Top Traits of Effective Managers

There are several characteristics that identify effective managers. These include:  

• Solid team work with high levels of accomplishment
• Continued advancement of goals
• Decreased margins for error
• Articulate communication

All of these top traits of effective managers in the food safety industry highlight the importance of top down competence and proactive leadership. In the food and beverage industry, the major issue is providing safe manufacture, production, handling, packaging, delivery and service of food and beverages.

Management Skills Create Safe Workplaces

Those in the restaurant industry are keenly aware of their responsibility to maintain safe and healthy work environments. Food safety managers strive to continuously improve their management skills as much for their own personal sense of confidence in their ability to maintain vigilance for employee safety, as for products and services they provide on a daily basis to consumers. Most food safety managers are aware of OSHA and FDA compliance regulations. Part of their duty is to continually update their knowledge through training and refreshing their food safety manager certification courses of study. As food and beverage production and manufacturing techniques change, food safety managers find they must rely on comprehensive training courses to keep up with these changes.

Food and Beverage Packaging Issues to Consider

One example of the necessity of continued management training is the issue of food and beverage packaging safety. Food managers need to be aware of food ingredients in relationship to the type of packaging of food contents to ensure safety. This precautionary awareness also applies to food labeling.

Improving Management Skills

Food safety managers in restaurants, cafes and all dining sites know the relationship between management and avoiding liability should lack of safety occur. To learn how to be a better manager, individuals who manage food facilities need a broad range of management training in food preparation, handling and potential for allergic reactions. Whenever food managers expose themselves to additional training, they soon realize training keeps them up-to-date on changes that affect the performance of their duties. The preparation of foods and beverages, food ingredients, techniques such as food irradiation, refrigeration and food temperature controls all contribute to the need for greater knowledge of comprehensive food safety practices. One of the recent changes implemented in the U.S. is the mandate for nutrition labels on all food containers and menus. Effective managers should be fully aware of their role in providing nutritional labels and menus.

Management by Objective (MBO)

When Peter Drucker wrote his book, The Practice of Management, in 1954, he defined management by objective as, "a process whereby the superior and subordinate jointly identify common goals, define each individual's major areas of responsibility in terms of the results expected of him or her, and use these measures as guides for operating the unit and assessing the contribution of each of its members." Food safety managers learn much from the MBO style. It allows them to detail work in a slower pace that encourages a calm, productive and safer work environment.