How to Build a Culture of Workplace Excellence in the Hospitality Services Industry!

Posted on May 23rd, 2023

Satisfied and inspired employees in the hospitality services industry who are well compensated, properly trained, treated with respect, and are recognized and rewarded for their outstanding work are the heart of a successful organization. They will do everything possible to provide an exceptional service to their customers or the people they serve, on a consistent basis. They love what they do and are proud of it. It’s called the service excellence culture! The end-users may be patients in a hospital being served their meals or their rooms being cleaned, retail cafeteria customers, patrons in a restaurant or any other service industry customers. These highly motivated employees go above and beyond their duties and make the business or the facility run smoothly and efficiently. They are happy and engaged employees! Great leaders in the hospitality industry purposefully and diligently work to create such a culture of Workplace Excellence. This is their passion, mission, and they are fully committed to it.

There are seven most common leadership traits they inherently practice towards achieving this mutually beneficial culture of excellence! These leaders:

  1. Begin with a Leader’s Mindset.
  2. Put People First and Serve Their Needs.
  3. Share their Vision, Strategy, Plan and Purpose.
  4. Focus on Employee Satisfaction and Their Development.
  5. Create a culture of Fairness, Integrity, and Personal Growth.
  6. Build Great Teams and Make the Organization Better.
  7. Communicate Effectively.

1. Begin with a Leader’s Mindset

The leaders mindset is what guides them every day. Their every word and action are geared toward their people, passion, and purpose! They want to make a significant positive impact on their team and the organization. They carry a people-centered mindset and an intrinsic mission that guides them to be an admirable leader. Some of their everyday habits include being an active and empathetic listener, respectful to others and being a genuine and an authentic leader. These are just a few examples of their everyday motivational and model behaviors that inspire their people and bring much success to the organization.
 

2. Put People First and Serve Their Needs

Successful leaders know that the success of the organization comes from the hard work and dedication of their frontline employees. These employees are engaged firsthand in consistently providing an excellent service and fine products to their customers! Great leaders fully realize that the true motivation of these employees comes from the way they are treated, respected, valued, and rewarded for their hard work, dedication, and accomplishments! They put their people first in almost all situations! These leadership behaviors are what the employees respect and admire in their leader. It motivates them to be at their best for the patients, customers, the organization, and themselves.
 

3. Share Their Vision, Strategy, Plan and Purpose.

Successful leaders have a clear vision, defined strategy, thoughtful plan, and specific goals for the organization. They also have a greater ‘purpose’ in mind not just for the organization but also for the personal growth of the team members and the broader community in which they live and serve. They aspire to make a positive difference in other people’s lives. They empower others in pursuit of happiness and their inner fulfillment! They always want to make things happen for the organization and the team; and aim to make lives better for all!
 

4. Focus on Employee Satisfaction and Their Development.

Great leaders are intentionally focused on their employee’s satisfaction and their continuous growth and development. It takes a dedicated and committed leader who creates an employee-focused culture where both the end-users and the employees benefit tremendously. To achieve this admirable objective; their plan includes recruiting the best talent, elevating compensation, providing proper tools, and training, rewarding, and recognizing accomplishments and supporting employees’ growth and development opportunities. These leadership traits and behaviors help create an environment of highly satisfied employees and add to the culture of Workplace Excellence!
 

5. Create a culture of Fairness, Integrity, and Personal Growth.

In healthcare support services people not only serve other people, but they also provide comfort, care, and a safe environment. Whether they are serving patients with their meal, cleaning their room, transporting them from their hospital room to the lab and back, they are serving people. Similarly in the restaurant industry people serve other people. In all such instances there is a human interaction that often leaves a lasting impression on the patients or the other end-users. To excel at providing exceptional service, these employees must first experience fairness, respect, appreciation and feel valued by their leader and the organization. It takes a thoughtful, dedicated, engaged and supportive leader to build such a great Workplace Excellence culture.
 

6. Build Great Teams and Make the Organization Better.

Building great teams is hard, but very satisfying and rewarding work. It takes an experienced and thoughtful leader with enormous foresight to build a cohesive and talented team. It takes even more energy and planning to design everyone’s roles and responsibilities. Getting everyone to work together can sometimes be challenging. It takes all team members with different roles and responsibilities to perform cohesively and optimally to achieve the team’s mission and objectives. Successful leaders make sure that each team members’ strengths match the requirements of the role they play. Leaders also look for other admirable traits such as integrity, passion, supportive attitude, and effective communication skills.
 

7. Communicate Effectively.

One of the most noticeable and admired abilities that great leaders possess is that they communicate effectively. Whether in person speaking one-on-one, in a small group meeting, or making a presentation to a larger audience, they know how to get the message across in a simple and positive manner. They know exactly what to say, how to say it, and what the audience needs to retain. They believe it is their responsibility to articulate the message, convey it in a manner that engages the listener, and that the message is received as intended. Some leaders have this ability naturally, while others develop this important skill over time.
 

Summary.

To build a culture of Workplace Excellence in the hospitality services industry, it takes a visionary, thoughtful, committed, and passionate leader with many inspirational and impeccable qualities. They communicate effectively and practice kindness, humility, inclusiveness, empathetic listening, and promote teamwork. Everyone on their team supports and respects each other. These leaders celebrate the team’s individual and organizational successes. They recognize and reward hard work and accomplishments of their people. They inspire their people and create more leaders along the way!

If you want to build your own culture of excellence, Mr. Shiekh has authored a book for hospitality leaders dedicated to this topic. Check out, If You Build It, They Will Excel.
 
Khalid Shiekh – Consultant Healthcare Support Services
May 1, 2023