A shadowing report for Principles of Management

1. A Day in the Life of a Manager
Shadowing Report
Presented by Dallas
Andrakulic, Brian Cook
and Alex Laduc
On November 29th
Principles of
Management

2. Tim Haak
General Manager of Olive Garden
Tim Haak is the general manager of Olive Garden
on Military Rd. in Niagara Falls
He graduated from Nazareth College with a
Bachelor’s degree in design but after working the
hospitality/restaurant industry for over 30 years it
ending up becoming “his way of life”
Haak’s Background In the Restaurant Industry
• Worked at Red Robin in his teenage years
• Manager of Starbucks from 2008-2012
• Currently with Olive Garden after leaving
Starbucks in 2012

3. Olive Garden’s Background
Is an Italian restaurant that
belongs to the Darden Family of
Restaurants
In 1982, it joined the Darden
restaurant family
It’s a full service restaurant with a
main focus on “sharing a meal
together”.
Olive Garden has over 800
locations. Mostly in the United
States but some all over the world.
The restaurant chain accounts for
$3.8 billion dollars of revenue in the
Daren Family of Restaurants
And they continue to grow….

4. Observation and
Interview Results

5. Strengths and Weakness
“What do you believe to be your personal strengths as a
manager?”
He believes his strengths are:
 Being financially responsible, with a high profit
 He is makes and organizes the schedules so the company can
make a profit.
Showing a key strength with the “ability to organize”.

6. Learning about Yourself and
Communication
“What about weaknesses or anything you have to work
on?”
He believes his weaknesses are:
 His anger (which he mentioned he is working on)
 Being interpersonal at times with employees
Showing a key strength of increases his soft skills and
communication

7. Managing Yourself to Get Things Done
“In your opinion, would you consider the Front of house
or Back of house more stressful to manage?”
 He believes the FOH is more stressful because “there’s a lot
more moving parts”
 He believe poor staffing and unpredicted business is stressful
Showing that you need to know how to deal with stress

8. Problem Solving and Being Ethical
“How would you handle a problem within your restaurant
management team?”
“How do you handle a problem within your staff?”
 First to diagnosing the problem
 Become an effective team, even if not friends
 If necessary having to provide disciplinary actions
Shows example of Problem-Solving Basis model

9. Motivation, Coaching and Building
Relationships
“How do you motivate management staff?”
 He sets goals
 Addresses what they should work on (feedback)
 Gives back during the holiday through gifts
Shows example of using soft power approach and goal setting
theory

10. Conflicts
“What do you do to keep yourself calm when dealing with
an upset restaurant patron?”
 “listen
 apologize
 empathize
 make sure they know you are being sincere”
Shows example of using the “Accommodating Style” of handling
conflicts

11. Managing Personal and Organizational
Change
“What is the most difficult part of your job?”
 “the management team changes”
 He has to adapt quickly
 Learning to become a team with new crew members
 Tim uses appreciative inquiry to turn the negative into a
positive.
Shows example of using the use of setting a positive framework

12. Interview Results
 His strength is making money by managing the expenses
and organizing
 His weakness is that he needs to control his anger if
something happens
 Front house is more stressful for a manager in his opinion
 Tim believes in problem solving by first diagnose the
situation
 Tim motivates the staff by setting goals, providing
feedback and giving back during holidays through gifts
 He says the way he deals with a conflict is that you need
to listen, apologize, empathize, and make sure they know
you are being sincere
 Because he works for so long in the restaurant industry, his
family is used to the hours he makes but he never takes
work home
 The hardest part of his job is to quickly adapt to new
managers in the team

13. Conclusion and Key Points We Took from
this exercise
It was a Great learning opportunity:
 Learned that managing costs time and effort
 Treating people equally is highly important
 Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is very
useful
 Keep lines of communication open and clear
 Providing feedback and both extrinsic and
intrinsic rewards help motivate staff
 That you have to be able to deal with changes in
the organization
 You must have setting goals skills and know what
ways to properly enforce them

14. His and Our Final Last Words
“managing is being a
conductor
of an orchestra”
Tim Haak - 2016

15. Question that we asked Tim
1. What are your thoughts on Darden, anything they do particularly well or not
so much?
2. What training did you have to go through to become a general manager?
3. Did you have to attend any management workshops to become a GM?
4. What do you do on an average day?
5. Who is your superior and how does communication work with anyone higher
up?
6. How do you handle stressful situations?
7. What do you do to keep yourself calm when dealing with an upset restaurant
patron?
8. How would you handle a problem within your restaurant management team?
9. How do you handle a problem within your staff?
10. Do the hours of work affect your personal life? Such as family time?
11. How would you describe your management style?
12. What is the most difficult part of your job?
13. What is the most rewarding part of your job?
14. How do you motivate management staff?
15. How do you motivate the other employees?
16. In your opinion, would you consider the Front of house or Back of house more
stressful to manage?
17. What do you believe to be your personal strengths as a manager?
18. What about weaknesses or anything you should work on?
19. Do you know your personality typology? Examples; Extraverted/Introverted,
Sensing/intuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving.
20. If so how do you use it to your advantage?
21. What advice would you give to a new manager?
22. What do you look for when hiring a new manager?
23. What personal values do you bring to your day to day work life?
24. What goals do you have for your future, around 5 years?

16. Images Cited
 Linkedin,. Photo Of Tim Haak.
2016. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
 Olive garden,. Olive Garden's
Famous Breadsticks. 2016.
Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
 Olive Garden,. Olive Garden's
Salad And Breadsticks. 2016.
Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
 Olive Garden,. Olive Garden's
Statement. 2016. Web. 22
Nov. 2016.
 South- Western CENGAGE
Learning,. Building
Management Skills Front
Cover. 2016. Web. 22 Nov.
2016.

17. References
 [Olive Garden's Famous Special].
Retrieved from
http://www.olivegarden.com/home
 Daft, R. L., & Marcic, D. (2014).
Building management skills: An
action-first approach. Mason, OH:
South-Western Cengage Learning.
 Darden Investor Presentation. (2016).
Retrieved from
https://s2.q4cdn.com/922937207/file
s/doc_presentations/2016/FY16-
Second-Quarter-Investor-
Presentation.pdf
 Information | About Us | Olive
Garden Italian Restaurant. (n.d.).
Retrieved from
http://www.olivegarden.com/about-
us
 Olive Garden | Our Brands | Darden
Restaurants. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://darden.com/restaurants/oliv
e-garden

18. His and Our Final Last Words
“managing is being a
conductor
of an orchestra”
Tim Haak - 2016