LEADERSHIP · SERIES ESSAY I
What New Leaders in Hospitality Get Wrong
Why being liked is not the same as leading, and why support means telling people the truth consistently.
Published by QSR · September 21, 2026
Truth is a form of support.
The Living Library · 25 essays
Stories from
the working world.
All writingLeadership lessons, hospitality stories, personal reflections, and the occasional argument with modern life.
The Leader Who No Longer Needs You
The strongest managers develop people so thoroughly that their own constant intervention becomes unnecessary.
Forthcoming
Ask New Employees Before They Stop Noticing
New employees see problems veteran teams have learned to work around, excuse, or stop seeing entirely.
Forthcoming
When Exceptional Becomes Expected
How exceptional managers quietly subsidize broken systems until their rescues are mistaken for normal operations.
Forthcoming
Dining Out Is No Longer Casual. Neither Can Hospitality Be.
As the middle of dining disappears, restaurants must deliver an experience that justifies the new economics of eating out.
Forthcoming
The Illusion of a Well-Run Company
Strong results can conceal weak systems when leaders confuse repeated rescue work with organizational health.
Forthcoming
Leadership Advice Was Clearly Written by Someone Who Has Never Run a Restaurant
What management theory misses about leading in the real world
The Guest Won’t Say You Cut Labor
Guests may never name the staffing decision, but they feel every consequence of it.
Forthcoming
In Defense of Getting Your Hopes Up
A case for practical optimism and against the exhausting habit of pre-ordering disappointment.
Forthcoming
The Emotional Architecture of Coffee
A mother, a medical loophole called moderation, and the green thread of coffee running through a family’s life.
Forthcoming
I Was Minding My Own Business
On lines, indecision, misplaced urgency, and the small public negotiations that test our patience.
Forthcoming
Your Customers Changed. Did Your Metrics Notice?
Why operators should examine what changing customer behavior is saying before familiar metrics begin to slide.
Forthcoming
LEADERSHIP · SERIES ESSAY V
When You’re Responsible but Not in Control
A practical guide for hospitality managers held accountable for results without enough authority, and how to surface risk, clarify trade-offs, protect the team, and avoid becoming the invisible solution.
Published by Workplace Today | November 1, 2026Read ↗
A rescue is not a plan.
The Iced Coffee Isn’t the Problem. The Interview Is.
A viral debate about bringing iced coffee to a job interview reveals a larger hiring problem: the difference between evaluating capability and rewarding candidates who already know the unwritten rules.
Carolyn Burnham Was the Original Desperate Housewife
Twenty-seven years later, American Beauty’s most tightly wound character looks less like a caricature and more like a prophecy.
Forthcoming
I Was Happy With What I Had. I Just Wanted More.
On ambition, gratitude, Madonna, and why happiness was never supposed to mean being finished.
Forthcoming
What I Learned From Bad Leadership
On fear, lazy management, detached leadership, and why people remember what it felt like to work for you.
Forthcoming
We Were Supposed to Be the Intelligent Ones
On delivery robots, human behavior, and what happens when the people making the decisions are nowhere to be found.
What Is Hospitality?
A service email, an out-of-touch executive, and what leaders owe the people asked to provide care.
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Double-Double
What unofficial In-N-Out delivery reveals about control, convenience, brand trust, and the people who fill the gap.
When Training Becomes Intimidation
A company training program meant to improve performance made some managers reluctant to practice. What happens when correction replaces development?
They Stayed. That Doesn’t Mean They Wanted To.
Why people stay in jobs they no longer want, and what retention numbers fail to show.
Yelp Didn’t Make Restaurants Better. It Made Them Worse.
How a platform built to hold businesses accountable helped turn customer feedback into a substitute for managerial judgment.
When the Regulars Stop Coming Back
How labor cuts and catering demands can leave less room for the moments that make regulars feel at home.
The Cost of Making It Happen
How catering growth concealed failures in executive planning and the extraordinary effort required to keep restaurant operations running.