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.

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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