Poor hotel management skills have significant consequences and can spread throughout an entire hotel, causing lasting and irreparable damage.
The results of poor management and a lack of leadership can be significant. I often write in these posts about the impact of leadership and how strong management skills have a significant, positive effect on the team and the smooth operation of a hotel, but the problems that poor hotel managers often create are rarely discussed.
The following are four major problems that occur in hotels when poor hotel managers are in charge:
First Problem: Fear
Hotel managers threaten employees’ job security. Frightened workers may even use working hours to look for a new job. Even if they do not, their morale declines and they stop trusting and respecting the management team.
Hotel managers who assign blame, withhold information and communicate vaguely help create fear. They refrain from showing compassion and seem unapproachable. They are unpredictable—you never know what mood they will arrive at work in—and this creates fear and instability.
Second Problem: Negativity
When hotel managers create fear within the property, they create a negative working environment. In a negative workplace, employees suffer from anxiety and stress and simply do not perform as they should.
Hotel managers who operate from an office create a sense of isolation and elitism that contributes to this negative work environment. Mutual respect and trust across all organisational levels are never a priority.
Third Problem: Lack of Recognition
When employees are not recognised for their achievements and are only criticised for their weaknesses, they do not feel valued and work in fear of making a mistake.
When people are not recognised, they are not motivated. Poor managers make no effort to ensure hotel employees know they are valued. The only people who are good in these situations are themselves and their inner circle of loyal followers, who in the end are just as bad as they are.
Fourth Problem: Meetingitis
Most meetings in these situations are a major waste of time, with little or no benefit. They are neither properly organised nor effectively led.
They like feeling surrounded by lots of people to feed their ego, so many employees ask themselves: what am I doing here? Those who are not directly involved will probably end up staring at the ceiling and feeling anxious to get back to their other workload.
Staying on top of things as a manager, and having the strength and honesty to ask staff what they believe you are doing well and what they think needs improving, should be a mandatory exercise. It can prevent any of the problems above, but of course, poor managers will not want to do it, nor will they even recognise themselves when reading this.
