How did we get here?

What are the factors that made the restaurant industry one of – if not THE most – vulnerable in the country? One so fragile that many restaurants were forced to shutter just a few weeks into the pandemic? How can we use this disruption to hit the reset button and address the mistakes we as an industry have allowed to erode profits and change consumer behaviors over the past two decades?

The Advantage of Adaptability

Disruption is hard. It’s also a unique and valuable opportunity for innovation and positive change. The most successful brands moving forward will be the ones most adaptive to change and disruption. Rather than struggling to get back to “normal,” we should be focusing on productive adjustments that will save us now and serve us in the future. This seminar explores the values of Technical versus Adaptive Leadership. Tim will help you identify ways to innovate in the areas of Product, Packaging, Profit Centers, and Pivoting to Delivery & Takeout.

Managing Guest Experience & Expectations

Traditional hospitality has been fundamentally changed during this crisis. Where face-to-face service was once our primary chance to engage our Guests, make memorable impressions, and drive loyalty…more frequently, we are engaging them online, over the phone, and smiling through masks. What are some new ways to ‘wow’ Guests and earn their return?

Team & Training Transformation

How can you take advantage of this time to improve culture & commitment and teach your team how to sell more, serve better, and inspire loyalty in a new service landscape?

This program focuses not just on the technical, operational proficiencies that make good managers, but on the connective, developmental, and adaptive skills that build great Coaches.  It focuses not just on the systems that deliver predictable service outcomes, but on Adaptive Leadership approaches that allow teams to evolve, improve, and craft unique, intricately customized Customer Experiences.

Tim will discuss how to turn good ‘technical’ Managers into highly effective Adaptive Leaders and Coaches. He delivers immediately useable ‘next steps’ for attendees regarding:

When asked, over 90% of managers and owners say that “finding and keeping good people” is their #1 day-to-day business challenge. In today’s world, no matter what business you’re in, you’re primarily in the people business. We know that you want to be known for outstanding service resulting in more customers and higher profitability. In order to do that you need a dedicated and highly engaged team.

The problem is, hiring and retention is getting harder and harder in this highly crowded and competitive labor market. As a result, many candidates and team members see service jobs as “a dime-a-dozen,” attributing no real, intrinsic value to the positions you offer. This lack of perceived job value contributes to lack of engagement, low commitment and high turnover. It can cause you to get mired in a constant cycle of recruiting, hiring, training and loss…all while remaining understaffed and overworked. It can even make you feel as though you’re being held hostage by bad or mediocre performers on your team.

Acquiring and maintaining talent is the most important function of any leader, as the quality of your team affects every part of your business and results. Which is why you should treat hiring and retention as a predictable, strategic, manageable function of your business, not just something that “happens to you.”  Staffing is a skill, not a circumstance. Tim Kirkland can help your team master that skill.

In this idea-packed session, best-selling author Tim Kirkland will share dozens of impactful suggestions on how to actively and strategically attract and acquire the best talent, develop them daily, and keep star players in place.

Attendees will learn how to:

This Master Class, based on Tim’s best-selling book, “COACH: Being a Better Team Leader by Bettering the Team You Lead,” examines the core competencies of successful Leaders with an emphasis on improving results by focusing on the quality of their day-to-day performance and that of their teams.

The EXECUTE program focuses not just on the technical, operational proficiencies that make good managers, but on the connective, developmental, and adaptive skills that build great Coaches.  It focuses not just on the systems that deliver predictable service outcomes, but on adaptive leadership approaches that allow teams to evolve, improve, and craft unique, intricately customized Customer Experiences.

Tim will discuss how to turn good ‘technical’ Managers into highly effective Leaders and Coaches. He details the philosophies the book and delivers immediately useable ‘next steps’ for attendees.

The Renegade Server presentation will focus on ways to engage your front-line teams and enlist them in the crucial tasks of growing sales, developing loyal regulars and creating genuine, personal, and repeatable connections and dining experiences for your Guests…experiences they’ll pay full price and go out of their way for.

Attendees will learn and be ready to teach their teams why, in today’s marketplace, TIPS no longer stands for “To Insure Prompt Service,” instead, it means:

In this highly engaging session, best-selling author and consultant Tim Kirkland delivers real, immediately usable tactics that will help franchisees, managers and independent operators move local marketing efforts into the new millennium.

Rather than the same old list of promotional gimmicks and discounts, Tim will share how operators can impact the very foundations of what customers value in a way that will support and defend an established national brand or build and define an emerging one.

Tim focuses not just on the traditional tools of advertising and promotions, but on how to effectively convert the awareness generated by those tactics into higher sales, loyalty, and evangelism by focusing on Social Networking and the Customer Experience.

In this idea-packed presentation, Tim will give attendees effective, customer-centric Local Store Marketing tactics and teach them how to: