The Waiter Rule

USA Today has an article about "The Waiter Rule" - namely, how you treat a waiter tells a lot about your personality and what type of manager you'll be.  The CEO of Raytheon Bill Swanson included the waiter rule in his booklet of 33 short leadership observations called Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management. I love it. When I'm a rich and powerful executive, I think everytime I'm interviewing someone for a position or something important, it will be in a restaurant.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that grace and agility don't exactly come naturally to me. I'm a bit of a klutz, or as an ex of mine used to tease me, I could trip over air. Naturally, this posed a little challenge in the early days of my waitressing career.

Similar to Office Depot's CEO Steve Odland's anecdote, on my first day of waiting tables, I spilled a glass of red wine all over a woman. I nearly burst into tears, apologized profusely, and explained that it was my first day. Not only did she tell me not to worry about it, but they came back the next night, requested to sit in my section, and ordered more wine. I wish I had thought to ask her her name.

Comments

[Rosey]

you always have such great links. i showed this article to a friend and it ended up being used in a management meeting this morning. thanks.