There’s a saying I’ve used many times over the years in pubs:
You only know if you know.
Most people don’t set out to do things badly. They do what they’ve been shown — or what they think is right — and if no one ever takes the time to explain otherwise, standards quietly slip.
I remember taking over a pub some years ago and going through the close-down procedures with the team. When I unscrewed the nozzles from the beer pumps, one of the girls stopped and asked what I was doing. She genuinely didn’t know they came off. As I washed them, she was shocked at how unclean they were.
She hadn’t been lazy.
She hadn’t been careless.
She simply hadn’t been shown.
That moment stayed with me, because it summed up something I’d seen time and time again: people can only meet the standards they understand.
For me, good leadership in pubs was never about shouting or catching people out. It was about showing them what good looks like — and why it matters.
That’s why I was always particular about opening and closing routines. Tables cleaned and reset properly. Chairs tucked in neatly. Menus placed ready for the next guest. Back bars cleared, wiped, and restocked. Glasses washed and returned to their shelves. Drip trays and nozzles cleaned. Floors swept and mopped.
Not because I was fussy — but because it created calm.
It respected the next shift.
It respected the cleaner coming in the morning.
And it respected the guests who would walk through the door the next day.
Every new team member was trained the same way. I would show them. Then watch them do it. Then let them repeat it until they were confident. Whether it was changing a barrel, closing down the bar, or running the end-of-night system, competence came before independence.
As managers grew stronger, I stepped back. I encouraged them to show the next person. Slowly, knowledge spread, confidence grew, and the team became self-sufficient.
That’s when pubs run best — when everyone knows what good looks like, and feels trusted to deliver it.
Because in hospitality, you really only know… if you know.