Team-Work, for Happiness...

Before the covid crisis hit, we were staying in a beautiful hotel by the beach, on Sentosa Island in Singapore, for a team-building workshop with an international group of executives. And we all felt so good! It wasn't just the delightful surroundings...

That ‘good feeling’ actually started from the moment I got off the car into the hotel-lobby and was greeted by a genuinely smiling, impeccably dressed man, who promptly relieved me of my suitcase (I would later realize he is actually a department manager…)

We were pampered by the happy-acting personnel, who go out of their way to accommodate our needs, and even anticipate them. Luisa, from the Philippines, is the care-taker of our meeting-rooms. She starts way before 7:30am and is still with us at 8pm if we work that late, totally invested in ensuring we have a great time…

It is so rare to see such sincere guest-focus and obvious happiness from all hotel staff, that I go and ask the General Manager if he would mind joining us and discussing leadership with ‘my’ executive team. He accepts warmly. A charismatic figure, he has worked in the hospitality industry all around the world for over 30 years.

In which business are you in?

To our surprise, when he joins us later that day, he is accompanied by members of his team:

• the Hotel Manager (his ‘number 2’) - a energetic Chinese lady,
• the Executive Chef - a soft-spoken British citizen,
• the Finance Director - an articulate Indian,
• the Security Manager - a reassuring Malay;
• and the HR Director - an engaging Australian

The GM opens the discussion by asking us Peter Drucker’s famous question: “What business are we in?” Can you guess his answer?

“We are in the business of happiness”.

Where does 'team-work' rank within your priorities?

The GM then hands-out a list of 5 topics and asks us to rank them from "priority number 1" to "priority number 5"

• Business results
• Excellent organization
• Performance monitoring
• Guest delight
• Team-work

What would be your ranking?

Heated debate ensues within the executive team. After a while, the GM shares his views.

1. Team-work
2. Excellent organization
3. Guest delight
4. Performance monitoring
5. Business results (which are consistently outstanding at his hotel - by the way)

1 + 2 = 3, and then 3 + 4 propel 5...

If team-work is so fundamental, what do they do about it?

Connect deeply with each other across cultural and functional barriers

They believe it all starts by connecting with everyone in the team on a personal level, to break through cultural and functional barriers. That’s a big time-investment, given there are over 300 employees in the hotel! Yet they go for it…

Luisa, our care-taker, will later confirm that the GM and her do know each other personally, and that he always greets her and others by their name.

The hotel manager shares her story: when she joined, a long-time ago, she insisted on serving as a maid for a few weeks, in uniform… ?Her boss at the time did neither recognize nor greet her, when they crossed in a corridor as she was cleaning rooms. From that day onwards, she ‘felt’ the importance of connecting with everyone. Her boss left the property shortly thereafter…

By the way, the same connection must be established with guests she says. She invites her team-members to treat everyone of them as they would their "boyfriend / girlfriend”.

Support each other visibly across departments

The HR Director adds that he actually spends a lot of time… playing ping-pong with employees. And the Finance Director shares he is a ‘mentor’ for the front-office team-members, in a mentoring system across departments that makes it comfortable for all ‘mentees’ to fully open-up.

Another embedded feature of the hotel management-culture is that employees do visibly help each-other across Departments. Finance people can be found helping Food & Beverage colleagues when hundreds of guests have breakfast at the same time.

And if you are the boss, lead from the front sometimes

And if you want to meet that extraordinary GM, go for brunch on Sundays at the hotel, he is the one making fresh fruit-juices for guests.

So much for Leadership from the front, and for showcasing another one of Peter Drucker’s quotes:

“There is no leader in team-work. The task is the master. Every team-member serves the others.”