Must Love Dogs

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that every second person these days has a dog.

Don’t get me wrong now – I love dogs, I had dogs most of my life, and if my circumstances were different right now, I’d probably have a dog.

It’s just that somewhere in the last few years, well more than the last few years, but on an escalating basis, it got “cool” to have a dog.

Not only that, but it got socially acceptable to build special bike carriers for your dog, carry bags for the little ones, and biker outfits.

I think that is probably the biggest irony, seeing these big, tough looking biker dudes, with their little dog strapped to their chest, and they don’t care who sees it. Previously, they would have been ridiculed, now, as they ride by you hear all these people commenting on how “cute” it is. When did we start describing bikers as cute?

I have some first-hand experience in this. My brother is a farmer/rancher/biker type, and he has a little dog, and yes, he straps it in the equivalent of a front harness baby carrier, slips a pair of goggles on it, and they jump on his Harley and take off. He does it all the time, and the dog apparently loves it.

The attachment that people have to their dogs is not new, and its impact on the Hotel business is likewise not a new phenomenon.

I think I can honestly say that I was one of the early supporters of “pet programs” that encouraged people to bring their dogs along on their stay, where we would do different special things to make their pets feel special.

At one point, when I worked at a resort property in the Rocky Mountains, where we had a VERY popular Christmas package, we developed a component for people’s dogs. That year, out of 321 rooms, running at 100% occupancy, we had 100 dogs in house. Yup, 100. You should have seen the place in the morning when people were out walking their dogs, it was amazing, and the people loved it.

They were going to go somewhere that accepted their “extended family” and I was determined to capitalize on that fact.

The dog ratio wasn’t always that high, but the inclusion of peoples’ dogs continued to be a very successful package for that property.

It’s not enough though to just say that you “accept pets” these days. You need to do something special and different to attract those pet owners, who I might add, are more than willing to shell out some extra dough to take Rover or Daisy along with them on their holiday.

Have some fun with it, get your staff involved who have dogs. Ask them what they suggest that you do, and , get their help to pick out the different items that you decide to include in your “pet package.”

The Power of the Web Site – What is Yours Saying?

I probably spend more time than most people critiquing the various components that Hotels produce to promote their product.

So it’s probably not a huge surprise to anyone who knows me, or has come to read by Blog from time to time, that I would have an opinion on promotional materials.

In fact, the people who know me well would say that one of the things that they have probably learned from me is to ALWAYS proof your work, and no, that doesn’t mean spell check.

Far too many people assume that if spell check thinks their document is fine, well, then it must be fine. Unfortunately, spell check doesn’t know if you used the word correctly, or, if you omitted a word entirely, it just knows whether or not they’re spelled correctly.

That is little consolation in my opinion for when someone goes to your web site and it’s a hodgepodge of obviously inappropriate grammar, unfinished sentences and typos.

This is your brand people, this is a reflection of you, and what is it telling us?

It’s telling us that you don’t have an eye for details, that the term “attention to detail” does not have the same meaning to you that it does to the reader, and that is a dangerous message to send.

I don’t know about you, but I want people organizing my meeting or conference who prioritize every single detail and recognize that it is in taking care of the little things that the seemingly bigger things are accomplished.

I know I’m preaching and that’s never a good idea, but at the risk of repeating myself, this is your brand, your reputation, your integrity, so take the time to check out your web site, or, find a freak in your business, like I am, that takes pride in finding and correcting those typos.

Yes, it’s mundane, but it’s important.

And if you think it isn’t that important, ask your friends what they think when they go to plan a holiday, or make a significant purchase on-line, and they go to a web site and encounter the kinds of things that I have talked about here.

Ask them how anxious they are to do business with that company, or, as I suspect they do at times, ask them if in fact they went and looked for another supplier, and went with that company?

The web has become the first point of contact for many people, the first impression, and we all know, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

The Three Laws of Performance

I recently finished reading “The Three Laws of Performance,” by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan, and although I have read many books on leadership, this book, and this approach, is different.

In The Three Laws of Performance the focus shifts from trying to fix problems, as has been the traditional approach in business and in life, to a focus on transforming companies, and in so doing, increase performance results to heights never before seen in your company, and in your life.

There are a number of excellent examples of companies that have been transformed by using The Three Laws of Performance in the book, which has also received endorsements by several world leaders as a result of what they have been able to accomplish in company towns.

In a couple of exceptional and powerful examples in the book, companies took on the challenge of changing an entire community, given the manner in which the company was the community and vice versa. Using The Three Laws of Performance communities with diametrically opposed cultures have found a way of shaping a new and powerful future, where none existed in the past.

Steve Zaffron & Dave Logan have found a way of correlating their Three Laws of Performance into three core leadership attributes that are both simple and complex, but they require courage to implement.

The Three Laws of Performance and the Leadership Corollaries are:

The First Law of Performance:

- How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.

Leadership Corollary 1:

- Leaders have a say, and give others a say, in how situations occur.

Second Law of Performance:

- How a situation occurs arises in language.

Leadership Corollary 2:

- Leaders master the conversational environment.

Third Law of Performance:

- Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people.

Leadership Corollary 3:

- Leaders listen for the future of their organization.

Obviously, it’s not enough for me to merely point out these laws of performance and their corresponding leadership traits, and I know, even in writing this, that I have fallen far short of my objective of inspiring you to want to read this book.

So, I’m encouraging you, challenging you, to go beyond my writing in this instance and read the book, if you want to be a part of a truly exceptional and successful business, and life for that matter.

Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan have helped to successfully transform many companies that found themselves “stuck” in a rut of mediocre performance, and you can do the same.

Isn’t that prospect worth $20.00 or $30.00 at Barnes & Noble?

Fire & Life Safety - Priority #1

I had a “reminder” pop up on my Outlook the other day; to remind me that it was time that we conduct another fire drill.

As it happened, I’m no longer attached to that Hotel project but the reminder served to remind me of the importance of a full fire and emergency plan, AND, that you conduct regular, spontaneous fire drills in your Hotel.

It’s always been my practice, as soon as I join a new Hotel, to get my hands on the Fire & Emergency Plan, AND, to find out what is being done to ensure that life safety is a top priority within the property.

I have frequently been shocked at the response that I have gotten and even more shocked by the lack of ongoing training and drills held for employees, and as I stated immediately above, I believe it is all the more valuable to conduct spontaneous drills.

Obviously, guests and participants in meetings need to be advised, or, if you are fortunate enough to have a gap in meetings that coincides with the need to drill, that is even better. The less people you have to take into your confidence the better.

I would contact the local Fire Department and our alarm monitoring company that morning, let them know exactly at what time I was going to pull the alarm, and promise to call them as soon as the drill was completed.

I would also take a handful of Managers without “assigned duties” in the event of an alarm and ask them to position themselves in key areas, moments before I pulled the alarm, and then be prepared to provide feedback afterwards.

Then I would go off somewhere in the building and pull a pull station, or, create smoke under a smoke alarm, and wait for the emergency response team to arrive on scene.

Not always, but sometimes, when the emergency response team arrived, I would create a scenario, such as; “there is smoke seeping out from under that guestroom door, what are you going to do now?”

Also on occasion, when they opened that guestroom door, I would have someone laying face down on the floor five or six feet in the room, then let the emergency response team know that the room is filled with smoke, there appears to be someone whose feet you can just see ahead. What now?

I’m sure you can guess that some people did not like my drills very much, but I can also tell you, in my Hotels, fire and life safety really was a top priority, always.

Is it a priority where you are?

Grooming Policies (How many piercings is too many?)

Hotels are the last bastion for conservative grooming policies although I have seen many traditionally conservative Hotel companies become more flexible over time.

I have to admit that although most people, (okay, probably everyone I know), would describe me as fairly conservative as well, I too have become more “open” to relaxing some of the grooming policies that I once held sacred.

I’ve always had a policy of meeting every single applicant during the interview process. Not that I didn’t trust my department managers, but rather that I liked to meet everyone that was potentially going to work at the Hotel.

I felt that it was important that every team member know the General Manager, and hopefully, got a sense of me during our conversation, as much as I hoped to get a sense of them.

I also liked to be that last opportunity to judge their service ethic, see whether they exuded that sense of service that you look for in every employee.

On one occasion, I found myself travelling quite a bit and we were in need of a house person. The need was quite immediate and I got a call from a relatively new Director of Human Resources asking if we could bend the rule on this occasion to help out the Housekeeping team.

She advised me that in my absence, the Director of Operations had met the candidate, as had the others you would expect, and references were excellent, etc...

We agreed to move ahead and also agreed that I would meet this candidate, to fulfill the other part of my personal mandate, upon my return.

I returned a week or so later, inquired if the young man was on duty, and once confirmed that he was, I asked what section he could be found so I could go and add my welcome.

Imagine my surprise when I approached the young man, who upon hearing me, turned his head to expose his pony tail dangling from the back of his head like a shampoo model.

I contained my shock and then went to find the Director of Human Resources and asked her what the @#%$ she thought she was doing hiring someone with a pony tail?

The answer?

Apparently, at her last Hotel, with another Hotel company, pony tails were acceptable, and she had “assumed” that our grooming policy was as liberal and understanding.

And that, is how pony tails became acceptable in that Hotel company. Precedent was now set and the clock could not be turned back. With one flick of his pony tail our company grooming policy was changed.

That said, I have to say that he was a very tidy, polite, well-mannered, well groomed young man and he quickly established himself as one of our best employees.

And I came to realize that the world had not come to an end, although an era certainly had.

What about you? What’s your tolerance for longer hair, piercings, tattoos, and the like on hospitality employees? Where do you draw the line with what’s acceptable?

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