On the couch: a blog on running a successful kitchen from performance psychologist Mike Duckett

This is the first in a bi-monthly blog from performance psychologist Mike Duckett of Coaching for Success, helping chefs to raise their games in the kitchen.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Have ever been taught how to set yourself a goal? Have you ever been on a goal setting course? Have you ever listened to any motivational tapes about Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs)?!

Probably not, unless you have a corporate background, so you might be wondering how anyone could make such a meal over this. There is a huge number of books, tapes, videos and courses on the subject but this need not concern us here, suffice to say goal setting is a subject all of its own that we may return to in another blog.

For the moment the bigger issue is how do you know what goal to set yourself? You can learn about setting SMART goals (Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-bound) and then set yourself, for example, the goal, "to open three gastro pubs in three towns by 30th January 2017”. That seems to match the criteria pretty well so it must be a well-formed goal. The problem for me is whether you're sure that's what you really want. It's a bit like going to university after school; for some people it's a real goal but for others it just seems to be the thing to do.

Before setting yourself some big goals this year you might want to consider how clear you are about what really matters to you. What values do you hold around your chosen career path? What is your core purpose? You don't have to believe in the gods to entertain the idea that if they are playing a big game with us and we're just pieces, what is the role your piece plays on the board?

Not to get too deep and philosophical about this, we're talking about your true values, not the things politicians speak about such as "good old fashioned family values". Thinking about this stuff properly can save you years of hard work, striving to get somewhere you never wanted to be in the first place. If  – and it's a big 'if' – you eventually achieve your goal of opening those pubs you might find yourself wondering if it was all worth the effort. As a chef you are almost certainly clever enough and certainly hard working enough to make anything happen if you put your mind to it; so be careful what you put your mind to!

In fact once you've done the thinking about your core purpose (mission if you prefer) and your true values, many things get easier, including the hard work needed to achieve things. Take a look at a couple of famous purpose, or mission, statements:

Walmart: to "...save people money so they can live better"

Disney: to "...develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world"

These aren't complicated corporate jargon statements; they are pretty straightforward lines that tell us (and themselves) what they are here to do. The real point though is that once you've figured out your own you can use this as a decision template for most choices you will be faced with in future. It's obvious that although selling insurance might be profitable for Disney to get into, why would they; it just doesn't fit with what they are here for.

Knowing your own real purpose for which you have a passion, the goals you set each year may well vary but you'll almost certainly find the energy and commitment to make them happen because they should all continue to be in line with this single purpose. There are many ways to skin a cat but this way you will end up with a skinned cat and not a dead horse – to mix metaphors!

The trick is how to uncover these unconscious beliefs and principles so you can make clear conscious decisions based on them. Let me give you a couple of tips:

Try asking yourself: “If my business were to be closed tomorrow, what would the rest of the world be missing (even if they don't realise it yet)?”

On the basis that you're going to be spending many hours of your life doing work, make a list of single words or very short phrases that come to mind when you ask yourself: "What matters to me about the kind of work I do?" Then take each one and ask again: "Why does that matter to me?" Each time you ask "why?" you're getting closer to the real heart of the matter until you end up with maybe ten key values. Every decision you make from now on can be made with this list in mind e.g. when recruiting a sous chef or front of house staff. If they have a very different set of values beware of hiring them. No matter how competent they are, they just won't 'fit'.

Finally, to get back to setting that goal of opening three gastro pubs, when you've done that will it have kept you focused on your real reason for being in this business of hospitality?

Mike Duckett has a degree in psychology and is a member of the Occupational Psychology division, the Sports Psychology division & the Coaching Psychology Special Group of the British Psychological Society. He holds a diploma in Hypnotherapy & Cognitive therapy and is a certified NLP coach.

With over 20 years experience he was one of the pioneers of applying performance psychology to coach people in the hospitality industry to get the best from themselves,  in areas such as creativity; leadership; optimism etc.

As a certified NLP Coach and ANLP Accredited Master Practitioner, Mike has clients ranging from world renowned chefs, restaurateurs & sommeliers to up and coming staff in both the kitchen and front of house. You can see more of Mike's blogs at coachforsuccess.wordpress.com