Getting positive feedback?

Today so much is changing in our hospitality community with a plethora of properties opening and closing and the usual amount of colleagues coming and going. Are the basics still being utilized to ensure the very best guest excellence? Is this true for not only your guests but your colleagues as well?

Yes, I mentioned colleagues, they are your priority as well. I have always said, those guests coming in through that door are your top priority but I am curious, are those BEHIND the counter being tended to as well? Are you providing that oh so needed positive feedback?





Sometimes in this business, the daily tasks of checking in & out guests or cleaning those rooms is strangely a ritual. Clock in, get pass on from someone, collect your assignments, collect your cart and carry on to your first room, get your float, count it and get out to the desk and wait for your first of many guests. It all seems so boring to some. Day in and day out, the very same thing, over and over again. As a leader, are you paying attention to those colleagues? Have you noticed that housekeeper doing alittle something special for that guest who has been in that room for a few nights? Extra tea or coffee perhaps since they noticed more of one product taken than others, did you see that guest service agent chat with that guest only to recognize that the guest was here for something other than pleasure and offered a kind word or recommendations for dinner?




These things may be the norm for most of us in the field, however to a leader it should be a time to praise. Ensuring that your providing adequate praise and encouragement is tops on your to do list. You should encourage your team to shine. It's why they came to work today, to be recognized by someone. I really love to hear I have done an awesome job, it puts a spring in my step. I love it even more so when I hear it from a guest, that tells me that I am doing exactly what I was called to do in my life, serve others.

For example, I was interviewing recently for another lead position and when we completed the telephone interview, the ladies that were conducting the interview mentioned that this was one of the best interviews they have done in some time. They enjoyed very much hearing my answers, stories and the laughter that we shared. It was refreshing to them. That was an excellent sign. It gives me hope that if I am actually offered a position at this particular property, my talents will not go unnoticed and that positive feedback will continue. This is certainly a place I want to work.




So, ask yourself today, as your getting ready to head out the door, or if you have finished for the day, perhaps starting your weekend............did I offer positive feedback today? Am I going to pay close attention to my colleague today and recognize a job well done? You certainly don't have to be a leader to do this either because I am known for recognizing others I work with, either housekeepers, maintenance or anyone really. We are all on a TEAM and we all need to work together to create that magic our guests require and expect from us. So get out there and start spreading the positive, your gonna thank me that you did.

Living through the times, being a 40 something in an ever changing hospitality industry

I try to only write about things I know for certain from being in this business for some time. I have noticed lately however that the focus is strictly on the newer grads, the up & comers in the industry. My question lately however has been this, what about those of us that are 40 somethings? Where do we fit in?

I have recently started being forced to look at my age, not by choice of course. Many have mentioned over & over, YOUR NOT OLD. I am not saying that I am, however I AM thinking about my age in my industry. It does seem that priority is being given to the new kids in town, it certainly has me thinking about my future.

I have taken very few moves in the last 5 yrs, trading in a comfortable rooted spot for the opportunities to explore this country I currently live in and trying to find my place in this world. I often looked at the moves as a negative thing but you know what, it's actually a positive. I've decided to explore options and different venues of hospitality. It has offered the opportunities that others would have passed up. Sure, you could call it JOB JUMPING but I am now looking at it as exploring the in's & out's of my chosen field and learning what I excel at and what I would prefer not to do again. It has really been incredible. I have gone from venue  to venue, from Hotels larger than 1600 rooms to 60. I have gone from giant Casino properties to home town properties, all in all, I think I have obtained tons more experience than these up & comers.





With all the new training, courses and experiences offered for the new kids, what does a gal with years behind her do? TRAIN. I am 100% for continuous learning. I feel as though as we grow older in age, we tend to get stagnant and stale. I often have read of those that get complacent with their positions and when they have been in it for multiple years, they don't tend to want to change.
Look, this business we are in is ever changing like everything else  in this world but especially in this world of hospitality. Keeping fresh and current should be EVERYONE'S priority.
I have taken courses, I have read many books about the industry and what I can do to continue to excel. I'm no expert, I am every changing, that's the key here.

So, if your old enough to know what the 80's are all about, ask yourself this....... are you updating yourself? Are you involved with the younger generation and learning the new tips and tricks? Or, are you still sitting in your office chair playing with your Rubic Cube?

Is there such things as MENTORS now a days?

 Yesterday we touched upon leaders and appreciation. Following along in that direction, I'm curious if there is such a thing as mentor-ship now a days? Are leaders taking colleagues under their wing and focusing on bettering them? Do you see potential in someone? Are you nurturing their spirit and drive?







I'm often curious about this in today's hospitality industry. We can certainly get caught up in the hype of excelling in hospitality and all that goes along with it but did it comes from schooling or are you lucky enough to have a  mentor?

Sometimes, a mentor can come from nowhere and offer you much more than you could have ever dreamed. Life lessons are incredible, if you can identify them as such. Sometimes your merely learning what you need to for the task at hand and then throwing away the rest.






My mentor offered me challenges, support, encouragement and tons of other things I couldn't begin to rhyme off. She quietly went about her business of running two locations but to me, Megan offered me so much more. She listened. Often times, our leaders are way to busy running the show and not consistent with worrying about their colleagues. This statement may make you scratch your head in disbelief, you can't possibly be serious but OH I CAN.
Multiple layoffs and folks taking on so much more daily tasks because the budgets don't offer wiggle room like they once did. I can certainly remember a time, not so very long ago when there was plenty of colleagues  running around assisting each and every guest. Nowadays, its my responsibility to check in over 700 guests all alone. I'm also expected to check rooms that have been released, maintenance and any other request asked of me from my guests.







Sure, I could be exaggerating just a little but not really. What use to be someone else's job has now been stuffed into my own. Not only a front desk Supervisor, now I have Housekeeping, Maintenance and other titles added to it to assist with cost.  With this though, mentoring is uber important to me as well. I was blessed to have a very special few who took me under their wings and taught me so much.
 They realized I had special qualities that not only needed to be nourished but exposed. These folks, without being told, stepped up to the plate with their own being filled with so much MORE than ever before and realized that taking care of your colleagues will provide so much more to your business.
With this extra spent, you will not only grow as a colleague but as a human. Not to mention that your business skills will increase and that little spark will grow and hopefully be passed on to the next person.

So, do you mentor your colleagues and if not, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Will they call to THANK YOU?

Working in the hospitality industry can provide you with so much positive and magic filled experiences if your looking for them, but they can also offer the opposite. My question today is, as a leader, will someone you have lead speak highly of you in 5 or 10 years from now?
Will you receive a call from a previous colleague to say thank you?






Look, leading people takes many qualities, patience, stamina, determination, and even love. We will all fail sometimes in our lives, we are born to do that. We will all do it. The question is, are you willing to stand back up, dust yourself off and learn from your mistakes?
As a leader, it is our responsibilities to mold our colleagues and push them to become greater than we are. We learn to nurture and encourage and push our people to be better, DO better.

I haven't been in the business as long as some, but I have seen so many things. I continue to fall and repeat. I continue to learn and grow and I am proud of every last bruise and cut I receive from those falls, it makes me who I am. It recreates me as a human being. Whilst I fall, I hope that I learn my lessons from the fall or else, I will continue to fall time and time again.

My wish is also that once I fall, I get to learn something I can pass along to my colleagues. Schooling can only teach so much. You can take so many classes in the world but the on the job training that you can learn means so much more. Being out with the guests, experiencing different opportunities to do better, to learn.

What I have been questioning lately is this, will colleagues that I have trained previously contact me and say THANK YOU I learnt THIS or I appreciate you being hard on me because I learn this?

When I worked for Disney I had my very own experiences and trauma. Working at Le Cellier once upon a time, I was in F&B and was trying to become a server. When you receive the nod that you have been chosen to work there, it's an HONOR to become a server and certainly not a RIGHT. With that means tons of training. They don't just hand you a pen and a bill fold and send you off into the dining room and say GOOD LUCK. You go through immense training and shadowing with others. But long before you do that, you have to study your menus. This means knowing every last bloody ingredient in each and every dish. This is for the guests benefits of course but whilst your in the moment, you question.....WHAT THE HECK DO I NEED TO KNOW THERE IS TARRAGON IN THIS DISH???  I'm not a chef? Why do I need to know that this Chardonnay goes with this filet?

IMPOSSIBLE. That is what I continued to tell myself. I studied night after night after night and continued to tell myself this is impossible. Right there, the lesson............I put the negative road blocks in front of myself and blocked myself from learning these important things.  Now, there I also had several brilliant leaders to lean on and get guidance from. One however, stood in my way. I felt that this guy was bullying me, picking on me if you will. He was CONSTANTLY questioning me,  quizzing me about sines and ingredients. I was SO angry with him, felt that I was being picked on, I ignored him and tried to stay clear from him if I was working the same shifts as he was.

After learning my menu FINALLY, after many weeks of constant struggle and hard ships, it was time to spiel to my managers. This is the time I get to feature the menu to all my managers, one by one and they hold my fate of being a full server in one of the most popular restaurants in all of Walt Disney World. I was so nervous I almost threw up. Seriously, it was a serving job, WHY WAS I SO NERVOUS. This was a big deal for me and it meant so much, it meant I was LIVING A DREAM.
So, one by one, I would lead my mangers through our current menu and would answer question after question and recommend this and that. I could tell you that the tomato stack is one generous helping of tomato goodness. (Funny after 5 yrs I STILL remember my spiel for the tomato stack )
When it came time to spiel to the last 2 people, my area leader Megan and the last, DON. I was terrified. Seriously I wanted to die. I almost quit. ( LESSON HERE- stick with it even if it makes you want to QUIT....you can do ANYTHING you set your mind to )
I managed to get through Megan and with flying colors may I add. And when I completed my time with her, I BEGGED her that she would pass me and not allow me to have to go to Don. They would often pass someone who would blow everyone else away. I was begging it was going to be me and I wouldn't have to go through the bully. Megan ruled NO and that I was going to finish what I started.







Bummed and totally down on myself, I continued to study and push myself to clean up anything I felt uncomfortable with and tried to calm myself as best as I could. I told Megan that if I was being forced to spiel with Don, I was going to be doing it with a colleague of mine so I wasn't alone. I was going to stack the deck in MY favor so I don't have to do it alone and he couldn't bully me again. The worst case, I had a witness to his nonsense.

I walked into the office at our allotted time with my friend and room mate Allison. I was terrified. The usual comfortable, confident gal was turned into a blithering idiot. Allison was STUNNED to witness me like this. I told Don when we got into the office that I would appreciate it very much if he would turn his chair around so I wouldn't have to look at him if he wanted me to spiel to him. He laughed, intimidating me further and obliged after much persistence on my part.

In the end, I made it, with flying colors may I add. I can also proudly report that I contacted Don many years after and apologized and thanked him. I sent so much gratitude to him I sounded like a little school girl with a crush. What Don did for me will stick with me for the rest of my life. Don found something in myself I couldn't see. He tormented me, in my mind of course, because he finally admitted, that I was someone that was extremely passionate about working for Disney and everything I touch. I not only put 110% in all I do but I ooze it to others. He was so excited to have a cast member like myself, that he pushed, challenged and quizzed me because he saw something that I couldn't see.






So, after being awarded the title of server, I was also given the prestigious title of Disney Trainer and after a few months, I also was awarded the EPCOT cast member guest service excellence award. Needless to say, I went above the turmoil I felt and pushed forward through all the dark times, only to emerge out the other end in a glorious spot. I have also become very great friends with Megan, with whom I wouldn't have lived my dream of working at Disney without her. She convinced me when I was questioning my time in a program that focused mostly on younger adults and there was me, 36 yrs old and already through the beginning of my adult life. I was about to quit and Megan brought me into her office and told me how it was. She didn't blow sunshine up my ass as she mentioned to me and told me what I needed to hear. She saw those same things that Don saw in me and I couldn't see myself. Megan was my mentor and continues to offer so much in my life and I suspect she doesn't even realize.








Those trying times have followed through with me through my career and have taught me so much and has also given me things to offer those I mentor and develop. My question to you is this, have you made a difference? Are those you have lead able to call you and sing your praises?