The days are gone where the “new guy” comes in hungry for knowledge with nonstop questions and absorbing info like a sponge.
One of the greatest opportunities in anyone’s career is landing the job that is above your skill set; quickly your job becomes, how do I catch up?
The insecurities that come with it are hard to avoid; how you handle the desire to hide your inexperience is the challenge; the ones who exceed will seek knowledge from others and attack with a strong work ethic which won’t “hide” the inexperience but it will not be a factor as production continues unimpeded and everyone stays busy until you have the skills to again be a Leader.
It seems today’s youth prefer a different route and instead choose to throw their new authority around insisting upon full admiration and compliance with their rules and direction they just “made up”; believing they are so miraculous that they couldn’t possibly be wrong.
Einstein once said; “the intelligent man knows what he doesn’t know”.
The challenge for fellow leadership team members or subordinates that have the experience they don’t, is how do you ‘educate’ them on tried and true systems and techniques that work well and are universally in place throughout your industry……..without pissing them off!!
Even polite sharing of past experiences will anger them as they fear you are “telling them how to do their job”.
Even sharing an alternative view/technique for comparison in the interest of learning the virtues of the new plan can earn you a angry response or even an formal reprimand!
Careful presentation of the challenges and procedures that have worked in the past often fall on deaf ears, even if they were learned at world famous properties or organizations ten times the size of the current one; they still can’t see beyond their clouded vision.
Not saying anything and “dealing” with the inefficiencies created will often make your tasks harder and still leave you open for blame when something goes wrong; making “doing nothing” a poor option; even if it is true out of respect for the individual until “they get their feet on the ground”.
If you are a Grumpy Chef like me, you will repeatedly try all of the above even knowing the results are likely to be no improvement at best or “your are the problem” at worst!
As you might have guessed by now; I really don’t have the answer but sometimes if you know what kind of storm is coming your way, it will better help you to weather it!
The Grumpy Chef 