6:30am – Woken up by two children that have somehow crawled into my bed in the night. Clothes, breakfast, teeth brushing, school lunches and any leftover homework. Wife returns from the gym by 7:15am to say goodbye.
7:30am – Trip to the American School of Dubai to drop off Ella (four) at her K1 class and Noah (eight) at his third grade class.
8:15am – Review previous day’s numbers and prep for “daily huddle”.
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8:45am – Daily huddle: Run through previous day’s numbers, hear outstanding efforts from the previous day, what each department head is focused on for the day and if there is anything blocking them that I can help with.
9am – Projects meeting: Review current status of all capital and departmental projects.
10am – Interview with a local newspaper regarding the launch of our new slides, Jumeirah Sceirah. Test riding our new slides.
11am – Park Operating Committee meeting: High level review of our one-page strategy, strategic projects and departmental updates.
12:30pm – Walk through entire park greeting colleagues, checking attendance numbers hourly and comparing to forecasted attendance.
2pm – One-to-one with the waterpark manager, walking critical areas/projects that the operating departments are currently working on. Updated on any colleague issues that are outstanding and reviewing past items that have come up in our one-to-ones to close them out.
3pm – Check emails, approve press releases, sign some of the millions of things I have to sign daily: complimentary ticket requests, resignation letters, transfer letters, promotions, colleague of the month certificates etc.
4pm – Walk the park and watch a specific area – most recently it has been the dispatch and exit of our new Jumeirah Sceirah slides. Management by walking around, watching for: Our colleagues smiling and greeting guests and each other, F&B operation is orderly, organised queueing at main rides, proper number of inner tubes, colleagues “on the floor” in retail, locker room team prepped for exit crowd, security active throughout the park, and our lifeguards to ensure they are continuously scanning proactively.
5pm – Financial review with our finance manager, whether that be prepping for a presentation, reviewing departmental financials, or budgets.
6pm – Prep for the next day and return any urgent emails that need to be returned.
6:30pm – Work very hard to be home by this time a few nights a week in order to catch a 15-minute swim with the kids before bath and bed.
7:30pm – Either go to the gym, ultimate frisbee or softball league.
9pm – Eat and watch UFC or golf. An occasional game of Wii golf gets played now and then.
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