Friday, February 20, 2015

Bad Ass

In the past month, I've been responsible for training 2 new people on bar. This terrifies me.

It's not that I don't know what I'm doing because it's far from that: I'm actually so good at what I do that I'm worried that I'll teach them the way of someone who has been a barista for 4 1/2 years & can eyeball milk proportions, syrup amounts, & the temperatures of drinks without using a thermometer because of how the milk sounds. Plus sometimes the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure for those not in the know) changes without any fanfare, & then you check the recipe cards & you realize something is supposed to be made differently for the past year & the manager didn't tell you.

Something else I always struggle with is being a hard ass. I get that since they're learning that they need someone to point out their mistakes, which I do. But since they're still learning I just say, "Ok, so that could have been done better" & tell them what they did wrong. If it's completely jacked up I'll have them totally remake the drink, but otherwise I'll have them fix whatever it was they messed up on. Maybe that way is better than making them hate learning....

I guess it just boils down to feeling confident in my leadership abilities. I know what I'm doing. I'm a bad ass. I just need to FEEL that bad ass.

1 comment:

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater said...

Bad Ass Barista. Every town needs one of those. Get it done, son!