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Institute's study finds midlevel managers lack leadership trainingBy Dina Berta PROVIDENCE, R..I. The restaurant industry, which often can boast of detailed and effective training for hourly workers and unit managers, falls short when it comes to teaching leadership skills to middle and senior level managers, according to a study by the Elliot Leadership Institute at Johnson & Wales University.
Established on the university's Providence campus in January, the institute is a center for the advancement of leadership within the foodservice and hospitality industries. Its mission is to help develop the next generation of leaders, with a strong emphasis on middle and senior managers. "The Next Generation of Leadership Research" is the first of several projects to conic from the institute, which was founded by Elliot Solutions, Johnson & Wales, Nation's Restaurant News and Pepsi Cola North America Foodservice Division. Conducted online by NRN Research.com, the study examined responses from executives and managers who were asked to determine what the level of their leadership skills was and where they saw a need for improvement and development. Two hundred and eight respondents completed the questionnaire. Of those, 48 percent were top level executives, including chief executives, chief financial officers and chief operating officers. Respondents indicated a crisis in leadership training. The study found that most training is geared toward teaching how to manage but not how to lead. It also found that those in the middle middle managers who are directors and regional supervisors of multiple units as well as their counterparts in corporate offices are picking up their leadership skills through on the job trial and error. When respondents were asked what skills they needed now and would need in their future positions, they cited strategic planning, decision making, interpersonal communicating, financial managing, team building and creative thinking. "There is a misperception that when people get promoted, they automatically have every other skill that comes with it, which is not always the case," said Alice Elliot, president and chief executive of the Elliot Group. "Our goal at the institute is to provide practical solutions for leaders today and to develop the leaders of tomorrow. That research vividly demonstrates the critical need we have today in our industry for leadership development." The vision for the Elliot Leadership Institute is its evolution into a source for research, products and services related to the development and advancement of effective leadership for the greater good of the hospitality and foodservice industries, said Kathleen Wood, president of Elliot Solutions. The industry has done a great job of training hourly employees to do their jobs and has focused its management training on functional areas rather than on teaching leadership, she said. Companies have training programs for bussers in multiple languages, but, Wood asked, "how much leadership training is happening for the group in the middle those midlevel managers who are responsible for the majority of the comparable store sales in any given company?" The research validates a need for leadership development that some executives already had suspected. "At Wendy's we feel we've done a good job of training our people in running a restaurant, but we could improve on the development of the leadership piece," said Jack Schuessler, chairman and chief executive of Dublin, Ohio based Wendy's International Inc. For that reason the fast food burger chain is creating a position for an organizational development director who will coordinate leadership programs for multiunit and district managers as well as for vice presidents, he said. "These were things we were looking at internally, and [the research] just confirms what we were thinking was correct," said Schuessler, who serves on an advisory council to the Elliot Institute. The survey asked senior and midlevel executives where they obtained the skills needed in their jobs. They identified life experiences and on the job experiences as the two most important sources of job skills. Only about 14 percent of middle managers gained the needed competencies to advance from educational and personal training classes. In addition, only 11 percent of middle managers acquired needed leadership competencies through the help of a mentor. While three quarters of senior level executives said they currently are mentoring someone, only 35 percent of middle mangers said they currently are being mentored. One quarter said they never had had a mentor. Those who were never in a mentoring program were less likely to want a mentor. | |||