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GROWING HOSPITALITY LEADERS
by Alan Cutler FIH, FCMI, Hospitality Leadership Ltd.
People don’t leave their jobs, they leave their managers. You may have heard that phrase before, and people certainly leave hospitality managers in their droves – almost 600,000 people a year, which, at an average recruitment and initial training cost of £1,500, costs our industry around £886m¹. Labour turnover for the whole hospitality, leisure tourism and travel (HLTT) industry stands at 30%, although some employers within the hospitality industry alone report double or treble this figure. Yet, only 14% of employers feel their labour turnover is too high!¹ To make matters worse, our sector has the lowest labour productivity of any in the UK economy and lags seriously below its international competitors: it is a third higher in the USA and nearly double in France. Even within the UK, the retail industry has doubled our labour productivity.¹ What a sad reflection on our industry! It is not surprising that ‘Management and Leadership’ was identified as one of the three priority skill shortages in the People1st, our Sector Skills Council’s, Skill Needs Assessment for the HLTT sector, published in 2006.
Before I proposed an approach to developing inspirational leadership within hospitality organisations, let us consider what leadership is. One of my personal crusades is to encourage people to understand the difference between management and leadership. ‘Manage’ comes from the Latin word for ‘a hand’, hence to handle resources, money, and people; whilst the word ‘lead’ originates from the Anglo Saxon word ‘laed’ meaning a journey, a road, and a way. Thus, leadership involves taking people from one position to another; hence it is in periods of great change when really effective leadership is most needed.
Through ‘The Hospitality Leadership Excellence Survey’ that I conceived and am undertaking in association with Professors Nigel Hemmington and Adele Ladkin from Bournemouth University, I interviewed 25 of the most inspirational hospitality leaders, asking their views on a number of leadership-related issues. All believed there was, indeed, a difference between management and leadership and generally felt that management involved control, processes and measurable results; whereas leadership was about vision, inspiration and shared ownership. When asked to what extent the hospitality industry required management and leadership, all recognised the need for both but most felt there was a greater need for better leadership at all levels. Comments included:
“As an industry, we have great management, we are over-managed in places.” “Are we attracting sufficient talent and are we developing and preparing that talent to do the leadership job that is required? I suspect we are not.” “There are too many people in our industry who think they are leaders but actually are managers.”
Another one of my crusades is that we must consider the crucial importance of inspirational leadership at all levels within an organisation. John Adair, one of the world’s foremost authorities on leadership in organisations, and leadership development in particular, (please see the home page of this web site for his endorsement of the work we are doing) offers us a helpful approach to categorising levels of leadership, namely:
· Team Leader – the leader of a team of up to 20 people, with clearly specified tasks to achieve · Operational Leader – The leader of one of the main parts of the organisation, with more than one team leader under his or her control. · Strategic Leader – The leader of a whole organisation, with a number of operational leaders reporting to him or her.
Applying these three levels of leadership encourages us to realise that effective leadership is required at all levels - not just at the top of the pyramid. Many people only envisage leaders operating at a strategic level, yet arguably it is the team leaders who, through motivating their customer-facing staff to provide exceptional service, can have the greatest impact on company performance. Moreover, it is often the team leaders that provide the principle seedbed for operational leaders who, in turn, will be considered for strategic appointments. Inspirational leadership should, therefore, be developed and applied throughout at organisation.
Leadership is such an interesting topic. Indeed John Adair describes it as “one of the most fascinating and mysterious subjects in the world.” There has certainly been many books written about it: in fact, if you were to get all the books on leadership listed by Amazon.com (including the two I have written!) and read one every day, it would take you 39 years to get through them all.² Yet for me, fascinating as the subject is, the development and application of inspirational leadership is not rocket science: it is based on fundamental principles that can be developed in a significant proportion of an organisation’s workforce, including those working in hospitality. Let us consider an approach for doing exactly that.
SELECTING FUTURE LEADERS
What makes a great leader? How do leaders emerge to take up a position of leadership? There has been much thought given to these questions, especially over the past 100 years, or so, and again John Adair helps to clarify the position by suggesting that there are, essentially, three approaches to leadership:
The Qualities Approach is based upon the qualities a leader displays. Interestingly, this was the prominent theory of the early twentieth century, based on the ‘leaders are born, not made’ principle, also sometimes called ‘The Great Man Theory.’ It is indeed true that this approach does have some merit: effective leaders have to display appropriate qualities if they are to inspire their people to achieve extraordinary performance. But can we be precise as to which qualities they are? Our Hospitality Leadership Excellence Survey identified the following as being particularly important:
º Having a vision º Communication and listening skills º Building relationships based upon trust, consistency and transparency º Personal characteristics, including humility and integrity º Not being afraid to admit failings º Having a sense of humour.
but other people would list additional or different qualities. Moreover, the Qualities Approach suggests that the ability to lead is an inherent personal attribute and, therefore, cannot be learnt. You cannot train people to be good leaders if the key to success is entirely based upon the qualities one is born with.
The Situational Approach actually dates back to the thoughts of Socrates in fifth century BC and is based upon the principle that, in any situation, people will tend to follow or obey a person who knows what to do and how to do it. Unlike the Qualities Approach that focuses on what a leader is, here a leader’s effectiveness is based upon what he or she knows.
Again, this approach has merit. Consider an emergency situation, a road traffic accident perhaps. Who is likely to take control of the situation from amongst those immediately on the scene? Surely, a doctor, nurse or an off-duty fireman. But does the situational approach transfer readily to day-to-day hospitality operations, where situations continually change due to customer needs, business levels, changing trends, thus requiring leadership to transfer from one person to another? Is it really necessary for leaders to have the depth of knowledge of all their staff? It would, I suggest, be unreasonable to expect a hotel manager to know as much about food preparation as the Head Chef.
It is apparent, therefore, that the Qualities and Situational approaches do contribute to the question ‘What makes a great Leader?’ but they do not provide the complete answer. It is not only what the leader is and knows: great leadership is also about applying effective leadership skills.
The Functional Approach is therefore about what a leader does and is particularly important in our, very practical, hospitality industry. In essence, leaders at all levels need to motivate individuals to work effectively in teams to achieve a given task. They achieve this by applying functions such as: briefing, planning, monitory, supporting, example, reviewing.
One approach to functional leadership that has stood the test of time is John Adair’s Action Centred Leadership, portrayed by the well–known three circles Indeed, I remember in 1973 sitting in a cold classroom at RAF Henlow during my officer training, watching my instructor drawing those three circles on the blackboard (no PowerPoint available then!)
In terms of selecting future leaders, it is against all these three approaches that employees’ potential to move up the organisation’s leadership ladder should be judged, for example:
Qualities: Does this person possess the kind of qualities that will inspire those he or she will lead? Does he or she display enthusiasm, confidence, integrity and willingness to learn? What do existing staff or colleagues say about the person’s character?
Situational Does the person have the appropriate professional knowledge and/or technical ability relative to the people to be led? Does he or she have the relevant experience to qualify for the leadership position at this level? Does the person have the intellectual capacity to acquire the necessary knowledge necessary to command respect from staff and colleagues?
Functional Is there any evidence to suggest that he or she can naturally contribute to enabling a group of individuals to achieve its task, working as a cohesive and harmonious team? In a task-focused role or situation, does he or she find time to develop individuals and maintain team spirit? Is he or she capable of fulfilling all the leadership functions required at that level?
It is, of course, more difficult to assess the potential for someone to take the first step on the leadership ladder – to team leadership – as there may not have been many opportunities to evaluate leadership potential. Here, it is up to the organisation to give such a person an opportunity to lead a small group of individuals to achieve a given task. How many people have we seen promoted without an appropriate selection procedure - with disastrous results? You may have heard of the Peter Principle where people are promoted to the level of their incompetence! A great chef does not necessarily make an effective kitchen manager, nor a good receptionist a good office manager.
A LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Perhaps the most critical success factor for any staff development strategy relates to the culture of the organisation, and no more so in respect of leadership development. Over and above the extent to which an organisation has a learning culture, exemplified by the resources it is prepared to devote to developing its people, effective leadership development requires additional ingredients. Example is contagious: an organisation with a high proportion of good leaders, especially at operational and strategic levels, will develop a culture conducive to nurturing leadership in others. Authority will be willingly delegated and people will be empowered to make decisions without automatic referral to higher authority. The best leaders have a habit of wanting to work for the best organisations. Why? Because they want to grow and therefore seek out opportunities that encourage them to do so: to map out a meaningful career for themselves. Creating a leadership development strategy (and I stress ‘leadership’ not ‘management’) requires a number of considerations, including:
TRAINING
Inevitably, one of the key planks of a leadership development strategy will be training – especially for potential team and operational leaders. As John Adair notes:
“It is unfair, if not immoral, to give a person a leadership job without giving him some training for leadership. It is unfair on that person, but it is even rougher for those whom he is expected to lead.”
We don’t entrust our children to bus drivers, teachers or doctors who have had no training. Nor should we put our valued people in the hands of leaders who have had no training. It is a fact that the majority of poor leaders are poor only because no one explained to them what leadership is all about and encouraged them to improve their leadership skills.
Yet not every hospitality strategic leader believes in the potential of leadership training courses. For example, Robert Cook CEO of Malmaison, believes in involving suppliers such as Absolute Vodka and Veuve Cliquot in training his staff. As he says
“That is good training, not sitting people in classrooms with binders in front of a management guru. It is fine to do theoretical classroom training but that, in my view, is not going to make you a better hospitality person.”³
I am sure many of us would share Robert’s view – if indeed, the training merely involved “sitting people in classrooms with binders in front of a management guru.” However, I firmly believe that formal training courses can contribute significantly to a broad leadership development strategy – if they are designed with the needs of the industry, the organisation and the participants in mind. For example, the two-day training course for team leaders and junior managers from Hospitality Leadership Ltd. is extremely practical and participative, and is delivered by Adair accredited trainers who have a lifetime’s experience in the hospitality industry.
ACTION LEARNING
Yet such a course would not be appropriate for most operational leaders and, most definitely, not for those operating at a strategic level. For these senior people, organisations must identify alternative means of developing leadership skills, such as Action Learning. Here, leaders meet together, with a trained facilitator, in small groups for, perhaps, half a day every month to discuss both short- and long-term business issues, benefiting from the collective wisdom of a supportive group. Action Learning can be a very effective development tool for senior managers and has been proved to offer a range of personal benefits including greater confidence to change the company; increased personal motivation; and a better work-life balance4.
MENTORING
Line managers within an organisation that has a strong leadership development culture will naturally welcome and accept their responsibility for enhancing the leadership skills of their subordinates. Conscientiously undertaken annual appraisals, as well as a continual process of advice and guidance, will be used for this purpose. However, organisations that have designed a comprehensive leadership development strategy will also have considered introducing a formal policy of mentoring. Here, leaders at all levels are allocated someone to act as a wise and trusted counsellor, either from outside or within the organisation. A carefully chosen mentor with the credibility that goes with related experience, and one that has a good personality-fit with the mentee, can have a very positive influence on him or her, offering benefits such as:
SO, IS IT ALL WORTH IT?
Does it really matter? Is there a real benefit in actively developing leadership within an organisation? What impact does inspirational leadership have on a hospitality organisation? Cast your mind back to the dire statistics relating to labour turnover and productivity in our industry that I offered you at the beginning of this paper. Is it not reasonable to assume that better leadership at all levels within an organisation is likely to encourage more staff to see their future within it? After all, ‘people do not leave their jobs, they leave their managers’.
Half of the leaders I interviewed for The Hospitality Leadership Excellence Survey were from hospitality companies that were recognised in the ‘Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For’ awards. All the 100 companies in the survey have leaders who recognise the crucial importance of their staff to the performance of their business and, thus, work hard to inspire them. And it works: in the past five years, those companies have performed at least twice as well as others quoted in the FTSE.
Those recognised by the Sunday Times over the past two years include a number of hospitality companies, including: ü Botanic Inns – where one in five employees have been on the payroll for at least five years. ü Bettys and Taylors – who have an incredibly loyal workforce: 126 out of 1,076 people have worked for them for more than 15 years and the average length of service is 5½ years. ü Marriott Hotels International – whose general managers spend an average of 17 years with the company. ü Bourne Leisure – that includes Butlins, which has been transformed from a loss-making company in 2000 to one that now boasts 65% repeat business and profits of more than £11m. ü Starwood Central London Hotels – a company that has a staff turnover of just 16%.
So, yes it does really matter. Yes, it is really worth it. I encourage all hospitality organisations, both in the commercial and cost sectors, to find ways to grow their own inspirational leaders and to benefit from the impact they will have on their staff and their customers.
References:
1. 1. People1st, August 2006 2. 2. Grint 2004 3. 3. ‘At Your Service’, Rajul Chande, page 23 4. 4. www.ssda-mandl.org.uk/leadermodel.htm
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