Leadership
What New Leaders in Hospitality Get Wrong
Why being liked is not the same as leading, and why support means telling people the truth consistently.
Accepted by QSR Magazine
The collection
Selected essays
Leadership
The Leader Who No Longer Needs You
The strongest managers develop people so thoroughly that their own constant intervention becomes unnecessary.
Leadership essay
Leadership
Ask New Employees Before They Stop Noticing
New employees see problems veteran teams have learned to work around, excuse, or stop seeing entirely.
Leadership essay
Leadership
When Exceptional Becomes Expected
How exceptional managers quietly subsidize broken systems until their rescues are mistaken for normal operations.
Leadership essay
Hospitality
Dining Out Is No Longer Casual. Neither Can Hospitality Be.
As the middle of dining disappears, restaurants must deliver an experience that justifies the new economics of eating out.
Industry essay
Leadership
The Illusion of a Well-Run Company
Strong results can conceal weak systems when leaders confuse repeated rescue work with organizational health.
Strategy essay
Hospitality · Humor
Leadership Advice Was Clearly Written by Someone Who Has Never Run a Restaurant
A closing-shift reality check for leadership theories that assume clarity, calm, and fully staffed operations.
Commentary
Hospitality
The Guest Won’t Say You Cut Labor
Guests may never name the staffing decision, but they feel every consequence of it.
Industry essay
Personal · Humor
In Defense of Getting Your Hopes Up
A case for practical optimism and against the exhausting habit of pre-ordering disappointment.
Personal essay
Personal · Humor
The Emotional Architecture of Coffee
A mother, a medical loophole called moderation, and the green thread of coffee running through a family’s life.
Personal essay
Humor · Hospitality
I Was Minding My Own Business
On lines, indecision, misplaced urgency, and the small public negotiations that test our patience.
Humor essay
Hospitality
Your Customers Changed. Did Your Metrics Notice?
Why operators should examine what changing customer behavior is saying before familiar metrics begin to slide.
Industry essay
Leadership · Hospitality
When You’re Responsible but Not in Control
A practical guide for hospitality managers held accountable for results without enough authority, and how to surface risk, clarify tradeoffs, protect the team, and avoid becoming the invisible solution.
Leadership essay