When I think about my most memorable work experience, my mind takes me to a time when I worked in the hospitality industry. Being a leader in one of the Caribbean’s largest and most famous resorts was as exciting as it was challenging. It was the very first time in my entire career that an establishment was interested in my growth and development. I found that they not only embraced my creativity and out of the box thinking but they developed it and assisted me with performing at my highest potential. Near the end of my tenure at the resort, the last 2 years in fact, I found myself happy to wake each morning to dress to go to work. The long work hours were hardly noticed. The demands and responsibilities of leading the operation of a few divisions at the resort simultaneously were not even felt. I loved the company I worked for; I loved the leaders I reported to and I loved the team members who directly reported to me. I loved my job and I dare say that a huge component of my love for this job was directly related to the culture of the resort.
At this resort here is what I found:
- I felt valued. The leaders were open to hearing my views, suggestions, feedback and opinions. They made it a point of demonstrating they valued me as a leader in the organization by allowing me to operate the areas under my responsibility in ways that were non-traditional and outside of the box. They embraced and incorporated my ideas about people management, guest satisfaction and overall team performance and incorporated some of those ideas into the daily running of the resort. This action was not limited to me but the ideas and feedback of all team members were considered. The resorts leaders were open to hearing what was working, what wasn’t and they didn’t make blanket decisions regarding the guest experience without first speaking to the people who and areas that worked directly with guests.
- Training was a priority at this resort. There was a number mandatory training hours each team member was required to fulfill annually. Leaders were required to take leadership courses in addition to the other course offerings. What I particularly liked about these sessions is that the leaders and line staff trained together. In any training class you were likely to find Vice Presidents, Directors, Managers, Administrative staff and line staff; this allowed best practices to be shared from different job levels and different perspectives. Team members got to see the leaders, interact with them and know who their leadership team was.
- Team Building was important. There was a high focus on employee engagement and fostering a family atmosphere. In the areas under my responsibility in particular, we had monthly all staff meetings and our agenda item always included a team building activity. On a quarterly basis we met as a group to participate in numerous activities that included scavenger hunts, rock climbing challenges, beach Olympics, etc. Our daily operating tasks also included team building components as each staff member was assigned to a team and our daily challenges allowed teams to accumulate points towards wonderful prizes.
- Reward & Recognition was not taken lightly. Focus was placed on highlighting and rewarding employees who received commendation from the resort guest via the resorts internal guest comment cards but also by way of the mystery shopping and other surveys. Team members were rewarded consistently for a number of standards that tied back into the resorts vision, mission and core values.
I can go on and on with today’s blog because there are so many memories flooding my mind as I type. While all of above are wonderful, I particularly loved that the leaders of this resort got involved and joined their teams in the trenches serving resort guests. I loved that they lived the values they wanted their team members to display and they were accountable to their teams.
Creating a culture that promotes employee performance requires a number of components. There are no shortcuts to achieving this goal. I totally agree with Tony Hsieh CEO of Zappos when he says “If you get culture right, most of the other stuff will take care of itself.” Truth is if your culture isn’t right, not very much else will be.
Tip of the Week is from an anonymous source: For individuals character is destiny. For organizations culture is destiny.
This is so true. I love it!! This information is priceless.
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Did they buy into the culture already established or did the company hire persons who displayed the necessary values?
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Good question! It was a mix of both. The culture existed at the time I was hired and I bought into the culture and promoted it within the divisions I had responsibility for as well. I also believe that the company hired leaders with values similar to the report’s so it was an easy blend them together. Hiring talent with the values and beliefs of your organization helps to promote and live up to your company’s objectives.
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Good read. Your last paragraph was very profound. In an organization where some or all of the necessary components that harness a culture of consistent performance are lacking, I think the challenge may be to re-socialize leaders who are accustomed to the existing norms. How can an organisation gain buy -in from its employees if they are re- branding or embarking on attempting to change the organisation’s culture ?
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I absolutely agree with your statement that leaders need to be re-socialized. I can tell you that my John Maxwell Training exposure has profoundly impacted my leadership style and we need to expose more leaders to those leadership concepts. As a trained John Maxwell Trainer I sometimes cringed at what people refer to as leading and hope more leaders can be exposed to this type of leadership training.
As it relates to getting buy in, we need to make employees a part of the change. Challenge them to find incorporate the Vision and Mission in ways that are meaningful to them. An example of this: when the resort I worked at changed their vision statement they challenged all departments to participate in a competition where they either sang, danced or did some skit or however they interpreted it. A winner was selected but the beauty of it was that they made the employees a part of the process in a creative way.
Organizations must move away from stuffing changes down the necks of employees and move to be more inclusive of them instead. Changing culture is no easy task though. It takes time, consistency of effort, accountable leaders living the values, reinforcement of those values, flexibility. It helps if you have champions in all departments. These champions push the change in creative ways that foster team building. There are key people in every organization that can sway their colleagues in one direction or another. Get that person to buy in. Their influence helps.
There is no simple fit nor does one solution fit every organization. It’s sometimes very beneficial for the organization to hire a coach to help them along this process.
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