Navigating Uncertainty in Hospitality: Insights from Leadership Coach Matt Rolfe

In this episode, hospitality leadership coach Matt Rolfe discusses the challenges faced by the industry, particularly surrounding the alignment of strategy and execution. He emphasizes the importance of co-creating strategies with operational teams and understanding guest experience to optimize average checks. Addressing the role of culture, resilience, and the need for clear, guest-focused strategies, Rolfe provides actionable insights for restaurant operators to navigate turbulent times and achieve sustainable success.

00:00 Introduction and Meet Matt Rolfe

00:05 Matt's Background and Approach to Leadership

00:21 Creating and Executing Strategies

02:02 The Importance of Culture in Strategy

03:07 Facing Uncertainty and Building Resilience

05:05 Focusing on Guest Experience

06:21 Tailoring Service to Different Guest Types

07:06 Getting in Touch with Matt Rolfe

07:33 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Jeremy Julian: 0:00

so Matt, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you as well. Great to meet you. So for our listeners, why don't you introduce yourself. Who is Matt?

Matt Rolfe: 0:05

I'm Matt Rolfe. I'm a hospitality leadership coach. I've spent 20 years supporting teams on the people side of their business. So how do we support the leader to get. The balance, the understanding, the clarity, so they can move themselves, the, their teams and their brand in the direction of their goals.

Jeremy Julian: 0:20

Awesome.

Matt Rolfe: 0:21

Mostly on the operational side, mostly yeah, so we work, we tend to start with a senior leadership team. What I found in my experience, if we don't gain full alignment on a strategy rollout at the most senior level, sometimes it doesn't get the consistency or the sustainability as it gets in the ops level. But what we wanna do is co-create a strategy. So in a boardroom, we could create a great strategy, but if we don't listen to operations, sometimes it doesn't land.

Jeremy Julian: 0:42

Yeah.

Matt Rolfe: 0:42

So what we'll often do is we'll get 60% of it done in the office or support office, and then we want to go talk to the franchisees, talk to the general managers, talk to the operators, get their experience. I. Co-create a strategy that is focused other people on our guests.

Jeremy Julian: 0:55

Yeah. And I say it actually all the time on the show and even around the business, it's like understanding where you're going and having a vision and a strategy for it is really critical. and then second piece of that is alignment. Help me understand how you help restaurants get there, because it's oftentimes a challenge and. Where there's misalignment, you have a hard time making significant traction.

Matt Rolfe: 1:12

Exactly. So I think one of the points to be, if we go, there's a, there's an easy answer and the real answer is we have to go and find resistance. So we have to work inside the organization and figure out where might the resistance, speed of the implementation of the idea, the concept, the vision, whichever it is. And often that resistance is existing because of past experience. Meaning we've tried a vision, we've tried a plan, we tried a strategy, and we didn't stay the course. So why should I buy in this way? So one of the opportunities to really vet it and have those conversations and my job is to think about the people that are gonna implement. And what I want to make sure too, is it grounded in what our guests want, Yeah. And that's really what matters. At the end of the day, we need human beings who believe in our vision and what we're about, and deliver an experience consistently and relentlessly for our guests. When we do that, we should have success. but just the creation of the strategy, it's the easy part. The execution of the strategy takes time

Jeremy Julian: 2:00

always comes back down to execution. Yeah. talk to me about how culture plays a part in this.'cause I, we talk about, culture beat strategy for lunch. you hear that, that, that adage and I think, especially coming into a less certain time for restaurants that you know, you're gonna have to have a strong culture Yeah. To endure some of the challenges we're about to face here, coming up in 2025 and beyond.

Matt Rolfe: 2:19

So I think what you just shared is the brilliant part, right? We're coming up against uncertainty that's just shared here at RLC. So we have to understand that if we feel uncertain in this room, imagine how our operators feel. We're the staff. we lost trust in our industry. Not due to our fault, but I don't wanna even bring it up into the pandemic. We were villainized a little bit, very passionate about our industry. So now we're going through another, turbulent time. So how do we just have that conversation, rather than just what the plan is. How do we have a reality that we're in uncertainty? And how do we go all in right now? And what does all in mean, not just for the brand? What does it mean for the person who's working two jobs inside your restaurant? That depends on that position to be. How do we think about that and really get into the benefit to buy into what's needed.

Jeremy Julian: 3:00

I love that. and I love the thought of just taking care of the people that are there.'cause they are the heart heartbeat of what we do every day. A hundred percent. one of the things that I've heard around RLC this week that I'd love for you to expound upon is this, there is a level of uncertainty about the future. Yeah. But it feels at least the statistics that we've seen over the last two days is that operators are ready to tackle the challenge. Whereas I feel like. Yeah, maybe 10 years ago, 15 years ago, they would just put their head in the sand and ignore the problem or hope that it gets better. Yeah. Tell me why you think operators, is it just the oh eight to pandemic to all of that? What is it? Because they understand that they can be nimble. Help me understand why you think that their outlook, even in spite of the challenges that we might be facing, is better statistically than it might've been in the past. I,

Matt Rolfe: 3:41

I've, it's, I love the question. I've had the opportunity to do a bunch of C-suite events where it's industry, leaders from different brands, and we talk about what word has defined us in the last decade. And it's not my job to define it. The audience does. And this word of resilience, I. And I think it's, right now we've learned to fight. We've always fought, right? Yeah. If we look back through cycles of history, we have these five to seven year challenge periods. Maybe we've got a little bit longer at time, but I think right now we know that we need to fight. It's just what direction are you gonna push the momentum, the energy, the passion of your team. It's our job as leadership. Because we could put energy in a direction that might not get the result that we want. Or reserve. But I think right now it's, we're gonna fight. now's the time. Someone's gonna win through this next transition. Someone's gonna come out and have a thriving Brit. Multiple people are, but where do we put our attention? And there's no perfect answer. It's fluid, but how do we be clear on the destination, flexible on the approach.

Jeremy Julian: 4:32

I love that. And it's funny, as you look back across history, you're, it sounds like you're a history guy too. Yeah. There's so many brands that got created during the depression or during the Yep. These different financial crisis. And so if you've got your eye on the ball, your opportunity to get there is pretty significant. if you're talking to a restaurant audience out there, which we are, yeah. What are the one or th one to three things that you think that people are underestimating or not thinking about today that they need to be on top of as it relates to that fight? Where do they need to take the fight to the industry and or to ensuring that they're gonna be able to succeed to be one of those people that gets on the other side of it?

Matt Rolfe: 5:05

in my experience, I feel what's most important right now is do we have an absolute clear strategy to focus on the guest experience? And if we break that down, guest experience a big term, we want them to have a great experience with us. But how do we optimize average check? And if we don't optimize average check based on the transaction trends that we've experienced. And are looking at, we're gonna put our operations at risk. my fear in the industry is I've seen a lot where we have busy restaurants where cash flow dries up.

Jeremy Julian: 5:30

Yes.

Matt Rolfe: 5:30

If we wanna thrive in the next three years, how do we create visibility and metrics around how do we drive a great guest experience? And in return we get an ideal average check. That benefits our guests first, our staff benefits from the exchange hours or tip, and we as a brand or a company are gonna get that benefit as well. So I think one of the keys is making sure that we're, we have metrics, we have a driven conversation, and we're leading into what really drives average check, not just. The service opinion, but what's best for our guests and our avatars inside our restaurant?

Jeremy Julian: 6:00

I, it, I wholeheartedly agree. I've been talking this week about, I have a long time, listeners know I'm a family of six. I've got four kids. Yeah. I have to make choices when I go out.'cause number one, it's gotten so expensive. And number two, if I have a bad experience, you don't go back. Yeah. So ensuring that I get value for what I'm paying for, that the service model, the product, all of that is where it needs to be.

Matt Rolfe: 6:21

And one thing I'd share there that I work on with a lot of clients is we don't just have one guest type. We usually identify three. So you would be a family dynamic. What different guest types do we have for family? How exactly do we meet the needs of a family? How do we meet the needs of a couple? Just for an example, how do we meet the needs for a business lunch if we coach and train our people on how to understand who's coming in the restaurant, what they want and need? To serve people as we want to be served. That's one element. You have a different dynamic value, probably pace of the dining experience a hundred percent. and engagement and offering. So if we understand that and we coach it, and then we recognize behavior in the direction of our goals, I have to say this, the days of giving people crap for what they're not doing are over. How do we recognize behaviors that we wanna see, celebrate them. And when we do that, people will perform more consistently.

Jeremy Julian: 7:05

Amazing. How do people get in touch? How do people learn more? How do people engage in your services so that they can get to that next level?

Matt Rolfe: 7:11

Absolutely. Somebody can go to matt rolf.com, so it's Matt and R-O-L-F-E. Dot com or check me out on LinkedIn. We put out free content every single day. My idea is if I can give it away and reach a larger audience, we'll get an opportunity to work with a fraction of you. My passion is to help the industry check us out. We've got lots of content that hopefully will support your restaurant.

Jeremy Julian: 7:29

Love that mission because that's ultimately where the show came from, is to help the mission of, of restaurants continue to succeed. So nice to meet you and thanks for spending time. Thank you for the opportunity. Awesome. Thanks.