While the sessions at the Women’s Foodservice Forum’s Annual Leadership Development Conference had a definite feminine bent, the four-day event in Dallas was filled with tips and motivation for operators of any gender to manage a diverse workplace.
Below are four takeaways for improving workplace culture that were especially resonant with us.
1. Tap ‘cuspers’ to bridge generational gaps
Whether it’s in regard to recruiting, management or marketing, most advice focuses on how to address some particular demographic group, be it millennials, baby boomers, Gen X or those Gen Z youngsters (anyone born after 1995).
But plenty of people feel like they’re straddling two groups—not quite possessing millennials’ so-called sense of confidence (which some read as entitlement) but loving their #workfamily culture.
Operators looking to build stronger team ties should look for these employees, known as “cuspers,” to fill roles as mediators, said WFF speaker Hannah Ubl of BridgeWorks, because they’re able to see two perspectives at the same time.
2. Enlist facts and figures to make your case
When Sophie Bellon, chairman of the board of Sodexo, was promoted to her role, she was the only woman at the executive level in her office. Bellon, the daughter of Sodexo founder Pierre Bellon, asked her male cohorts why that was the case; they replied that it was not a woman’s job.
“You may be convinced that gender balance is necessary, but being convinced is not enough,” she said. “To really make progress, you have to bring facts and figures to the table. Make the case internally. Take your business indicators and show the correlation. That’s what we did at Sodexo, and the result is undeniable.”
Bellon did just that—and today, women hold five of a dozen or so executive positions. Sodexo also started a group called SWIFT, which is responsible for tracking gender balance within the company.
3. Create a ‘board of directors’ within your own operation
While the title “foodservice director” implies that an operator knows everything happening in his or her workplace, no one can be everywhere at once. Speaker and executive advisor Simon T. Bailey suggests managers put together a “board of directors,” comprising four employees from different departments and backgrounds, to serve as a sort of brain trust.
Meet with that group to discuss the biggest struggles and accomplishments in each department, he says, and everyone will feel a larger sense of ownership of the company as a whole.
4. An inclusive attitude will intrinsically shape your culture
Howard Behar, a former Starbucks president, told the audience during a panel of male champions for female leaders that, “It wasn’t that women fit into the program; women made the program.”
He continued, “Starbucks is a feminine company, and that’s what’s driven it all along. Look at the stores, the service model—everything we do. Even the men had to be feminine in a sense.”
Behar says he championed a culture of people supporting people, instead of men versus women.
Starbucks employees echoed this sentiment during a discussion Wednesday at WFF on workplace diversity, saying that the company actively encourages them to share their personal lives among each other, and that they don’t fear discrimination based on factors such as gender or sexual orientation.