How to manage the boss who doesn’t care? Managing a boss who doesn't seem to care about you or your work can be a difficult and challenging experience. In the pressure cooker environment of hotels and restaurants the need for leaders who care has never been greater. However, if you're...
The GM’s Blog
Are you a workaholic? That’s fine. Just don’t contaminate your workforce.
Being a workaholic is often seen as a desirable trait in hospitality, with the belief that working long hours and constantly striving for success will lead to happiness and fulfilment, even though overtime maybe good. However, this mentality can lead to a number of downsides that can ultimately have a...
The difference between stress and pressure and why one is incredibly toxic?
There a few vocations that can test mental agility more than that of being a successful Hotel General Manager. If you’re a GM reading this blog I can already visualise you nodding your head. Read on. The multifaceted demands of being a Hotel GM are extensive by any stretch of...
Inconsistency in team performance is inevitable. How do you flatten the peaks and troughs?
‘We’re only human after all and no one is prefect’. This is the approach I take when coaching at all levels of industry simply because this is reality. The purists in your business may be less forgiving. But if you start out with the premise that mistakes are inevitable we...
Think you know what’s going on? The Top 20 Inspection Faux Pas so far in 2023.
Travelling the UK supporting hotels through audit processes is something I’ve been doing for the best part of 28 years. Even after leaving the AA, and even whilst working as a GM I continued to visit hotels and restaurants to assess quality and performance. Keeping tabs on best practice is...
It’s always the Governments fault! Maybe, but your destiny is ultimately in your own hands.
I can't think of a tougher time for hospitality. For the first time in several generations, businesses need to charge more (rampant increase in costs) to customers who have less money in their pocket (cost of living crisis). How exactly does that work and how can you escape the centrifugal...
The Monkey Trap – With becoming so obsessed with ‘doing’, have we forgotten to make time for adaptive ‘change’?
We’ve all seen the Monkey Trap. Hunters in the bush place a piece of fruit in a vase. The monkey reaches in and grabs the fruit but can’t remove it’s hand with the fruit in its grip. Rather than release the fruit and move on the monkey just sits their...
Cyclable success in hospitality isn’t unlike the process of photosynthesis in nature? Have you got enough sunshine in your business?
A few years ago I assisted a property who were looking to reposition themselves in the market through investment. The strategy being to increase rates and move from being a mid range three star to strong 4 star product, and in doing so open up new market segments - Spa,...
Yes, of course I can grow pumpkins on your apple tree?
Consultants that claim they can do anything often link into hoteliers that think anything is possible. These types of hoteliers operate within an entrepreneurial doctrine with only light references to reports and budgets, insisting instead on throwing beds, food and humans in the air and seeing how they land each...
I’ve been asked so many times which have been my favourite hotels and restaurants from the thousands I’ve visited. Here they are.
A top 10 wouldn’t do justice to this list so I’ve crafted a top 20 for UK Hotels and UK & European Restaurants. The criteria is based on the wow factor of the time that delivered something I’d not experienced before, or provides a level of incredible service, skills and...
This elephant in the room has been frantically waving its trunk (decorated with fairly lights) at us for over 20 years. Is the industry in self denial?
This blog is about training, learning and developing people as you look to achieve a stable workforce, and an aspirational, successful business model, even within the cost of living crisis and with war in Europe. Payroll is likely to be your biggest outlay. So what are you doing to optimise...
Judge a leader by what they’re passionate about and if they don’t have this passion as their no.1, then it might just all be smoke and mirrors.
I’m in and out of hotels each week with one eye dedicated to consultancy and problem solving, whilst the other remains entrenched with historical inspector vision that sees most things. Within an hour of milling around any given hotel I can tell you what drives it’s leadership, what drives the...
Even dead wood floats! Dealing with ineffective, long serving managers.
Long service is often heralded within the hospitality industry, and so it should be. The archetypical long serving team member has developed oodles of experience and consistency, has no doubt become a firm favourite with guests, and undoubtedly is woven into the DNA of your business vision, past present and...
Want to attract and keep Gen Z staff? Make your business like a Play Station!
When you know what Gen Z need, just give it to them! My daughter was 3 when she received her first iPad. She's 20 now. At the age of 5 he was navigating all of the exercises on the Telly Tubbies website by herself. She dived into her iPod at...
If you’re good enough your old enough…
We work in a multi-generational industry with colleagues of all ages working in all departments, shoulder to shoulder. More often this is a successful model where experience of the elders is passed down to the youngsters. Where this doesn’t work sometimes is when age bias comes into play, and I...
10 Tips to Supercharge Change (Hospitality Specific)
YOU are key to managing change. To start this blog I think we can all agree that everyone is different. It's one of societies unwritten laws and who are we to argue? It's often said that it's our differences that separate us from the apes ( though I'm not sure...
How leadership bias can create an unbalanced business and missed opportunities.
Really successful Hoteliers demonstrate a passion for EVERYTHING There's a saying that I've parroted for the last 20 years or so that perfectly sums up kitchen culture in hotels - 'What a chef cooks is an extension of their personality'. This saying predisposes the notion that any increase in quality,...
Why DEDA is about to transform hospitality and why you might not know what it means!
Prioritise Autonomy at Scale - Focus on Internal Digital Platforms - Create a clear Project Focus. You may not have heard of DEDA but we guarantee that you benefit it from it every day as a consumer. It's a digital based management style associated with FTSE 100 companies as...
Why the difference between ‘Capability’ & ‘Potential’ can break any business.
Confusing Capability with Potential comes from a lack of strategic training. Over the years I've had the pleasure of working with a wide range of operators which have included those that have employed me, but also those that I've worked with as a business coach, mentor or board advisor. One...
Why you think you use Big Data… but you actually probably aren’t.
Talk to us about being proactive with Big Data. We now live in a hugely connected world driven by Big Data. At one end of the scale we have smartphones listening to us and serving up ads for that gadget we've been mulling over, whilst at the other end of...