Tag Archives: leadership

Leadership

What Working With The Union Taught Me About Leadership

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I have been working in New York City in a heavily unionized environment for over six years, and while I always appreciated how much I learned because of it along the way, having transferred to Asia recently, I only understand now how much I really got out of this experience.

When conducting orientation days for new-hires in New York, I was always talking about the challenges that come with working in a five stars & five diamonds property in New York. The high expectations towards service excellence and product quality from your guests, the financial expectations from your management company or ownership, the stressful dynamics that we love so much about New York, and the limitations of working in unionized settings. I used to quote Frank Sinatra in saying ‘if you can make it as a manager at a hotel in New York, you probably can make it anywhere’… and I really meant it. I have worked with so many talented and skilled managers that did not make it New York, lost their passion and enthusiasm, and eventually gave up – they either didn’t try to change anything anymore and tried their best to hold on to the status quo, or resigned their assignment and left without a success story.

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Leadership

Build A Team of A Players!

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Steve Jobs stated in ‘The Lost Interview’ that to be truly successful and accomplish something great together you need to build a team of A players and should not settle for B or C players.

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This is true for any industry, but especially for hospitality. Receiving average service from an associate who is not passionate and doesn’t seem to care, and experiencing service from someone who sincerely cares about you and about providing excellent service, makes all the difference for you, and how successful the hotel can be. Continue reading Build A Team of A Players! →

Development, Leadership

Don’t Let Great Ideas Die

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I have now worked in five different hotels over the past decade and all of them had one thing in common. People would tell me about all the great things that they used to do or all the great ideas that they have had in the past, but that just disappeared or never even happened.

Why is that? We know that a lot of people have great ideas all the time, know what’s wrong and what needs improvement, so why is it that only few succeed?

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Development, Leadership

Fake It Until You Become It

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We have all heard how important body language is and that only a small percentage of communication involves actual words. Only 7% of communication, to be exact. In fact, 55% of communication is visual (body language, eye contact) and 38% is vocal (pitch, speed, volume, tone of voice). So we understand that it’s probably a good idea to focus on our body language and how we are being perceived by others. Are you standing straight with an open and powerful posture or are you trying to make yourself smaller? All this has an effect of how well we are being perceived by others.

We have also learned that sometimes we have to fake until we make it. When we are going for a job interview or we are starting a new job and it’s our first day, chances are that we are a little bit out of our comfort zone (if not it probably means that we are jumping from job to job too often). Looking at our body language and focusing on high power postures rather than lower power postures can make a big difference.

We know that how we feel does influence our body language, and Amy Cuddy is proving that the exact opposite works as well. Our body language (even if only faked) does influence our mind and how we feel about ourselves.

Take a moment to watch Amy’s speech ‘Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are’ on TED and learn her inspiring story (in my opinion one of the best TED talks).

Continue reading Fake It Until You Become It →

How To, Leadership

What To Do First When Starting A New Job

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I recently started an assignment at a new property and wanted to share my experiences with you. I know it seems pretty obvious what should be the first thing to do when starting a new job, so why do I even talk about it.

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I read plenty of articles about what’s important and what to focus on, and while most of them will list five to ten points of what’s important to keep in mind, they all highlight that you need to focus on people. Think about every time a new employee started at your company, and about the ones that did well? What did they do differently? Did they focus on getting their office desk organized, studying the financials and company’s guidelines? No, they did well, because they started with walking around trying to make a connection with the team.

Well, things might be overwhelming at the beginning with everything being new and it’s very well possible that you could lose focus of what matters most. It doesn’t matter how smart and talented you are, how much experience you have and how well you did at your previous job, if you are new, you will have to start from scratch again and you will not go very far if you don’t focus on your people first.

The beautiful thing about hospitality is that it’s all about people, if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your guests, and guess what, your business and the bottom line will then just take care of itself… it’s that simple.

So we have established that you should first focus on getting to know everyone and build relationships, but is it really that simple? No, certainly not, because in most cases mountains of work, and new assignments with pressing deadlines are already waiting for you… and that’s how your performance is being measured on, right?

You need to focus on your people first, otherwise you will not be effective, and all the work that is waiting for you, will not get done at all. Try to focus on your big rocks and what matters most first, and keep in mind that you are a leader, and if you have no one following you, you’re really missing the point of it.

Best of luck on your first days!

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Leadership

If You Want To Grow, You Need To Be Accountable

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I have read many leadership books and blogs on accountability, and most talk about the importance of holding yourself accountable to the highest standards and accepting responsibility for your actions. It is important that you are not trying to find excuses when things go wrong or that you are trying to shift the blame to other. On the contrary when things go wrong, try first to understand what you could have done differently to change the outcome – and trust me it is very liberating to start accepting responsibility!

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Leadership

A Must Read Guide To Leadership

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I always used to believe that if one person can learn to do something, anyone should be able to learn it provided the proper training and guidance. I used to believe that anyone can evolve from being a micro-manager to becoming a great leader.

I now believe that while you can learn certain leadership techniques and skills and evolve to become average at leading other people, you’ll never be able to make a true difference and change things. Continue reading A Must Read Guide To Leadership →

Leadership

Leaders Vs. Managers? What Are You?

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Everyone is talking about leadership, and how we need to evolve from managers to leaders, but only few really get the difference! It’s a beautiful word and the thought of leading people is very appealing, but how can you make the step from managing to leading? And how can you get people wanting to follow you?

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Development, Leadership

The Only Thing Standing Between You And Your Goals Is…

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The only thing standing between you and your goals is more than what the Wolf of Wall Street is trying to tell us.

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It’s not just being afraid to follow your goals for one reason or another, it’s having a clear understanding of what your goals really are to begin with.

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

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 The Only Thing Standing Between You And Your Goals Is… →

Development, Leadership

Do You Have The Right Attitude To Succeed?

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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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Development

Do You Have The Right Perspective On Your Career?

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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? →

Leadership

Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone!

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Your comfort zone is your worst enemy if you want to grow and move ahead.

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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 Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone! →

Leadership

The #1 Rule Of Housekeeping – Inspect What You Expect

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I recently went to a training about leadership and rooms operations, and one of the facilitators stated that if we want our teams to be effective and successful that we need to ‘inspect what we expect’. Continue reading The #1 Rule Of Housekeeping – Inspect What You Expect →

Leadership

Are You Just Busy Or Are You Making A Difference?

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If you are a manager in operations in any unionized hotel in NYC you are most likely working a lot of extra hours every day and find yourself busy from the moment you walk into the door to the moment you realize that you worked again over 12 hours and on top of that even forgot to take lunch break… and yet you still don’t have the feeling that you accomplished anything meaningful on your way home. Continue reading Are You Just Busy Or Are You Making A Difference? →

Guest Services, Leadership

Give Me Solutions Not Problems!

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I strongly believe that constructive feedback is a must and I want my team to come to me with solutions to opportunities rather than just problems.

Most companies have a culture of complaining and I believe that it’s their leaders’ fault for accepting this. It’s essential to share feedback with your boss and I understand that sometimes it’s important to simple vent, but keep in mind that the goal is to make things better. Chances are that most problems are not news to your boss and that rather than being part of the problem you want to be part of the solution.

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Office Space

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Leadership

What You Must Know Before Training Your Employees

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I attended a training this week with focus on rooms (front desk and housekeeping) operations within the hotel industry, and was amazed by what I learned. It was not so much the knowledge and expertise shared by the instructors, but the way how it was shared with the group. We had over 80 attendees in the training, and the instructors would divide the group into smaller teams of five to ten participants maximum and rotate them from one exercise to the next, so that the training would be much more intimate and personal, and everyone could try hands on what was discussed and learned just a moment ago. Continue reading What You Must Know Before Training Your Employees →

Leadership

We Have Always Done It This Way

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You know how every other leadership article is always about change, and how we need to evolve and do things differently to stay relevant and competitive. It always made perfect sense to me, and it seemed the right and logical thing to do. Of course you need to be able to change, evolve and adapt as effective leaders.

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Well I never really took a moment trying to truly understand why it would be so difficult for others to make that change, to adopt to new things and to evolve. I never really tried to put myself in the shoes of others who couldn’t seem to make that change. Continue reading We Have Always Done It This Way →

Leadership

My Day As Director of Housekeeping

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My day as director of housekeeping usually starts the night before when I go over my Outlook schedule for the next day to make sure that everything that I wanted to accomplish the next day or week is covered. It’s important that I don’t overload my schedule and set myself too many tasks to accomplish. I try to stretch my goals and get as much done as possible, but if it’s unreasonable, I’ll only feel frustrated the next day when things don’t go as planned.

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The Grand Budapest Hotel

Now if you were ever working in operations before you know that things can and will change all the time, and fires can come up all day long that require you to put them out quickly and move your schedule around… and that’s expected! It’s fine to make changes to your plan, you just need to have one in the first place to make sure that you don’t lose focus and get off track. Continue reading My Day As Director of Housekeeping →

Leadership

The Secret Of Effective Communication

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When I started in hospitality I believed myself to be an effective communicator and always made sure that my coworkers and superiors would be up to date with the information that I had so that everyone would stay ahead of the game. Once I moved to management I remember telling my director that he should improve his communication to the team and I was convinced that I could do a better job communicating if I was in his position. It’s not that he wouldn’t communicate what was going on, but I was mostly the one asking him for updates and trying to get myself involved as much as I could to get the information I needed in order for me to be effective…. and I still believed communication to be one of my strengths.

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