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Re-Evaluating Operations: A Truly Results-Orientated Approach Starts from The Top

By John Young Food & Beverage + Consulting Solutions Expert, Strategic Solution Partners | July 2024

When it comes to any business, whether you work for a company or yourself, success is reliant on the people you work with, hire, and lead. The way you lead will have an impact not only on your teams, but, crucially, on productivity, culture, and also on the bottom line.

Effective leadership in the current hospitality climate requires fostering a strong relationship with all stakeholders, of which there are increasingly many. With the ownership and the management companies having a direct impact on property-level decisions, the role of a leader becomes multi-directional: they not only need to translate the decisions by the owners and management companies across the board but also feed back any operational intricacies to inform further decision-making.

So, what does “from the top” mean, and what do leaders need to focus on to maximize the revenue-generating impact of well-established operations?

Ensure A Smooth Flow of Information

As leaders, we need to understand the importance of information being effectively shared, up and down the chain of command as well as horizontally, including the corporate team. The objective of any communication should not just be an information exchange but a true understanding by all links in the operational chain. It is important that when property-level teams receive instructions, they know why these have been given and how to best execute them.

Likewise, it’s in the interest of the ownership and the management companies to listen to the feedback from the on-the-ground teams regarding any challenges they experienced executing the decisions made “up top.” This will help adjust operational efficiencies and allow the decision-makers to make ever-progressive choices based on real-case scenarios.

An effective leader, whether a GM or a department lead, will understand the importance of being an eloquent intermediary and communicate clearly in all directions to achieve informational transparency and harmony across the board. This also applies to guest feedback, which does not always reach the upper echelons of the hospitality hierarchy and can be truly helpful in course-correcting from the top.

Lead by Example

It has long been said that leaders should have a full understanding of each position they manage. This can be harder to achieve in some roles than others as the higher the role, the more general it will be in scope (GM).

However, all leaders should be prepared to intervene in one way or another in unexpected situations, which happen in hospitality perhaps more frequently than in other industries. Although a GM may not be able to help out in the same way the head of F&B could when the kitchen is understaffed, they can help in other ways such as delegating or reallocating resources. We should also re-normalize leaders stepping in to assist with more menial tasks when their schedule allows.

Throughout my career, I have seen general managers step in to wash the dishes, help greet the guests, and get engaged in multiple other ways to help their teams. However, seeing leaders engage this way is becoming increasingly rare and can cause a disconnect between the teams and the leaders. This is unfortunate, because a leader positioning themselves as a part of the team can do wonders for the overall workplace culture and make management easier, let alone reinforce the image of the organization as seen by the guests. Being involved during high-pressure situations is also valuable for us as leaders: it will increase the visibility of any operational inefficiencies and a potential need for further staff training.

As leaders, it is sometimes easy to get caught up in the daily grind of the hotel and expect the team to soldier on without making sure they are trained to the expected level. When we invest in training, we build stronger and more loyal teams who, in the long run, will make our job easier. If we don’t, we will likely see a higher turnover, which leads to higher costs and lower service levels. As the saying goes, “What happens if we invest in developing our people and they leave us? What happens if we don’t, and they stay?”

Be Your Team’s Cheerleader

A leader is only as good as the team they lead. The team achieving the goals and objectives reflects well on the leader, so they should never forget to acknowledge individual contributions to the overall success. Monthly appreciation sessions or creative ways to reward the team members can go a long way and reinforce morale.

Many hotels have programs to recognize team members who go above and beyond, and they are a great way to motivate and inspire. In addition, the team members should also be empowered to point out their peers who systematically go above and beyond. The team’s perspective is different from the manager’s, and creating an environment where it can be made visible to the leadership is going to benefit everyone in the long run, with a direct effect on the bottom line.

Great leaders come in all shapes and sizes but the attributes they all have in common are being humble, leading with empathy, and not considering themselves above any task needed. Although leaders need to be directors, they also need to know how to listen and interpret what is being said to them, no matter their position in the organizational hierarchy.

Give Clear, Understandable Instructions and Contextualize High-Level Goals and Objectives

As well-designed as any strategy from the ownership or a management company can be, it can only be executed when translated into a logical, well-designed, and realistic enrollment concept.

A good leader will take their team’s strengths and weaknesses into account when designing a plan of action, and provide training where needed. When explaining more abstract objectives such as budgets and large-scale directives, a good leader will also ensure that the team members understand what these look like within the context of their everyday work. How can a sous-chef help attain a decreased F&B budget? And how can a housekeeper help meet the overall property-level budgetary objectives?

As department-level leaders, it is our responsibility to explain what high-level objectives look like in terms that our staff will understand; this will help the team have a clear direction and an ability to compare results against the objectives to assess situations as they happen. Practical demonstrations can also be helpful when possible: when we demonstrate our expectations, they are more memorable and easier to emulate.

Constructive Criticism Should Start With The Leader

If teams are not achieving their goals, a leader must look in the mirror and ask three questions before starting to point fingers.

Has the team been trained adequately?
Have they been given appropriate tools to carry out the tasks assigned to them?
Have they been placed in the right situation to achieve the objective?

If the answer is “no” to any of these questions, a good leader will reassess and ask the right questions to find out how to correct the situation. Listening to the team is important here, as it’s never wise to underestimate their perspective, knowledge, and experience.

Reflect External Changes in Your Operational Processes

In my last column, I talked about the importance of being able to adapt to change to stay ahead of hospitality trends. Hospitality is affected by a lot of them, so hotels need to be agile in responding to any relevant circumstances if they want to stay relevant in a highly competitive market. Consumer behaviors can fluctuate so quickly that the strategies designed to adapt to them need to be adopted just as fast, across all operations, and based on bottom-up reviews.

The view of David Kasten, Hotel Finance and Asset Management Expert at Strategic Solution Partners, voiced in his article on financial planning last year, is just as relevant now as ever:

“It is critical [in the environment of staffing shortages] that businesses allocate the time for a bottom-up review of operating costs at all levels of the business to determine those costs that are critical in the delivery of the business plan. Some cost-cutting has, of course, been implemented for the survival of the business, but as the business rebounds, we need to ensure that some of these costs do not automatically creep back in if they are not indeed required.”

These types of reviews are important across all departments, as much as their communication up the chain and careful implementation of the results.

Don’t Transfer Pressure from The Top Down The Chain

When things are not going as envisaged, the pressure put on the upper management can be hard to deal with. That’s why it’s paramount that any good leader learns how to deal with pressure without transferring it down the chain, especially when adapting to any new circumstances. This will lead to fear-free, open communication with the guest-level teams, whose honesty is essential for high-level decision-making.

It’s important to highlight that transferring pressure down the chain can have disastrous consequences on revenue generation, because a culture of pressure not only leads to high staff turnover but also directly affects the guest experience. On the other hand, an engaged and supportive leadership can create an overall positive culture that everyone — including the guests — will notice and enjoy.

In summary, there are several ways to define what “from the top” means when designing and implementing operational changes to produce tangible results. I like to consider “the top” to be any leader with influence and responsibility over a significant group of staff; adopting this definition highlights the need to apply the strategies explained above on all levels of the hospitality hierarchy for a united culture and a consistent approach. The emotional maturity of the leaders is more closely related to the bottom line than many may realize, as it translates into our ability to deal with pressure without transference, listen actively, pivot creatively, and face the issues at hand without blame-shifting.

I was once asked by a crew member when I worked on Queen Victoria: “Why are you always so happy and upbeat?” My reply was quite simple: “I would not want you to see me any other way, so if I am not feeling it, you will not see me.” And although that’s not always logistically possible, the principle stands: a leader with their eyes steadfastly on the results will first manage themselves before applying the same strategies to anybody else.

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Hotel Newswire is a newswire service that distributes press releases on behalf of our users. If you decide to submit a press release for distribution through our system we will transmit your entire press release including any personal information therein contained to our media contacts and online distribution points including search engines. This is the only redistribution of your information that we engage in. Your submission of press releases through our system indicates consent with this policy. The information we collect during your registration process is used to notify users about updates to our service and inform users of any special events hosted by Hotel Newswire. This information is not shared with other organizations for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Cookies: Our system requires the use of cookies to enable the user to log back into our website to access information from the newswire, without having to log in each time using the required username and password.

If you do not want to receive email from us in the future, please let us know by following instructions included in our communication with you. Users who supply us with telephone numbers online may receive telephone contact from us regarding their account, or informing them of new products and services available on the HotelExecutive website. If you do not wish to receive such telephone calls, please edit your account and remove your phone number from your account profile. This can be done from your user account menu.

Ad Servers: We do not partner with or have any relationship with any ad server companies. From time to time, we may use customer information for new uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at any time, we will post the policy changes to our website to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our website periodically.

Upon request we provide site visitors with access to all information (including proprietary information) that we maintain about them. Users can access this information by logging in to their account.

Security: We always use industry-standard encryption technologies while transferring and receiving user data exchanged with our site. We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that we have collected from you on our site. We do not store credit card information in our systems.

If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us.

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Cultivating Efficiency: Harnessing AI for Hotel Management Optimization

By Jeff Pedowitz, President, The Pedowitz Group

The hospitality industry finds itself at the forefront of a groundbreaking new era, where emerging technologies are poised to redefine the guest experience in extraordinary ways. Among these technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) takes the lead, presenting unparalleled opportunities to revolutionize hotel operations, interactions, and services offered to guests. As we look ahead, the innovative potential of AI-driven advancements holds the key to propelling hotels into a hyper-personalized, efficient, and undeniably futuristic dimension. These next-generation smart hotels effortlessly harness the power of AI, enabling them to create seamless, anticipatory, and tailor-made experiences for every guest while simultaneously optimizing and streamlining behind-the-scenes...

Unlocking Hotel Sustainable Profitability: Balancing Eco-Responsibility and Profitability

By Alex Barros, Chief Marketing & Innovation Officer, BEONx

Balancing Sustainability and Profitability For many years this was not a positive equation, brands were forced to take initiatives to enchant and comply with guests desires that were not necessarily profitable or made any sense at the time to ensure the consumer-guests were happy. We have crossed that bridge and at this point in time technology has reached a point where being green and eco-conscious is actually profitable. Guests understand that practices are only going to be good if they make finanacial sense for the business, therefore they are sustainable. This ability to be sustainably profitable transcends the interest...

Hotel Amenities: Why They Are Important and How They Impact Guests

By Chintan Dadhich, Complex General Manager, Conrad New York Downtown & Tempo by Hilton Times Square

In the highly competitive hospitality industry, hotel amenities play a crucial role in shaping the guest experience. They are not just mere add-ons but integral components that can elevate a guest’s stay from satisfactory to exceptional. Amenities serve as a key differentiator and can significantly impact a hotel’s reputation, guest satisfaction, loyalty and overall business success. Personalized touches like complimentary Wi-Fi, in-room entertainment systems, and thoughtful extras such as welcome packages or concierge services create a sense of being cared for and valued. These amenities not only meet but often exceed guest expectations, fostering a positive impression and a...

How AI is Revolutionizing Hotels: the Perfect Balance Between Technology and the Human Touch

By Mychal Milian, General Manager, Waterstone Resort & Marina, Boca Raton - Curio Collection by Hilton

Imagine walking into a hotel where everything feels tailored to you. The front desk greets you by name, your room is set at your ideal temperature, and your dinner reservation at that impossible-to-book restaurant? Already secured. No awkward delays, no fumbling with paperwork—just seamless hospitality. This isn’t the future; it’s the present. And at the heart of it all is Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI has been slowly creeping into our everyday lives—think Spotify suggesting your next favorite song or your phone predicting your grocery needs—but its entry into hospitality is a game-changer. For years, hotels have been defined by the...

Hospitality Entrepreneurism: What Are the Possibilities?

By Robert O'Halloran, Professor & Director, Hospitality Management, East Carolina University

Entrepreneurism in hospitality and tourism has a history and is diverse and multi-faceted. Tourism as an industry is the umbrella of the sectors related to service and hospitality. It can include public sector organizations like convention and visitor bureaus, state and national parks and forests offering recreational destinations etc. Tourism areas such as cultural, heritage, and medical speak to the products and services offered to the traveling public. Operationally, tour companies and tour guides are part of the service products within tourism. Specifically, the umbrella of tourism is inclusive of the hospitality infrastructure that is inclusive of lodging, food...

Maximizing Guest Experience Through Operational Excellence: A Sales Manager's Perspective

By Enari Bryant, Sales Manager, Brick Hospitality

Operational excellence is at the heart of guest satisfaction. A great stay isn’t just about one standout moment—it’s a series of seamless interactions that shape a guest’s perception of value. This experience is what drives brand loyalty, online reputation, and ultimately, revenue growth. While strong sales strategies bring guests in, it’s flawless operations that turn those bookings into repeat visitors and glowing reviews. Every guest experience element matters—from front desk efficiency to housekeeping standards. When everything runs smoothly, guests enjoy a stress-free stay, leading to higher satisfaction, stronger loyalty, and a greater likelihood of returning. On the flip side,...

Beyond The Checklist: Embedding Sustainability Into Hotel Strategy for Lasting Impact

By Nina Boys, Vice President, Sustainability, Beyond Green

Let’s start with the obvious: there is a lot going on in the world today. In a rapidly changing and increasingly unpredictable global landscape, hotels must find ways to remain competitive and resilient in the long term, even when the realities of tomorrow - let alone five years from now - are far from guaranteed. While there is no silver bullet to solve the complex global challenges we face today, there are ample opportunities to evolve a hotel’s operations and build a competitive advantage for years to come. Forward-thinking companies understand that embracing sustainability today is key to...

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Re-Evaluating Operations: A Truly Results-Orientated Approach Starts from The Top

By John Young Food & Beverage + Consulting Solutions Expert, Strategic Solution Partners | July 2024

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