Category Archives: Development

Do You Have The Right Attitude To Succeed?

You come to work on Monday morning after a rejuvenating weekend with your loved one, and get confronted by a coworker with a negative attitude within the first ten minutes… you kept working endless hours over the weekend to complete the project in time for the upcoming presentation and put in endless efforts, but your peers missed the deadline and your presentation got cancelled… you always try to do your best and work hard, and the person next to you is sleeping on the wheel, yet there is no sign of accountability… other people in your organization have ulterior motives and employ unethical techniques to advance themselves…

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

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Don’t get yourself in the victim role and develop a negative mindset, but rather continue to focus on yourself and on doing the right thing. I am not saying that you shouldn’t hold people accountable to their behavior, actions and performance (without it your business cannot succeed), but you cannot make it personal either, get emotional about it, or let it change anything of who you are and what you believe in. If you believe in Karma and that one’s actions always have consequences, even if you yourself are not able to address it or do anything about it, you can trust that no one gets away with cutting corners or unethical behavior. Focus on being at your best every day and on growing the people around you the best you can, and you will always have a feeling of accomplishment by the end of the day.

I have come across a lot of smart people with the skill set to be very successful in their role, and who yet fail to work as a team, fail to get the best out of their teams and coworkers, and fail to deliver the expected results because of their attitude.

If you believe that 10% in life is what happens to you, things that you cannot control, and 90% your attitude about it, you know what you have to focus on first – yourself and your outlook on things!

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Do You Have The Right Perspective On Your Career?

What’s my career goal, is one of the most important questions you can ask yourself at the beginning of your journey and your career in hospitality!

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I am recruiting graduates from hotel management schools for the position of housekeeping floor manager now for years, and my experience is that many, if not most, do not have clearly defined goals and are rushed to get promoted as fast as possible, and definitely faster than their peers from school. Continue reading Do You Have The Right Perspective On Your Career?

What You Must Know About Five Star Service – Never Assume!

I recently attended a Forbes five-stars training at my hotel. The Forbes trainer started the training by explaining how it feels to receive five-star service as a guest, and the genuine care and attention to detail that come with it. The trainer continued that while many of us have been working in the hotel industry for very many years and believe to exactly know our customers that we should never assume that a certain guest doesn’t care about us offering service that goes beyond and only cares about the basics. Continue reading What You Must Know About Five Star Service – Never Assume!

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Takes Customer Service To The Next Level

Jeff Bezos takes customer service to the next level, and is planning to have packages delivered within only 30 minutes of ordering! How is this possible? Click on video below and you’ll find out how. For more details read the related article in the Washington Post.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98BIu9dpwHU

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The Ant – A Tale About Micro-Management

Every morning the busy ant came to work happy and motivated, joyfully singing her song. She loved her job, and spend most of her days working hard. The ant continued being busy and working hard for years, but without anyone to supervise her or constantly tell her what to do.

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The general manager, a big fat bug, recognized soon that it could not continue with these unacceptable working conditions and hired a supervisor to enhance control and with it productivity. He hired the beetle with plenty of experience in the work field and excellent references. The first matter of business for the beetle was to standardize the working hours of the ant, and to accomplish this he started compiling reports that would keep track of the working hours of the ant. He purchased and installed a time clock to help monitoring the hours of the ant and to help him with the paper work. Continue reading The Ant – A Tale About Micro-Management

The Greatest Challenge of Any Luxury Hotelier

The greatest challenge of any luxury hotelier is without any doubt change. Not change itself, but the hesitation to let go of the status quo and the past, and to embrace the future… to embrace the future and with that to stay relevant.

At every single luxury hotel I worked so far, employees would always tell me about the golden past, how everything was better years ago and how things are going down nowadays. They would tell me about the sumptuous flower bouquets in every guest room, the abundance of luxury amenities, and how money didn’t matter. How our guests would all be dressed in the finest suits and dresses, and how glamorous and ostentatious everything was. With the words of Bob Dylan the times they are a changin’… you cannot stop change.

Our guests don’t define luxury in material goods like flowers and amenities anymore, they define it by experiencing and collecting enriching experiences. They define luxury with service that goes beyond.

My wife and I visited the W Koh Samui on our vacation to Thailand at the beginning of the year, and while the hotel was fantastic, it’s not the breathtaking view, nor our amazingly beautiful villa with the private pool, and the fine dining restaurant we keep talking about, it’s the service that stayed in our memories long after our departure. Unfortunately my wife got food poisoning from the food at the airport and got sick as soon as we arrived at the property. In the evening while we we’re trying to eat a little at the restaurant and hoping for her to get better, the waiter noticed that she didn’t feel well and offered assistance.

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W Retreat Koh Samui

While he wasn’t able to help himself, he right away got the director of rooms, who arranged the hotel limousine for us and asked one of his employees to escort us to the hospital to stay with us until we would return to the property later that night. Once my wife got better and we came back to the hotel, they arranged some porridge in our villa with a note for her to get better soon. We felt that the hotel truly cared about us, and that we built a connection with the people working there. Continue reading The Greatest Challenge of Any Luxury Hotelier

The Power of Branding And The Best Ads You Have Ever Seen

Great brands are more than just a name, sign or logo, great brands are a promise to deliver an experience and a feeling that you’ll get when you use the product. Great brands connect with you emotionally.

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Image courtesy of Suwit Ritjaroon at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

While looking at the ads below try to be conscious of how you are feeling about the brand and the product. Most ads don’t talk much about the product itself and try to connect with you emotionally.

Continue reading The Power of Branding And The Best Ads You Have Ever Seen

Maison Kayser’s New Opening And A Friend’s Journey to Leadership

Nothing is more rewarding than seeing the people who worked for you and that you believe in succeed. One of my former employees recently returned to New York for a position as food & beverage management trainee at Maison Kayser, and now got promoted to manage its new opening in the Flatiron building. She invited me and my fiancée to the soft-opening to experience what the newest addition to the Maison Kayser portfolio would be all about and to give our feedback to the kitchen and service.

She did well when working for me as a floor manager two years ago, and I expected her to do great that evening as well.

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I was taken with the food and service of Maison Kayser and can strongly recommend you trying it for lunch or dinner, or just to pick up some delicious pastry and bakery, but I was deeply impressed by her performance in managing the soft-opening and the many challenges that come with it. Most leaders in the making have a hard time evolving from being a micro-manager to delegating things to their employees, and letting go of control to empower and grow those around them. She graciously did the introduction, ensured we settled in well, and stepped back to let her people take over and be in control. A successful evening and a leader by heart! Continue reading Maison Kayser’s New Opening And A Friend’s Journey to Leadership

Appreciate the In-Between!

I am living in New York City now for over four years and while everyone is picturing this city as the most stressful and hectic place on earth, it’s the hurry to wait part that get’s to you. You are rushing to the subway to get to your next appointment in time, only to realize that the train is delayed yet again and you are going to be late anyway. You are doing everything to get the cab before the other person right next to you who is waiting for it, only to wait in traffic a minute later and realizing that you would have been so much faster taking a walk. New York is all about the space in-between, and what if we were able to embrace this moment in-between? Check out Jeff Goins‘ video on his new book The In-Between.

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What Luxury Hotels Need To Change To Stay Relevant

Times are changing and what was a recipe for success only a few years ago doesn’t necessarily attract new customers now. I started my career in hospitality at the Hotel Imperial in Vienna, which is by any definition one of the finest luxury hotels in Europe. The hotel was originally built as a palace and later transformed to one of the most prestigious hotels in the world. I was fascinated by the expensive silverware, the elegant design of the furniture, the fine craftmanship of the hotel, the high standard of service and dedication, and the luxury that was displayed in every little detail of the hotel experience…

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Hotel Imperial Vienna

Continue reading What Luxury Hotels Need To Change To Stay Relevant

Jeffrey is Leading the Dance to Perfection!

Have you ever experienced pure service excellence? It’s when you get asked exactly the right questions, being offered the right products, it’s when everything feels so right, and it feels like you are dancing while being led by a true professional! It happens when you walk into the Apple store on 5th Avenue, dine at Per Se in the Time Warner Center… the experience is perfect from beginning to end, a perfect dance!

Getting your pictures taken by Jeffrey Bennett of JLBWEDDING.COM is no different! My fiancée and I decided to get our engagement pictures taken a few months ago and wanted to have Vintage New York as our theme. New York is where we first met, fell in love and it would always have a special place in our heart, so we figured we should invest in making this a lasting memory.

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Click on the picture above for more!

We googled for the right photographer, but most of them were pretty much the same, they all offered to take beautiful pictures in exchange for money… that’s it, and nothing more. Until we found Jeffrey Bennett‘s pictures of a couple in New York that he took a few years ago online, and both of us agreed instantly that we loved how he was able to capture the moment in its pure elegance and simplicity, not just a beautiful picture, but a real emotion. Why do I write about this?  Not because I am getting paid for it or because I want him to take our wedding pictures as well and am already trying to bargain for a good price by doing this… hold on, on a second thought, no I am kidding. I am writing this because my fiancée and I were so amazed by how he was able to lead us through this experience and come up with this breathtaking pictures as a result of it.

My greatest fear was probably how uncomfortable my fiancée would always get by anyone taking pictures of her, and how she could possibly make it through the day by getting her pictures taken all day long in New York City dressed up in vintage cloths. But Jeffrey arrived and any worries or concerns were gone within minutes. Not only did he know exactly what we wanted, but he also was able to lead us there with confidence.

Being able to lead people is necessary in any business if you want to be successful. Being able to show empathy and putting yourself in your customers shoes, while infusing comfort and confidence is what differentiates good from great artists. I strongly believe that Jeffrey‘s personal skills are what led to this beautiful product. His technical and artistic skills may enable him to be a good photographer, but his people skills that can be seen in his pictures shown in the comfort and confidence of his customers make him in my opinion an artist second to none!

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Steve Jobs’ Most Memorable Speech

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment of failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

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Above is a taste of Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address and one of the Top 10 Commencement Speeches of all times. It’s also most motivating and encouraging when having to face the uncomfortable situations in life and when having to make the tough decisions that really matter and make a difference. Watch the full speech by clicking on video below.

Continue reading Steve Jobs’ Most Memorable Speech

My Take on SoulCycle

I just returned from my first SoulCycle experience at Soul West Village and have to admit that I feel great, absolutely exhausted, but great! While striving to achieve a healthy work-life balance, I was always looking to workout more often (who doesn’t, right?), and more importantly on a consistent basis. I would never come up with the energy to workout by myself.

So a couple of months ago I discovered the Niketown Running Club and would run in Central Park twice a week. I was fascinated by the encouraging feeling of running in a group, and by being pushed to do more by the fellow runners. I recently moved from Midtown to West Village, further away from Niketown, and with it the original excitement to commit myself to run weekly started fading away.

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Continue reading My Take on SoulCycle

The Power of ‘Thank You’

I first heard about the power of frequently writing ‘thank you’ notes a couple of weeks ago at a training about leadership. The instructor of the training made a point of highlighting the power of saying thank you for a job well done, and how effective ‘thank you’ notes are for appreciation and recognition.

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Motivated and inspired by the training I started writing these notes for a couple of days until my excitement started fading away, and I just stopped doing it. I felt that it really wasn’t that important, and that people wouldn’t care anyway. Until last weekend… Continue reading The Power of ‘Thank You’

What I Learned from ‘The Startup Kids’

The Startup Kids is an excellent documentary about young entrepreneurs starting their own businesses. It talks about entrepreneurship and how successes are the consequences of failures.

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So what does it take to be a Startup Kid and build your own business? Continue reading What I Learned from ‘The Startup Kids’

How Do You Get People To Like You

Working in the hotel industry just like any other service industry it’s all about people, it’s about one person respecting another person.

It’s about people trusting each other, because if there is no trust between people, efficiency and productivity will go down to zero.

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Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So how do you get people to like you, or better yet, how do you get people to want to work with you and for you? And I am not talking about a popularity contest, I am talking about respecting another person, respecting his or her values and beliefs. Continue reading How Do You Get People To Like You

Are You Really Busy or Just Lazy?

Being busy is just another form of laziness!

‘Excuse me? I am running around the entire day putting out fires and getting things done!’ This would have most likely been my response to above statement just two years ago when working more than 12 hours a day and seven days a week. Two years ago I honestly believed that I added value every minute of all those extra hours worked.

As Tim Ferris describes it in The 4-Hour Workweek ‘Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action’, and what this means is that being busy is only a sign of not being able to prioritize tasks and being able to focus on the important stuff.

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Continue reading Are You Really Busy or Just Lazy?

How to Get Promoted in 3 Steps

You are eager to get promoted and move on to the next step. You are constantly comparing yourself to your peers, are impatient about your own job situation and cannot wait for something exciting in your career to happen. You want to get promoted!

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Image courtesy of dream designs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Every once in a while when your personal life calms down a little and work isn’t as busy for a change, you’ll get the feeling that it’s time for something new… that you’re standing still and that something new and exciting needs to happen for you! Continue reading How to Get Promoted in 3 Steps

How To Make Feedback Effective

Giving and receiving feedback can be a gift, as it can help you build or strengthen a relationship, if done right, or it can damage a relation, or be career hindering and de-motivating.

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Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Concerns with giving & receiving feedback:

When receiving feedback our potential concerns are that we fear criticism or our reaction to feedback and that we are nervous about having to hear something that might make us feel uncomfortable. When giving feedback we could fear that we hurt the other person’s feelings or that the other person might get defensive… and just like when receiving feedback, we could be nervous about giving it. Continue reading How To Make Feedback Effective

You Are The CEO of You!

Congratulations on being the CEO of what should be the most important corporation for you, congratulations on being the CEO of ‘You’! Understanding yourself as a business, that requires planning, investment and exercise is the foundation for a balanced and fulfilling professional and personal ‘career’.

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Image courtesy of imagerymajestic at FreeDigitalPhotos.Net

What’s important to keep in mind as the CEO of ‘Yourself, Inc.’: Continue reading You Are The CEO of You!