THE CHEF’S STRESS

Your stomach is churning, hands sweaty, vision a bit out of focus, throat is dry, and there is a slight shakiness in your hands. If you were to check your blood pressure at this point it would be alarmingly high and to discover this would only heighten your numbers and the effects. Your reaction is mixed: should I sit down and try to relax, pace, or power walk around the building exterior. You need some fresh air, a drink of water, and just a few moments to get away. That decision stands before you: fight or flight? Yep…you are having a panic attack brought on by excessive stress and a lack of understanding what might be going on. Am I having a heart attack? Am I going to pass out? Should I be headed for the hospital? It’s a panic attack!

         If you are a chef, there’s a good chance that you’ve experienced this feeling more than once. Just thinking about it again, kicks your pulse into high gear. It’s an awful feeling – a feeling of helplessness. Your mind and body are moving in a different direction than you planned, and you suddenly realize that you can’t make it stop. You step outside, take a few shallow breaths, close your eyes and think about a time that brought you peace. After a few more minutes, things start to calm down and you breathe normal, feeling like you are gaining control again. Suddenly, you are very tired, you sense a bit of brain fog with flashes of being cold and then hot. You sit back in your office chair with rubbery legs and sweaty palms and realize that it’s over…for now. Am I bringing up bad memories? Does this sound familiar to you? Well, like many of you, I’ve been there…not for a while though, mainly because I’m retired and able to smile when I think of all the reasons that I let this occur several times in my past. So, here’s what I learned…NINE TIPS ON HOW TO MANAGE YOUR STRESS:

[]       ORGANIZATION:

This reality goes back to those days when you were a line cook. If you’re organized, then you can handle volume, muti-tasking, surprises, and mistakes. The line cook’s mise en place needs to be the chef’s larger organizational task. Everything has a place, every task has its process, and everything, as well as every process needs to be in place.

[]       REALIZATION:

The chef needs to break away from the attitude of: if you want it done right – do it yourself. The realization that this is not logical, possible, or beneficial to anyone is the first step towards minimizing stress.

[]       HIRE TO YOUR GOAL:

Beginning with the interview process, discover the way that individuals act or react to situations. The more reactionary they are, the more stress they will add to everyone’s day. Each employee, in a stress-lite environment must be willing to take on a higher level of responsibility. Hire people who want to be accountable.

[]       TRAINING:

Stress is oftentimes the result of poor training. Think way beyond your orientation program and build in group and personal training designed to lower the operational stress level. Teach a line cook to take inventory, train you sous chef to handle the ordering, make your dishwasher responsible for monitoring sanitation requirements, show your prep cook how to better utilize leftovers and scrap ingredients to lower food cost. Bring everyone into the system – beyond their primary job.

[]       COMMUNICATION:

Share the good, bad and ugly with your staff. Turn your burden into their opportunity. Food cost is too high – bring your team together, let them know, and ask for their thoughts on ways to bring it under control. Do the same with sales, customer comments, labor cost, waste, menu analytics, etc. Create an “OWNERSHIP” mentality.

[]       TRUST:

Once properly trained, you must trust the people who work with you. You’ll never be able to take a relaxing day off without a high level of trust in your team.

[]       DELEGATION:

Aside from those special tasks that you have trained them to perform, know that most people enjoy being trusted with more responsibility. Great leaders are proficient delegators. Just make sure if you do, know that with delegation comes responsibility and authority to make decisions on their own. Back them, even if they make a mistake. Show them how to grow into the role of decision-maker.

[]       PRIORITIZE:

Prioritize those tasks that must or should be your responsibility and then build them into a critical list. Try to avoid those tasks that are just NOISE and take away from your priorities.

[]       BALANCE:

Finally, stress has a challenging time surviving in an environment where the person has found a way to create balance in their lives. Whatever works for you: family time, exercise, sports, music, occasional travel, art, reading…these are priorities as well. Don’t push them aside.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER – REDUCE STRESS

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