The true measure of a leader is how many leaders are found within their legacy.
It is easy to measure leadership through outcomes. Success metrics tell you how your hospitality product or service resonates with your guests. But carrying those successes into the future will require a team who is both qualified and eager to take them there.
The first step to becoming a better leader is to set yourself up for success. Develop the skill sets employees say allow them to trust a leader. Then delegate with effectiveness and learn new tools of the trade to make that happen.
How to Become a Better Leader
Multiple research studies have informed the characteristics and skill sets employees look for in a leader. Developing them can help you become a better leader and improve the results of you and your team.
Four skill sets consistently found in studies include being decisive, confident, determined, and reliable.
Decisive and confident. To be successful, your staff needs you to know what you want. Be clear. Provide direction, set expectations, and measure the output to identify areas of improvement. From there, adapt the project approach based on the results. As you lead your staff through the process, be confident in your decisions — do not make them arbitrarily. Be ready to explain or defend them with sound reasoning.
Reliable. Leaders can move employees into their own successes by being available to their team members and confident in the direction they’ve given. After giving decisive and confident direction, empower your staff to do the task by giving them the authority and ownership to execute. Let them discover, exercise, and nurture their abilities and talent under your leadership.
Determined. Leadership doesn’t just end after you’ve set up systems to ensure success. Employees need to know that you’re right there with them as they achieve the goals set for them. Don’t change course without clear communication. Show them you’re as committed to their personal and professional goals as much as you’re committed to the goals of the project.
Delegation in Business Techniques
Reaching the goals you’ve set forth requires comfort with delegation. Through delegation, you’re able to achieve the goals you hired your staff to achieve. You’re also able to develop future leaders in the process by providing each of them the opportunity to discover their strengths and talents.
Delegation in leadership is easier said than done, especially if you’re new to management. If your day was once filled with guest interactions and front-desk oversight, it might be hard to take a step back and into the office to manage the tasks of running business operations.
Let go. As simple as it seems, this is the most arduous task many leaders face in their careers. Once upon a time, they were just like their staff. They enjoyed being among guests and out front where the action happens. It’s hard to let that go, but you must learn to do so that the whole team can flourish – including yourself!
Start small. Delegating tasks allows you to learn your staff’s strengths and weaknesses. From there, you can prioritize projects based on the roster of talent available to you and any staff development needs.
Prioritize and provide instructions. As you develop your leadership delegation skills, set up a priority system to determine which tasks remain on your desk and those to be staff-assigned. Consider the skills needed for the task and the effort to complete it. Who is up to the task? Those requiring a high-skill level should remain on your to-do list while you delegate low-effort projects to one or more staff.
Delegate based on skill and provide staff development if necessary. As you improve your delegation skills, gain a firm grasp of the capabilities of each team member, including those needing skills development. You will also need to develop best practices to manage every assigned task.
Technology Available to Lead Your Team
While there aren’t any project management systems specific to the hospitality industry, there are more than enough on the market to allow you to find one that meets your business needs. Wrike, Trello, and Asana lead the pack. Each provides task management, scheduling, and notifications to keep people on schedule. Asana and Wrike also offer data visualization and time management features. Subscription rates are reasonable. Each will help you oversee and lead your team.
If you can’t decide on which one to use, present the pros and cons of each and make it a team-building decision. This helps you to gain buy-in before the system is implemented. Take it one step further and have them build the projects in.
Putting Together Your Delegation Techniques & Leadership Management Skills
The best takeaway from your research on being an effective leader is simple: You can do this. They promoted you to the position because someone who has been there believed you would succeed. By cultivating your own leadership skills and embodying the traits of decisiveness, confidence, determination, and reliability, you are setting yourself, your team, and your hotel up for continued success and growth.
