The Value of Spotting Talent Before It’s Too Late

I’ve visited a certain restaurant three times — one that serves traditional food in a way that’s unique but still close to our taste, located on Abdullah Ghosheh Street. It’s worth a try, and many friends had recommended it, so I decided to visit — each time with different companions, each with different preferences.

This isn’t about the restaurant itself (and it’s not an advertisement), but in all three visits, there were incidents between customers and the restaurant management about things customers consider important — or simply their right. The simplest example: having to wait for a table with their family due to early-morning breakfast rush hours.

What caught my attention was that, in all three incidents, the young lady at the cashier stepped in — politely, gracefully, and with an impressive ability to defuse tension. She calmed the situation and satisfied the customer with a kind word and a practical solution.

One of the three incidents was actually caused by us (as often happens when trying a place for the first time), yet her resolution was convincing and genuine — not just “brushing it under the rug.”

Honestly, I don’t know if management is even aware of her talent.

By coincidence, I met the restaurant’s owner a week ago, and we had a friendly conversation on unrelated topics. I avoided talking about “business” during our first meeting, but I did share my admiration for the cashier’s actions, and learned her name was Hiba. I praised her to the owner.

I have no idea what action, if any, the owner took afterward.

But in situations like this, there should be some form of encouragement and reward for employees who genuinely care about their workplace and treat it as if it were their own.

I share this as an example of why every business owner should:

1. Discover the talents of their employees.

2. Make the most of those talents.

3. Establish reward systems for good performance and accountability measures for poor performance — up to and including letting go of a team member who cannot improve.

Because a toxic employee, left unchecked, can spread their negativity to others — and by then, it might be too late to fix the damage.

— Eyad