a boss who does not train anyone and is quick to yell and blame when problems arise. Bosses who don’t care usually spend very little time on who or what is important and instead spends time shifting his responsibility and covering his own rear. An issue training and accountability would easily resolve. Bosses who want to be big shots at your work walk around bragging about themselves, telling and retelling stories about their greatness, or humble bragging; bragging in a way that seems self-deprecating. In either case when a boss is more focused on themselves instead of the organization and the people who make up the teams failure is inevitable. Just like the owners on Bar Rescue focusing on their own happiness to the detriment of the team or organization, the leader will appear to be partying on a sinking ship.

In How The Mighty Fall, Jim Collins lists ‘Hubris Born of Success’ as the first of five stages of decline of successful companies that fell. According to his research, individuals experience some success then fall in love with themselves. Instead of tending to the organization and the people, they focus on themselves, getting credit, managing their image and other selfish pursuits. This hubris is what Hall of Fame Coach Pat Riley calls The Disease of Me. It usually arrives just after a team experiences some success and media attention turns to the team. When the lights and cameras show up, so does jealousy, backstabbing and selfishness. This disease is usually the reason teams with enough talent to win, don’t. Whether you’re running a Church, a Fortune 500 company, an NBA team or a Bar, Jon Taffer’s assessments are usually spot on; if it’s failing its due to an ineffective boss.

I watch Bar Rescue the way I watch an intense basketball game. I yell at the television. I laugh at a boss who argues to keep doing things his way even though he’s going broke and about to lose his business, house and life savings. I wonder aloud why people are so committed to practices that result in failure. Its almost always the same thing, and once Jon can open their eyes to it and get them to doing the things successful bar owners do, their businesses turn around. What you can learn about leadership from Jon Taffer is that you are responsible for your own success or failure. Your ego will tell you that you are right more often than you are and as you experience more success hubris will amplify that message. The result is treating your business and your team like they are a means to your personal end instead of treating them like they make the magic happen. As a leadership student, the show has become predictable except for the individuals who own the bars.

In the show there is a lot of yelling, tears, and sometimes foul language. These are not characteristics of a positive workplace. Of course, parts of the show is influenced by Hollywood’s desire for ratings. Those ratings require intense conflict. You can accomplish success without storming around your office and pointing out the failure of others. It also doesn’t matter where you fall on the organization chart, you can influence the whole organization if you understand that what the leader does matters and take ownership of it. Just like the final scene of the show, your organization will be a smooth running ship where people are free to communicate and are not intimidated by you. Pay attention to what matters and your team will SOAR!

 

William A. Brown 

June 16, 2019