A Hotel General Manager's tales

Guests are Gods

Employees are Angel

It all started when as a small impressionable boy I entered a 5 star hotel to be wowed by the sight of pretty ladies with very low waist-ed saris smiling as though have no worries in the world and the gentlemen in smart dark suits strutting very businesslike not aware of the great ambience surrounding them but are out to accomplish something big. I could feel the luxury and the glamour shaking hands everywhere. The extraordinary food was served in exquisite crockery and eaten with stylish cutlery and the imaginary crumbs dusted off the lips with the finest feel linen napkins. The crystal glasses were filled with blood colored wine and light caught the glint in the crystal cuts of the glasses when lifted for a sip. The light banter, the clicking of glasses and occasional sighs of satiety all enveloped by soothing live music created an urge in me to become part of this one day. And so be it, I joined the Institute of hotel management in Bangalore to graduate as an hotelier keen to enter the world of hospitality.

My journey took me through a lot of trials and tribulations and through some of the best hotel brands and locations and experiences from downright gross to fabulous managers and leaders who influenced my thinking and my doing.

I am the General Manager of a luxury hotel now. My friends are celebrities and I dine and drink the best available Bassa fish and new world wines. I get yelled by guests on some days and appreciated on most. I entertain the best looking people in the world. I preside over employee nervous breakdowns and sit judgment on the tardiest affairs as part of my daily routine. I work hard and long hours when others are partying and sleep the rest of the time. I live like a rock star but get paid less than a waiter!

When I am not occupied with these pursuits I am doing strategy implementation, revenue management, business development, calculating returns on employed capital, creating unique guest experiences, negotiating with vendors, having debriefing meetings with the sales team , debating on operational excellence with process leaders, discussing CAGR with the accountants, working with the local community on child projects, creating a strong culture in the hotel and sometimes watching movies which are a passion. Read on and discover the fabulous and zany experiences and life of a hotel manager.

The hospitality business is based on 2 very important aspects: Guests –because of who the hotels exist and

Employees - because of whom the guests come back.

So, my philosophy and beliefs are built on; for the first part on the traditional Indian cultural ethos where the Guests are Gods – ‘Athitho Devo Bahva’ and the second part on my experiences and experiments with managing hotels where the Employees are Angels. Hospitality is all about people and understanding emotions that drive people and service is integral to the very essence of hoteliering.

Thus, I am going to title my experiments with hotel leadership as :

Guests Are Gods

Employees Are Angels

This clearly brings into focus the importance of people in making hotels successful. I am not a management guru or on any stretch of imagination an exponent of forward thinking.

One bright day when I was having lunch in the hotel I was managing in Bangalore I got a call from Chennai from Mr Kylasam , Ex.director of the GRT hotels and Resorts . He told me that a vacancy arose in the Radisson GRT hotel in Chennai for a General Manager and if I am interested I could apply for it and this was a message from Mr. G Rajendran who was the chairman of the GRT Group of companies. What followed was a reluctant catharsis from a comfort zone to explore a career with an International branded hotel owned by one of the most trusted south Indian brands GRT .

When I took over the 101 rooms Hotel operations in 2004 the hotel was positioned as an airport hotel, not clear if it was playing the 4 star field or the 5 star. Consequently, the average room rates were 4 star. The restaurants and the bar were also getting footfalls from around the vicinity and rarely saw a vibrant hotel lobby. When I had the first meeting with the process leaders and the heads of departments they were satisfied with the status quo. Someone told me that the hotel was doing well for an airport hotel considering the location from down town. I could have settled down to a mundane process of day to day operations, satisfied. Perhaps, I could have believed that we were doing the best we could do. This happens too often when we don’t look at the big picture and see an opportunity for change. The gradual change for the worse gets unnoticed in the humdrum of daily small accomplishments. We are happy because one of the 40 guests who checked out today gave us a ‘good’ score on our feedback system.

So, when do we need to sit up and realize we need Change ? Why do we need change in the first place ? What level of change is necessary to make us market leaders ? What hotel companies should we benchmark against ? Should we benchmark against only hotel companies? How will we make this change? What are the risks involved in change ? Is it change for the sake of change or is it to take the hotel forward so that it improves the lives of people involved ?

One usual day I was taking a walk in the heart of the house of the hotel. I could see my employees working hard in all areas. I thought to myself: Did they do that because they saw me or is it because they feared the supervisor? Why should they work hard if they are not recognized for their contribution?

Thus began the incredible journey which transformed the way of working teams to create a unique differentiator which proved successful in recording phenomenal growth, increased guest satisfaction and earned us many awards and accolades in the following years.

The inspiration came from the book Whale Done by Ken Blanchard. This is a book which tells a story of Shamu the killer whale and how with positive reinforcement was tamed to perform in the San Diego Water World park.

I bought 15 of these books and presented them to all my heads of departments and executives in leadership roles with large spans of control. I told them that we will discuss the essence of the message and how we could implement it in our environment to motivate the employee through recognition and positive reinforcement.

Employee of the Moment program was born out if this endeavor. The program revolves around catching the employee doing the ‘right things’ and recognizing them on the spot. The positive actions or behaviors were designed from the “ Yes I Can’ philosophy of guest service advocated by the Radisson Brand in their hotels worldwide. I will talk about this philosophy in length later on. The recognition can come from peers, employees from support or allied departments or supervisors, managers or any employee of the hotel. For want of a good name for this we called it “Bravos” and designed a card which could be handed over to the employees on the spot with the ‘good behavior’ recorded on the bravo. The information was consolidated on a format which was displayed boldly on all departmental bulletins. We devised a reward pattern depending on the number of bravos collected. To our great surprise and delight the response was hugely enthusiastic and overwhelming. Employees were ying to earn more bravos and kindle their deep need to be recognized. At this point, I want to cross reference the Gallup study on Employee Engagement and satisfaction of several thousands of organizations in various fields. One of the most important need of any employee engagement was recognition and the need to belong even more than money and perks.

In a short time I could see the results of a motivated team brought

about by this program. The guest satisfaction scores increased and reports of service excellence was being reported on a daily basis. I could not leave the program without taking it forward now. There was immense pressure to structure the program to make it transparent and easy to implement and monitor. Again, as it will become a practice later on in all the breakthrough initiatives in the hotel, the leadership committee met and brainstormed the alternatives and options. What emerged was a the Employee of the Moment program. This program extended its scope by recognizing the highest bravo ‘stars’ of functional departments every week by inviting them to have Breakfast with the GM (me) in the Hotel’s Coffee shop where a sumptuous “Radisson Super Buffet Breakfast’ was laid out and served by the restaurant stewards and supervisors. The ‘stars’ were infused with great pride to sit for the first time in a restaurant on the same table as the GM and served by their fellow employees as the guests are served. This had a fantastic effect on the morale and was infectious to the point that all the employees were aspiring to this treat. Another point scored in the success scorecard of “Recognition”. The program slowly evolved further and extended the scope into other programs like the Employee of the month. Employees with the highest bravo from every department were selected for this award. The Employee of the month awards were given out in the “Open House” town hall meetings to make it as public as possible. Every winner was exalted by the departmental heads and the ‘behaviors’ behind the bravos explained to all. The heroes were treated to many gifts including a special off day with movie tickets and a pizza lunch at a pizzeria. At the end of the year all the Employee of the month winner applied to win the most coveted “Employee of the year” award which was through a selection process by a committee of departmental heads and the final round decided with vote by the entire hotel . There were view points that this process would not reward the ‘best’ employee but the most popular employee. The point most were forgetting is that the employees like to align to the best performing who has an influence on them. And my point was that if the winner had an impact and influence on most of the employees he will also have a great effect on the guest focus areas. The surprise most of the years was that the winner of Employee of the Year were from heart of the house functions like Kitchen stewarding Asst or a Chef which further strengthened my belief that the best influencer of people and not the best salesman is the best performer in any service industry and especially in hospitality which is a people’s business.

At this point I also want to tell you we that did have our share of doubters and the “not possiblers” in the process towards structuring and implementing the program. Fortunately, for this initiative and most others we had small catalysts who brought about the major changes. These were people from within, most of the times or ideas from successful hotels. Other times, I borrowed breakthrough practices from international and local brands. I was not shying away from copying best practices and adapting it to our environment and requirements.

It was a positive start and the employees through out the hierarchy were accepting me as a leader who is making a difference. They were excited by the immediate tangible results. This was very important for me if I needed to influence a wider span in a shorter time span. This also taught me a lesson on implementing Change. Always, start with a small initiative and make sure that it is successful and touches the most people in the organization to catapult the process of the Change movement.

I like to narrate a moving story supporting the success of this program. Naresh, ( name changed) a dish washer in the kitchen stewarding team sent me an SMS asking for an appointment to talk to me one day. I called for him and he broke down uncontrollably in my office. He told me that he was having a lot of domestic problems with his wife and his brother cheated him off his ancestral share of property. He was in debts as he had started a business and his partner and his best friend misappropriated finances and absconded. He lost faith in people and was under terrible mental stress and could not sleep several nights. He chose to do continuous shifts to enjoy the food in the staff cafeteria and sleep in the locker and get away from relatives. He started getting bravos for his industriousness and for excellent support to the restaurant and kitchen team during peak periods. He was recognized and felt elated having breakfast with the GM in the restaurant and went on to win the Employee of the month and the popularity among the employees. At this point he told me that he was planning a suicide and had reached a ‘no return point’ and his self esteem had completely eroded. The bravos brought on a sense of achievement and returned his self respect and brought him out of depression. He started solving his problems with his wife and life improved. He claimed that this program saved his life !

(will continue....)