One of my chefs came to me frustrated. He's got a guy who comes in at five. He walks in at seven. The things he asked for aren't done. A week goes by, he's asked three more times, still not done, or done wrong. And the chef is starting to take it personally.
Here's what I told him. Put it on the schedule.
Literally. Write it down. The prep list, the cleaning task, when he takes his lunch, what done looks like. Clear direction, in writing, that he can see without you standing over him. Then hold him to it, calmly, every single day, until it's a habit.
Because here's the thing about young cooks. They're testing you. Not out of malice. It's what people do with a new leader. They push on the edges to find out where the edges are. If the edges move, they keep pushing. If the edges are written on a sheet of paper on the wall, there's nothing to argue with.
A lot of young guys need direction more than they need discipline. They need to know exactly what you want, exactly when, and exactly what it looks like when it's right. Say it once, out loud, and you've given an instruction. Write it down and build it into the day, and you've given them a system. Systems survive your day off.
My chef did it. A week later I walked through his kitchen and the vibe was different. People were smiling on the line. They were working together. He was sitting at the pass doing his paperwork instead of chasing people. That's not luck. That's clarity.
I get asked a lot about how to handle a cook who isn't performing, and people want some psychological trick. There isn't one. Most of the time the cook doesn't know what you want because you never told him in a way he could hold in his hands. Fix that first. If it's still broken after that, then you know what you're actually dealing with.
Accountability starts with being clear. Then it's just consistency.