Chris Deferio: Keys to the Shop

Chris Deferio is the host of Keys to the Shop, a podcast that helps coffee service professionals to advance their careers by discovering more about barista work, management, leadership, and the operational knowledge to run a coffee shop.

Chris has decades of experience managing teams of part-time staff in a high turnover industry. In this episode, he shares the most practical tips his team has discovered for helping leaders be most effective with part-time employees.

Key Points

You can only go so far with positive feedback, you should also seek feedback on how you can improve.

If you have a failure, just learn the lesson from it and apply that knowledge in the future.

When hiring, focus on finding people who share your core company values.

A lot of people know how to give good answers for the normal interview questions, so you have to ask different, more creative questions to really get to know them.

Rather than view scheduling as a burden, look at it as a way to serve people.

Doing a great job scheduling employees is a good way to show employees that you care about them.

Resources Mentioned

The Leadership Challenge* by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

Mindset* by Carol Deck

It's Okay to Be the Boss* by Bruce Tulgan

Keys to the Shop podcast

How to Master Your Workflow on Keys to the Shop

Leadership & Management Master Class on Keys to the Shop

Related Episodes

How To Lead The Millennials, with Chip Espinoza (episode 158)

What to Do When Somebody Quits, with Molly Moseley (episode 251)

How to Manage Former Peers, with Tom Henschel (episode 257)

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