Hotel Management in an Uncertain Future

It is one of the few facts everyone agrees on: without a clear and compelling strategy, your hotel will fail. Despite this, we often find ourselves managing hotels in situations of strategic ambiguity—that is, when they are unclear about where they are headed or how to get where they want to go. Market conditions change rapidly. Guests have more options than ever. Resources are limited. Executives leave, interim replacements are appointed, and the search for qualified candidates drags on endlessly. The list goes on, and even if your hotel is agile enough to establish an effective strategy, keeping the entire organisation strategically aligned is an entirely different challenge. Your hotel may have a clear strategic imperative, but your team may not. This is an uncomfortable subject when I discuss it with people working in hotels in this situation. Sometimes the very fear of acknowledging this situation leads many people to deny that it even exists. Strategic uncertainty can create the feeling of slogging through mud. Managers avoid investments. Decision-making takes forever. Resources are frozen. Fear, uncertainty and doubt drive poor performance, complacency and, at times, rebellion within the team. Even so, hotels in this situation often succeed or fail based on their managers’ ability to move the organisation forward precisely when the path ahead is unclear. The best managers find ways to provide steady, realistic direction and lead with excellence, even when the strategy is unclear. In this regard, there are three things you can do to put yourself in a better position to manage strategic ambiguity:

• Take pragmatic action
• Cultivate emotional stability
• Draw on the experience of others.

Take pragmatic action

Personally, I am an advocate of practical approaches to dealing with uncertainty. Get back to basics. Deliver value. First, focus on what you can control. We owe it to the organisation and the team to deliver value every day. Which guests is your team serving today, and what do they expect or need from you? How can you perform better, faster or more intelligently to fulfil the promise of excellent service? What matters to the organisation’s mission or vision? How can the team contribute to it? When uncertainty arrives, above all, do a good job. It will put the hotel in the best possible position to navigate new strategic options. Make smart bets. When strategy is uncertain, the best managers recognise what is unknown, but they also look at what is known and what is likely to happen. What do you know about the dynamics affecting your hotel? What options are being discussed? What do you think will happen? What can you do today to prepare yourself, your team and potentially your guests for change? In almost every case, managers can make smart bets and begin working towards a future state, even when the full picture remains out of focus. Work in short sprints: Develop short-term strategies. Once you have focused your team on delivering value and begun exploring what is possible, you are ready to move forward with a defined set of priorities. Take note of organisations that use agile methods and create your own strategic sprint. What can you personally do to contribute to strategic clarity in your part of the business? What projects can your team deliver in 30, 60 or 90 days that will benefit the organisation regardless of the direction the strategy takes? Strategy is not solely the work of senior executives; any work you do to improve your hotel’s capabilities and position your team for the future is a sound investment. Do not stand still waiting for the final answer on strategy. Move your team and your hotel forward.

Cultivate emotional stability

Strategic ambiguity pushes you out of your comfort zone. When there is a clear and unwavering direction, you can focus on defined goals and deliver results. When strategies change, or hint at changing, it is normal to feel unsettled, and you will see this in your team as well. Here are three steps you can take to help yourself and your team navigate the emotions of strategic ambiguity. Be proactive. Learn more. One reason I suggest pragmatic action is that doing something tangible helps you move beyond your raw emotions. But emotional stability involves more than that. Questions naturally arise: How will this affect my team? What if everything we are doing today changes? What if this involves job changes, redundancies or a loss of resources? Learn everything you can so that you are informed, rather than simply reacting to rumours and speculation. Use your internal network and ask other members of the organisation for information, context and clarity. Once you have done the hard work of making sense of things, you will be able to anticipate the questions your team will ask and prepare the most effective answers you can. Acknowledge and manage emotions. Emotional stability requires you to be intentional about how you show up in the workplace. Your role is to be calm, transparent and steady, all while painting a vision for the future. Acknowledge your emotions and talk to your people if you need to work through them. Consider the worst-case scenario in your mind, then move on to the most likely outcome. Reality is unlikely to be as bad as what you might imagine when your emotions run high. Commit to avoiding responses driven by stress, frustration, rumours or other unproductive behaviours. Your team members are watching you. Keep communication with the team open at all times. Strategic uncertainty can lead managers to communicate with team members less frequently and less openly. “If I have no clarity to provide, why not wait?” is what one tends to think. But in reality, ambiguous situations require you to communicate even more than usual. To demonstrate emotional stability, share your own emotions and acknowledge those of your team in a productive way. Let team members know that what they are feeling is valid. But talk to them about your commitment to remaining emotionally stable even in times of uncertainty. Ask them to do the same and to come to you if they are frustrated or concerned. Maintaining an open dialogue will keep your team engaged and aligned until clear direction emerges.

Draw on the experience of others

Leading through periods of uncertainty and change can be a very lonely task for managers. Remember that you are not alone. You have a network of people who have likely faced similar challenges, and you can draw on their experience. Here are three ways you can leverage the experience of others for support. Imagine the approach of the leader you respect most. What would they do in your situation? How would they handle the ambiguity or state of change? How would they view the way you are handling it? This exercise can be incredibly powerful in helping you remain calm and emotionally stable, exercise critical thinking and take pragmatic action even in the most uncertain circumstances. Those we respect most have demonstrated traits we admire. Draw on their strengths to become more aware of your own. Involve other managers. Managers often believe they need to be strong and that they must do it alone to demonstrate confidence and managerial competence. That is not true. You should, without question, regularly reach out to peers and former colleagues for advice and emotional support. If someone you knew came to you for advice, you would gladly offer support and feel professionally valued. Your network will feel the same way. You will be surprised at how quickly others engage with your challenges. Draw on the wisdom of thought leaders. Your network becomes global when you expand beyond those you know personally to those you can access in today’s digital environment. The more you understand how others think about strategic agility and leading through change, the better equipped you will be to navigate ambiguity in your hotel. The brightest and most inspiring minds are at your fingertips: read books and articles, listen to podcasts and interviews, and watch instructional videos, webinars and more to broaden your perspective and learn new approaches relevant to your specific situation. Do not allow a lack of clarity at your hotel to undermine your confidence or performance. Even in the most difficult and ambiguous situations, a manager must adopt a winning mindset and commit to taking pragmatic action while demonstrating emotional stability and drawing on the experience of others.