When All You Have Is a Hammer… Heads Roll

This week, I spent some time with a friend who happens to be the general manager of one of the major hotels on the Costa del Sol. As we chatted about life’s mysteries over a glass of wine, I made an offhand comment...

"Heads will soon start to roll..."

At first, my friend held my gaze, because my comment had nothing to do with the twists and turns of life we had been discussing. But, battle-hardened as he is, he immediately grasped the meaning of what I was saying and replied...

"Yes, it has been a difficult few months for many hotels, and people will soon start looking for someone to blame."

We then began discussing the matter and the reasons why results have not met expectations (which deserves a post of its own). But what prompted me to write this article was when he added that... well, it depends...

It depends????

Yes, he told me. Many executives will make every effort to dress up the results and find reasonable explanations for why sales have not been as expected. The most skilful, when questioned, will surely find explanations that Boards and Owners will swallow whole. These are the Creatives.

Other General Managers will hide under their desks, hoping nobody asks them what happened. These are the Survivors, who year after year have always found reasonable explanations to justify the results.

Others, the Fortunate Ones, will not even be questioned, because either the ownership or the board simply has neither the time nor the inclination to challenge the results. They are content with what is there, and the manager on duty is delighted.

Then there are the Fernando Alonsos, who always have someone to blame for the results, but will never accept responsibility themselves or bother to find any explanation other than pointing the finger at someone.

The Penitents, who saw it coming some time ago and, as a result of poor forecasting or bad decisions made in the past, had been anticipating the situation for a while. As a rule, their sentence will be commuted when the season ends.

Let us not forget the Gossips, who justify their results by comparing them with those of their neighbours: if theirs are poor too, they find divine justification for their own results, blaming the economic climate, the political situation and global warming.

We could go much further and describe many professionals according to the way they act, but there is not much point in doing so. At the end of all this back and forth, what really matters is the fact that “heads roll”, and why results have to shape the professional future of so many good professionals.

What I am really getting at is not the executive personally—I do not question their best intentions in carrying out their work—but rather the fact that financial results can define their career path when, in many cases, those results are driven more by external factors over which the General Manager has little influence.

It should be noted that, in such cases, the root of the problem stems from a lack of Business Purpose in the hotel sector; in other words, a lack of “whys” in the business approach. In the absence of this, the only “why” that makes sense is Making Money, regardless of the role our hotel plays in the value chain, in society, for its employees and in the environment where it operates.

When the business’s sole reason for being is financial, the profit and loss account is the only factor that can tip the balance as to whether “heads roll”. That is why I insist on the need to set out clear, straightforward objectives for the team—not only from the Hotel Manager, but also from ownership.

I do not mean that financial results are not important—they are, very much so—but rather that they are one more factor in the equation, the outcome of which will ultimately determine the success or failure of a management team.

This is when it makes sense to recall Abraham Maslow’s famous quote:

"If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat every problem as if it were a nail"

Our job is to fulfil and uphold the purposes of the business that have been set for us, and we will be surprised to see that financial results ultimately go hand in hand with them.

Perhaps then there will no longer be any Creatives, Survivors, Fortunate Ones, Gossips, Fernando Alonsos or Penitents, because there will be no reason for heads to roll.

The key to preventing “heads from rolling” is to develop a vision that goes beyond the numbers. While financial results are crucial, so too is understanding the hotel’s role within its community and the industry as a whole. A hotel with a clear, well-communicated purpose will not only be profitable, but will also build a strong, resilient organisational culture.

It is essential for owners and boards to stop seeing executives as interchangeable parts and begin assessing them on their ability to build a strong team, create long-term value and adapt to the sector’s challenges. Otherwise, year after year, we will continue to see people looking for someone to blame instead of sustainable solutions.

Ultimately, the best strategy for any executive is not to remain in the category of “Creatives”, “Survivors” or “Penitents”, but to position themselves as a leader with a clear, well-founded vision. Perhaps then the day will come when decisions are made with a more strategic and less impulsive approach.

Good luck!