Leadership Defines Quality

Most people know it when they see it, though being able to say precisely what it is may not come without difficulty.  The hotel you just walked into has a certain 

The answer rests in the matter of Leadership.  If something in a hotel environment leads you to the conclusion that you are in the midst of quality, it is because Leadership brought the organization into that state.  For sure, quality doesn’t happen on its own.  Someone made it happen and brought others with him or her to ensure that quality would endure.  Leadership is action. Leadership moves others.  Leadership begets quality.

But what are the attributes of Leadership and Quality?  What defines them?  How can we articulate them and pass this wisdom on to others?  

Libraries and book stores are filled with literature on the subject of leadership and quality, so we won’t pretend to be able to define them fully within the confines of a simple newsletter.  We have, however, amassed a set of Axioms that we believe can have a powerful impact on the behavior of hotel leaders. And at the very heart of it, how leaders act or don’t act in and of itself will define the very essence of Leadership and Quality.  These are not our Axioms.  They have been learned from others; other leaders, coaches, authors, scholars and mentors, but knowledge has power only when it is shared.  Use these if you wish, but more importantly, pass them onto others.

Axioms of Hotel Leadership 

The mark of a good manager isn’t how well things run when you’re there.  It’s how well things run when you’re not there.  Managers must hire the right people; people who care and show a willingness to care for others – that’s what hospitality means.  Then, they must train their employees in the rudiments of the job and later, coach them to do their job well in a positive environment that inspires and motivates teamwork.  Training and coaching are not the same things.  Training teaches skills.  Coaching teaches the application of those skills; and training must always precede coaching.  Finally, the manager needs to get out of the way and let people do their job. Delegate tasks, authority and decision making, but don’t abdicate them. Hold people accountable for their actions.  Cultivate and nurture key players and you will develop winners along the way.  The manager who works seven days a week to make sure things get done right has missed this important attribute of leadership.  On the other hand, managers who are never around while the department is in a state of chaos have equally missed the point.

People do what they do because of what they get after they do it.  In his book, “Bringing Out the Best in People,” Aubrey Daniels teaches some powerful lessons in how the dynamics of leadership should be structured in a workplace setting.  People behave within an organization a certain way because that is what is being culturally reinforced.  Culture is nothing more than the collective attitudes of those who hold power.  Note that we did not say culture is the collective attitude of managers.  Managers who are not leaders and leadership that does not preside has abdicated power, but power will still be held by someone within the organization, and usually by tenured employees with lower standards than their customers.  Leadership’s role is to use its authority as a means to influence behavior.  Reward is the only thing that initiates lasting changes in behavior and in order for reward to succeed, it must be positive, immediate and certain. Giving reward is a Leadership behavior that acknowledges someone for having done something correctly.  Unfortunately, many managers see their role as correcting behavior only when it is wrong.  We’ve all worked for the manager that was always on our case when we made a mistake, was slow to give praise for having done something right and rarely said, “Good job.”  Good Leadership is always noticing when someone does something right and makes mention of it.  Reward need be nothing more than a smile and a few kind words, but given routinely and as soon as a positive act is observed, it will set the culture moving in the right direction.

Do it.  Do it right.  Do it right now. Leaders act.  Leaders get it right the first time.  Leaders take action the moment it is required and inspire others to do the same.  If you’ve ever had a complaint, then explained the complaint to a frontline clerk only to be told that you’ll have to see the manager, you might understand the importance of this Axiom.  There probably is no more important place in a hotel where this Axiom is needed than in the Sales office.  Does the phone get answered in three rings?  Do Sales managers return calls within two hours?  Are requests for proposals mailed out the same day they are made?  At the front desk, can desk clerks resolve guest concerns and make refunds without the manager’s involvement and approval?  A hotel where Leadership has a certain operational intensity and sense of urgency about getting things done has embraced this philosophy, which is a hallmark of good Leadership.

The attitude of any staff reflects the attitude of their leader.  If a front desk crew is friendly and vivacious, their leader is, too.  If a restaurant delivers outstanding service, you can bet that the leader exhibits the same attitude toward serving the customer.  Leaders, by their very attitude, set the standard by which others will behave.  “Leadership by example” is a kindred Axiom.  People tend to follow those who expect exactly what they give; someone who no less asks another to do anything that he or she would not do themselves.

Left unmanaged, moments of truth regress to mediocrity.  An entire book was written about this Axiom called, “Service, America!” by Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke.  The phrase was coined by Jan Carlzon, then president of Scandinavian Airlines and means simply this:  If you don’t define precisely what is supposed to happen when a customer encounters an organization at any given point, then the experience will at best be mediocre.  Mediocrity is a natural state.  It tends to exist without influence, but Leadership inspires something beyond mediocrity. Leadership sets an expectation, creates an environment where that expectation is routinely met and ensures that it will endure over time.  This means managers have to be willing to deal with the nitty-gritty and the fundamentals of their department.  Every service encounter that an employee will make and every expectation that Leadership has must be communicated and reinforced.

You can grow, or you can be comfortable, but you cannot do both at the same time.  Leadership isn’t a state that is suddenly attained, at least not for most of us.  And while it is true that great leaders are born, they still have to learn an awful lot about channeling their innate ability to become great leaders.  Leadership is a path of continual enlightenment that occurs over a lifetime.  That path is often difficult.  Hotel managers don’t have an easy job, but any level of discomfort may well be precisely because that path has been taken.  All leaders reach certain plateaus in the course of their development: that’s called experience.  But learning never stops and it’s never very easy.  Managers who rest in their comfort zone will eventually fail because the world all around them isn’t static.  The market isn’t; the competition isn’t; customers aren’t and neither are employees.  Leaders must continually challenge themselves to compensate for the changing environment and learn new ways to gain market share, beat the competition, find new customers and retain good employees.

People don’t always do what you expect.  They’ll do what you inspect.  Perhaps Ronald Regan said it best, “Trust, but verify.”  Checking behind your crew doesn’t mean you don’t trust them; it just means you accept your Leadership role.  General Managers in particular should never stop checking rooms and you can almost always tell the hotels where they have.  “The One Minute Manager” by Kenneth H. Blanchard focused on this principle of Leadership and ordained it “management by walking around.”

Absent financial success, nothing else matters.  At the heart of business is the need to be fiscally healthy and it is Leadership’s responsibility to guide the organization toward that state.  Junior managers in particular sometimes lose site of the fact that their decisions, on an hour-by-hour basis, are having financial impact on the hotel, both good and bad.  Yes, put people before money and recognize that the organization deals with human issues every day; Leadership must always be caring and compassionate.  But absent financial success, the business will fail, and then, all human conditions fall prey to unfortunate and often unsavory outcomes:  lay-offs, litigation, foreclosure or take-over. 

Specializing in diagnostics of under-performing assets, Turn Key Hotel Advisors will quickly and accurately assess a hotel's competitive environment and strategic positioning.  Their consultants then provide action plans for both owner and manager that will improve the hotel's RevPAR yield, increasing revenue and drive both profitability and owner cash return.  Turn Key Hotel Advisors guarantees their results.

For hotels undergoing refurbishment, repositioning or re-branding, Turn Key Hotel Advisors created the Delta Process™, which has been successfully used in assets, to date, undergoing $200 million in redevelopment dollars.  The Delta Process™ ensures the hotel's sales and service delivery teams have specific, concrete action plans to deliver on an owner's or lender's return-on-investment expectations.

The company also conducts due diligence exercises for assets undergoing ownership change, market assessment studies for new lodging development, as well as hotel sales training, account management tools and hotel marketing products.  It is affiliated with The Consortium - An Alliance of Hospitality Companies.  Turn Key Hotel Advisors also operates a subsidiary company, Integrated Selling Systems with innovative technologies for the lodging industry, including CD Business Cards, Web Designs and On-Line Customer Reservations Booking Engines.  Turn Key Hotel Advisors is an allied member of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.