by Bryan Williams
Pharrell Williams has an infectious hit song called, Happy. To be honest, it’s hard to not feel happy when you are listening to it. The staff at the Hilton Garden Inn – Maple Grove, MN, probably have that song constantly piping into their employee break room. I travel regularly, and am in hotels all the time. I can confidently say that I’ve NEVER met a more comprehensively happy staff in my life.
I don’t just mean the front desk clerk. I’m talking about the cooks, bussers, housekeepers, and servers. I got to the hotel very late at night after a long day of travel, and the front desk agent made me feel like she had been waiting for me all day. Big smile. Eager. Attentive. She proactively recommended options for places to eat, and even suggested a few menu items. I ended up ordering room service, and the server who delivered the food was super-cheerful as well. And this was after 10PM!
The next morning, I made my way downstairs for breakfast. Again, the server and the cooks were beaming. Oh, and I didn’t mention that the hotel was undergoing a major renovation of the lobby area at the time.
At breakfast, I noticed a lady, who had taken my breakfast order the previous morning. She wasn’t wearing a uniform, so I assumed she was the restaurant manager. Well, I assumed wrong. When I inquired, she was the group sales coordinator. Let me repeat. The Group Sales Coordinator. She was taking food orders, expediting food in the kitchen, serving, bussing, and happy doing it.
I love to see a consistently engaging workplace. It’s one thing to have a few employees who are amazing, but it’s another when amazing is the norm. Here are some tips, for both leaders and line employees, to develop this type of work environment.
*As a leader:
- Set high standards
- Don’t compromise those standards
- Personally model the standards
- Communicate those standards everyday
- Recognize when staff excel at standards (immediately)
- Hold staff accountable when they don’t adhere to standards (immediately)
- Communicate that the opposite of excellence is not “poor”. The opposite of excellence is “indifference”. Do everything in your power to stomp out and cast away any glimmer of indifference (or apathy) on your team.
*As a line employee:
- Come to work with a positive attitude.
o Leave the “drama” elsewhere. Everyone has some type of personal issue that can detract from their mood. Professionals, however, show up and do their job to the best of their ability…or they stay home. They simply can’t bring themselves to give anything less than the best version of themselves.
- Recognize your teammates for a job well done.
- Let your teammates know when you’ve noticed them “slipping”.
o Everyone slips, and needs encouragement. Remember, the first person to see the slipping is not the manager, and not the guest. The first person who sees it is the teammate.
- Work like you are the owner and CEO of your specific job.
- Find the purpose of your work.
o Your job is more than a set of tasks that an employer pays you to do. There is a deeper meaning for why your job exists in the first place. Absolutely nothing in the world creates a happy and productive workplace like meaningful work, done by engaged people. Essentially, how is the company any better because you work there?
I know those all sound like common sense, but they are not commonly done. Regardless of your job title, do everything in your power to promote a happy culture. Understand that you are either adding to OR taking away from the work environment.
Excellence doesn’t have a job title, uniform or pay grade. Anyone, who has honor for what they do, can be excellent. Anyone, who seeks to be more effective tomorrow than they were today, can be excellent. Anyone, who is uncomfortable with imperfection, can be excellent. If you haven’t noticed by now, happiness and excellence go hand-in-hand.
So, despite the geographical setting, both leaders and line employees want the same thing: an engaging and productive workplace, where they are happy to do meaningful work.
