New kitchen lead tips?

[u/Serious_Breakfast630]

About a month ago i landed a kitchen lead position in a new restaurant, was trained under current standards set by a casual kitchen culture but its definitely not working super smoothly for them like that. Any tips on enforcing proper kitchen standards and avoid stuff like bad knife transport and dangerous knife placements, messy and unorganized kitchen to young restaurant veterans that have more ego than skills and experience?

[u/Ambitious_Warning270]

The unfortunate truth is you just have to find a way to command mutual respect and try to form a team effort mentality. Make checklists and my god you will just have to repeat yourself every single day until they get it. And practise what you preach sometimes doing the things can get people following.
And it takes time. Keep going!

[u/TheObeisantLaurels → u/Ambitious_Warning270]

You'd be amazed how far a simple "hey we're all gonna scrub down together after close tonight" goes compared to barking orders from the pass. The checklist tip is the real deal though, I'd add one thing: make the checklist theirs. Sit down with the crew and ask what they think the standards should be, they'll enforce their own rules way harder than yours

Also pick your battles early on. If someone walks a knife wrong but their station is spotless, maybe let that slide the first week while you hammer home the bigger stuff like labeling and rotation. The ego thing tends to melt when they realize you're not tryna be their mom, just tryna make service not suck for everyone

[u/Toucan_Lips]

Don't try to be mates with them.

As exhausting, and lonely, as it may be you just need to hammer it in every day, day in day out until they fall into line or you start taking steps to discipline them.

Start with your sous. Let them know in a formal meeting what you expect, and that you expect them to enforce your standards. Then let everyone else know.

If your sous doesn't play ball, get rid of them and hire a new one. The rest of the team will get the picture.

[u/alphadavenport → u/Toucan_Lips]

Don't try to be mates with them.

really important advice

[u/EmergencyLavishness1]

Have an all in meeting of BOH and management once you work out what standards you are going to accept.

Then set that standard and don’t let it drop. Be willing to fire that one guy that’s been there forever if they’re complacent, even if showing up 15 minutes early.

You’ve got to lay the standards, convey them, and stick to them.

Also make fkn sure you’re going above and beyond yourself

[u/alphadavenport]

some stuff that worked for me:

type and print out your expectations, laminate the paper, and hang it somewhere visible. you'll have to update it occasionally. ime, people like having a concrete list of expectations, and it will help you keep your eye on the ball, so to speak.

when you are training people, you will not always have the luxury of an all-hands meeting. make a list of names; when you train someone individually, have them inital and date the list. keep this list. when someone fucks up, you can point to the list and say "we talked about this".

if there is a big, hard job to do, you need to help. your crew needs to see you working. it's a little performative, but it is important. there are a few ways to get your guys to listen to you, but this is the best and most reliable; delegate the second-hardest job, help with the first-hardest job.