Fundamental to the question of selecting appropriate leaders is the old leadership chestnut ‘Are leaders born or made?’. In essence, the two sides of the debate are: firstly, people who rise to a leadership position are born with the ability to do so. They have some fundamental qualities, perhaps from their genetic make-up, that ensures that they have the ability to inspire and motivate a group of people to achieve a common task. The alternative argument is that anybody, given the appropriate training and support, has the ability to fulfil a leadership role. Personally, my opinion is that some people are, indeed, born with certain characteristics that make them more likely to have the ability to effectively lead people. However, the extent to which they do fulfil that natural promise depends on the opportunities they are given throughout life – for example their family background, educational opportunities, the environment in which they grow up in and the encouragement they get to take up positions of responsibility. That being the case, the selection of people to fill leadership positions at any level (team leader, operational or strategic) depends both on selecting the person who has the potential to grow into the role and giving him the support needed to fulfil his potential. Far too often, in the hospitality industry as in other sectors, one or more of these essential pre-requisites to effective leadership are missing.
Selecting people to fill team leader positions essentially will be by one of two methods:
Internal Selection: Here, people will be promoted to a team leader position from within the organisation they currently work. They may have applied for the more senior position, or, as is often the case, have been persuaded to take up the role due to operational pressures in that unit. If that is the case, time may not allow the application of an appropriate selection process. Indeed, the person may be given the role, possibly on a short term basis, without competition from other candidates.
External Selection: Here applications are invited from those not currently working for the organisation. These may be people entering the industry for the first time, direct from further or higher education, or from those currently working for another organisation in the same, or other, sectors.
It should be noted also that, on occasions, selecting people for a leadership position within an organisation may involve both internal and external applicants. Whichever method is applied, the implications of choosing someone who is unable to take up, or grow into, a leadership position can be dramatic in terms of the task, the team he will be leading, and the individual members of that team. The implications are wide-ranging and, in pure financial terms, they can be very significant. Employing a leader who cannot deliver the task has obvious financial implications, as can the effect he can have on staff turnover within his team. In the hospitality industry it is estimated that it cost £1,500 to replace a front-line worker and, with 600,000 employees leaving the industry every year, this amounts to a staggering cost of £880 million a year. A recent survey by a training and consultancy company in the hospitality industry, Learn Purple, identified that 57% of people leaving their jobs in our industry cited poor leadership as the reason for them doing so! Bearing this in mind, it is surely essential that organisations take sufficient care and attention in selecting the right person to take up a leadership position.
The process should involve several stages. The Four Seasons hotel group, a large international company with prestigious, quality hotels, ensures that every applicant, not only for leadership positions, is interviewed by four separate managers – from the person who will be the applicant’s line manager through to the general manager of the hotel. Whilst the more junior interviewers will be seeking to assess skills and knowledge, the more senior managers will be more interested in attitudinal characteristics. The hotel group believe that, whilst skills and knowledge can be taught and developed on the job, the applicant’s attitudinal qualities are more fundamental and are much more difficult to change after the person has taken up the post. Yet in the hospitality industry, attitude, especially in relation to customer relations, is absolutely critical to the success of an operation. Somebody once said that, far too often, people are recruited based on existing skills and knowledge, but are subsequently dismissed due to inappropriate attitudes. One way of objectively testing attitudes is via the application of a psychological test. When I was applying for a senior leadership role in the hospitality department at Aston University I was invited to take a psychological test that was designed to evaluate my general IQ. I thought at the time that it was inappropriate for the non-academic role I was about to take up. More recently, I was invited to take a psychological test designed to evaluate my temperament, disposition and attitude. I found the results to be particularly accurate and illuminating and believe that such a test should be considered when recruiting people for a leadership role in our industry as it definitely shed light on, in this case, my likelihood to work effectively both as a team leader, and within a team.
In addition to the recruitment process based on interviewing, it is also important that the employer has an opportunity to assess a leader in a group situation similar to the one he would take up were he to be employed. Doing so is surely the only realistic way of assessing the person’s leadership potential for achieving the task, leading the team and dealing with team members at an individual level. I am not suggesting that all applicants should be assessed in this practical way: more likely, only those who make it to the final stage of the selection process. As far as internal applicants are concerned, giving them an opportunity to undertake a team leader’s role should not be too difficult as internal arrangements could be made to facilitate this. Offering external candidates such an opportunity would be more difficult - although not impossible: the application of a trial period of employment would be one way of doing so. I also believe that part of the assessment of a potential leader working in a group situation should also be made by the staff themselves. The people the applicant is leading during the trial period should be asked for their assessment of that person’s performance in terms of the task, the team and the individual. The team’s views should be taken into consideration, along with those at a more senior level to assess the applicant. It is surely important to gain the views of team members prior to the confirmation of the applicant’s employment.
It is my experience, unfortunately, that often, especially in the school catering sector, a general assistant who is undertaking her duties with enthusiasm and capability is moved into the kitchen manager’s role if it becomes available. This often happens from within the team in which she is working - thus making the transition into her leadership role even more difficult. It may be that this internal promotion is appropriate and has the potential to succeed, but the new team leader must be given appropriate development training and support if she is to undertake her role effectively. Far too often, this is not the case: any training follows many months later, if at all! Not only is this person not helped to grow into the role but often her performance in the role is not evaluated by her line managers – thus failing to take the opportunity to assess her in a real life group situation, as I proposed earlier.
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
I made the point in the previous section that, following the selection of an appropriate person to hold a team leader post, there must follow an appropriate amount of leadership development. Yet, too often the people are left to sink or swim in their new role without the application of any subsequent leadership training. It is a sad fact that leadership training, indeed training of any nature, is not always seen as a high priority, including within the hospitality industry. Some recent research by People1st, our Sector Skills Council, identified that 33% of hospitality employers are not undertaking any staff training and, shockingly, 25% said that nothing would get them to train their staff! No doubt many employers see training as an unnecessary expense. Perhaps they should consider the old maxim “If you think training is expensive, try ignorance!”.
Indeed, within higher and further education in our industry I am not aware of any courses currently available with the word ‘leadership’ in the title. There are scores of courses training students to be hospitality managers, but none training for hospitality leadership. Yet the leaders that I interviewed in the 2006 Hospitality Leadership Excellence Survey identified a significant shortcoming in leadership development within our industry. One said “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.” One of the outcomes from the research was to identify a significant shortfall in leadership training in our industry, both at team leader and at operational leader level. I propose to bridge that gap with a Master Class for operational leaders and a two day team leader training, based on the three circles model, for team leaders in our industry.
At this stage in this assignment it would be easy for me merely to regurgitate the seven hallmarks for effective team leadership training, as listed in John Adair’s ‘Effective Leadership Development’ Book. However, I would prefer to use the example of training that I currently provide for school catering unit supervisors who operate at a team leader level. Many of the problems I have alluded to in previous paragraphs are apparent in this particular sector of the hospitality industry: team leaders promoted to their posts to fill operational contingencies; a lack of leadership development training offered; very little assessment of their performance in the period following their promotion; and, very often, general assistants promoted to lead a team in their own kitchens. One of the initial hurdles we have to overcome in our training is actually to get these ladies to appreciate that they are leaders! Many do not consider themselves to have that role. “I’m just one of the ladies” is often a comment we get. So a fundamental aspect of our training is to persuade these wonderful ladies that their role really does have an impact on the task, at unit and departmental level; their team, in terms of it contributing to the success of the school; and also their role in managing individual staff issues.
Another strength of our training is that we endeavour to make the training very participative and enjoyable. We work hard at getting the message across that we value the supervisors’ ideas and encourage them to share them with the group. Moreover, we do not want to be seen as leadership experts with all the answers. Whilst we are specialist school catering trainers with a great breadth of knowledge across the sector, we stress that the supervisors themselves have the depth of knowledge, hence with our breadth and their depth there exists the opportunity for a very lively, participative environment. It is also very sector-specific training: with all the examples and exercises we use relating to the environment in which our trainees work.
In fact, whilst we do consider various approaches to leadership, the true value of the training is that we change the attitude of the supervisors. We encourage them to think much more about different customer groups; we encourage them to be much more commercially aware; but, most importantly, we stress throughout the training the crucial importance of their leadership role at the task level (unit and departmental) and in terms of developing high performance teams. The final evaluation sheets invariably contain a majority view that the training gave them increased confidence and, in particular, a greater feeling of self-worth.
Leadership Mentoring:
One of the questions I ask the 25 leaders I interviewed for The 2006 Hospitality Leadership Excellence Survey was how they learned their leadership skills. The majority view was that they learned on the job, largely from line managers they had reported to in the past. Most recalled the positive lessons they had learnt, although some mentioned that they learned how not to lead from certain previous line managers! There is no doubt that a line manager who recognises an important aspect of his role as development and mentoring his subordinates can be a most powerful influence on them. Mentoring is, however, more than merely line management. It also involves more than merely ensuring that the individual goes on appropriate management and leadership external and internal courses. What it means is taking a personal responsibility for developing that individual’s leadership skills. It also, incidentally, means understanding the importance of one’s own example to young managers - who will take great benefit from observing your own inspirational leadership.
An open, positive mentoring relationship offers many potential benefits, including:
Addressing and resolving specific situations associated with the mentee’s role.
Building more constructive relationships within the workplace.
Clarifying and prioritising work and personal choices.
Gaining greater confidence and feeling of self worth.
Improving career development potential and, in particular
Developing improved leadership skills founded upon greater confidence in the authority of the mentee’s leadership role.
Mentors should use appropriate delegation and empowerment to achieve many of the benefits listed above.
A mentoring agreement involves regular meetings, undertaken with the understanding of confidentiality, to discuss progress towards agreed goals, often set at the previous meeting. Such meetings should be used to agree strengths and weaknesses and to discuss means whereby the mentee can address and develop identified leadership shortcomings. Discussion can also surround specific leadership workplace problems that the mentee is experiencing.
Although mentoring is different from formal leadership training, there is a connection in that the mentor should ensure that the mentee is well briefed in advance of any training and understands both the reason he has been sent on it, and also the expectations placed upon him following its completion. It is important, therefore, that both parties meet shortly after completion of the course to discuss whether the objectives were met. Also, the mentee may have been encouraged and inspired to try out new leadership approaches within his team. A post-training meeting will give him the opportunity to discuss the new approaches and their application with his line manager and seek appropriate advice and guidance.
There is no doubt that a mentoring arrangement between a team leader and his line manager can have very significant benefits in terms of leadership development if it is entered upon enthusiastically and conscientiously by both parties.
A CAREER DEVELOPMENT POLICY
A career development policy is one of the seven principles in John Adair’s book ‘Effective Leadership Development’. However, a significant proportion of this chapter is devoted to career development above operational leadership. As this assignment is related to team leader training, I propose to concentrate principally here on developing the careers of people into team leadership positions, and from such positions into operational leadership roles.
The more forward thinking-companies, including those within the hospitality industry, think hard about ensuring that a policy exists within it to create opportunities for employees to map out a career within that particular organisation. One of the leaders I interviewed made great importance on the principle of ‘a brightness of future’ for his staff. This was a fundamental principle of the company and involved working hard to ensure that employees believed that their futures were within that company. This required motivating and empowering its staff to realise their potential within existing posts and also included serious attention given to internal career development. Another, the catering department at the Nottingham University NHS Trust, had what they called ‘the skills escalator’ as a formal career development policy for their staff. It had five levels, from a pre-employment programme through to gaining management status. At each level there were individual performance competency reviews and a list of skills, knowledge and development opportunities to that particular grade, in advance of taking the step to the higher grade. This was a very good example of a career development policy that was thought through and laid out so that each member of that department understood the necessary steps for their career advancement. The head of department told me that, in his experience, having such a transparent and widely communicated development plan often encouraged, otherwise reticent, members of staff to work towards promotion to the next grade.
Another good example of the emphasis placed on career development is within the Four Seasons hotel group, that has hotels in countries across the world. It manages a website whereby job opportunities are promoted in all the hotels within its group. The Regional Vice-President of the group, who I interviewed for my research, explained that it was quite normal for members of staff to actively read the web-site with a view to identifying job opportunities elsewhere within the world. His view was, rather than seeing staff moving on as having a negative impact on his particular hotel, he believed that it was his responsibility to encourage staff to better themselves through career development. That is not always the case, as leaders sometimes resent staff leaving their organisation to better themselves. The beauty of the Four Seasons system is that it tends to retain quality employees within the group as a whole.
If people are to be groomed for promotion within an organisation it is important that they are given the opportunity to learn, not only the leadership skills required of the next stage on their career ladder, but they also should be afforded the opportunity to learn a wide range of related skills. More forward-thinking hospitality organisations will move team leaders, for example, between different departments such as reception, restaurant, and accommodation services. Doing so offers many advantages, not least an appreciation of the inter-dependence of different teams in order to deliver the overall task of the hotel: providing exceptional customer service. The danger is that employees who are promoted within a single department do not have an appreciation of the bigger picture in terms of the task and the needs of other teams within the hotel.
Whatever system an organisation has in order to develop its individuals, it must be seen as being fair and without favour. The hospitality industry, for example, has a very high proportion of female employees in more junior posts. It is important that organisations recognise the specific demands placed on female employees, many of whom may have other maternal duties, and hence give them every opportunity to realise their potential in terms of career development.
Another feature of my industry is the high number of workers who have migrated to the UK from Eastern European Countries, in particular Poland, since it joined the EU. In fact, 90,000 Eastern European workers have entered the hospitality industry since 2006, amounting 21% of the total of those who have entered the UK. Most organisations that have employed such staff find them to be particularly hard working, reliable and with a high customer service ethos. The challenge for such organisations is to ensure that such workers have an equal opportunity to rise to leadership positions within their work place. Indeed, we have found that many are, in fact, over-qualified for the work they take up in our industry. For example, the restaurant chain Nando’s Chickenland have taken a high proportion of Eastern European workers and have many examples of how their skills have been identified and nurtured to the benefit of the company. One worker, employed in their pan wash area was found to have been a university lecturer in Poland. It is only because Nando’s embrace cultural diversity that he was identified and developed to an extent whereby he now manages one of their restaurants. Moving from a kitchen porter’s role to a significant team leader role required a recognition of the importance of career development within the company – one that Nando’s and many other hospitality organisations, take very seriously.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Few things in leadership are as misunderstood as the concept of "smart." For most organizations, especially the large and supposedly sophisticated ones, smart usually equates to I.Q. points. More specifically, analytical I.Q. The kind that inspires awe with the savant-like ability to crunch numbers in real time, on the fly. Somehow this measure of smart has become one of the most important criteria for selecting CEOs and other senior leaders. Let's call them analytical leaders, and then let's reconsider.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. Every organization needs brilliant analytical thinkers...as engineers, research scientists, financial analysts and the like. Disciplines where analytical brilliance is the difference between success and failure, with significant consequences at stake. But the problem with so many brilliant analytical thinkers is their inability to leverage their brilliance through others.
Now I know that there are exceptions to every rule and that there are analytical savants with the ability to lead with passion. But they are the exception to the rule. More often than not, they struggle to relate to others who are not as gifted as they are (which is just about everyone else) and as a result their leadership is not accretive to the organization.
Smart leaders do not need to have the highest analytical I.Q. What makes them smart is their ability to inspire others around them, both with and without higher I.Q.s, to do things that they otherwise would or could not do. The ability to see opportunity where others do not, to imagine possibilities where others see roadblocks. To create a crucible for success when the numbers don't quite add up.
This type of inspiration does not come through analytics. It does not take root in the left hemisphere of our brain. It outgrows a leader's ability to translate vision into energized action. A vision painted with a vibrant palette of words, images and allegory. The last time I looked, people communicate to one-another with words. Machines use numbers.
Of course a leader needs to understand the power of analytics and the pursuit of measurable results. If they do not, they will not be in position for long. But they don't lead with the numbers. They lead with people. To lead people requires that you first communicate with them. Inspire them. Challenge them. Now that's what I call smart.
