Pal’s BEI was recently featured on the news-wire about how they sharing the management practices of Pal’s Sudden Service - a world-class leader in operational excellence and efficiency in the food service industry.

This is the first of series of articles on practical and proven keys to getting world class results. The practices described are proven practices of Pal’s Sudden Service, applicable to all organizations.  To learn more, attend Pal’s BEI “Achieving World Class Results” class.

Leadership is the key to excellence. No company has achieved it and sustained it without the right leadership.  Let’s examine what Pal’s manager’s do to sustain world class execution and results.  Pal’s managers have three roles:

1. Assess Processes: Determine if processes are being run exactly to the standard. Is there any problem with any process? Execution Hints:
   1. Pal’s manager’s are able to do every job exactly to standard; thus they can see even small variations from standard.
   2. Pal’s managers spend most of their time in the front of the store where all the processes are taking place, thus they have a lot of opportunity to observe.
2. Teach and coach: If there is any variance from standard, provide this feedback to the employee.    Execution Hints for World-Class:
   1. Find out why the variation and what can be done to prevent it in the future.
   2. Look for what managerial system that failed? (Training; staffing; culture that does not stress doing the job right every time and may even reward employees for taking short cuts, etc.) 
   3. Provide immediate coaching in a helpful and caring way that maintains self-esteem.
   4. Look for things done right that can be praised.  Try to have 3 praises for each corrective feedback.  Spent most of your time praising your best employees not with your poor performers or “squeaky wheels”
   5. Remember: ALL errors are management’s responsibility.  What do you have to do different to keep the error from reoccurring?
3. Interact One-on-One with customers:  Nothing replaces first hand contact.  Execution Hints for World-Class:
   1. Managers should position themselves to come into first hand contact with their customers.

 Further Execution Keys for Leaders:

1. Leaders get the behaviors they exhibit and reward
2. Link all the reward and compensation to strategy and goals
3. Leader’s behaviors must support the strategy and goals

 Everyone ought to have an elevator talk about their organization. This is a 30-45 second description of your company, what makes it special, and drives people to come by. Here’s Pal’s elevator talk, if talking to a business person:

Pal’s Sudden Service is a regional quick service restaurant with 22 locations in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. It sells the best hamburgers, hot dogs, Frenchie Fries, milk shakes, Big Chicken and Chipped Ham sandwiches, and is legendary for its big ice tea. Founded in 1956, it has 24 years of consecutive sales and market share growth; serves its customers 3 times faster than its competitors while also being 10 times more accurate; has half the employee turnover of its best competitors; and its customers are so loyal because of the value they receive, that they come back to Pal’s 3-4 times more often than the customer’s of our best competitors. That would be customers come back 3-4 times per week, rather than 3-4 time per month for its competitors. Pal’s is very profitable because it consistently provides a great value and has been in business over 50 years. To help others improve, For the past 10 years, Pal’s has been sharing the secrets of its success to all types of businesses through its Pal’s Business Excellence Institute.

 Want to learn more: Learn about Pal’s World-Class management practices by talking the Sept 14-15 “Achieving World-Class Results” (palsbei then click on “courses” at the bottom of the page). It gives a great overview of all of Pal’s systems and how they fit together to produce world-class results.