I don’t know why ‘they’ did this. ‘They’ asked me to tell you. ‘They’ want us to do this now. Does this sound familiar to you?

Who the heck are ‘they’? Not only in the hotel industry, but in any business, if anything went wrong, an unpopular decision was made, or simply anytime someone didn’t want to step out of the comfort zone, accept ownership or responsibility, it’s ‘they’. Convenient isn’t it?

Simply put you will talk about ‘they’ when you don’t want to accept responsibility, and even more importantly, when you don’t identify yourself with your organization, or better yet, with the leaders that you are working for and their decisions.

So whose fault is it that our employees and us talk about ‘they’ every time it’s not pleasant, favorable or popular? By the way it’s not just our employees, you hear them talking about ‘they’ at any level of the organization. For our front line employees, ‘they’ is their managers, and for those managers, ‘they’ is their directors and executives, and the buck never stops…

So whose fault is it again? Well, the easy way out is that ‘they’ are the top leaders or top brass of the organization for not encouraging their employees to take responsibility and ownership, and hindering trust and empowerment by micromanaging from the top down. The cost of this dysfunctional environment caused by this lack of ownership is unbearable, and the only reason why a hotel fostering this mindset is able to stay in business is that this mindset was allowed to become an industry standard.

But the inconvenient truth is that it’s everyone’s responsibility! Everyone can change ‘they’ to ‘us’ and ‘me’, and face the challenges that come with it. It requires you to be a leader that questions past practices or assignments, challenges his superior and stand up for his employees without worrying about looking good in front of his boss and the next promotion.

I have worked with a manager who would always say that his boss asked him to do this, say this or make this change or decision when communicating with his employees, just to avoid any uncomfortable conflict that comes with taking responsibility and having to stand up for something. As a result he became ineffective as a leader because his employees would not ask him anymore for direction or to question any assignment or tough decision because by giving away his responsibility, he also gave away authority and any power and influence necessary to be effective.

The key to success and is to evolve ‘they’ to ‘you’. This is your hotel, and you are responsible!