Lunch Menu Leadership Test

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Lunch Menu Leadership Test by Kevin Burns
Based on the conclusively proven notion of "how you do one thing is how you do everything," comes my Lunch Menu Leadership Test.So who is the test meant for? The test is applicable if ever you are in the position, or even on a selection committee, to hire for any of the following positions: CEO, CO, Mr. Big, VIP, administration, administrator, baron, big brother, big cheese, big man, big wheel, boss, brass, businessman, chief, commander, director, directorate, don, entrepreneur, exec, godfather, government, governor, head, head honcho, head man, heavyweight, hierarchy, high priest, higher-up, industrialist, key player, kingfish, kingpin, leader, leadership dude, management, manager, meal ticket, number one, officer, official, point man, skipper, sales manager, supervisor, top, top brass, tycoon or any other position in the upstairs upper echelon - you know, that place with the gold-encrusted toilets - yes, up there.The test is relatively simple and takes only a moment to complete. Here's how it works. Take your candidate up for promotion for lunch, nothing really fancy just a place where the menu wouldn’t be too foreign to an average Joe. Once seated, either your host/hostess or a server will swing by with menus and say something like this: “Good afternoon and welcome to the Monkey Bar & Grill. My name is Peter and I will be your server today. Can I start you folks with a couple of beverages before I tell you about our fantastic luncheon specials today?”(Jeez, did you order a story? I don’t remember ordering a story.)Anyway, back to the test. Once Peter drops the menus on the table and rattles off the luncheon specials for the day, once he turns his back and runs to fetch your beverages, start the clock and say nothing more. Simply open your menu, pretend you’re looking at it and observe what transpires next. This IS the test.If the candidate closes his/her menu in under sixty seconds with a decision made for lunch, you have a winner. Here’s my thinking, if someone about to be moved into a leadership position can not make a decision for themselves in under sixty seconds, a simple decision about what to eat, then how in the world would they be able to make far more important decisions affecting the entire organization?The key to the Lunch Menu Leadership Test is the following philosophy: How we do one thing is how we do everything. If the candidate can make quick decisions on unimportant stuff, then he/she can likely make quick decisions on important stuff. If the candidate takes more than sixty seconds with a simple luncheon menu, you’re going to have problems with him/her.If the candidate says, “I’ve never eaten here before, what’s good?” that could mean, “I’m not comfortable with new surroundings. I might be able to become comfortable with a little help from someone who’s experienced this before, but right now, I don’t know what to do (have).”“Hmm, I’m not sure what to have. What are you having?” can mean "I will be making the vast majority of my decisions based on consensus. That means I will be polling people so I can decide what I should do next."Studying the menu and flipping pages back and forth several times means they can’t decide. They are indecisive.During the meal if I hear “Maybe I should have ordered what you did,” he/she spends too much time on second guessing their decisions. Likely, direction will change like the wind.There are many more things that can be translated from the test but the key here is if you are going to place someone in a position of leadership, they had better be able to stand on their own two feet, accepting the results of their decisions and not afraid to make them.This test never fails, unless the candidate knows about the test in advance and knew where they were going to be eating. Is it hard science? No, but it is a good indicator of how people react in everyday situations. If picking lunch is a stressful event, good luck on the hard stuff. Want to find out what your sales manager or GM is really like? Take them for lunch. You’ll see what I mean. As a point of interest here, during the meal, you can even discuss with your candidate your observations while ordering lunch. It's a great icebreaker into the whole discussion of decisiveness and can actually be used as a tool to help start a conversation with salespeople who seem to be struggling.---Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude Expertwww.kevburns.com/blogTuesday, September 1, 2009