Athens Country Club

Eleni Karytinou is a food and beverage manager focused on strengthening service standards through practical, consistent training. Her approach turns everyday experiences into learning opportunities that help hospitality teams build confidence, consistency and stronger guest interactions.

Making Ten Minutes Count

In the food and beverage industry, employees are constantly learning, whether we formally call it training or not. Every shift brings a different member or guest, a different request and sometimes a different challenge. Daily micro learning gives us the opportunity to turn those everyday experiences into intentional development.

I use what I call ‘Training in ten minutes,’ where we take a short portion of our pre-shift lineup and focus on one specific topic. It might be beverage service, table maintenance, menu knowledge, professional presence, anticipating a guest’s needs, or the difference between service and hospitality.

The goal is not to teach everything in ten minutes. It is to reinforce one thing consistently enough that it becomes a habit. When employees repeatedly hear, discuss and practice the standards we expect, those standards become part of how they naturally approach service.

The biggest advantage is that these sessions are realistic. Hospitality operations are busy, and finding an hour to bring an entire team into a classroom is not always possible. Ten minutes before service is much easier to incorporate consistently.

For me, the key is keeping each session focused. If today’s topic is beverage service, we stay with beverage service. We might discuss how quickly beverages should reach the table, presentation, refills or how to anticipate when a guest may be ready for another drink.

I also like to make the training interactive. Instead of simply telling employees the answer, I ask questions, use situations that actually happened during service, or have employees explain how they would handle a scenario. That makes the information more memorable and gives managers an immediate understanding of where additional coaching may be needed.

Letting the Operation Shape the Training

I believe the operation tells you what needs to be trained if you pay attention. I look at member and guest feedback, manager observations, employee questions, service mistakes and patterns we notice during shifts.

The more confident employees are in the fundamentals, the more attention they can give to the person standing in front of them.

If several employees are asking the same question, that is a training opportunity. If managers repeatedly correct the same service step, that is a training opportunity. Even a successful shift can create a training topic because we can discuss what went well and why.

Training should not only respond to mistakes. It should reinforce the behaviors we want to see repeated.

One of the biggest changes I have seen is that training becomes less intimidating when it is part of the daily routine. It is no longer something that happens only when someone makes a mistake or during orientation. It becomes part of the culture.

Employees become more comfortable asking questions, managers have more opportunities to coach, and expectations become clearer. It also creates consistency because the team regularly hears the same standards and language.

I have also found that repetition creates confidence. Hospitality employees make hundreds of small decisions during a shift. The more confident they are in the fundamentals, the more attention they can give to the person standing in front of them.

From Service to Hospitality

My advice to young professionals is to learn the difference between completing a task and creating an experience. Service is delivering the drink, entering the order correctly and clearing the table. Hospitality is noticing what the guest needs before they have to ask.

I would also encourage young professionals to stay curious. Asking why things are done a certain way helps build a deeper understanding of the operation. Learning from experienced servers, bartenders, chefs, managers and especially from guests can accelerate that growth.

There is no expectation to know everything at the beginning of a career. What matters is a willingness to learn every day. Some of the most important growth in hospitality happens ten minutes at a time.