Category Archives: Development

Development, Leadership

212° the extra degree

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At 211 degrees, water is hot. At 212 degrees, water starts boiling. With boiling water comes steam, and with steam you can power a locomotive. It is that one extra degree that makes all the difference, and it is that one extra degree that separates the good from the great!

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How often did you have the feeling of frustration and lost motivation because you couldn’t seem to achieve your goals, and that no matter how much efforts you put in and how hard you tried, nothing was going to change? … chances are that you were sitting right at 211 degrees, and all it would have taken for you to succeed was that one extra degree.

Much too often we give up right before that moment when we would have accomplished everything what we strived for, and we just needed to keep trying. If you want to get ahead, become great at what you do and be successful in achieving your goals you’ll need to keep going when it seems to be the toughest and not turn around.

Development, Guest Relations, Leadership

The 30 most important minutes of your day

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It’s your 30 minutes lunch break! You either believed it to be an interruption of your day as you had so much work to be done, or the highlight as you were able to step out of your busy day for a moment to take a deep breath!

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But one way or the other, it turns out that you were wrong. Talking to my dear friend McKinley the other day, who follows this blog loyally from the beginning, and listening to him talking about the importance of not only never sitting alone while having lunch in the staff canteen, but also making a point of always sitting with different people, and use this half an hour to connect with people and build or strengthen relationships, opened my eyes. Continue reading The 30 most important minutes of your day →

Development, Leadership

If You Want Your Business to Improve, Do It the P&G Way!

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Are you just pretending that you want to know what’s wrong in your business that you can improve it, or do you really want to hear the hurtful truth and are ready to make the uncomfortable decisions that are necessary?

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Either your managers are conducting superficial meetings pretending that they want to learn what’s wrong in their business so that they can learn from it and fix it, or they really want to know what’s wrong but their middle managers are filtering reality and telling them only what they want to hear so they can look good in front of their bosses. Either way any necessary progress and healthy change is being made impossible. Continue reading If You Want Your Business to Improve, Do It the P&G Way! →

Development

Who Else Wants to Achieve Work-Life Balance in Hospitality?

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Is work-life balance a loanword in hospitality?

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Image courtesy by Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I took me about eight years to understand the importance of work-life balance in hospitality and that it’s not just a myth. Continue reading Who Else Wants to Achieve Work-Life Balance in Hospitality? →

Development

Do you know what your goals are?

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What’s my 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 know what your goals are? →

Development

How to Make the Most Out of Your Review

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Getting a review can help you develop and grow or be a complete waste of time for you and your boss.

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I remember getting my first reviews and I was eager to receive ‘exceed expectations’ for every single one of them without understanding the true importance of it. I must have received over ten excellent reviews since the beginning of my career until about four years ago when my boss at that time gave me a ‘met expectations’ only on my review, and went on to tell me that he believes in me and wants to help me to get better. He tried to explain to me the true value of a good review and that it’s not just a process for him. Continue reading How to Make the Most Out of Your Review →

Development, Leadership

8 Reasons Why You Should Start Cross-Training Now

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You’re conducting the daily pre-shift meetings and your employees cannot stop complaining about the other departments and venting their frustrations. You feel that the lack of trust between your departments makes progress and greatness impossible. No matter how well you’re trying to explain how the other departments work and what their challenges are, your employees don’t want to hear you.

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If this sounds familiar to you, cross-training is the right solution for you! Continue reading 8 Reasons Why You Should Start Cross-Training Now →

Development, How To

Who Else Wants to Know the Secret to Happiness?

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Does a truck full of money, a celebrity status, or a designer suit buy you happiness?… and if it does, how long does this moment of happiness last?

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Anyone who says money doesn’t buy happiness should talk to a homeless person, and anyone who says money does buy happiness should talk to Bill Gates! The difference in happiness between a person making 5 k a year, and 50 k a year, is huge, as it is a matter of security and covering the basic needs. The difference in happiness between a person making 50 k a year and 50 million a year is minimal. Money does not buy happiness, but it’s a necessity to cover our basic needs as shelter, food, clothing, medical care and so on. Continue reading Who Else Wants to Know the Secret to Happiness? →

Development

If You Want to Grow Fast, Step Out of Your Bubble!

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Your bubble is your worst enemy! I am talking about your bubble of comfort, or simply put your comfort zone.

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This is the place that you feel most comfortable, and it’s the area where you know exactly what to do and what not to – chances for you to make mistakes are very small, if you just remain there! Continue reading If You Want to Grow Fast, Step Out of Your Bubble! →

Development, Guest Relations

The Key to Prevent Most Guest Complaints

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Most guest complaints can easily be prevented by managing expectations. I remember working the overnight shift as a butler being responsible for the guest and housekeeping services in the entire hotel all by myself during a sold out night receiving one guest request after another within only a few minutes… and of course everything was an emergency and had to happen right NOW.

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Having to wait ten minutes for a an extra pillow or blanket during the day can still be considered prompt service, but at 2 am in the morning when you are tired and have to get up early in the morning for an important meeting ten minutes can feel like an eternity… and it’s even worse when you don’t even know how long you have to wait. Continue reading The Key to Prevent Most Guest Complaints →

Development

Tell your story!

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Tell your story is one of my favorite lessons in leadership. I have been working now in four different hotels over the last eight years, and the last three in New York. Prior to that I believed it to be important to get as much experience as I could in as many different hotels and locations as possible, and worked in hotels in Europe and Asia.

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About two years ago, a job opportunity in another hotel abroad opened up. It was an opening of a luxury hotel brand and intended to be the flagship of this region. I was offered a higher title and a better salary. I fully believed that this would be the right choice for me, to move on, and open up a new hotel abroad. No one could convince me otherwise at this point… Continue reading Tell your story! →

Development

Why would anyone pursue a career in hotel management?

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Why pursue a career in hotel management? Is this the right profession for me?

If you’re asking yourself these questions and are yet undecided, if a career in hospitality is the right choice for you, I hope you’ll find this helpful in making your decision.

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If you’re looking for becoming a millionaire, working regular hours, having every weekend off, or for a healthy work-life balance, chances are that this is not the right business for you! Continue reading Why would anyone pursue a career in hotel management? →

Development, Leadership

Take care of the Big Rocks first

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‘The Big Rocks’ theory is by far one of my favorite lessons in leadership, and it took me some time to really understand. I am sure that you must have heard about this story in some way shape or form before, but there is a difference between just hearing and understanding it, and truly believing in it.

My boss loved to tell me his lessons in leadership in vivid stories, some of them made sense right at the beginning, some of them needed lots of fine tuning, and some are better off never told again.

Regardless of how busy I thought I was in my role as housekeeping manager in a unionized property putting out the fires of the day to day while making everyone happy in being always responsive and helpful, my boss reminded me at the end of each day that I accomplished nothing, as I did not do anything to make anything better for the next day. He said that I was so focused on the small rocks that I could not possible take care of the big ones.

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Image courtesy of dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Continue reading Take care of the Big Rocks first →

Development, Leadership

The hidden powers of delegating

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Developing from being a good manager who is excellent in executing tasks like scheduling, payroll, and managing his team members by setting expectations and holding them accountable, to a leader who delegates tasks to his team member and focuses more on developing and growing his people, is necessary if you want your organization and yourself to succeed.

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The obvious power of delegating is that by ‘delegating’ tasks and responsibilities to your team you can focus on the vision and long-term goals of the organization. Continue reading The hidden powers of delegating →

Development

Training is a waste of time and money!

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If you believe in the importance of ongoing and continuous training in your department or division, chances are that more than once in your career your superiors will challenge you and tell you that ‘training is a waste of time and money’, and a luxury that the hotel simply cannot afford at that time.

‘Excuse me… how could you say that?’

Reality is that training can be very expensive and a burden on your operations, if not executed effectively and if you don’t have a process in place of following up on the set expectations of the training. As a trainer it is your responsibility to show your organization the return on investment that it will have, and that you can measure it and how.

Having to convince your financial controller, you’ll need to be able to measure the improvement because of your training and show statistically how it will gain money for the hotel by having more happy employees who will attract more happy guests, who will spend more and stay more often (service profit chain) and not just lose money.

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Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Where to start? Well, first you should start by identifying where your company wants to get even better and where it needs to improve. Don’t design the training first and then try to push it through at any cost, but identify the necessary areas for improvement first and built the training on it. Continue reading Training is a waste of time and money! →

Development

Changing the culture

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Changing the culture is the basic requirement for any enhancements or achievements. If you are aiming to improve your associate or guest satisfaction, reinforce you standards of excellence or improve your star ratings, the first step is to establish a culture with a mindset wanting to be the best at every turn.

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How exactly do you change a culture? Continue reading Changing the culture →

Development

Think about your future!

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‘Alex do you have a moment, I need to talk to you?’

Ever so often I get approached by one of my staff wanting to talk to me about their future, what’s my outlook on their next career step and the path of their journey. It’s understandable that you want to know what your next position should be so you can start learning the necessary skills and work on improving on your weaknesses, but nine out of ten times this question is solely generated by impatience and the need to compete with friends, colleagues and former classmates. Being ambitious is a good thing and important to be successful, but it shouldn’t stem from jealousy of your friends and coworkers. Continue reading Think about your future! →

Development, Leadership

‘I never turn a blind eye’ – Sincerely yours, Karma

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You come to work on Monday morning after a rejuvenating weekend with your loved ones, 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 the above sound familiar to you?

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Continue reading ‘I never turn a blind eye’ – Sincerely yours, Karma →

Development, Leadership

Make Mistakes!

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Making mistakes, being able to accept responsibility for them and learning from them, can help you grow and get better.

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I remember when I was working within the butler services in Vienna, I had a family arriving to one of our Imperial suites for their vacation. The Imperial suite was the category right below the Presidential suite, the hotel had seven of them in total, and they differentiated in design and layout, from traditional to modern. Given that the family paid rack rate for the suite, I arranged for VIP amenities including flower arrangements, a majestic fruit basket, open bar and a bottle of Champagne. The suite looked incredible and it took me a couple of hours from start to finish to set everything up to perfection. Continue reading Make Mistakes! →