Lessons in Leadership: Set an Example and Invest in Your Sta

Lessons in Leadership: Set an Example and Invest in Your Staff

Gus Nikiforides, Executive Chef, Pelham CC

Food and beverage leadership means treating people with respect—and passing on knowledge through training and mentorship.

By Isabelle Gustafson, Senior Editor

AFTER 30 YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY, Gus Nikiforides’ leader-

ship style has mellowed—a quality he says comes with age.

“Eventually you fi nd, by stressing out and going crazy, you still have the same results,” he says. “You can achieve the same results by being calm. All you’re doing is upsetting yourself and everyone around you.”

Still, as Executive Chef of Pelham Country Club (Pelham Manor, N.Y.) Nikiforides abides by a few longstanding tactics: “work ethic, work ethic, work ethic—and watch what people do.”

Leadership starts with observation, he says. Let your sta show you who they are. Then guide them from there.

“I see the people who want to learn, and I’m always available for them because I want to build a great team,” he says. “It’s not that I don’t pay attention to the people who are not as willing—but I pay extra attention to the people who really want to learn.”

Katherine Bates (pictured above, middle), Executive Pastry Chef of Missouri Athletic Club, says positive reinforcement and ongoing communication are keys to e ective leadership.

It’s important to invest in those people; in fact, says Nikiforides, we owe it to them.

“Everything that was taught to us, we owe it to the people who want it. If they don’t want it, it’s like force-feeding someone. But if they want it, it’s our responsibility to provide it for them because it was provided for us,” he says. “It’s got to be passed on.”

Shelby Confer, Executive Chef of Woodmont Country Club (Rockville, Md.), says it’s important to forgo your ego and continue learning from everyone around you: “dishwashers, prep cooks, line cooks, sous chefs, everybody. … I don’t use the term ‘my kitchen,’ because I want people to feel like they’re fully involved in that kitchen,” she says.

But leadership’s not necessarily about equality, she notes; it’s about equity.

“By treating everyone fairly, you have to treat them individually,” Confer says. “And that sounds simple, but to have to practice that day in and day out is a whole other story.”

OPEN COMMUNICATION

Confer spent 10 years at Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Fla., before she began her role at Woodmont CC a year ago. With any new position or club, her goal is to make sure her sta feels heard.

“I never want somebody to feel like their ideas don’t matter. I think we’ve all been in a situation where we have been made to feel that way,” she says, “and I want to make the conscious e ort to not do that.”

Katherine Bates, Executive Pastry Chef at Missouri Athletic Club (St. Louis, Mo.), makes a similar e ort with her sta through positive reinforcement and ongoing open communication.

“I was yelled at and screamed at coming up in kitchens, and that didn’t really work for me,” she says. “If [my sta is] doing something that’s not right, I just try to point it out—without making a big deal out of it—and show them how to do it.”

Bates attributes much of her current leadership style to the women she’s worked with over the years, as well as her mentor, Craig Ratli , whom she worked with at St. Louis Country Club.

“He would have eyes in the back of his head,” she says. “If I was starting to mess up, he would just say, ‘Hey, do it this way,’ before I let it get too far and it was something that we couldn’t correct.”

Confer has had two mentors in her career: Damian Gilchrist, who served as Executive Chef at Ocean Reef Club for ten years, and Andrea Van Willigan, who was Executive Chef and Senior Director of Restaurants at Ocean Reef for close to three years. Van Willigan was also Gordon Ramsey’s souschef for about eight years, Confer notes, meaning she came up in the industry during the peak “boys’ club” era.

Now, Confer’s mentoring one of her own sous-chefs, Angela Heidenthal, whom she brought with her from Ocean Reef Club.

“In terms of the industry as a whole,” she says, “I think we do see more female involvement. [But] I think we still need more.”

It helps to have a mentor with a similar perspective and experience—someone who’s always looking out for your best interests.

Even so, this career path won’t be easy, she notes, “and it’s not for everyone. But hard work and dedication do pay o . … You just have to be hungry.” C+RC