Leadership competencies for Hospitality Manager in 21st Century
Developing effective Leaders for sustainable advantage
Changing Business Environment: Burgeoning challengesAs the business environment is rapidly changing and becoming increasingly complex in terms of relationship and transactions between different stakeholders. This ever –growing complexity is result of ever increasing volume of information that is generated by the different channels of information.
More specifically with the growing use of Internet and technical gadgets and other modes of communication by different stakeholders in hospitality & tourism business namely, both internal & external customers, competitions, investors, owners and operators, regulatory authorities and vendors. All these different interest groups are empowered with information and resources to seek out instant fulfillment of their needs and wants. Everyone wants just in time solutions and redressed of issues and time is of utmost essence then ever before. With the ever-increasing complexity of businesses due to cutthroat competition, compelling demands of various constituent of business demand even greater resilience, patience and skills set of Hospitality Managers. The multitude constituents’ demand and complex business relationship require new competencies of managers in hospitality business. The managers had limited education and could manage with excellent guest orientation skills. Due to distinct division of jobs and responsibilities they were not required to have holistic knowledge and diverse skills in all spectrum of hospitality operation. Simple operation, finance skills, guest service orientation and labor management were the only skills that were required.
HR: New Minds & Spirits
The past generation of managers worked very hard and strived to satisfy the needs of guests. They used to have team members who had good human qualities and mirrored the qualities and desires of their supervisors and the guests. These associates used to t serve the needs of guest and foster loyalty with the regular patrons. They would have only two constituents of business namely the customers and the owners and both had very few desired for fulfillment. However with increasing population growth and aging baby boomers, X generation and Y generation customers with unique needs and desires, have their own individual wants to be fulfilled. Further, the loyalty factor have over the time have moved from the brand to the price and value proposition. Guests are ever anxious to try new things and seek out fulfillment of their distinct taste and preferences. The situation has become even more complex with supply of lodging products outstripping the demands in the markets in the markets. Ever increasing sophistication, knowledge and knowledgeable customers with intense competition for market share of rooms need constant adaptation to new dynamics of business.
Tech Savvy-Leveraging core technologies
The only thins that is constant in hospitality business is the pace of change that is occurring constantly and lodging operators are required to keep pace with that change and adopt service and revenue management strategies that could ensure hotel operators survival.
Due to technological changes and increasing use of Internet and travel distribution channels requires highly knowledgeable and versatile Hospitality Managers to sustain and grow the business. Growing diversity of customer’s psychographics and demographics of customers as well as the employees who serve those customers have become more complex due to age, gender, and education, social, ethnic and nationality origins and motivation levels. These different players embrace life –balance, life long learning, greater match of personal values and the desire for personal development as well need for fun environment while at work call for different strategies and talents to satisfy those different constituent of managing complex and divers e business amid highly uncertain and volatile business Environment.
HR Intellectual capital is “DNA” of competitiveness
The labor being the most important resource for business have also undergone sea change in their attitudes, increasing demanding terms, growing unionization and absence of loyalty mindset. There is also a gradual talent drain into other segments of business due to higher wages and benefits. Hiring and recruitment has become a top priority for the managers to scout, recruit and hire talent and then ensure conducive work environment to nurture and retain the talent. Traditional management style of managing labor will not work since the generation baby boomers; X and Y have their own outlook and attitudes towards work. Therefore dealing with heterogeneous mix of labor pool requires managers to have thorough understanding and skills to manager the labor pool for productivity and business gains. Modern Managers must focus on driving value through talent management strategies. They should focus on key issues to help build a talented, committed and capable self-motivated work force in today’s challenging environment. This requires shift in the manager’s mindset talent game has changed drastically y and traditional talent management processes are not rewarding. Since these strategies are too focused on results /outcomes hence, these rare inflexible and costly. Modern time require focus on what really matters to talent (S & Y Gen workforce). If everyone who worked for you decided to work somewhere else, the business would crash and burn. Accept that as an absolute and place a higher value on those who share the workspace with you though buckets of benefits can’t be doled out to as expression of gratitude, respect and a measure of kindness. Managers need to move beyond money and compensation package, hot skills additional compensations because those sources of extrinsic motivations have failed to yield results and workforce too soon becomes disengaged. Managers instead need to support on the key issues the people on their team care about most and doing work that engage them and how to do it better. The team member’s support and commitment to excellence can be better gained through dealing with them politely and in persuasive manner.
From a caretaker to Catalytic Change agent
Hospitality industry is under constant revolution and competition for both customers and skilled labor is intense. At the same time due to burgeoning growth of hotel brands and management chains vying with each other to allure and capture different segments of business have made the customers the king in making or marring the business. Due to Public holding of ownership of lodging business and highly educated and informed shareholders and increasing unreasonable expectations venture capital fund providers are tougher in terms of demands for return and returns on equity /ROCE. Thus, the above constituents have their own agendas and stringent demands make it ever harder for lodging hospitality managers to understand, consider and strive to fulfill those expectations for each constituent lest the very survival of hotel business is threatened. ? Due to the very conflicting interest of these stakeholders and uncompromising attitudes, it is ever harder for the lodging managers to manage those challenges and delight all the above stakeholders. Thus ever-changing customers, markets and labor and owners needs and expectation require constant adaptation and alertness and quick response from the hospitality managers. Good managers must harness creative energies of al the stakeholders including customers, investors, owners, vendors and staff for increasing business opportunities. Such creative strategies include, inter alias; keep employees intellectually engaged in learning and earning remove any or all possible distractions.
Managers should be active proponents of change, constantly working got introduce new systems, and processes to enhance self and team performance, productivity and profitability. New age leader should be collaborative & participative in their leadership styles. However, as a leader, be above board and make difficult decisions, solve complex problems & build employee consensus and dive the hotel under their leadership in right direction. Modern business dynamics also necessitate leaders to have extensive experience in adopting and driving new technology initiatives especially web-developed website and e-commerce capability. Strong qualification sin training & development and leadership with direct responsibility for managers, supervisors and multi-million budgets. Besides, in-depth knowledge and understanding of customer service, customer loyalty and customer retention. To position the hotels for strong growth & profitability. Their ability to profitability manages highly charged; fast paced, and labor intensive operations. A manager that has the persistence and patient to overcome constant spate of challenges and deliver strong revenues and profit results.
From a Manager to Multi-disciplinary entrepreneur
Due to complexity of business and constantly changing business, a good managers need to have great financial and business acumen and skills. Most important financial skills would relate to budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis and spreadsheets. Analytical skills such as finding variances, root causes and solutions, system processes, diagnose problems and determine workable solutions. Such leaders must lead by example and inspire risk taking and foster learning environment. Some of the most successful managers have demonstrated traits such as integrity, intelligence, maturity, enthusiasm and passion for what they do and demonstrated exceptional abilities. Today’s Leaders should be best sales managers since sales are the most important focus area after labor management. Must be able to design business strategy thru competitive advantage by developing and implementing winning strategies. Sales skills in superior prospecting and closing skills, distribution and pricing strategies are some of the important skills critically required to be able to lead and be above the pack. Managers should be able to develop and maintain pricing strategies, manage revenues across multiple distribution channels packaged rate parity are most important skills in demand in today’s environment. Ability to steer operations thru business fluctuations, skilled in business & market plan, market positioning, sales & account management, sales blitz, process reengineering, contracts negotiations, vendors relations, public relations are some of the important abilities required to capitalize and thrive in rapidly changing business environment. Managers should remain flexible and unencumbered. Forge resilient strategies designed to work in good and bad times, focusing areas where their property can establish a clear lead. Turning creative ideas into economic returns for their hotels. Strategic priorities ROI on innovation are the most important initiatives. Create innovative culture that encompasses turning ideas into cash that ends up on bottom lines. Technology Savvy managers have unique advantages over other counterparts leverage unique information system –invest in IT key value drives and take decision to strategically strengthening their hotels for profitability.
Renew & upgrade HR Capital
Hiring, developing empowering & rewarding the people must be the Managers key focus Ares. Because skills can develop, attitudes cannot be. As south West Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher says: “Hire for attitude. “ What you can’t change is inherent attitudes” Hire for smart and leverage their hidden skills and intentions for perfection and self –development. Make them creative partners in pursuit for service excellence. That would elicit their commitment and give them a sense of ownership. Flexibility and productivity goes hand in hand. Work life balance and hard work are not mutually exclusive. Hospitality Managers should develop leadership development and management development programs and these programs should align with their strategic focus at the hotels. Hospitality Manages should be deeply involved in finding and growing talent and manage for creativity. They should take active interest in increasing efficiencies, improve quality assurance scores, and enhance customer satisfaction, and lower employee turnover. To win employees passionate engagement, a company must meet the associate’s needs for security, esteem and justice along with firm, fair and just grievance handling process to enhance their motivation, build collaboration. Managers require a different sort of leadership with commitment to match their deep convictions. Such results can be achieved only through servant leadership spirit – extreme personal humility and fierce silent resolve with intense professional will. Managers need to focus on associated attitudes and behaviors during customer interactions levels and promote those behaviors that are promoting customer satisfaction, promoting business and profitability. Focus on creative ideas that can drive sustained guest satisfaction, quality service and increased profitability and suitably recognize and reward such creative champions.
Customer Delightment: “Wow “& “How”!
Deliver top-notch customer service and building loyalty through highly differentiated experiences should be the Managers core values creations and service motto. Engage customers as creative partners in eliciting their views, suggestions and creative ideas for creating and delivering better service experience. Build customer community. Building customer loyalty through a sense of community. These interactions with customer would foster interactions and nurture relationship and help sustaining creativity and productivity would flourish. Self-, motivated teams will deliver outstanding and innovative results in terms or quality service. The manager’s job is to measure and manage the quality of employee –customer interactions. Attention to details, continuous process improvements and identifying high impact moments would engender emotional connection which is far most effective in wining customer repeat business, and word-of –mouth recommendations and ultimate loyalty than continuities and loyalty programs. They must ensure that they conduct transactional interventions to evaluate the interactions outcomes. Because employee –customer interactions and engagements are intimately connected, and taken together have an outstanding effect on financial performance. Thus, managers must manage holistically and develop service champions who initiate and manage change on department levels. Develop a Customer service driven vision to satisfy and exceed customer needs and expectations. Identify valued customers needs and wants and develop operational plans that fulfill the vision .To build competitive advantage implement customer focused initiatives, they should focus on capturing practices that delight customers “ Wow” or delight overall experience.
The best ways to develop customer experiences is through just in time feedback from the guests before they leave the premises. The Guest comments cards, focus groups are useful but managers need to creative new buzzwords in which they should make guest co-partners in creation by way of their real experience feedback that goes beyond the traditional feedback system. The goal of a manager must be not only to increase market share but increasing guest spend during their stay. Managers need to instill a customer service maxim: “Customers are ultimately responsible for our business, our profit and our success. Service” Maxim: “Customer deserves what’s best for them. Even if it’s not necessarily what is best for us.” The principal behind are simple: customers know what they want, Customer needs and preferences are paramount and communication is key to our success.
FUTURISTIC VISION: PRIORITIES & POSTERIOTIES
IN view of the above changing dynamics of business and ever changing needs & expectations of various stakeholders the modern time hospitality Managers are required to deal with those challenges by embracing and practicing new competencies for their business survival and growth. Not only do they need to embrace change and learn new skills but also they have to become the catalytic change agent and inspirational leaders to help disseminate the new knowledge and skills to the subordinates. The Mangers must be constant learners to absorb new knowledge and acquire benchmark skills in order to stay abreast of change and gain competitive edge in the market place. They should constantly acquire the knowledge of the industry, marketplace and about customers and competition and teach that knowledge to the team members so that they all can envision and work as cohesive productive teams to achieve those mutually advantageous goals for betterment.
The metamorphosis hospitality business require constant renovation, up gradation of both facilities, service and products to satisfy and delight the customers and keep a fair share of the business in the competitive set of hotels. To keep pace with this ever-changing dynamics of hospitality business, managers as well as the staff have to be constant learners and assuming increasing responsibilities. The teams should be so responsive to change and proactive tin their services that they can anticipate, envision the changes occurring on the landscape and prepare themselves to embrace and implement those strategies and programs that can outsmart the competition and delight the stakeholders. Managers should foster a culture of decentralized decision making. Due to paucity of time and resources, it becomes incumbent upon the managers to train and equip teamed to be self-reliant and self –directed team geared to achieve those goals and expectation. The time thus saved could be used by the mangers in strategic focus areas as planning, and executing strategic plans for increasing revenues and profitability of businesses. Managers must cease to be micro management leaders but instead focus and pursue strategic business opportunities, exceptional strategies and goals. And constantly coach and counsel the teams for higher effectiveness and productivity. Focus on long terms and achieve those milestones and as these are opportunities for celebrations and commiseration. Such celebration victories with your team generate bond of loyalty and sustain relationship over time.
The fundamental and dramatic change in the hotel industry characterized by public ownership of multi-branded companies , short-term profit orientation , the rise of revenue management, and exploitation of the internet as powerful distribution channel have altered the roles of hospitality Managers requiring complex blend of skills and experience that barely resemble with the easy role of past. The Managers must be able to articulate a clear vision of goals and objectives that will support the overall strategy of the hotel. And this requires a high energy, maturity m, patience, and enthusiasm for learning. Without these attributes the Managers will not succeed in the long-run regardless of his or her other strengths. Manager also need to foster a new mindset that involve all employees in sales process and recognize and reward star performers., allowing them to continue to think creatively , gain credibility and success.
Skilled Sales Trainer
IN this context the Hospitality professionals must be skillful trainer and create a loyal team that will want to consistently meet and achieve objectives. They must be change agents who are proactive rather than reactive in repose. Must embrace a broad perspective and awareness of economic, social, cultural and political issues. The most important ingredient for success is measuring the quantity and quality and mix of business in the hotel with appropriate price, value- profit proposition. Managers must be able to work with sales & marketing teams and other operational team to create greater understanding of the sales function and accentuate the importance of interconnectedness between departments as vital components of success. Managers essentially need to embrace a role of a guide, coach and psychologist and master the part of prioritizing, multi-tasking and managing the sales process. Another highly regarded skill they need is to be superb communicators to with verbal acumen and convincing pitch .to advance value propositions.
Persuasive Negotiators
Hospitality industry professionals require honed up negotiation and conflict resolution skills. Manager need to adopt positive attitude and conflict management style to achieve mutually successful negotiations. Should use effective communication skills to increase their effectiveness as negotiators and adopt as give/get and win/win attitudes and do develop a collaborative style for dealing with conflicts. They need to master the art of negotiating of mutual gains by using a variety of time tested techniques and tactics to face and conquer business challenges on a regular basis. Negotiating is the not only fundamental part of doing hotel business but also an opportunity for managers to think creatively, strengthen business relationship, and resolve the conflicts that in day to day life. Best strategy for winning contract and or vendor negotiation or even conflict resolutions the managers must have all the relevant information and facts at their command to gain an edge in the process. A win/win solution must be the goals and forge alliances and build collaboration with the partners rather than just the short term gains. And a win/win solution is likely to happen when managers demonstrate good communication skills during negotiations including listening, providing feedback observing body language, and using effective verbal pitch in a convincing way. Leaders must be able to identify the negotiations techniques, and respond in appropriate ways to gain agreements and resolve conflicts and win negotiations for lasting relationships.
Charisma: Desires Trumps all
Effective business strategies require differentiating a hotel’s facilities and services by emphasizing benefits of features in ways that creates value for the guests. Develop programs and initiatives that address customer’s needs. Benchmark against the best–in-the business. Develop and monitor process to improve customer feedback. Customer satisfaction is a most potent marketing tool in competitive environment. Customers are our competitive advantage. Strive to turn complaints into complements, create a fanatical culture of service in your hotels. Boost your bottom lines; motive your emplo9yees through reward & recognition. Deliver what customers value and will pay for. Use service guarantees to your help your business stand out from competition.
Quit spouting all the accepted -and expected- clichés and instead put them into action. Value people, create memorable experiences, give the guest the compelling reason to come back and stay with you. Bring smile to the owners by giving them fair returns on their investments and return for their trust in you. Similarly, give pride and respect to the employees in the community and the market place by staying ahead of the competition and good bonuses for their loyalty, heard work and commitment. Give value to the guest of their money and assure them that you will always strive to delight and exceed their expectation. The Hospitality business is all about, courtesy, calm, charm, cuisine and character. Deliver all those and demonstrate the attitude of gratitude to all those whom you serve and depend upon. Perhaps, above all, most importantly, the hospitality managers must remind themselves why they chose to work in the hospitality industry and what duties and obligations it entails.
Mahendra S Rathore, CHA, CHE, CTA, FHCIMA, M, B, A. - Mahendra Rathore is the president of the Ultima Management dedicated to management of full service, select service hotels and resorts as well as providing turnkey consulting services for the hospitality and leisure industries.
Mike Rathore
(704)248-6280
Ultima Managment Hospitality Corp
