New Leaders – What Are Their Qualities?

COREcruitment has been open for business through the pandemic. It has been a very interesting time to be a recruiter. The needs and expectations of both clients and candidates is drastically different to three months ago. The best leaders are adapting fast to the new world – they are looking for a very different profile of person to operate within their businesses moving forward. The pandemic will, of course, end. But the world will look like a very different place.

Along with our webinars we have been conducting one on one interviews and questionnaires with some of our senior industry professionals to try get an insight in life moving forward. This week we wanted to concentrate on Leadership and what qualities we should be expecting moving forward. It was very interesting that out of the people I spoke to the two most common words were flexibility and adaptability.

Here’s what they had to say:

Jon Sherman | CEO and Co-Founder | Sticky’s Finger Joint

·        What are their qualities? Open-minded and honest with their team, empathetic and vulnerable. Elicits feedback from their team but ultimately confident in making a final decision, in touch with needs and sentiments of their team, ie keeps their finger on the pulse of their organization, prioritize culture building

 ·        Which behaviours will employers be looking for? Not afraid to speak their mind, yet also self aware. Flexible and hardworking, like to lead by example. Good at dealing with ambiguity.

 ·        Will employers be more open to looking outside of sector? Not as much as you'd think. From my experience, lots of people who have made a career in hospitality are really passionate about it and could never work in another industry. 

·        Will employer’s re-skill existing teams or look externally? In the immediate term they will look to re-skill their existing team where possible, rather than committing to new outside hires. However, there will be a dearth of available talent in hospitality, so once things stabilize a bit more and companies can be more confident about future growth plans, they will start to look externally. 

Yannis Stanisiere |Director of Projects, Development and New Builds USA | Dream International

·        What are their qualities? I don’t think we will be looking for different qualities. The right leader remains first and for most someone who inspire others, empower his team and show the way

·        Which behaviuors will employers be looking for? One skills that we have be looking more than before is resilience, creativity, empathy and rapid decision making capabilities

·        Will employers be more open to looking outside of sector? In the Hospitality / Restaurant industry is difficult to look outside our own sector has there is a certain empathy and passion that you need to have in this industry.

·        Will employer’s re-skill existing teams or look externally? You will need to re-skill has the habit of the consumer as change, but as well the way to operate our venue. The stay home, order in most of the states and the country has force company to review their way of communicating & operation. Business which was almost driven by email is again done again directly via phone/ video conference

Additionally, most of the company have realized they were several “in-between” position that could re-assign or fully eliminated due to a more direct leadership

If you look through history, it is a demand for the humankind to be able/allowed to socialize and despite the confinement that we might be confronted, people will adapt and accept a “new normed” which in a few months from now will be part as our current life like it almost was there prior pandemic.

Derek Morishita | Director of Restaurants | Sahara, Las Vegas

·        What are their qualities? Excited to work in our industry and want to grow within our industry and our company. We also look for people who are not trying to be a Director of VP tomorrow but understand it’s a process to grow and learn and it takes time to become a great leader. Something else that I think is relatively new to our industry due to Covid-19 is they need to be adaptable. With the times changing right now our leaders need to adapt on the fly for the safety of our employees and guests and can’t be stuck in a mindset that they have had for the past X amount of years.

 ·        Will employers be more open to looking outside of sector? Yes and no. We want the best leaders on our property helping our team members be better every day and giving the best experience to our guests. That might mean people within out industry and company or might mean looking outside the box and adapting as I said above.

 ·        Will employer’s re-skill existing teams or look externally? Same answer as above, both. We have to take pride in our current employees and leaders otherwise what’s the point of having them here. We need to invest in their education and training to push them to their limits and see if they have what it takes to lead our team members. On the flip side, if we do everything we can to train them and make them the best leaders possible and they don’t show the skillset or drive that we are looking for then its not fair to either side and that is when we look for people who do have the motivation to make our property better.

 Current/Future

Personally, for me I hope that all these changes that we are making as an industry now will make life better for my kids and their kids. Most of these things we should have already been doing to keep each other safer and healthier. The biggest thing that will come out of this in my eyes is that a lot more people will order food to go or delivery. I watched a webinar on Wednesday that Sam Nazarian hosted about his ghost kitchen with multiply restaurants sending food out of that kitchen and all that food is delivered. I think due to less contact, less people eating out and more people wanting the ease of delivery this will be the future of our industry. This also gives multiply options to guests which is what people love.

 Raja Joshi | International Franchise Business Consultant | RAVE Restaurant Group

·        Consistency with follow up details is critical over skills; skill can be honed, polished and sharpened with on job duration of time.

·        Ability to function and follow up on things without being told in a methodical manner through a well-defined plan.

·        Loyal to the brand and remain transparent through structured communication ability.

·        Focuses on the process not on results.

·        Remain truthful to self business values.

Al Lopez | Highly Skilled Restaurant Operator | Creating Cultures of Hospitality | Solutions Driven

 ·        What are their qualities? Dignity & respect, honesty, integrity, trust, accountability, passion, recognition/appreciation, empathy, humility, vision, humility & humor are just some of the core qualities naturally found in leaders. I believe strong leaders have these same qualities regardless of field and/or moment in time however now more then ever one must have the ability to pivot, be nimble and create solutions with SPEED. Speed does not kill here. Speed will be everything. Swift decision-making, swift action and swift assessment of data/results leading to revision or course correction will be mission critical. No surprise restaurants have pivoted to a pickup, take-out and daily provisions model. Meal-kits and pre-made bottled cocktails were born of swift creative solutions. Today, leaders will re-launch their business. ‘Strategic Launch Plans’ along with ongoing team collaboration will be keys. The ‘go to’ questions among many: Given the new protocols, how do we improve? How do we continue to keep our team members & guests safe? How do we provide warm swift hospitality w/ PPE?”

‘Collaboration’ will now be the new leaders mantra. Seeking and offering ‘best practices’ from others both locally and globally will be must haves.

 ·        Which behaviors will employers be looking for? One word: ADAPTABILITY. I believe the days of having one specialty are over. While important, I will be very surprised if hospitality groups continue to have service directors for example. One’s ability to understand and successfully operate within all facets of the business will be vital. We will have to do more with less.

Being able to adapt also applies to being thoroughly versed in all the new state and local rules regarding operating safely post-pandemic.

 Will employers be more open to looking outside of sector? There will certainly be a deep bench to consider in all sectors given the unemployment rate however I believe loyalty will be the x-factor. Loyalty will be rewarded in both directions…employer to employee and vice versa.

 Will employer’s re-skill existing teams or look externally? In my opinion, employers will look within to shift and train assets as they are already ensconced in the culture. Smart employees will be ‘raising their hands’ to support the organizations given the climate and do whatever is necessary. Then and only then will employers turn to outside talent.

 Anonymous | Director of Operations | Fast-Casual Restaurant Chain

 ·        What are their qualities? Flexibility - As we reopen, we will need to hire people who are able to be flexible in working all positions. Serve safe and NYC DOH certifications. Great communicators and people who want to grow and learn

 ·        Which behaviors will employers be looking for? Open minded - In this time things will change daily. Looking for people who are open minded and can adapt to change. Being humble. Empathy. Great personalities.

 ·        Will employers be more open to looking outside of sector? Absolutely as the job market will be filled with all kinds of people. Hiring people with no experience at times is better.

 ·        Will employer’s re-skill existing teams or look externally? Both. We would want to bring back as many of the existing teams a possible. However, this does give you the opportunity to rebuild with new talent.

Christophe Chatron-Michaud | Vice President of Operations Invest hospitality

What are their qualities?

In restaurants I really think it will remain the same, experience is a key factor here.  I don’t think there is a need for the leaders to change. There will be a new way of operating, but I don’t think a new way of managing.

We are going back to the team that furloughed, the were great and we are looking forward to welcoming them back.

We are looking at reopening in September, we have been looking at different technologies to help keep our space safe, clean and to remain within the government guidelines. However, we want the guest experience to remain as close to what is was before.

Which behaviors will employers be looking for?

There are some mandates in terms of labour laws, so can’t bring everyone back and we will be bringing them back by seniority.

Will employers be more open to looking outside of sector?

For our company, most likely not. We are operating Michelin Star restaurants so really do need to have similar experience. For outside companies I can see them looking externally.  

Will employer’s re-skill existing teams or look externally?

Definitely looking to re-skill. More on the technical side (less contact, different approach, new steps of service).