Creating a people-first, ‘working together’ culture
I borrowed this from Wellington City Libraries, but wish to permanently add it to my reference bookshelf, and add my own highlighting, scribbles and post it notes.
Estelle Tracey (of 37 Chocolates) recommended that we, students of her chocolate educators course, should read Unreasonable Hospitality – The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect – by Will Guidara.
Will takes the reader on an engaging journey of how he fell in love with the hospitality scene, his Dad’s and others’ influences in his life, the many many hospo stories and heartfelt experiences – many that made me smile, laugh, and feel like I was at the back of a restaurant watching it play out. And how I wished to have experienced their hospitality and food too!
There are plenty of gold nuggets to take away, about being unreasonably hospitable (regardless of your industry), running a business well & profitably, being really creative and thoughtful about how you serve your customers and staff/team, building and managing relationships, bringing the team along the ride where they also enjoy it, giving them the tools & ownership, being ambitious and aiming to be the best.
Will has done a TED talk and has other videos, but the book is so, so much more than a short video, so I highly recommend the read!
Some take away quotes…
“Manage 95% of your business down to the penny; spend the last 5% “foolishly”. .. that last 5% has an outsize impact on the guest experience, it’s some of the smartest money you’ll ever spend”
“You’re not always going to agree with everything you hear, but you’ve got to start by listening.”
“A leader’s responsibility is to identify the strengths of the people on their team, no matter how buried those strengths might be.”, “make sure people who are trying and working hard have what they need to succeed”, “great leaders create leaders”. “As a leader, you have to use every single tool in your kit to build morale and keep it high”. But also that “a leader’s role isn’t only to motivate and uplift; sometimes it’s to earn the trust of your team by being human with them”. “Leaders say sorry”.
“If you’ve corrected a guest (customer/the people you serve) because you don’t want them to think you’ve made a mistake, you’ve made a much bigger mistake”, …”if hospitality is about creating genuine connection, and if that connection happens only once a guest has let their guard down, shaming them makes it highly unlikely you’ll ever be able to get that connection back again”, …”their perception is our reality”.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge
“Slow down to speed up”. Kevin Boehm, CEO & co-founder of Chicago’s Boka restaurant group: I can only be authentic and inspirational and restorative if I buy back the time to restore myself….This is not a passive; it’s active. The things I can control – mindfulness, diet, exercise, attitude, and whom I choose to spend my time with – those things take priority over all others. So when I do raise my hand, I’m armed with the mental fortitude to make sure that my ambition doesn’t undermine the clairity that got me all these killer opportunities in the first place.”
“Hospitality isn’t a transaction ….a dialogue, not a monologue.”
“It isn’t the lavishness of the gift that counts, but its pricelessness.”, …”the value of a gift isn’t about what went into giving it, but how the person receiving it feels. Maybe it was the thirtieth time we’d handed a travelling guest a snack box, but it was the first time for them – and their delight wasn’t dimmed in the slightest because they hadn’t been the only ones”.
“Opportunities for hospitality exist in every business.” …”Luxury means just giving more; hospitality means being more thoughtful.“
“Nobody knows what they’re doing before they do it. When you’re trying to level up, it’s easy to psych yourself out by focusing on everything you don’t know. But you’ve got to have faith in your ability to figure it out. A black diamond is scary if you usually ski blues. …Whether on your ass or on your skis, don’t worry – you’ll get down the hill, and you’ll learn alot along the way.”
“Start with what you want to achieve, instead of limiting yourself to what’s realistic or sustainable. …don’t worry a story with the facts. Eventually, you’ll reverse engineer your great idea and figure out what’s possible and cost effective and all the other boring grown-up stuff. But you should start with what you want to achieve.”
“As my Dad says: “Don’t run away from what you don’t want; run toward what you do.” We didn’t make the changes we made over that year because we were running away from complexity or difficulty or ambition, but because we were running toward a purer experience.”
