Category Archives: Development

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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Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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! →