Leadership / Communication / Development
Leadership Moment — 20 Jul 22
Communication, communication, communication.
This evening my family and I went to Wendy’s for dinner. The young man taking our order was clearly new to the position and struggling with English. I had the perception he was pretty sharp but the job was really challenging him.
One of my sons likes his hamburgers plain, no cheese, no condiments — just plain. The guy was trying to mentally process what he meant and enter it into the system. My son kept repeating it, rapid-fire, trying to make certain the cashier understood it.
Having dealt extensively with people speaking English as a second language in my previous life as an Army officer, I cut my son off to allow the guy to mentally process the order. He got it right.
Later, I explained to my son that when dealing with someone working in their non-native language, instead of repeating the same thing over and over again, they need a second or three to process the information. He got it.
The restaurant was busy but fully staffed. They messed up our order twice and finally my wife just ate what they gave her instead of trying for the trifecta. On the receipt, our order was correct — the burger flipper messed it up. When I went…
