While we spend most of our time lamenting poor managers, as well as thinking and writing about seemingly superhuman leaders, more often than not it is the quiet, hard-working managers who operate with humility and a low profile who help our hotels grow and thrive.
Management is not something that is easily mastered.
Going beyond supervision and delegation:
Success in this role transcends the reductionist view of management as merely encompassing supervisory and compliance tasks. While this work is present, particularly on the front lines of organisations, it pales in comparison with the vital work of developing talent, serving guests, identifying and enabling change, and executing strategy while fostering innovation. Managers own these responsibilities. If they do not do it, no one will—not even those above them.
In search of great managers for our hotel.
While a manager’s work is critical to today’s and tomorrow’s success, not all managers are created equal. We can all point to those who bide their time, protect their turf, revel in political scandal and fiercely preserve the status quo. These individuals are the shame of the profession, yet they exist.
Others, the ones I write for, find their purpose and energy in navigating at the edge of chaos in pursuit of creating value for themselves, their teams and their hotel.
The six focus areas of great managers:
Over the years, I have identified six core areas in which effective managers focus their energy, time and brainpower. These six categories define what I call the
Superior Management framework, and they include:
1. Leadership: setting the direction.
Great managers lead. It is that simple. They are in the challenging role of translating ideas and success strategies through and with others, or they are responsible for tackling and solving complex problems.
Sales and marketing managers who face the market are responsible for navigating waters where competitors and disruptors lie in wait. They translate ambiguity and uncertainty into product, sales and marketing strategies. “We will go this way” is the battle cry of these managers in their role as leaders.
Stepping up as a manager requires you to perform as a leader, where your primary role is to shape and frame an environment in which others can apply their gifts. The best managers lead with empathy, vulnerability and humanity. And they support these values and behaviours with a relentless commitment to finding a way to succeed, regardless of the complexity.
2. Rolling up your sleeves: getting the work done.
You cannot manage if you do not deliver the right results. While an organisation’s senior leaders provide the framework and high-level rules of engagement, managers are solely responsible for turning ideas into actions and results. And they do so by guiding, inspiring and helping others.
This work would be easy if it were not for people. Great managers understand that trust is the foundation of high performance. They continually focus on building trust and supporting others, as this trust translates into action and, ultimately, high performance.
These managers create operating and communication routines that bring issues and obstacles to the surface and reinforce what works. And they do so with an emphasis on accountability and continuous learning, infused with ongoing coaching.
3. Team building — creating exponential results
Effective managers understand the potential of the multiplier effect of teams. And while most of us casually throw around the term and label something a “team”, these managers understand that building high-performing teams is 100% the result of hard work.
They create the ecosystem for groups to come together as teams and apply rules and values fairly and relentlessly. Then they let people perform in their best imperfect form, in an interpretive dance of collaboration that includes twists, falls and, ultimately, success.
4. Adaptation — managing and owning change
The human reaction to change is well documented. Change generates fear.
Great managers love the excitement and challenge of sensing and responding to something new in the environment. They see opportunity where others see fear. They teach their teams to delight in ambiguity and then create. These managers and their teams are chronic learners, experimenters and innovators.
And while a sense-and-respond approach is essential, these managers also scan ahead and spot patterns in the noise and fog of the future. They intuitively understand that innovations will have an impact on both the obvious and the less obvious. Then they and their teams seize the opportunities or develop countermeasures.
5. Influence: positive outcomes
All managers operate in environments where policies, procedures and bureaucracy reward compliance and maintaining the status quo. Effective managers—great managers—understand the need for change for all the reasons mentioned above. And they know that the human nature of their peers and bosses is working against them.
Great managers are master persuaders, not manipulators. They hone and apply their negotiation skills daily, seeking workplace solutions that benefit everyone involved.
6. Elevation: balancing the individual, team and hotel
Elevation is my favourite component of the Superior Management framework. This is where great managers engage in the most positive behaviour: developing and leading those around them. I have long believed that our job is to create heroes from the people we work with. Some, incidentally, ungrateful.
Great managers strive to succeed in every encounter. And when they succeed, they help elevate those who created that success without expecting anything in return.
For them, creating heroes is a measure of managerial success. Whether it is the team or the individual who delivered something extraordinary, these managers make everyone shine, sometimes without shining themselves. In the process, they earn the loyalty and trust essential to lead and manage at a higher level.
In summary...
There are few roles in the professional world more critical or more exciting than the emerging role of Hotel Manager. Although it is not often referred to as such, management is a creative role in which you work with people of all kinds in pursuit of designing something that works: a team, a function, a strategy or a project. And for any manager, it is a daily challenge to step up, often based on what they have learned in the past.
