A guest walks into a hotel and feels welcome. Someone notices they need a little help. Dinner arrives with care. An event feels calm even though a lot is happening behind the doors.

I think the culture that makes those moments possible starts with how leaders listen to the people delivering them. Who has enough time to prepare? Who can ask for help? What happens when someone points out a problem before it reaches a guest?

After eighteen years in hospitality, that is the conversation I want to have with GD, Getting Deep. The people doing the work deserve more than a speech about how important they are. They deserve decisions that make that statement believable.

Look at the decision before the service moment

Consider a hypothetical banquet where the guest count changes late. The event manager brings the change to the chef and banquet captain while there is still time to respond. They discuss preparation, staffing and a workable service plan. Sales explains any revised terms to the planner.

The guest may never see that conversation. They experience the result when dinner proceeds as expected and the people serving it can pay attention to them.

Now imagine the same change sitting in someone’s inbox because nobody wants to deliver unwelcome news. The kitchen finds out at the wrong moment. The captain starts improvising. A server has to explain a problem they had no part in creating.

The first version requires leaders who welcome useful information, including information that complicates the day. HSMAI’s guidance on hotel communication connects regular alignment with empathy and attention to each person’s contribution.

Make it possible to speak

A supervisor can say the door is always open. People will decide whether to walk through it by watching what happens to the last person who did.

Amy Edmondson’s research on psychological safety and team learning found an association between psychological safety and learning behavior in 51 manufacturing teams. It was not a hotel study, but it offers a useful question for our industry: can people raise a concern without expecting humiliation?

That should include the newest cook and the person cleaning the room. Useful knowledge does not arrive in order of seniority. Leaders still have to make decisions and maintain standards. They can do that while treating the person who flags a problem with respect.

Give care room to happen

I want hotels to create joy. I also want us to acknowledge the conditions that let someone offer it freely. A team stretched past its capacity may spend the whole shift catching up. Asking them to be more enthusiastic adds another demand to the pile.

At the next department meeting, choose one recurring guest frustration and ask the people closest to it what would help. Perhaps they need a clearer answer, a working piece of equipment or authority to resolve a small issue. Listen long enough to understand the answer, assign someone to act and report back.

There is a leadership moment I would like hotels to experience more often. A colleague brings an update and the manager asks what they need. The answer is, “I already handled it. They’re happy. I just wanted it on your radar.” That colleague has been able to act and still wants the leader informed. It is a good reason to keep listening.

Our hotel organization structure shows how responsibility can be arranged across a property. Leaders make those relationships work through the way they respond to each other.

GD will keep returning to that work. Good hospitality asks a lot of people. I want us to get deeper into what we owe them so they can keep showing up with care.

Continue reading Hospitality Field Notes.