LeadershipDiscussionandImplication.docx

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Leadership Case Study
Sawyer Smith, Shelby Acton,
Tyler Rice, Jialiang Li
Missouri State University
Table of content
Abstract…………………..………………………………………………………….………….. 3
Introduction…………………..…………………………….……………………………....…... 4

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Background information………………………………………………………………….……. 4
Literature Review ……………………..……………………………...……………………....... 5
Leadership……………………………………………………………………....……..... 5
Motivation………………………………………………………………………...…….. 7
Teams………………………………………………………………………………..…..10
Conflict…………………………………………………………………………....……..11
Methods of Data Collection……………………………..………………………………....…...13
Results and Findings………………………………………..…….....……...…………………..14
Leadership……………………………………..…………………………………
……..14
Motivation……………………………………………………………………….…
...….15
Teams………………………………………………………………………………
……16
Conflict……………………………………………………………………………
….….17
Discussion and Implications………………………....……..………………………...………...19
Leadership…………………………………………………………………………
……19
Motivation…………………………………………………………………………
…….21
Teams………………………………………………………………………………
……21
Conflict……………………………………………………………………………
……. 22
Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………...23
Citations ………………………………………………………………………………………...25

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Abstract
Chef Craig Von Foerster is a valuable leader in the hospitality industry and a winner of the
coveted James Beard Award.We find out how chef Craig motivates his employees to perform at
the highest level as a restaurant team, and how he solves conflicts amongst team members to
keep his farm-to-table restaurant, Harvest, running smoothly at the highest level.

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Introduction
The purpose of this study is to thoroughly examine the leadership qualities and approach
of a prominent leader in the hospitality industry and how they apply to their organization,
focusing on four core leadership elements: leadership style, conflict management, team
management, and motivation management. We researched these four important elements and
saw how each of them influenced the leadership style of Chef Craig Von Foerster. We chose
several unique leadership questions according to the four topics stated above. After the
interview, we compiled all of the answers we received and then examined the theory as
expressed in chef Craig Von Foerster's restaurant, Harvest. In all aspects, we came to conclude
that chef Craig is a strong leader and a pioneer in the restaurant industry.
Background
Chef Craig Von Foerster is from small town outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. His first job
in the food industry was at a Burger King and with no formal training he has worked his way up
and eventually became a chef. He spent 19 years (16 of which he was the executive chef)
working at the Post Ranch Inn; a hotel restaurant that overlooks the ocean on California’s
beautiful Central Coast. In 2007 he won a James beard award (one of the highest honors for a
chef) and established Post Ranch Inn as one of Travel Channel's Top 10 Must Visit Restaurants.
In 2012 Chef Craig and his wife Tamara left California to live in Rogersville Missouri
where Tamara had grown up. Her family has owned a 60+ acre farm (where they currently live)
since the 1930’s. When they moved to Missouri, Craig took a break from the restaurant industry
and for 3 years Tamara and Craig did monthly Hyper-Seasonal farm dinners while building up a
clientele. During Halloween Weekend in 2015, Chef Craig and Tamara opened up Harvest

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restaurant at Sunshine Valley Farms Orchard in Rogersville, Missouri. Their farm to table
restaurant seats 60 people in a quaint rustic environment overlooking a beautiful orchard.
Chef Craig is Passionate about only using the best ingredients in his restaurant. Before he
creates his menu, he goes to the farmers market to see which products are available and fresh and
then creates the menu. He loves highlighting seasonal, local ingredients that the everyday person
can connect to.
After about 30 seconds talking with Chef Craig, you’re sucked in. The passion that he has
for food and for this industry is incredible. Currently Craig and Tamara are setting up their farm
to go grow fresh vegetables and herbs for the restaurant, and eventually they want to be fully
sustainable, supplying their own produce.
Literature Review
Leadership
Leadership is a quality everyone should strive for. Being an effective leader and
developing leadership skills can help anyone be successful in both their personal and
professional lives. Based on the Path-Goal Theory, leadership behavior is accepted by
subordinates when they see the behavior as an immediate source of satisfaction or as an
instrumental part of future satisfaction (House, 1975). This theory proposes that a leader’s
function is to enhance and motivate subordinate’s ability to perform. After identifying the goal of
a leader, it is important to understand how a leader achieves these goals.
According to the Ohio State study that was done post WWII , “all leaders have certain
tendencies” (Berger & Brownell, 2009). The study explains that leaders initiate structure by
demonstrating by example, using facts, and mentoring. The study also shows that leaders have a

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consideration for behavior where they show care and concern for others. By showing concern for
others it creates respect and trust which allows the leader to influence others in a positive way.
Based on the Implicit Leadership Theory the most significant traits of a leader are dedication,
intelligence, sensitivity and charisma (Fisher, 2005). Leaders must be able to provide direction,
lead consistently, influence others, foster teamwork, motivate others, coach and develop others
and champion change (Fisher, 2005). These qualities make a good and effective leader because
each quality allows for the leader to bring out the best in others.
There are several types of leadership so there have been many studies done to determine
what kind of leader performs best. According to the Blake and Moutons Managerial Grid there
are five leadership styles (Fisher, 2005). These styles include; country club style, team style,
middle-of-the-road style, impoverished style and produce or perish style. These styles are
determined as effective based on how much each style shows concern for people and concern for
production. The relationship between concern for people and concern for production is important
because if balanced then the leader can create an environment where people feel necessary while
tasks and goals are being completed effectively (Fisher, 2005).
Leadership is a functional feature that is necessary to establish and recognize group goals
and values, integrate various individual styles and personalities, maximize the use of group
member’s abilities and help to resolve conflict and problems that may arise (Day, 2008). A
leader’s main objective is to use their ability to motivate others in order to create a better overall
result and performance. A leader’s performance is a result of the conditions of the environment,
the aim is to serve established needs (Baker, 2001). Thus, an effective leader will adjust to the
needs of the environment. This is done by first assessing the needs, understanding the people

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involved and developing a strategy to maximize performance by using the strengths of each
individual.
The concept of leadership is important to understand because anyone can be a leader and
learn to develop the qualities needed to be one. Although leadership does not come naturally to
everyone it can be learned and developed by understanding what makes an effective leader. The
goal of an effective leader is to motivate others to develop their full potential rather in a specific
task or an overall objective. To achieve these goals leadership qualities must be attained and
accomplished. Developing these abilities starts with having confidence, ambition and
determination (Wills, 1994). Once these basic qualities are addressed leadership aspects can
begin to form.
Motivation
As stated by Cherry, motivation is wanting at the most basic level. It is a condition of a
living organism desiring some form of change in self and/or environment. Humans and animals
share similar tendencies regarding basic motivation, such as the need for food, safety, and sex.
Humans, however similar to animals, begin to expand our desires and ambitions past the basic
necessities (food, shelter, safety) and start to exhibit further, more elaborate motivations.
Humans show desire for understanding and meaning, desires to be liked and respected, ambition,
and other complex and advanced desires (Cherry, 2016).
Human motivation is far more complex than the basic animalistic motivations. At a
certain point in human’s evolutionary life cycle we adapted to social interaction as a form of
motivation. There is a basic drive instilled within humans to be socially accepted, which has

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opened up a whole new bag of motivations such as comfort, ease, and more evolved goals such
as flourishing and self-actualization.
What motivates us to do what we do at the most basic level? There are two answers:
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from within and is personally
rewarding, such as a musician playing his/her instrument or an athlete playing his/her sport.
Essentially we do things for its own sake. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside and
motivates to earn a reward or avoid a punishment. This sounds something like working in order
to make money. Both types of motivation are very different but can affect each other in different
ways. Sometimes too much extrinsic motivation can harm our intrinsic motivation, like a big
signing bonus affecting a baseball player’s love and motivation to excel and improve their
baseball skills. After they receive the money/reward, the motivation can slowly start to slip
away because they have already been rewarded for their efforts extrinsically (Springer, 2016).
Expectancy theory is a cognitive process theory of motivation that is based on the idea
that people believe there are relationships between the effort they put forth at work, the
performance they achieve from that effort, and the rewards they receive from their effort and
performance (Lunenburg, 2011). This basically means that most people are motivated by the
belief that if they put in a good performance or do something really well, they will receive some
sort of prize or reward for their efforts. Expectancy theory is based on three assumptions:
expectancy (the belief that good performance leads to rewards), instrumentality (rewards based
upon performance), and valence (the value of the reward is highly positive or beneficial).
Incentive based motivation is when an individual is promised something in return for
something else (Toates, 2009). This could be a promotion in the workplace, a raise, or any other
variety of incentive based options. These incentives often fulfill a person’s psychological

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requirements for doing something. As stated by Frederick Toates, “The physical presence of an
incentive strongly increases the level of motivation directed to that incentive, an ‘‘immediacy
effect’’. We can thus conclude that motivation is increased by incentives.
In Motivation and Personality (Maslow, 1954), Maslow introduces his Hierarchy of
Needs Theory, which holds that people are motivated to satisfy individual needs, beginning with
basic needs and progressing to more intricate psychological needs. The five needs, ordered from
most primitive to most complex, include: physiological, safety, belongingness (or love), esteem,
and self-actualization. Human motivation is at the very core of our existence, but the reasoning
behind each individual’s motivation may differ substantially from one another (Maslow, 1970).
According to Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene theory (Amabile, 1993), motivation in the
workplace is based upon two factors: “motivator” factors and “hygiene” factors. Motivator
factors are based upon intrinsic factors, such as responsible work and autonomy, while hygiene
factors include things such as job security and pay. He also suggests that workers are most
satisfied when the work is interesting, or rich in motivator factors. This suggests that intrinsic
factors are far more valuable than external, or “hygiene” factors. There are also suggestions that
external factors can inhibit intrinsic motivation in the workplace.
Teams
As our lifestyles grow and change in this ever evolving society, we are constantly put in
professional working situations with different types of people. Every person is motivated by
something different; money, titles, family etc.and it’s the job of the manager to out how to

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motivate each person towards achieving the common goal (Mind Tool Editorial Team, n.d.).
Now there is a big difference between a team and a group. A group has no clear culture, there is
some conflict and leadership is usually assigned to just one person. Whereas in a team everyone
is fully committed to their shared visions, team member’s holds each other accountable, and
members of the group share leadership (Ivancevich & Duening, 2012). It is essential for the
team to have a shared vision, that way everyone is working towards the same end goal.
According to the Hill’s Team Leadership model a team performance is based off of how
a leader handles problem situations. Since each situation is different deciding whether the
problem is because of tasks, or relationships. If it’s a task problem, a different viewpoint a key,
the group leader should switch up team roles and collaborate more with the team to have
everyone more involved (Stewart & Manz, 1995). But if it’s a relationship problem the leader
should first let the parties try and handle it themselves but if the problem still is not fixed the
leader should, support all members of the team, listen to each side and help them work through
the issues by having them recognize each-other’s strengths and how they can complement each
other by reminding them that they work as a team. (Anthony, 2013)
The ideal leadership model for a company to have is the Horizontal leadership
development. A horizontal organization has everyone operates according to a clearly defined set
of rules and protocols, where each team member can understand exactly what they are
accountable for (Guttman, 2016). Vertical leadership model is another common workplace
practice. A vertical organization is represented by the chain in command, having orders are
giving down from the top needs Strong upper division leaders who can delegate responsibilities
to middle managers but will far short. Compared to a Vertical organization a horizontal

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organization creates more belonging between the team members and overall goal and allows
change to happen a lot quicker. (Huebsch/Demand Media, n.d.)
Conflict
Conflict, incompatibility between ideas, actions, beliefs, or goals. Mostly happened
between two or more persons or from one person to a group, most time both sides see their own
way as the only way to achieve their objective and goal (Rau-Foster, 2016).
When people talking about hard part of their job or can’t deal with co-workers, these are
all about conflict. When Manager see two employees can never get along well with each other in
work, this is all about conflict. Conflict is a natural and normal part of people’s life and working
(Rau-Foster, 2016).
Conflicts in workplace are unavoidable consequence of leader’s professional life
(CHANDLER, 2010). Leaving conflict in workplace and try to evade it, it may result many
worse consequences or more conflicts. If a manager saw the conflict between his employees and
do nothing to it. It may grow employee’s anger and make bad mood at workplace. To the
contrary, if the conflict solved properly and in time, it is beneficial (Rau-Foster, 2016).
View the conflict as an opportunity, smart leaders see it as an opportunity to get to know
opinions and ideas from employee and develop their work and workplace to a better place
(Myatt, 2012). Most conflicts in workplace are resulted in miscommunication, Hierarchy issues,
unfair work responsibilities, manager favoritism, harassment, and discrimination (PARPAL,
2015). Resolving conflict proper is an essential ability of a good leader. Keys to properly solve
conflict in work: Get to know what, why when, Seek common ground, Convert Negativity into
Positivity.

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Four things always need to be remembered when dealing conflicts at work: respect and
leave privacy to employee, Seeking for balanced resolution, minimize negative emotion, inspire
employee harmony(How to resolve employee conflict, n.d.).
Resolve conflict happened to customers could be a little bit different. “7 steps” should be
followed.
Step 1: Adjust mindset. Thinking from customer’s aspect, but not telling them it’s none of our
business.
Step 2: listen actively. Figure out what is their problem.
Step 3: Repeat their concern, make sure addressing the issue correctly.
Step 4: show sympathy and apologize.
Step 5: Present a solution. Ask customers if this can make it up.
Step 6: Take action and follow up. Once get a yes from unhappy customer. Move fast, timing is
also very important. After making solution ask customer if he is satisfied now.
Step 7: Feedback. Try not to make same mistake again. Get it back to your employee and
remind them this is somewhere they could make mistake. (Team)
Methods of Data Collection
The methods of data collection we used was firstly researching Chef Craig. We all looked
up as much information about him as possible so that we could get a good idea of who he was
and what he has done. We began to develop questions we had for him. It was beneficial to break
down the questions into our selected topics which are leadership, motivation, conflict and teams.
We worked together to develop questions that incorporated each of these topics and focused on

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creating questions that would allow for Chef Craig to elaborate and share his experiences with
us.
After establishing our questions we set up a good time for Chef Craig and his wife to
meet with us. We decided to meet with him at Potter's House Coffee Shop because it is a
comfortable place for a group setting and has good beverages. We began the interview process
by each asking him questions from our assigned topics and asking for elaboration when
necessary. He was an easy person to talk to and very laid back which made the interview process
easy and fun. Once we were done with the interview process we each focused on analyzing the
data collected from the questions we had asked. We each focused on our own topics and looked
to connect his responses to the principles and literature we had obtained from the literature
review. Chef Craig gave us a lot of information as well as entertaining and inspiring stories
which allowed us to easily connect his experiences and leadership style to content related to
class. After we each analyzed our sections we collaborated to put our information and final draft
together. It was beneficial for us to review our findings together because our highlighted sections
are closely interrelated.
Results and Findings
Leadership
Chef Craig is a leader in the hospitality industry through his work as a renowned chef. He
now owns his own restaurant where he gets to fuel his passion by being the head chef and
running the restaurant with his wife. He also owns and runs a farm on the side which keeps him
and his wife extremely busy. His leadership style has changed since transitioning from a chef to
a chef and owner slightly but he was fortunate to have ownership responsibility as a head chef in

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his previous jobs so it was not an overwhelming adjustment for him. He feels extremely lucky
that his wife is involved and helpful because it allows him to focus firstly on being a chef. Chef
Craig's leadership style is simple, he tries not to overthink anything and he tries to simply lead by
example. He believes by doing the same work as others and doing the right thing he can lead by
example. He is a natural leader because of his willingness to accept responsibility, this allowed
him to become an executive chef at twenty years old. He has always been comfortable being in
leadership positions which has helped him throughout his career.
Chef Craig's biggest influence on his leadership style is the people that he has worked
with. He has had the opportunity to work for a lot of good leaders and has taken something away
from each experience through his belief that everyone has something to offer. He believes he has
learned a little from a lot of people and that they have all influenced his leadership style. He
admired a particular manager he worked for while in Hawaii. This manager walked into working
for a bad restaurant that many managers had tried and failed to fix. He admired this leader
because he didn’t try to handle the whole problem at once, instead he worked on fixing one
problem at a time and doing everything piece by piece.
Motivation
Craig Von Foerster is an exceedingly motivated and well established leader within the
restaurant industry. He recently opened his farm-to-table restaurant, Harvest, in October of
2015. The restaurant is the brainchild of Foerster and his wife, Tamara, who is originally from
Rogersville where the restaurant and farm is located. Their Rogersville location was a perfect fit
for the couple, since Tamara’s family farm was already agriculturally established within the area.
It is also important to note that the farmland (and land, in general) is vastly cheaper and far more
private in Rogersville than their previous location in the beautiful but expensive Central Coast of

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California. It was far easier to open their farm-to-table restaurant on a piece of land that was
already within the family.
Chef Craig prefers to hire like-minded individuals in his restaurant that treat each other
and every employee from executive chef to dishwasher with the same amount of respect that
Craig exerts. He believes that his employees will be motivated more if they know that the respect
they give is also received. He also believes in increasing the abilities of every employee and
enriching them with a sense of pride in the work that they do each and every day.
Chef Craig understands that not everyone is the same and that each individual is
motivated differently, and he firmly believes that true motivation comes from within and that not
all of his employees will be a perfect fit for his restaurant. He tries to give new hires a two-to-
three day “trial”, and by the end he knows exactly if they will fit in. This helps Chef Craig create
a team that is motivated while on the same page, so that his restaurant runs smoothly and
effectively.
Chef Craig is constantly motivated, for there is always a great amount of work to be
done-whether it be in the restaurant or on the farm. He stays passionate and motivated every
single day because he absolutely loves to cook, especially with the produce that he and his wife
grow on their Rogersville farm every week. The variety and ever changing menu ingredients
keep him on his feet and motivate him to create new and exciting foods that will “wow” and
leave his guests wanting more.
Teams
Chef Craig believes that everyone wants to do an outstanding job and to perform well.
And because he believes that, he treats everyone with respect and feels that respect goes both

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ways and that it is essential in establishing a great team. Since Chef Craig has been in the
kitchen, he has faced a few issues with front of the house and back of the house like fighting and
bickering, for example. His approach to solving these small squabbles is by having both parties
realize why they are there, and that they are doing that job for a reason; each person excels at
something different from one another, and traditionally back of the house people are not the best
in the front of the house and vice versa. After both parties come to agreement with each other he
brings them together to help them realize that they need each other so that the entire restaurant
can be successful.
When Chef Craig looks to bring someone new onto his team he wants to put them to the
test. He believes that everyone wants to do a good job and when you believe that you have to let
them prove themselves. During the interview Chef Craig was quoted saying, “either you can
cook or you can’t.” He said that this saying has worked well for him, because usually the new
hire will know if things are going to work in the long run by their performance during the trial.
An obstacle that he’s faced in the past is creating and maintain an enjoyable productive
work environment where the job gets done and everyone is happy. He said that he has been
really lucky in always having really good people working around him and that always makes it
easier. While interviewing Chef Craig, he said that “The one thing to always remember when
working in a team is that everyone needs helps sometimes.” He used the example of working on
the line and how one station can get backed up with orders and another could be empty. You
have to be able to ask for help”, he says, “and that’s key when working as a team: putting your
pride aside and caring more about the customer and their experience so everything comes out
perfect.”
Conflict

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The most common conflicts Chef Craig has experienced in his work restaurant are
interpersonal conflicts between employees. Some of them are cultural, for example:
employees from different countries grew up from different cultural backgrounds and
religions, they may have different views and even different values. The main reason is lack
of communication.
Due to the fast working paced in restaurant, conflict is very common and nearly
unavoidable in such a stressful workplace. Chef Craig doesn't see as trouble but face it
calmly and fix it when he think it’s necessary. Generally Chef Craig will not interfere with
the staff’s interpersonal conflicts as long as their conflicts do not affect the workplace.
Chef Craig described his conflict management style to employees as “hands off friendly
style”. In Chef Craig’s words “it is someone’s freedom to not like their co-workers.” He
leaves enough space for his employee to solve problem by themselves. If they are unable to
fix it. He will get to them and have private talk with another manger witness.
Chef Craig is more willing to create “teacher- student” environment to his work place.
He likes to demonstrate the right way first and earn his employees’ respect. Letting them
believe that learning from Chef Craig can make themselves better and willing to learn from
him. Chef Craig also mentioned you can always learn something from everybody.
Communication is important to his conflict management. Sometimes he will correct
somebody right at the point before one making bigger mistake, such like making a dish
wrong. But mostly he would like to talk to his employee in private and warm and friendly
remind him what he is doing wrong. If this employee keep doing things over the line after
being warned, he probably need to find a job at somewhere else. No matter reward or get
fired. Everybody should know that everything comes to them is what they fully deserved.

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For conflict happened to himself, he always keep management unified. No matter what
happened in the office he always keep the management unified to staff, it is important to
have each other’s back outside, he would keep management level conflict invisible from
employees. It is just like “parenting”, no matter what happened between parents they always
keep it away from children.
Chef Craig see part of personality makes people successful or not in the long run. “Let
is go” is spirit needed in restaurant. All the employees work in the restaurant are just like a
family. No matter what happened during the work after one day shift, people need to let it
go.
Facing an unhappy customer, Chef Craig always tried his best to fix it. Communicate
with guest first, get to know why customer is unhappy, is it because food or service.
Knowing what is the problem is the key to solve it. If a dish is wrong, make a right one. If
the service is wrong, make it right.
If the unhappy of customer is not because any aspects from restaurant, like just
because this customer had a bad day, or he is just an abusive person, or he sexual harassed
our employee and the unhappy of this customer are affecting other guests. He will move this
customer out of his restaurant in a friendly way. It is important to keep every guest happy,
any review only can make a lot influence to a restaurant, but if one is harmful to his
employee and other customers, and there is no better choice.
Discussion and Implication:
Leadership

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Chef Craig's leadership approach is to lead by example which can be a good or bad
approach to being a chef and owner of a restaurant. His leadership style supports the Ohio State
study which explains that leaders have the tendency of demonstrating by example, using facts
and mentoring (Berger & Brownell, 2009). This is a smart approach because it is a well-accepted
behavior by subordinates and it shows that he is part of the team. Chef Craig’s subordinates
receive instant gratification since they see him doing his fair share of work (House, 1975).
However, this may not always be the best leadership approach for his situation. The
problem with this approach is that it cannot be the only method used by the primary leader of an
establishment. This is because structure needs to also be supported by using facts and mentoring
(Berger & Brownell, 2009). If all three of these aspects are done while running the restaurant the
result will be a much better structure than just using one or none of the aspects mentioned.
The Von Foerster's approach to running a restaurant can be very tricky because they are
not only owners but also the primary management. This could potentially become a problem if
they slack off at working as a team because they have so much responsibility in running the
establishment and managing it financially. The important thing in this situation is maintaining
balance and showing equal concern for the people involved and for production (Fisher, 2005).
By keeping the right focus, the Von Foerster's should be able to keep their business well
maintained and headed in the right direction.
Chef Craig's actions impact his organization because in a sense, he is the organization.
His every action affects the business. He and his wife have full control of every aspect of the
restaurant, and this is a very good thing because it means that they get to make all of the
decisions and that they don’t have to answer to anyone else before doing so. However, if any
mistake is made it falls solely on them.. Having the responsibility of running, owning, and

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farming for their business is a lot to do, but the Von Foerster's have a passion for what they do
and a strong leadership style which has allowed them to be successful.
Motivation
Motivation is by and large more successful when it comes from within. Chef Craig is
extremely motivated from within. His values and outlook all point to intrinsically motivating
himself and his employees from within.
External motivation, whether it be pay, a promotion, or a higher status, is not nearly as
valuable as intrinsic motivation (Springer, 2016). Employees are more likely to excel at their
jobs if the reasons behind their work is intrinsically motivating. Craig loves these intrinsically
motivated employees, and strives to fill his restaurant with like-minded individuals who pride
themselves on delivering the best service and product available.
As stated by Lunenburg, employees expect a certain amount of reward from their efforts
and performance at work (Lunenburg, 2011). Craig believes that the greatest rewards are leaving
the guests’ expectations raised for future visits in his restaurant, and leaving them with the
feeling that they just experienced something great. His desire is for all of his employees to love
what they do, so that every day they are motivated to uphold and improve the image of the
restaurant, and to provide the best overall experience possible to their guests.
Teams
At Harvest, you can find Chef Craig every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday working his
station behind the line. He is one of four people working back of the house, each of his team
member brought in for their professionalism, work ethic, and ability to work together

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(Ivancevich & Duening, 2012). As you walk through his kitchen there is no yelling, bickering, or
running, everyone is working hard and as fast as they can without rushing or being sloppy. If a
mistake is made, no one gets upset, they may be frustrated on the inside but it never shows, they
just put their heads down and work. He holds each person accountable for putting out a great
food without micro managing.
A team performance is based off of how a leader handles problem situations and seeing
how Chef Craig is cool, calm, and collected even when the orders start piling up is a great
example of how he leads by example and demonstrates the Hill’s team leadership model (Stewart
& Manz, 1995). Having a leader who doesn’t freak out when they are stressed, gives the team an
excellent example of how they are supposed to behave when “in the weeds” with chef leading by
example.
Chef Craig has an extremely flat leadership model where everyone operates according to
a clearly defined set of rules and protocols, and where each team member understands exactly
what they are accountable for (Guttman, 2016). Watching him and his team work in the kitchen
it’s clear that yes he oversees everything that goes on but he isn’t looking over everyone's
shoulder making sure it’s done right. Each person has their own list of things that need to be
done for their station. He has these people working for him because he respects them as hard
working employees and knows each team member there wants to put out amazing food just like
he does.
Conflict
Conflict is far too common in Chef Craig’s work experience, especially in a high pressure
work place like restaurant(CHANDLER, 2010). He handles his employee well by showing
respect and by handling employee problems in private. Chef Craig calls his conflict management

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style as “hands off.” “Giving employees privacy and space to solve problems on their own but
not escaping from it is what a smart leader would do”(Rau-Foster, 2016). When things start to
affect work and other employees, he may consider intervening. Even after he starts to get into
people’s conflicts, he still gives a certain amount of privacy to his employees.
Chef Craig knows how important communication is. Most conflicts are a result of a
miscommunication(PARPAL, 2015). Chef Craig prefers to remind people in a friendly and
warm way. He is always on the same page with his managers and keeps management unified. If
an employee has already been reminded and warned but still keeps doing things wrong, he will
most likely terminate this person in order to keep the rest of the restaurant harmonious.
When resolving conflicts with customers, Chef Craig always tries to get the facts to find
out what the problem is first before making any decisions. He shows sympathy and tries to make
things with the customer by satisfying their expectations.. When facing a rude or abusive
customer that is harmful to his employees or other customers, he does not hesitate to move this
guest out to protect the good of everyone involved.
Conclusion
The purpose of this study is to thoroughly examine the leadership qualities and approach
of a prominent leader in the hospitality industry and how they apply to their organization,
focusing on four core leadership elements: leadership style, conflict management, team
management, and motivation management. We researched these four important elements and
saw how each of them influenced the leadership style of Chef Craig Von Foerster. We can
conclude that to be good leader one must possess a handful of different leadership qualities in
order to be a successful and prominent leader within the hospitality industry. Chef Craig exhibits

23
many of these exceptional qualities in his restaurant by creating a calm and enriching
environment for his employees and his guests to experience week in and week out.

24
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