Leadership - Management

It’s Time to Invest in Leadership

By Stephen J. Caldeira,
Co-Founder, President & CEO,
The Elliot Leadership Institute

Leadership. It’s a word bantered about endlessly in foodservice and other businesses, yet how many organizations truly focus on nurturing it? How many companies are investing to develop their executives at all levels into stronger leaders, not just skilled managers?

Not many, according to research conducted nearly two years ago by The Elliot Leadership Institute. Recognizing the development gap that existed between unit-level general management and multi-unit operations management and above, a group including Nation’s Restaurant News, PepsiCo, Johnson & Wales University and The Elliot Group came together to examine the issue. Initial research confirmed that the gap was even larger than initially thought, and while many foodservice companies were doing extensive training at the assistant and general manager level, very little was being done to prepare executives for advancement once they reached the level of area director or higher.

The not-for-profit Institute was created to specifically address this growing problem. Through education, awareness and development of online leadership development assessments and other products, the Institute is focused specifically on raising executive leadership levels within the foodservice and hospitality industries.

Drawing from leading hospitality executives and academic researchers, the Institute discovered that there exists not only a lack of training and development programs, but also a general misconception about how executives should be prepared to lead. It became clear that focusing only on specific skill sets (competencies) was not enough to create great leaders.

Based on this research, the Institute identified the “10 Dimensions of Executive Leadership,” the leadership traits survey respondents deemed necessary for success in our industry. Through additional research and pilot programs, these Dimensions were validated and for the first time, a roadmap was created for developing talented executives in the foodservice and hospitality industries

We couldn’t be more excited about where this roadmap is taking us. Developing current and future leaders to bridge the leadership gap that exists is why we’re here, and the growing support from all areas of the industry is clearly indicative that we are filling a critical void. Thanks to the dedication and incredible foresight of our founding partners, our sponsors, and our pilot program participants, we’re moving forward quickly to help develop the industry’s next generation of leaders.

Our online development assessments pinpoint the areas of growth most needed for each individual participant. Once an individual development plan has been established, each executive can then work at completing that plan through their own pace using our online Executive Development Center. This is just the beginning, and we are already hard at work on our second and third generation of leadership development products and services.

As an industry we have a long road to travel. We must not only identify great people from our employee and unit management teams, we must give them the support and cost-effective tools they need to grow as leaders We must also continue to conduct research and improve our product offerings to ensure we are always moving forward as an industry. Together, we can and will strengthen our current and next generation of leaders. Whether we want to recognize it or not our future success as an industry depends upon it.

May I suggest you visit www.elliotleadershipinstitute.org to learn how you and your company can benefit?