Details In Business Blog

Keith Schofield
Restaurant Consultant
Details In Retail
Director of Restaurant Operations
The Townsend Hotel

Webster’s defines Value as:

1. the price or cost of something
2. usefulness or importance
3. a strongly held belief about what is important

No thing has any inherent value beyond that which an individual ascribes to it (i.e. value is relative). The primary objective in the hospitality industry is to discover what hidden value each guest desires and illuminate (deliver) it.

The primary objective in successfully managing (leading) people is to understand the value hierarchy held by each employee and motivating/teaching accordingly. I strongly suspect that in the given economic climate, understanding and exploiting (making productive use of) definition # 3 is more critical than ever in achieving these objectives.

From an employee perspective, financial growth and security (definition #1- price/cost/wage) have become fiction. Value in this sense is dictated strictly by what is necessary to survive. The same can be argued for #2. Maintaining a roof over ones’ head and feeding the children resonates; driving a nicer car is meaningless in light of that reality.

Our effectiveness as leaders, and our ability to nurture and grow both our employees and client base will be largely predicated upon our understanding of these personal motivations (definition #3).  As leaders, we will need to listen more closely, ask more pointed questions, and pay more attention to not only what is said, but what is left unsaid.

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