What are the Fundamentals of Modern Hospitality (Part 3)
Welcome to the final part of our Fundamentals of Modern Hospitality series. If you haven't read the previous articles, you can catch part 1 here and part 2 here. All our training sessions stem from these fundamentals, and I firmly believe that these are the core principles that create great businesses. Hospitality isn't this mercurial skill you're either born with or not, yes some people may have a predisposition towards it, but like anything, it's a skill that can be taught and learnt. In this growth mindset and personal development era, I'm still astounded that so many leaders have a fixed mindset, of either you've got it or you haven't, attitude towards Hospitality. If we want to create a happier, healthier industry where teams feel there's real worth to what they do, we have to start valuing the skill it takes to do the job. Here are our last two.
Alignment
Alignment is about connecting the team members work in the business with their life and the bigger picture. We have to embrace the fact that many people in our industry might not want a Hospitality career, but we have to find some alignment with where they're at now and where they want to go. What are the skills they can develop now that will help them on their journey? For those who want to progress in Hospitality, how are we aligning their current job roles with their future aspirations and goals? If the team feel the work they're doing now aligns with their bigger goals, they're much more focused, motivated and content in their role. Alignment isn’t just about goals, it’s about values and priorities too. Find out what’s important to your team members and then work out how can you connect their work to those values? Alignment creates a culture centred around development, trust and growth, where teams want to push themselves, want to be challenged, and want to see what they're capable of. It's also the key to unlocking intrinsic motivation in your team.
Presence
Our final Fundamental of Modern Hospitality is Presence. We describe Presence as the ability to be totally and utterly engaged in what you're doing. If you're talking to a guest your totally in it, not thinking about other tables, or spieling off some script whilst wishing you were at home. It's the ability to be honest, open and relaxed in any situation. By training teams, or even making teams aware of the other five Fundamentals of modern Hospitality, teams will automatically be more present. We can also ensure teams have the relevant service based skill set to do the job. Then it's about how you as leader impact the team around you, in every interaction you'll be either shutting presence down, or opening it up. It's very rarely neutral. You need to have the Presence to understand how your behaviour impacts others. Finally, it's about training your team to deal with all the different types of guests you have in your business. That's easier said than done especially with guests who are being rude or inappropriate. Celebrate when they get it right, and review, reflect and train when things don't go to plan.
I hope by sharing our fundamentals, it inspires you to develop the Hospitality in your team. It might seem like a lot of work, but the upside is huge. It's not rocket science, but they do require daily attention.
“ Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.””
