If I Hit 'em High! You Hit 'em Low

“Your employee just smacked my kid in the face!”

Well, the shock hit.. And then anger. The employee was nowhere to be found. How in the world do you hit a kid and disappear?

I calmed the customer down. We gave their child some free snacks, always seems to help with the crying. I gave the parents a free dinner package for their next visit.

… and then I decided to find the employee. Definitely was some ‘splaining to do..

I didn’t actually need to go far, as I turned around he was right behind me, sweaty faced and nearly in tears.

“It was me. I’m the one that hit your son, and I’m so sorry.”

I walked with Tim into the backroom to get the whole story.

He was dressed as Chuck E Cheese. He was performing a live show. That’s where Chuck E Cheese and a few other employees stand up and perform a dance for the showroom eating customers. In this particular one, they were marching around the outside of the tables, and as Chuck E (Tim) reached the stairs of the balcony he hopped down and gave an aerial spin, smacking the boy in the face and knocking him onto the ground.

“Oh” (I know what you’re thinking) “It was an accident, Jeff. That ends the story right there.”

Kinda.

See… We were used to doing live shows with flips and Chuck E getting a bit wild for fun. His middle name does stand for Entertainment… and recently corporate had sent out a strongly worded memo about removing said acrobatics from the regular shows with crowded restaurants. They didn’t want employees or customers getting hurt.

We made sure our whole costume team knew this. Everyone signed off on the policy change.

And… then Tim smacks a kid.

Was the early Terminator in me rearing it’s ugly head?

Arnold had promised "I'll be back.”

Perhaps he wasn’t the only Terminator returning.

I’d worked hard to begin coaching my team members and working to develop them and grow… and sometimes I just didn’t understand why they wouldn’t listen.

If Tim had just listened. Really this was his fault. We told him not to, he did it.

Now someone was hurt, and he cost the business money.

We entered the Chuck E changing room. I thought about all the conversations he and I had that had led to this point.

And then it hit ME, let’s have one of those conversations again.

“Okay Tim, so what was our commitment,” I asked.

He looked at me funny. We’d had this conversation before, and usually it was scheduled and planned.

“Ummm… to not do wild spins and moves in costume anymore.”

“Yes. And how did we do?”

“I know man. I F’ed up. I’m so sorry. I never thought I would hurt someone.” Tim answered sincerely.

“So what’s our goal moving forward?”

“I’ll never do anything like this again.”

“Okay. Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked.

“Just give me a chance. I love this job.”

“I’ll need to fill out an incident report, We’ll see where that lands us this week.”

On Monday, we had our management meeting. My GM asked about the incident, and we all discussed. I explained this conversation and John seemed satisfied. He said “Great. I like Tim. Sounds like it’s under control. Good Job”

That was new. I’m not sure how many times I had been complimented after someone was hurt on my shift.

Later that week I was working with Tim again. He pulled me aside and thanked me.

“Dude. I’ve never had anyone stick up for me that way before. I wanted to say Thank you. You’re the best boss I’ve ever had. I’m going to follow you wherever you go.”

I was speechless. Literally didn’t know what to say.

“Thanks Tim. Keep blowing our guests away… you know… just not actually smacking them.”

We chuckled and went back to work.

How often have you had a team member who just needed someone to stick up for them. Someone who had their back. Someone they knew that when they messed up would get them back on their feet?

Do you have a conversation you have built a habit around having with your team members so that when good and bad results happen, there is a structure you can lean on that helps take emotion out of the conversation and the result?

This may have been the first time and it wasn’t the last for me.

I have made sure to continue to Take 5 each week with my team members.

5 Minutes a week, minimum. Each Direct Report.

Ask them the 5 questions from the Take 5 Coaching Form.

Ask them how you can help.

Build loyalty.

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