Tag Archives: leadership

Development, Leadership, Restaurant Reviews

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

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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 →

Development, Leadership

Jeffrey is Leading the Dance to Perfection!

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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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Development, Leadership

Steve Jobs’ Most Memorable Speech

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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 →

Development, Leadership

The Power of ‘Thank You’

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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’ →

Guest Relations, How To

How To Improve Your Guest Surveys The Fast Way

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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 →

Development, How To, Leadership

How To Make Feedback Effective

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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 →

Development, Leadership

You Are The CEO of You!

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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! →

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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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.

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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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 →

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, 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 →

Leadership

What’s all the Fuss about Leadership anyway?

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

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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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! →

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! →

How To

How to Lead through a Natural Catastrophe

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… and how to get your department ready to battle a hurricane

Since I started working in New York City in my current role as assistant executive housekeeper, I had to experience several snow storms, and hurricane Irene and Sandy. While Sandy was the most devastating storm yet, our housekeeping department was able to continue delivering smooth and flawless service, and no service limitations were necessary.

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Crane dangling at Park Hyatt NY during Hurricane Sandy

The game plan to battle a hurricane, can be divided into three parts, the preparation immediately before the storm, the time during the hurricane, and the clean-up afterwards. Learning how to maneuver in a crisis comes from experiences of similar situations in the past. I remember the snow blizzard that hit New York City in December 2010 vividly, and how I started my shift at 6 am in the morning with only picking up the phones and taking sick calls for about 30 minutes. Once we had about 30 employees calling out for their shift as they had simply no way to come to work, I learned how people can pull together beyond any differences and arguments that usually separate them and make the impossible possible. We were able to clean all rooms that day without any service delays, with having butlers, houseman, supervisors, dispatchers and managers cleaning and inspecting rooms. While it is a memorable experience, and I love to tell this story (over and over again), I also learned that there is a much smarter way to cope with a crisis like this. Continue reading How to Lead through a Natural Catastrophe →

How To

How to make your guests happy with effective service recovery

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People can make mistakes and things can go wrong, and when they do go wrong and our guests’ stay with us is affected by the service breakdown, it’s up to us to get it right and turn them around. A guest who experienced a problem and it got resolved to her satisfaction is more likely to return compared to a guest who just had an average stay without having experienced any ‘glitches’.

Service recovery is not rocket science (just takes a lot of practice), but it’s important to keep in mind that you want to solve the right problem, that you solve it to the guest satisfaction and not yours, and that you choose the right form of recovery/compensation.

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Image courtesy by Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In my first year of working in a hotel, I was a housekeeping supervisor and we had a guest complaining about the room cleanliness during my shift. The guest was out for dinner and I was on a mission to not only getting it right, but also to ‘roll out the red carpet’ for the guest. I just transferred from cross-training in our room service department and remembered the beautiful cheese plate amenity and chose to have it arranged in the room with a bottle of our house red wine and an apology note. I ensured that the turn down was done perfectly and that everything looked sparkling. I left the hotel that evening with a good feeling of heroic accomplishment and I was sure to have turned an upset guest around into a loyal customer. Continue reading How to make your guests happy with effective service recovery →

Leadership

As Middle Managers We Are Great at Filtering Reality

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You’re doing a great job in putting out those fires every day and in running around saving the world. You look good in front of your bosses because whenever you’re on duty they don’t hear about any guest complaints or service breakdowns. In the eyes of your bosses operations are doing well and everything seems to be running as smooth as it possibly could thanks to you, and when asked if all is under control, you would simply smile and nod. But bottom line is that you’re only doing a great job at filtering reality!

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Inception

….and without even noticing or wanting it you are seriously damaging your organization! Continue reading As Middle Managers We Are Great at Filtering Reality →

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 →

Leadership

On edge

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Did you ever ask yourself why we make the most mistakes when the occupancy is low and operations are quiet, or why our service scores are falling down during the slow weeks of the year?

It’s December and we are fully committed with no rooms left to sell, every guest is paying rack rate, and the guest expectations are the highest of the year. Yet everything seems to be falling into place, operations are mostly smooth (exceptions proof the rule as always), and our guest satisfaction index goes up.

How is it possible that we do better when we have less time and resources at hand and are expected to do more compared to when we seem to have all the time in the world and people standing around only waiting to serve a guest? Continue reading On edge →