Find out which pillar is costing you.

If I asked three of your leaders separately what matters most this year, would I get the same answer?

Same answer, not the same general area.

Is there a written direction — concept, mission, values, one, three and five-year goals — that your leadership team has actually signed?

Written and signed by them, not written by you and emailed.

Do you have ten or fewer weekly numbers that tell you whether it’s working, with one seat’s name on each?

One owner per number. Two owners is no owner.

Is there a short, prioritized list of what the business is working on next, where every item ladders back to a goal?

A plan, not a list of everything anyone ever said.

When one of those numbers goes red, does something specific change the following Monday?

If nothing changes, it’s a report, not a scorecard.

Does your leadership team meet every week, on a timed agenda, and does that meeting produce decisions rather than updates?

Every week, including the busy ones.

Does a pre-shift happen before every shift — five to ten minutes, last night’s number, one standard taught?

Taught, not reminded. And before every shift, not most.

If a line cook has a problem on a Tuesday, is there a place it goes that gets an answer back?

Not always yes. Always an answer. “My door is open” doesn’t count.

Does every leader get a real one-on-one every week, on their agenda rather than yours?

Scheduled, kept, and about their number.

Are your communication expectations written down — response times, what gets a text, what waits for the meeting?

An expectation nobody wrote down is one you can’t hold anyone to.

Is the guest’s night written down touchpoint by touchpoint, specifically enough that two of your managers would grade the same shift close to the same?

Specific enough to score a shift against.

Have you mapped more than one guest journey — member, league night, event, group booking, F&B only — and not just the first-timer?

Most venues map the first-timer, stop, and then conclude they have a marketing problem.

Can a bartender comp, remake or extend something up to a set dollar amount without going to find a manager?

A number, not “use your judgment.”

If I asked a line-level employee where to look up the allergen protocol, would they name a place rather than a person?

If they name a person, it isn’t real.

Is one standard actively being taught at pre-shift right now, rather than announced once and assumed?

One at a time, roughly two weeks each. It’s a training calendar, not a rollout.

Does every seat have three to five written accountabilities and one number it owns?

Every seat, down to the line. A busser has a number.

Have you handed something off in the last year and not taken it back?

Handing off a task isn’t it. Did the decision go with it?

Have your managers been taught how to hold a hard conversation, and has each of them actually held one?

Experience is not training. Nobody taught them when you promoted them.

Could you take two consecutive weekends off without the phone going?

Answer for what happened last time, not what you think would happen.

If your GM resigned Friday, would the next person be productive inside six weeks?

A departure inside two years isn’t a risk. It’s the exam.