Leadership Values and Principles

I have recently written about my takeaways from the 23^rd Annual Global Leadership Summit this past August and have received appreciative feedback, so I will continue to share.

Danny Meyer presented. I did not know of Danny, but quickly became impressed. His principal passion is in the area of customer service and satisfaction in the hospitality field.

The philosophy which has fueled Danny’s success is “Enlightened Hospitality.” The tenets of that philosophy, which emphasize strong in-house relationships as well as customer satisfaction, are applicable to anyone who works in any business, and certainly including those of us in leadership positions.

Danny said hospitality skills are how you make someone feel, and so is leadership. Leadership is how we make our people feel about themselves. He said people need to feel heard, and that is so true in our companies, our people need to feel that they are heard and their ideas matter.

He encourages creating an organizational culture where our people initiate, they take action. If they see a problem, they fix it. If they see that the current way we do our business could be better, they recommend ideas for improvement.

We want to empower our people. A mistake can be corrected. The cost of inaction exceeds the cost of a mistake.

The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled.

Actually, we heard Horst Schulze speak at the Global Leadership Summit in 2015. He is the former CEO of Ritz Carlton Hotels. He said that they do not hire their employees, they select them. They want to interview at least ten good candidates regardless of the position, from dish washer to a hotel manager to a corporate level executive. They select the candidate they believe to be best suited, as everyone, whatever their position, can satisfy (or disappoint) a guest. Horst is a strong advocate of empowering our people. He gave each employee the authority to immediately fix a problem, e.g., if a maintenance person was called to fix a person’s tv at night and could not do so, he had the authority to waive the room charge.

Wait staff had the authority to waive the cost of a meal if it was not cooked the way the guest had asked.

Select good people, train and help them develop, treat them well, assure they feel appreciated and heard, and empower and trust them.

It is our people who serve and satisfy our external clients. They will do their best if they are happy and engaged, and know that we, in fact, appreciate and value them, ask for their ideas, listen attentively, and treat them with kindness and dignity. 

As leaders, we need to embody humility, be genuine, be positive, and realize we are no better or worse than anyone else. No matter our position, we are a teammate – and we want to be a great teammate, being positive, encouraging, and helpful.

There were many other values and principles Danny Meyer spoke about, all important, e.g., our integrity, empathy, self-awareness, curiosity, work-ethic, optimism, being kind-hearted and even having kind eyes, and looking to catch our people doing good work and acknowledging them for it.

“Hospitality is present when something happens for you. 
It is absent when something happens to you. 
Those two simple prepositions – for and to – express it all.”

This is a belief which drives Danny and his team members.

Danny said, “Let’s write the next chapter.”

Yes, let’s write our next chapter of our leadership and make it rewarding for our clients and our people.