Ramsay’s Management
Posted: Thu 23 June, 2005 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Thoughts, Work-related |3 Comments »There’s an interesting piece in today’s BBC website about Gordon Ramsay’s management style and techniques. A lot of people fail to see past his swearing and “bad attitude”, but personally I have a lot of time for the way he works and what he says.
Bearing in mind the swearing and attitude, though, it’s fascinating to realise that Ramsay’s restaurants have kept 80% of their staff over the last decade. That’s an amazing figure, and I can’t think of many organisations that could keep 80% of their people for ten years, let alone in a high-turnover environment like catering.
He is an arsehole BUT it makes you wonder how much is staged for the cameras. If a person knows what they are talking about they invariably earn respect from those around them or under their command, counts for a lot in my book!
It’s funny. Having endured two years with a Wanker Tosser Ex-Manager I am now privileged to be working for an absolute mensch. However, he knows and I know, that his main failing is that he’s too laidback, and I need the occasional chivvying. He won’t impose deadlines, so I’m imposing them on myself and am trying to cajole him to expect them to be honoured. In a way it’s a sort of a game, but it’s a game I’m happy to play. Objectively, one could say that he has failed to spot the thing that gets me motivated. On the othe rhand, by being geenrally motivating, supportive and inspiring, he has given me the push to take repsonsibility and control. Inadvertently Machiavellian. He’s also given a relative junior person responsibility for an albeit routine and (to me) dull programme of work, and two staff. It’s so clear that she’s loving it, thriving on it, and I’ve seen her really grow up in just a few months.
Actually if you watch Ramsey in action he is quick to praise anyone who does a good job. It’s the people he perceives to be wasters that he has a real go at. One thing you would know if you worked for him, is exactly where it was you stood in his estimation, you would also know that he wasn’t bullshitting his way through his job.
I don’t think his swearing is a put on. He’s from Glasgow and played football for Rangers. I’m pretty sure the language used in that competitive environment was much the same. There is too much pussyfooting around in working environments today, where wasters are concerned. PC has a lot to answer for in shielding such people from what is really required of them the real world.