interview of a leader

started good yes hi everyone um my name is Ash Hamil and I'm a student of UD University in MBA program so as part of our leadership course we are tasked to interview a leader and we have a distinguished leader with us and we choose Mr Damian bohart The General manager of Sodexo UA University so we'll be interviewing him and uh it's a pleasure to meet you pleasure nice to meet you Mr Sir and it's a pleasure to have you for thank you for having me for sure yes so we have very few questions so like

uh uh I would ask you regarding your leadership Journey maybe you have around 25 years of experience yes sir of more than that I would like to hear your story in a in a very brief way okay so my story how I started yes so I started in the restaurant business back when I was 12 um I was busing tables I was doing catering events I ended up making my way into the kitchen so I I and I was a dishwasher so I I kind of did everything in the restaurant as a as a child

probably till I was like 16 um and then at the age of 18 18 I went to the casino I worked at turningstone I was a cook there a chef there uh for four or five years um and then I took a job at a restaurant and ran it as the chef there um and then I decided to dabble around at a couple's quick jobs it was very quick I didn't like it so I went back to what I knew which was this I was driving by here one day and I said let me stop

and fill out application I stopped to fill out an application and I got hired as the catering Chef here um and then two years later I became the uh supervisor for retail location and I became the assistant food service director and I became the food service director so I've gone from here all the way up right and I think honestly that's that's good good that's the right way to do it in any kind of business that you're doing okay you need to understand that like you need to start from the bottom and go all the

way up because if you don't know the stuff here you're never going to be able to how can you manage something you don't know right yeah how can you manage something you don't know if you think you can walk on just if you think you can walk straight out of college with no experience in a business and tell people what to do without actually doing the job you're going to f right okay so uh as you hear the story it's very interesting and inspiring uh I also like to ask you uh regarding your personal traits

what do you believe whether they have cont contributed most to your success as a leader what attributes contributed to my success um under understanding the job and knowing what I need to do right that's where it starts I need to I need to know the job I need to know what the expectations are I need to know you need to know the job to do the job and once you could do the job you can then lead okay it's kind of very very similar to the military right start out as a soldier and you go

to a surgeon then you work your way up next thing you know you're leading the Army right like it's the same thing you have to build yourself up the attributes that I believe is that I'm very patient I understand the job I understand the position I understand people right people's three qus of the job okay can't ignore the people that are working for you and helping you try to get your job the success of what you're doing done if you ignore them you're never going to you will not succeed if you if you ignore your

people people you will not exceed period so as a followup question for that uh do you think like great leaders are born with certain trades or they can be developed no I definitely think you're you're you're born with leadership but again doing something long enough you can become a leader okay so that's a two-part question right yeah am I was I born to lead in dining services probably not not was I a born leader sure but I because I felt so confident in my job it gave me the ability to lead right you can't lead

unless you don't know again right I know it all I I mean I don't want to that sounds kind of whatever but if you don't know it all in the job then how can you lead it right so I feel so comfortable in the position I'm in because of all the things I've done okay so yes can it be taught leadership that's a good question experience leadership with experience how's that can that be taught sure on the job okay so uh again are there any leadership tries uh that you have consciously work to improve or

develop in your well sure you always yes absolutely sure so there are different areas that I would always want to improve in um in your job there's always a spot where you can say maybe we could do this better maybe I could do this better the hardest challenge and the biggest challenge that I face and everybody will face is that everyone is different right so that's what makes it challenging you can what works with one person might not work with another person right so there's where your challenge comes in so how do you the challenge

is trying to figure out what that's why I said each individual person if you ignore them you don't love or succeed because you just ignored something that you need to change right right so if you just ignore it and just say forget it I don't want to do it you need to find a way to make that happen right and each person is different and you need to find that different avable somebody might be rewarded by giving them 10 bucks and they're doing the best job in the world right and other people might just be

rewarded with a thank you or they need to be talked to they need to be you know they want positive feedback some people need that some people need positive feedback you're not going to keep them want to constantly hear that right great job great job you know whereas someone else they don't care they just want straight line do their job I have so many different personalities and so many different people that work for me I have to manage them all differently do that make sense exactly exactly okay so you are actually uh currently iing a

general manager of s here University and uh as a a successful leader so what do you think what is the personal right that you that help you to manage uh I mean different situ maybe some um very calm cool and Collective I I don't get worked up easily that's you to get me going right because some people just get upset right or some people have these emotions I I stay focused I stay on the task I understand it's not my first time doing it right that's what I'm saying success and traits come with time so

once I've learned that some if this happens then you know here's the response to it once you keep doing that it becomes becomes very routine and it becomes you you don't have to get all worked up about it right I got to know how to handle it know how to handle a situation you just calm down think about it think about where you want to go and just direct people right so uh you do you remember any difficult situation you handled U some kind of people or some time I mean was uh I mean again

I deal with some difficult situations all the time they're not as like I don't know what you mean by difficult like you know we've had a lot of things happen here like the power went out okay power went out on in here how do you react right how you cook food what are you doing right there bang bang B I have the steps already in my head that's why I said when when things go wrong I'll usually have the answer usually okay unless I haven't had the experience right if I haven't had the experience of

doing that then I wouldn't be able to respond to it but again experience comes or that comes with experience so I've had the power go five times so when it goes out I know exactly what to do go get the flashlights go get this open up the windows get as much light in here as you can you all that kind of stuff so and again you just Cal people down because they're all worked up a lot of people don't know how to respond that's that's the challenge how do you get everybody else to be on

the same page as you you stay calm cool and cl because if you don't everybody else is going to be all they're going to join you right they're bailing yeah so uh again uh uh you have a background of accounting and management I think you have studied Ed University yes so what do you think uh how have your technical or human skills influenced in your decision making as a leader as a general are you asking me what my like my experience with college has led to me kind of the the my part of it this

educational part oh for sure yeah I mean you know there's like I have to do budgets too right so I'm in charge of all finances so that educational part definitely played a role okay if I didn't know the accounting business management part of things it would be more difficult for me to do my job right so but yes learning those skills in college is super important so taking those skills and then finding the best way to do that job is is again you problem solve right like when I first started doing budgets I'd get a

little frustrated because I didn't know exactly how to do that now I do them I'm probably the best one that doesn't right so how'd you get there just find your way find your path understand what you're trying to do and then just get there right okay so uh if you want if you if you're thinking about developing a new skill which will help you in the leadership so which which skill that will be and why you you will be choosing that now that's a good question maybe I mean the only thing I could say to

that is me to go somewhere do a different job right not this current job to stay in my current job I don't think I need any other skills right I already have I've already developed them over 25 years I mean sure could you take a class on learn something different but you know what I'll take that back I would do something I would go I would go take a Spanish course so I can speak Spanish that so what would be the motivation behind that because a lot of my employees speak Spanish oh so I would

try to learn a different language to be able to communicate with them better how's that yeah the communication is space of absolutely so yes I could do that and that would probably help me in my career for sure okay so how do you approach uh skill development for your team and for yourself and to ensure the continuous growth and adaptability in the so I do I hold two employee meetings per year um and then uh you know we have daily huddles so which that means that every single day we all of us meet in at

10:15 we talk about what's going on you know what we expect our expectations what we want to see out front what what other we discuss it daily it's just meetings right and you you what you don't have to be long meetings right I think that's where people fail when you start bringing people in for meetings for two hours you're going to fail you need it needs to be quick to the point and quick you got to cover something cover it quick no one needs to sit at a two-hour meeting and listen to blah blah blah

right being like that's the way it is and I think a lot of places and people fail by just holding meetings all day and it doesn't work right so from from a business standpoint get to the point tell us what we need to do and let's get accomplished come back regroup reather talk about it if it didn't work let's try something else right so it's all about trial and error testing things you know um same thing with our with our employees right one of our employees might say that sandwich didn't work with that dressing right

so we'll come back and we'll change it so we do it all the time daily yeah it's a daily thing yeah sure yeah yeah so uh so the we can say there are different kind of of behavioral behavioral approach to the leadership yes for example like someone will be task oriented or someone will be like relationship oriented in their workplace so like there are many others so what do you think which will be helping you best to manage so I'll tell you a quick story and I learn that you'll learn something here okay promise you

so I was working at another location years ago and I was the manager and I had what 25 and 30 employees and I would find that when I walked in I would say good morning to certain employees right cuz they were on my path to my office hello hello good morning good morning well guess what all the other employees found out I didn't say good morning to them so that came out once and they were upset and I'm like oh wow like shoot so I never even thought about it honestly that I wasn't saying hi

to all my employees so I think my employees felt that I was liking those four employees and then I didn't like them right right so you know so I I came to the conclusion again even though I always said good morning I never said good morning to anybody after that point right so that's what people would say is you know maybe they'll see me now they'll be like how come he doesn't say hi to anybody in the morning there's a reason for that right and the reason is I don't need one person to find out

I didn't say hi to them and I said hi to them and then they think I got favoritism or something right so I learn valuable lesson and you'll learn that as you go on like that was a total change because that's my personality if I see somebody I'm going say hi right like hey hi but I had to change that so when I walked in I didn't say I didn't say anything so again that kind of you see what I'm saying that was that was something you learn those traits you like you learn those you

know behavioral things and how people react to you I think my behavior my my thing is is that people know my expectations and they most of the time will live up to them okay so that means they know what my expectations are I'm very clear I'm clear I'm precise and and they know exact that I'm going to follow through like I'm not going to ignore it that's the key right you could say something but you better follow through on it you better make sure your employees know you're following through so if I say hey you

know John make sure you got your blue blue blue shoes on today and then I don't go check to see if he's got a m that's problem yeah corre so I was about to ask you a time when adjusting your leadership Behavior improved the team performance or the employee morale sure so now go back go back to that right of course yeah because now nobody was upset with me I didn't say hi to nobody except maybe the three I always said hi to right so yeah I mean you saw a difference right and I explained

that to the employees after was that and I explain it to my employees now I don't I don't do it still today I won't do it I won't say hi to anybody I just you know and that's the reason it's not that I dislike you it's just that I don't want somebody to feel differently because I did something for you and not something for somebody else right so I think that most employees and most of your employees want to be treated the same that's all they want they want they want to be treated the same

and you want them to be treated the same but you can't that's not reality right meaning you can't treat you can't approach or train or do everything the same because nothing is the same every everybody's feelings are different right so just be aware of that and know what you got to do to make sure everybody is consistent right consistency is key with employees if I tell you you get off your cell phone I better tell the other one to get off the cell phone right consistency and management is huge that's the biggest thing is don't

ignore a small problem because it'll become bigger okay that makes sense yeah so we have rules so if you're breaking those rules make sure you're calling every single person out that breaks those rules yeah right so um if you can share an example where you had to change your leadership leadership stale to fit some particular situation so you were thinking something uh in that situation and you had to change the approach well I think again I'll go back to individual employees and trying to do the standard you know say you're doing writing them up for

something do the standard hey this is what you did wrong and their reaction then made you change how you how you're responding right right so and how you have to maybe regroup and try a different route right because that route's not working right maybe they're getting upset well why are they getting upset most of the time you call an employee in there and you'll you'll you'll tell them what they did wrong and they'll tell you 50 other people that did the same thing wrong right because that's it's the same honestly it's the same thing it's

funny I it's just I'm saying that's my experience right is that when you go to councel or you go to correct somebody they're always going to point out somebody else doing something work right and to what extreme is how you're going to respond so yes I've had to change my strategy on that constantly but once I figure it out I you know you just got to keep changing it till it makes sense to that person does that make sense yeah okay so um how do you uh assess the leadership style like uh which is most

effective in different uh workplace situation I think you have been here mostly you have been into the food Management Service something MH uh yeah so might be you handle different situations how do how do you assess the leadership style according to the situation different situations what do you mean by what what do you the different situations I come up with like employees and stuff yeah maybe well again you you need to know you need I guess again that's going to come on dealing with with doing things for a long period of time right so I

knowing experience right experience is always going to be that answer to that question the longer you're around somebody the longer you know somebody the longer you know how to deal with them right whether it's somebody from another department whether it's facilities security whatever I deal with all sorts of people here right I don't just deal with dining I deal with everybody you know facilities comes in and cleans security comes in and protects us right my stuff our stuff right um you know I have clients that I answer to here and every single one of them

is different they all require something different I know how to talk to somebody one way and I'm going talk to somebody else the other way I'll make a phone call be hey what's up cuz I got that relationship right where others I'll be like hi is Miss so and so there you know so it's just all the relationships you form relationships are the most important thing in any kind of Workforce okay anything whether it's a company client you know you you have to you have to do your business the best advice I can give anybody

that's ever going into any business and I don't care if you're a doctor a lawyer pump pumping gas you work at Walmart I really don't care you know what bottom line comes down to you have to have customer service period okay customer service is number one if you don't have customer service again I don't care if you're a doctor you can be the best doctor in the world if you treat your patients like crap they're not coming back right so that's customer service same thing with a lawyer if you don't take care of your client

that's paying you and you're just kind of like whatever you're not going to have a client all right if you don't pump gas right for somebody they ain't coming back they ain't G to buy your gas no more so you have to focus on the customer and you have to explain to your employees how to do that as well okay so I'll tell you a quick thing what I do is every single semester I give out what's called the pickle award okay pickle award is for one or two employees per semester that someone has come

to me in the college and said that they did an outstanding job or they did something above and beyond for a customer or client of ours that stood up okay I'll give you a perfect example once some lady just give you a quick example some lady was over at listro and she had dropped her soup that she just bought my employee went over there got her a new soup cleaned up her mess and said here you go she got the pickle right that's exactly what I expect right so the expectations are set I set the

expectations you follow through with it and next thing you know you're getting an award for it right so customer service is huge and that's what I that's what I'm trying to say is like if you lead with a mission and your employees know your mission it's easy right my employees know you ask any of them go out and ask any of them what's the number one thing that your boss harps on and they're going to tell you customer service okay huge huge okay so again I hand out awards for it I recognize people for it

I also tell every single one of my employees I want you to learn the names of five students every year that's their job okay so those are those are the things that people don't see that I set expectations for so when I come into the employee meeting I'll be like and I walk by and I hear my front desk clerk go hi John have a good day I know I did what we were supposed to do right I know you did what I asked you to do so I see it right so all those things

that I teach my employees it becomes the teaching and learning and coaching then turns into what you get here right which is hopefully good customer service right that's what you guys come here for you can have a bad meal you better have somebody having a smile on her face right yeah got you can have a bad Hamburg once but somebody better be serving it with a smile and apologizing if it's not right right so again setting expectations is the biggest thing that you can do and let people understand who you are as a leader and

what you expect and when you do that they'll do it right they feel like they're going to go out of their way to perform that test to please their most so going back to the uh relationship and task oriented relip style so you uh came to uh say that uh we need to combine both together uh to handle the people in a proper way right sometimes we need to be task oriented leadership style or uh what What's the best opinion in your uh what's the best opinion of what management style uh relationship oriented style or

the relationship all day okay you have to have Rel relationships with your customers your clients and your employees you have to okay cuz here's the thing you you break one of those two down if you don't have relationship with your customer your customer is not going to be happy with your with your um employees if your employees aren't happy they're not going to be happy with the customers so you have to have that like it's not even a question it's not even a question I once once the relationship is this the does dusk will follow

that correct exactly exactly you got it Bingo you don't we don't look at I don't look at from a business standpoint follow me here I don't look at from a business standpoint I don't look at the dollars the dollars are important don't get me wrong but I don't look at that I look at doing the job right the dollars will come yes that's yeah exactly that falls you can't you can't say oh here's all the money no what are you doing to make that come in you got to do this to get here this right

so again I never look at that part I feel if you run a program or for a business the way it's supposed to be run and you do the job the best you can the right way everything else will follow in suit and so the money and everything else come with it right and your employees are usually happier because if you have unhappy customers sometimes that bleeds off to your employees right your employees aren't happy either then because they constantly listening people complain nobody wants to hear that so do your job know your job number

one do your job train Rec coach retrain continue to do right so it's just a constant Absol absolutely and a daily reminder of what we need to do right we daily remind people what to do trust me because they sometimes forget and I guess oh you know what I'll go back on that challenge the biggest challenge that I have in general is getting people to to come back and do their job the same way after a long break oh right so we get done in may they come back in August you know we got to

like get them back up to speed again right so that is a challenge that is my Challenge and how do you manage that it's just the same every year you just got to keep pushing right you got to keep getting your message like I said have the daily huddles it comes with time right nothing happens like that it takes time if you're going to expect if your expectation is for somebody to change the way they've been doing something in one day for a permanent time it's not going to happen it's not I can tell you

that right now and behaviors you'll always see the again my hardest role is managing behaviors because you can get somebody to change their behavior for a very short period of time but it doesn't last forever they'll go they'll revert right back so how do you how do you remind people how to continue to do like let's say calling in right somebody calls in three times and you're like stop calling in they stop calling in for about a month then they revert back to doing it again right so those are your how do you keep people

motivated to not do what they're supposed to do right and and the do things the wrong way because they'll do things the wrong way too so how you get them back on track keep them on track it's monitoring right you're monitoring your employees constantly that's your job that is your honest job besides knowing the business you have to monitor monitor is key knowing the business everybody knows your expectations everybody knows what you're supposed to do but now you have to monitor and make sure it's getting done if you ignore that piece of it that's where

most businesses fail the monetary piece it's been like a lot of information from you from a short span of time and I would like to ask you as a conclusion maybe if you have some advises for us like students who are Imaging completing in the business you're in a business yep uh so ask some advice yeah there's a lot what would be the uh most important advice that you would give into in a leadership perspective to know the first piece of advice I'd give is to know two positions down than what you know at least

at least two positions lower than you okay so if you come in as a general manager you better know two positions below you and if you don't you're not going to make it you need to know their jobs you need to spend time with them you need to not just jump into your role you need to get involved get your hands dirty so that when people ask you how do you fix it you know how to fix it because you've already done it right that is huge I'm telling you I think most people fail because

they don't do that they just come out of whatever and think they got all the knowledge in the world but you didn't you don't have the experience right experience is key first as a manager okay if you don't have experience you're probably not going to succeed okay first thing second thing I would probably say is um you know take take the customer service approach to what you're doing and treat your employees as customers too first right so treat your customers and your employees like customers you know listen to them a lot of here they want

to talk they want take knowledge in right knowledge is key with that you become knowledgeable right knowledge comes with customers and employees that's where you're going to gain your knowledge your knowledge isn't coming from sitting there behind a computer yes there's knowledge there but it's not real knowledge it's just shown on something right you're reading about it you're not experiencing it experience knowledge that's the second one okay third one I would say is um know all know all the pieces of what your business is right so say you have uh say you got a big

Corporation you're in charge of you know just counting stuff or ordering stuff that's great do it but also find out what those other pieces of that business that actually should go the whole business is about don't just get caught up in your own piece right so what I do now is I'm I get involved with the college right what they do housing how do they work what do they do I get Athletics what do you do how do you do it how do you do it right so I get admissions how do you do your

how what do you do right so I'm staring to get knowledgeable enough to know I'm just dining sure I just have to focus on the food but do I right focus on on what's your needs and what's your needs and what's your needs right so now I'm branching off that's what makes me successful it's because I do know now what all of these locations need what they want what they need their expectations you know like again with inter perfect thing of an international student right I learned that when you come here you know you got

you don't have transportation most of the time right so why not put you in dorms right that's the first thing I thought of right so I'm learning that piece to say hey how can we improve on what we're doing for others and and the international population is perfect example we could do better we could we could do better meaning we can offer you no not living way over there and you have to walk here in the snow yeah right that's I'm saying so those are the kind of things that I try to involve myself in

so I can help the college in the future right and help dining not just stick with my one piece how do I make everybody happy customers right thank you uh it's been a very wonderful session with you and uh learned a lot of things and from your experience from your advices and appreciate that yeah thankful for your time and effort for the for the interview and this session and uh would like to thank the audience also thank you so much for the J h