1. Be smart
The nine members of the South Bend, Ind., program’s senior leadership team start reflecting in the spring on which goals they accomplished the previous year. In summer, they go on a daylong retreat with HR and auxiliary operations partners. There, they set up to eight SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely) goals for the next year that Abayasinghe makes sure align with the university’s overall strategy.
The director slots these goals into three categories: managing the present, challenging the status quo and looking to the future. This year, the team’s “present” goals are related to opening new venues; “challenge” goals are associated with its new Safety Doesn’t Happen by Accident kitchen safety program; and “stretch” goals are related to sponsorships and new initiatives, such as its recent takeover of sister school Holy Cross College’s campus dining.
Abayasinghe eyes the goals for balance, too. “A good yardstick is to have 60% of your goals in the ‘managing the present’ bucket, and 30% in challenging,” he says. “If you prioritize it like that, you will be successful in driving innovation and change in your program.”