How To Avoid the Deceiving “Superhero Trap”

In this episode of the Restaurant Success Podcast, Matthew Mabel explores the dangerous "Superhero Trap" that many restaurant entrepreneurs fall into when building their business empire. This entrepreneurship pitfall occurs when restaurant owners believe they must personally handle every aspect of their operation, from managing staff to overseeing daily operations. Matthew discusses how this mindset can severely limit business growth, reduce profitability, and prevent successful restaurant expansion. Learn practical strategies to break free from this trap, develop strong leadership teams, and create systems that allow your restaurant business to thrive without your constant supervision. This essential episode provides valuable insights for restaurant owners looking to scale their operations while maintaining quality and profitability.

Key Topics Covered

• Understanding the "Superhero Trap" mentality in restaurant entrepreneurship
• Why trying to do everything yourself limits business growth
• The hidden costs of being an indispensable restaurant owner
• Building effective leadership teams and delegation strategies
• Creating systems and processes for sustainable restaurant operations
• Transitioning from operator to true business owner mindset

Links Mentioned

• How To Respond To The Leadership And Coaching Shortage
• How Restaurants Truly Activate Culture

Resources Mentioned

• Website: www.surrender.biz
• Free initial consultation available

Connect with Matthew Mabel

Matthew works with owners of successful, independent, multi-unit restaurants to improve:

• Profit growth
• Sales optimization
• Guest count increase
• Unit expansion
• Employee engagement
• Brand loyalty

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe to the Restaurant Success Podcast and Newsletter
• Rate and review the show
• Visit www.surrender.biz for additional resources

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the Restaurant Success Podcast. I'm Matthew Mabel, veteran restaurant advisor, coach, consultant, and speaker devoted to multi-unit independent restaurant unit, profit and revenue growth, internal harmony and ownership freedom and flexibility.

This is your weekly entree of the advice, strategy and tactics that I currently provide to my best clients.

Today we're going to talk about something I call the "Superhero Trap" - and I guarantee you've fallen into it at some point in your restaurant career.

We'll explore how your natural instinct to jump in and fix everything yourself is actually holding back your business and your team.

And, I'll share real examples from my consulting work, including one owner who visits all five of his restaurants every single day and another who personally delivers desserts in his truck. We'll also look at how to break free from this trap by raising up your team instead of doing their work for them.

Let me start with a question that might make you uncomfortable. How do you relate to your multi-unit team, your managers, and everyone else?

How much do they depend on "you"?

If the answer is "a lot," I need you to know that creating such dependency isn't a formula for building a great career. Success won't come because you do the work of everyone else in your organization. The key is to raise them up and give them an arena in which to grow.

Whether you're trying to reduce food costs, enhance your dining rooms' quality of service and guest recognition, or improve communication of your culture, you need to employ a consistent approach. At the end of every day, reflect on how you resisted the temptation to take on issues yourself and, instead, took the more strategic and valuable path of allowing someone else on your team to learn, succeed, and get credit.

Now, let's talk about what I call the Superhero Trap. Too many restaurant owners think their job comes with a blue body suit, red boots and a red cape with a yellow-and-red "S" emblem on their chest. 

But, that kind of thinking is a trap.

Initially, many restaurant owners don't understand this concept. When I operated restaurants myself, I understood that clearly. Still, when I started consulting decades ago, I fell into the superhero trap at first. I have been extracting myself and multi-unit restaurant owners from this trap ever since.

I'm talking about extreme cases here - like one owner I know who feels an unnecessary need to visit all five of his restaurants every day, and still another who wastes valuable time distributing desserts to all units in his truck.

These owners think they're being hands-on and dedicated, but they're actually limiting their businesses' potential.

Here's something that really drives this point home for me. When a client says to me, "Our business never ran better than when you were here," I at first hear it as a compliment. But then I think, "There should not be much drop-off after I leave - because everything ought to stick."

Recently, when I first started to work with the management team at a successful restaurant, they seemed open to getting better, and they wanted to know just how much of me they would be seeing.

I told them "If you see a lot of me, that will not necessarily be a good sign".

Because my job involves showing you tools and strategies to run your restaurant better "without" being reliant on me. This team is smart and experienced and has built an incredible platform for growth. You can do it; I will help you level up.

Many people think their job - and my job - involves taking care of everything. In reality, the highest form of serving others raises people up, enabling them to create solutions themselves.

My invitation to you is to do what I do and spend your day building talent around you, and resist the temptation to handle things yourself.

Address short-term needs - the things that ought to happen - with a long-term approach. Only by making people better can you achieve your growth plan.

Speaking of building talent and raising people up, I've written about this topic before in ways that really complement what we're discussing today.

I wrote an article about how to respond to the leadership and coaching shortage that's affecting our industry right now. With so many people leaving restaurants over the past few years, we've hired and promoted a lot of people we used to call unqualified. That piece talks about the four pillars you need for a successful leadership development program, and it's directly connected to what we're talking about today - you can't raise people up if you don't have a plan for developing their leadership skills.

I also wrote about how restaurants truly activate culture, which ties into that point I made earlier about improving communication of your culture.

That article focuses on two deceptively simple concepts - "devoting the time" and telling stories. It's all about moving from just having nice words on your wall to actually having your culture impact every guest, and every employee, on every single day.

You can find links to both of these articles in today's show notes.

Let me tell you about how we might work together. I work with owners of successful, independent, multi-unit restaurants to grow their profit, sales, guest count, and unit count. My unique approach bonds employees and guests to restaurant brands and allows owners to enjoy the freedom and flexibility they have earned.

To schedule a call with me to discuss how to achieve your biggest goals, follow the link in the show notes. The initial consultation is complimentary, and we can discuss which big moves might be right for your operation.

Thanks for listening. If you haven't already subscribed to the Restaurant Success Podcast and Newsletter podcast, please do so, and rate and review the show. Find more information in the show notes at Restaurant Success Podcast dot com.

Also find tons of information you can use in print, audio and video form at my website, www dot surrender dot biz. Thanks again and see you next time.