Tag Archives: leadership

Characteristics Of A Bad Leader

You’ve been reading posts after posts on how to become a great leader and how to motivate the people around you.  Unfortunately bad leaders are more common than the great ones, and it can be very dangerous to work for people who don’t know what they are doing. It’s not only dangerous for your business, but for more selfish reasons, it can be very dangerous for your own career and kill the passion for what you are doing. While I strongly believe that you can learn from both, the good and the bad boss, you shouldn’t try to find excuses to continue working for the bad one.

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Office Space

Here are some of the characteristics of a bad boss: Continue reading Characteristics Of A Bad Leader

Kill Complacency Before It Kills You!

Complacency is your worst enemy! It can damage your business or your career, and the worst thing about it is that you’ll probably be the last one to find out that you became complacent yourself!

Screen shot 2014-01-06 at 9.14.59 PMFrom the outside it’s always easy to judge, if someone is falling victim to complacency. The person doesn’t believe in change anymore, or cannot see the need for it, loses his passion for excellence at every single step of the way, believes that he’s the victim of the incompetence around him, and is not willing to step out of the comfort zone anymore and take risks. Pretty obvious, right? Anyone from the outside can see it.

But what happens if you’re the one who is struggling with complacency without even knowing it? Did you ever had the feeling that it’s not just not right that you have to do all the work, and that people around you should step up to their plate as well, that you’re tired of always going the extra step without seeing the direct impact or outcome of your efforts? Complacency is a slow dead and you need to watch out for the early signs of it:

  • You’re not taking risks anymore
  • You’re too comfortable stepping out of your comfort zone
  • You’re not striving to do your best anymore
  • You’re not trying to think out of the box anymore
  • You’re not taking initiative anymore

Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, said that ‘success breeds complacency’, and ‘complacency breeds failure’, and he’s so right. You look at all the companies and businesses that used to be so initiative and great just a moment ago, and are not even relevant anymore now. But what happened? Well they stopped changing and evolving because of complacency, stood still for a moment, and the world passed by them.

Just have a look at most of the great hotels from the past. Try them and you’ll be surprised by how their service and hospitality lost its edge.

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Graduated From Hotel Management School? Why You Should Become A Butler!

Years ago hotel management graduates would mostly apply for a position as front desk agent or sales coordinator at the beginning of their journey in hospitality. Why? Because this is what everyone else applied for and because it seemed to be the most promising path for a successful career in hospitality. Now this is changing…

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Continue reading Graduated From Hotel Management School? Why You Should Become A Butler!

Complexity Is Your Enemy!

Making things simply for the customer is the essence of great and prompt service! How often do you get frustrated by unnecessarily complicated and difficult service?

Our policy states… I need to ask my manager first… No, I am sorry… You need to… Please hold… let me connect you to…

Does any of this sound familiar to you? Trust me it is happening at your company as well! Our customers do have a choice, and if we don’t strive to make it easy for them to do business with us, one of our competitors will sooner or later!

Listen to your guests and put yourself in their shoes!

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If you want to learn more from Richard Branson and his secrets to provide excellent customer service you must watch video below. My favorite customer service tip to empower your employees to do the right thing the fast and uncomplicated way is ‘it’s better to ask for forgiveness than asking for permission’.

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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.

a-bug-s-life-pixar-67315_1024_768A Bug’s Life Pixar

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

Can You Learn Leadership?

I always used to believe that if one person can 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.

Why? Because I believe that the core values of leaders have a passion for what they are doing, a desire to grow other people and a vision that people want to fallow… and these values cannot be learned by choice, they are embedded in your character. Simon Sinek explains on TED how great leaders challenge the status quo and think different (click image below to get to his blog).

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True leaders must have:

  • A passion for your product or service. If you’re not truly passionate about what you are doing, you’ll never be able to overcome all the challenges along the way, move mountain like obstacles and remain focused, even when everyone else around has already given up.
  • A desire to help others. People want to work for people who support them and have their interested at heart… no one wants to work for a boss who has only his next promotion in mind. People always work for people, not companies, and will go above and beyond if they believe in the person they’re working for. If they don’t trust their leaders, the simplest task will be impossible to accomplish.
  • A vision. We all want to believe in something, believe that we are part of something great, bigger than us, and that our efforts can make a difference. We want to give meaning to what we do.

Check out Simon Sinek’s take on why leaders must have a vision on TED

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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

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

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’

How To Improve Your Guest Surveys The Fast Way

How did you enjoy your stay with us?

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Image courtesy by Jeroen van Oostrom at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

No matter if you are working in a hotel or are a frequent traveller chances are that you asked or heard this question over and over again. Many times it’s the question asked most upon check-out and your way out of the hotel. Continue reading How To Improve Your Guest Surveys The Fast Way

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!

212° the extra degree

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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Image courtesy of Victor Habbick at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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.

The 30 most important minutes of your day

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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Image courtesy of sirikul at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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

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

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?

8 Reasons Why You Should Start Cross-Training Now

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

What’s all the Fuss about Leadership anyway?

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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Image courtesy by stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Continue reading What’s all the Fuss about Leadership anyway?

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

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

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Image courtesy of graur razvan ionut at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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!

Tell your story!

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!