Best Practice: Management training
Leadership and management are two different things, but do you need to be a good leader to be a good manager? Either way, good hospitality requires both in abundance as Hotelier discovers…
Hotelier visited a property last month and the front of house service we received was superb. Unfortunately, the maintenance of the lobby bathrooms was nothing short of a disgrace. It didn’t add up — how could one element be functioning well and something as major as the cleanliness of the bathrooms be overlooked?
It turned out the hotel had no general manager, and its reputation was beginning to suffer. While this displays a need for management, does it require leadership? What does each entail and can anyone be trained to become a leader or manager?
A GOOD MANAGER
Being a good manager, according to Rami Sayess, regional vice president for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and GM of Four Seasons Hotel Doha, requires “a high level of ethics and a clear understanding of what the team is looking to accomplish”.
“It’s about getting the balance right between confidence and humility so that you manage your team while recognising and encouraging individual contributions and ideas that benefit the end result,” he says.
Lynne Bellinger, managing director UAE for Purple Cubed, believes a good manager is someone who first and foremost is an expert in their field.
“A manager should follow standards and drive the processes through their people in order to deliver the vision set by the leaders, so they need to be good at doing the day-to-day stuff whilst managing their people,” she says.
Management is a craft, a set of tools and methods used to get a job done well, according to Klaus Miserra, director of management consulting at Grow.ME.
“The key attribute for a manager is to be versatile in his or her use of these tools and methods in order to achieve results for the business,” he continues. “At the same time, a good manager strives to get the job done efficiently through effective teamwork.”
An example of this and of good reactive management is given by Gary Dodds, vice president HR, Marriott International, Middle East & Africa. He recalls a case in which a HR director noticed that the room service guest satisfaction survey had dropped successively over three months.
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“He reviewed them and saw that they related to specific areas of timing of breakfasts and basic items missing.
So he took the initiative to put together with room service management a refresher training, and attended himself, explaining how critical it is for guests to have breakfasts bang on time and attention to detail was everything. Over the following three months guest satisfaction scores rocketed.”
When it comes to leadership, the ability to inspire is often seen as crucial.
“The hotel business is all about getting the guest experience right and there is no better way to deliver such an experience than through a motivated and inspired team,” says Sayess.
And Bellinger believes the person to do this is a leader who is clear about their own values and those of the organisation.
“They do not compromise,” she continues. “Is this always right, no, but does this make them a good leader, absolutely. Leaders do not get bogged down with the day-to-day stuff; they look at the big picture and set the vision and direction for the organisation.”
So what is the difference between a good manager and a good leader?
One popular way to explain the differentiator is ‘a manager does things right, whereas a leader does the right things’.
“Leading a team is about developing an understanding of the team’s value to the organisation; leading a department builds understanding of how the department contributes to the hotel’s success,” Miserra asserts. “As a manager the focus is on answering the question ‘how to get there’ – what tools, what equipment, what processes, what skill levels are required to achieve the tasks.”
However, with so many challenges in hospitality, managers need to be leaders and leaders need to be managers.
“Only very few have the luxury of being able to afford leaders who are not also managing at least part of the business,” observes Miserra.
Sayess concurs and adds that management and leadership “must complement each other”.
“Strong managerial skills are only as good as strong leadership skills, because one needs to be able to inspire others to follow one’s lead while at the same time supporting individual development,” he continues.
Piers Schreiber, spokesperson for Jumeirah Group, argues a good manager is someone who ensures that the people reporting to them get the right jobs done in the right time frame “according to the right standards”.
“A leader is someone who inspires the people around him to make the right decisions and carry out the appropriate actions because they trust his judgement,” he continues.
The ultimate reflection of the success of this strategy are the Customer Satisfaction Index scores, Schreiber explains.
And that is the crux of good leadership and management – it has to filter down to improve the guest experience. It is frustrating to speak to a member of staff who is unable to deal with an issue due to a lack of empowerment.
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At Four Seasons, the management style encourages employees to “just do it” – improvise and innovate the guest experience whenever they spot an opportunity. Sayess says it is “imperative to be surrounded by people who can make decisions and can be trusted to use their common sense”.
However, empowerment can only be achieved with a clearly outlined ‘framework’ and ‘non-negotiables’ from the outset.
“At Purple Cubed we call this freedom in a framework where our people, at every level, are empowered to make decisions that will benefit the business,” Bellinger asserts.
The framework provides the guidance for these decisions and is aligned to culture, values and expected behaviours.
Dodds puts it succinctly when he says “empowering our associates is a corner stone within Marriott’s culture”.
“When associates are empowered, they are engaged within the business, which directly relates to our financial performance,” he adds.
Schreiber believes one of the core elements in a luxury hotel environment is for colleagues to be empowered to anticipate and deliver the kind of service guests have come to expect.
“Empowerment doesn’t happen by osmosis, but it is carefully embedded in the ways in which we train and coach our managers,” he continues.
Of course part of the empowerment process is a manager’s or leader’s ability to delegate.
Katherine De Fontaine, vice president people training & education, Kempinski Hotels S.A. says the art of delegation really centres on being able to decide what can and should be delegated and then finding the right person to delegate to.
“To do that, it’s important to understand how much guidance and follow-up is needed,” she advises. “Delegation is a fantastic training and development tool. And a ‘thank you’ should always be part of the formula.”
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THE GOOD, THE BAD...
Extolling the virtues of good management and leadership is fine, but what are the actual effects on a business? For Bellinger, the impact of good management “is huge and can make or break an organisation”.
“An organisation is only as good as the leader, this has absolutely been seen over and over again,” she explains. “And as the adage goes, people don’t leave businesses, they leave managers.”
It is true that without quality management you run the risk of losing talented staff.
“Good managers and leaders are the soul of a company and they embody and drive the company culture forward,” according to Sayess.
Bad management on the other hand is a serious issue. “Poor management stops individuals progressing. Ultimately the only way forward for an employee is out the door to another organisation,” Bellinger adds.
De Fontaine highlights the fact that more than 60% of resignations are due to a poor relationship with a superior.
“In the luxury hospitality industry, turnover of staff can be a real threat to the successful operation of a hotel,” she warns.
“Poor management also hinders the implementation of strategies, which directly impacts the bottom line.”
TEACHING OR TALENT?
The jury is out on whether it is possible to teach good management and leadership. For Sayess, management skills can be developed but leadership is something “you either have or don’t have”.
“Our recruitment process at Four Seasons focuses on identifying this ability to take the lead – we are famously known for hiring for attitude and training for skill,” he adds.
Bellinger believes that leadership is more about who you are than what you know. “It is about your impact as felt by others rather than what you believe your impact is,” she adds.
“Leadership can be taught, however, and it helps to be supported by real professionals”.
De Fontaine is of a similar opinion; certain leadership activities can be trained, but “it is difficult to train people to see connections, have the vision, and possess the courage to take risks, and motivate a team to follow”.
Miserra adds that leadership is about a series of behaviours, developed through coaching and experience-based activities.
“One can train people in leadership behaviours, but only those who are willing to grow as a person will develop true leadership,” he warns.
It’s often difficult to spot issues when immersed in day-to-day operations, which is why identifying management and leadership training needs is vital. Bellinger says there are many ways to do this; one is ensuring that performance management reviews are conducted regularly.
“If you automate this process through a system like Talent Toolbox, which provides online reviews, then you’ll be able to identify learning gaps at the click of a button,” she explains.
Another way to pinpoint training gaps is via feedback provided by employee and guest surveys. as well as complaints monitoring.
For Marriott, identifying those in need of training comes back to company culture. “To spot where training is needed is to look at all aspects of our operation and measure,” says Dodds.
“Are we living our culture, are we exceeding guest expectations, do our associates have all the tools necessary to do their roles and are they empowered, who are the rising stars that are our next generation of leaders, what our associates and stakeholders telling us?”
Kempinski uses several quality management tools such as LQA, CSS, and ESS, while personal observation is essential, says De Fontaine: “Regular analysis of training needs is key to successful operations because some issues are process, some are material and some are staffing or hiring.”
Whether you believe leadership can be taught or not, ensuring you have the right people in the right positions is key, because leadership and management can make or break your business — and keep your restrooms clean!..
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CASE STUDY 1
The company: Four Seasons
The training initiative: The Dynamic Leadership Programme (DLP)
Objective
To develop leadership skills of management across Four Seasons and to transfer those newly-acquired insights to the hotel teams.
Strategy
The Dynamic Leadership Programme (DLP) is a tailored Four Seasons training programme and within each Four Seasons property, 30+ managers sit in a room to work together on developing their leadership skills.
The three-day programme focuses on analysing individual managers’ experiences and the choices they have made as leaders. At its core it is a more reflective and psychological level of analysis and approach to leadership, removing participants from the day-to-day and giving them leadership insights.
Results
For Four Seasons Hotel Doha, the DLP programme inspired the next-level leadership and as a result, each division head prepared an ‘Action Plan’ for their departments in which they transferred their newly-learned skills to their teams.
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CASE STUDY 2
The company: Marriott International
The training initiative: Defining the company's original leadership values
Objective
Define the company’s leadership values.
Strategy
'Guideposts to Management' are the principles that J. Willard Marriott put in a letter to J. W. Marriott, Jr. in 1964. Here is an edited version.
1. Keep physically fit, mentally and spiritually strong.
2. Guard your habits — bad ones will destroy you.
3. Pray about every difficult problem.
4. Study professional management principles.
5. People are No. 1.
6. Men grow making decisions and assuming responsibility for them.
7. Don’t criticize people but make a fair appraisal of their qualifications with their supervisor.
8. See the good in people and try to develop those qualities.
9. If an employee is incapable of the job, find a job he can do or terminate now.
10. Manage your time.
11. Delegate and hold accountable for results.
12. Let your staff take care of the details.
13. Ideas and competition:
a. Ideas keep the business alive.
b. Know what your competitors are doing and planning.
14. Don’t try to do an employee’s job for him – counsel and suggest.
15. Think objectively and keep a sense of humour.
Results
Recognised as one of the top companies in the world to work for. Recent awards from Fortune include being ranked number 57 in the ‘100 Best Companies to Work For 2014’ and being named the ‘Most Admired Lodging Company in the list of World's Most Admired Companies’.
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CASE STUDY 3
The company: Kempinski
The training initiative: Master Trainers Academy
Objective
Prepare Master Trainers for their roles training peers in their regions and throughout the group, in the essentials of their respective area of expertise.
Strategy
Master Trainers Academies are set up to focus on Kempinski’s people management vision, mission and strategy, and how trainers fit into and support this. Trainers learn about adult learning, training design, delivery and presentation skills.
Results
Provides increased leadership and management expertise which ties in with the 'Kempinski trains Kempinski' programme that delivers specific standards through a network of in-house trainers. Employees are encouraged to become experts in training and create regional, cost-efficient knowledge hubs.