1.
My daddy said the customer is always right, especially when wrong.
Never forget that! 2.
People tend to support what they help create.
Learn to rub up all over your staff.
Build the team and make it fun.
Consider this especially given today's economic climate.
The available work force that we have today will continue to become golden as the labor market continues to shrink.
In this labor market, especially in fast food, hotel and most retail establishments, you really need to learn to love your staff.
That minimum wage group leads a troubled life typically.
They're a mess; their lives are a mess; and you need to make the work environment better than the home environment.
If you do, the work environment becomes their escape and they never want to leave you.
That's what helps us create staff loyalty.
We have some of the lowest turnover according to industry statistics.
3.
Be a pessimist - the glass is always half empty.
As Andy Grove at Intel once quoted, "Only the paranoid survive.
" I believe being a pessimist helps you keep your edge better when trying to scratch your way to keep that glass full.
4.
Remember to hire to your strengths as well as to your weaknesses.
Recognize your weaknesses.
Since I was raised and groomed in my daddy's restaurant, I consider myself a pretty strong food and beverage type of guy.
Therefore, I've always hired someone I could groom in that department who wouldn't necessarily give me an argument over everything I had to say from a management perspective.
My weakest link, however, tends to be that of maintenance.
After all, what the heck do I know about cleaning a coil? What the heck do I know about changing a compressor? I'd be lucky to know where one was.
Accordingly, I find the most outrageous engineer who possesses all those necessary talents and I pay the demanded wage because that engineer is golden to me.
I recognize my weakness and know that I am vulnerable.
Never ever lose sight of your weaknesses when you build your management team.
5.
Enthusiastically greet customers, just as soon as they walk in the door, and celebrate their arrival.
Use the "WOW Factor.
" As my mentor said to me 20 years ago, "Cold eggs will always seem just a little bit warmer.
" There is a post-script to this: Do the same thing with your staff.
After all, in the hotel business there's not a whole lot of glamour in making beds, cleaning toilets or washing dishes.
As I see it, my job, your job, anyone's job for that matter in managing people is nothing more than coaching and cheerleading.
Never forget how to be a cheerleader.
My mentor also said to me...
"Couponing will only convince the customer you were overpriced to begin with.
" Looks what has happen to all of us.
We wouldn't think of buying a car without a rebate...
couponing has become a way of life...
and he told me this 35+ years ago! 6.
Our job is not to be perfect but to recognize when we are not.
Over compensate for the mistakes in the eyes of the customer.
Remember, if you're not making mistakes then you're not trying hard enough.
7.
Empower your staff.
A mistake made when executing a goodwill decision to resolve a customer problem will out-weigh by far the cost of the mistake.
For example, take the screaming guest at 2:00 AM.
The night auditor decides to "wine the room" and sends it up with the security guard.
If it's a family, orange soda pop and some ice cream are sent to the room.
Hopefully, the night auditor has sent a bottle of wine that only cost $5 or $10 and not one that costs $30 or $40.
Even if they did make a mistake and sent the most expensive wine to the room (because they either didn't know any better or that's the decision they thought was right), at least there was no screaming guest at the front desk the next morning and you do not end up having to comp his entire stay due to an issue that could have been solved by an empowered staff.
If you follow this rule, you'll only have to work 10 percent harder than the competition to have an edge over them.
Leverage your management style through your people because the chain mentality is typically overwhelmed with too many rules and manuals.
By empowering your staff, you'll eat your competition's lunch.
As Ray Kroc at McDonald's once said, "When the competition is drowning, stick a hose in their throat.
" 8.
To create a winning partnership with your staff, remember that the power of partnership is mutual respect both at home and in your business.
I have no morals, I have no ethics but I exude integrity in all that I do.
If you are a son of gun to work for or a son of a gun to live with, at least be a benevolent one.
In this same regard when it comes to managing people, the greatest book I ever read on people management is Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
I implore you to read the book but not when your relationship is in trouble.
Read it when you are ready to apply its principles of mutual respect.
9.
I have an interesting philosophy that compares business to sports.
If you ask most people whether Michael Jordan is perhaps one of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball, most would readily agree.
What's his shooting ratio? Answer: 48 percent.
If you ask most people whether Pete Rose was perhaps one of the greatest players to ever play the game of baseball, most would readily agree.
What was his lifetime batting average? Answer: not even close to 350.
Accordingly, he failed to execute 65 percent of the time.
Michael Jordan fails to execute 52 percent of the time.
If you think it is any different in life, you're nuts.
In my business when I'm batting 50/50, I'm breaking even.
When I'm batting two thirds, I'm making money.
When I'm batting 75 percent, life is wonderful.
After all, "happiness is positive cash flow.
" 10.
Don't burn your bridges.
It's tough swimming back across in a small world like ours.
Our industry is an even smaller world.
Please remember your roots and what it was like to crawl before you walked or ran.
Egos are very fragile and very expensive.
Remember when you make it and we all will, "The Good Lord gave us all two hands - one to take with and one to give with.
Never forget the latter.
" As published.
Florida Hotel & Motel Journal.
"Only the paranoid survive.
" "The operative word is focus.
You have to put all your effort behind the thing that you do better than the other people in the business and then not hedge your bets.
If you're hedging, you're much more likely to lose; and even if you win; you win in a mediocre way.
If you focus and you're wrong, you lose - but if you're right, you win big time.
" "Never let success stop you from worrying.
" Andy Grove - Intel "When the worms are scarce, what does a hen do? Does she stop scratching? She does not.
She scratches all the harder.
A lot of businessmen have been showing less sense than a hen since orders have become scarce.
They have laid off salesmen; they have stopped or reduced their advertising; they have simply resigned themselves to inaction and, of course to pessimism.
If a hen knows enough to scratch all the harder when the worms are scarce, surely businessmen...
ought to have gumption enough to scratch all the harder for business.
" B.
C.
Forbes "We must overcome the notion that we must be regular...
It robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre.
" Uta Hagen "Wisdom is knowing what is right.
Integrity is doing it.
" Unknown "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.
If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
" Warren Buffett