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The Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check Wally's Three Star Leadership Letter

Find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.

Find out more about Wally's coaching services.

Many years ago, when the Earth and I were both young, I did some work counseling people who had been accepted into a government program that was going to help them start businesses that would, in theory, help them pull themselves out of poverty. The recruiting approach seemed to be to be taken from the Bible's book of Luke where the master who is about to hold a wedding feast directs a servant to "Go into the highways and byways and compel them to come in."

I can't imagine any other way that we would have come up with all those interesting people. I still remember one middle-aged woman who told me that she intended to start a restaurant.

"Have you run a restaurant?" I asked. She had not. "Have you worked in a restaurant?" She had not.

By now I was puzzled. "Do you like to cook?" I tried. She did not.

Now I was completely lost. "So why do you want to start a restaurant?" I asked plaintively.

"I've heard that it's a great business."

In all fairness, she probably would not have been sitting in front of me if the government hadn't recruited her for a program to help people bootstrap themselves out of poverty by starting businesses. But I think of her every time I watch Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares.

In this show, which debuted on BBC Channel 4 in 2004, Chef Gordon Ramsey gets a week to try to turn around a failing restaurant. Please note this is not the US version that airs on Fox. That's a good show, but the BBC show is less sensational and much more realistic.

If you're thinking about opening a restaurant, or if you run any kind of business, this show is worth watching. Here are some of the lessons covered in the last few episodes.

You have to know the business. A lot of people think that all there is to a restaurant is food. Well, food's important, but if you don't know how to make money from the business, loving food wont' be enough.

Doing something professionally is not the same as doing it just for fun. When you cook at home you can do things slightly differently every time. In a restaurant you need to be consistent so the veal tastes the same when they come back with their friends. At home you cook one meal at a time. In a restaurant, you cook several meals at a time.

Simplicity almost always trumps complexity. The simple menu, simple preparation process, the simple marketing premise beat the complex, super-sophisticated almost all the time.

People are the key. You want someone smiling and welcoming in the front of the house. You want the wait staff to know the menu and care about the customers. You want the chef to cook well and know how to run a restaurant kitchen.

Passion matters. People who cook should be passionate about cooking. People who serve customers should be passionate about service. People keep the books and people who market should be passionate about what they do.

Here's the bottom line. There's not business that's a great business if you don't know what you're doing. There's not business that's easy if you aren't in love with what you do. No matter how good you are on one dimension of your business, you still have to be "good enough" on the others.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.

Request your free copy of "Meeting the Challenges of the Boomer Brain Drain: An integrated approach."

Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.

Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.