Contrary to past ideas relating to leadership, contemporary thinking is more common than not along the lines that there is no such thing as a Born Leader. Effective leaders go through a never ending development process. Non-stop learning and non-stop growing.

To run a good hospitality outlet, which is highly guests and staff oriented, there is a need to gain the support of many people (employees, peers, seniors, guests and many other consulting individuals both inside and outside the hotel or restaurant)  if they are going to meet or exceed the objectives of the operation. Effective leaders need to be able to really understand people and be able to relate to them. Hotel and restaurant managers today are less likely to be hidden away in an office in a remote job and isolated away from the day to day routine of the establishment.

When people talk about born leaders in hospitality today, what they are really referring to is the willingness, the desire and the willpower to become an effective leader. Whether heading up a resort, hotel, bar or restaurant, an effective leader process of education, self study, training, experience, coaching and mentoring from one or several individuals.

How do you know if you have the potential to start the journey? For many it is a gut driving force and they feel there is no other avenue for them in life. Then there are the questions to ask themselves: Do they know themselves well? Can they manage themselves well? Do they understand, admit and work on personal weaknesses?

Then there are thee evaluating questions: Do you seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions striving to reach new heights. When things go wrong do you take the blame instead of looking for others to blame. The technical questions: Does problem solving, decision making and planning come natural to you? The personal characteristics: Are you a good role model and do you seek out employees with high potential to coach and mentor? Do you truly believe in the value of your employees sincerely caring about their well being without being so compassionate that it clouds your judgment on competence?

A generic description of a leader is someone who influences, inspires and motivates others to accomplish specific objectives. This includes creating a culture that helps direct the organization in such a way that it makes it cohesive and coherent. What's more, overall strategic initiatives are broken down into short term tactical goals and delivered by you the leader. Employees want to follow a leader they respect, one that gives them a clear sense of direction and a strong vision of the future.

The success of leadership is directly influenced by an individual leaders' beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge and skills. If asked, your employees would  evaluate your leadership abilities by describing your character, integrity and values. Position and title may give power but power itself does not create an effective leader. Leadership training requires dedication, passion and commitment. Leadership requires understanding and mastering a specific skill set.

When self evaluating, you are giving yourself a check up to see if you are honest, ethical, fair, trust worthy and not self serving. If not, employees are likely to obey rather than follow and only do exactly what they are told to do and nothing more. This affects the well being of the organization.

Many managers start with the basics of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, learned at college. They then revisit this later on and see how their individual leadership style is developing. Each and every leader has his/her own shape and style.  Shape and style or leadership model is your manner and way of providing direction, relating to people and motivating them and put plans into action.
 
The internal driving force within the ‘want-to-be-leaders', as with any dedicated professional in any area, will be what makes a difference. It is the passion in the belly that will help you develop a personal leadership methodology and model. 

SpotLight is the weekly column exclusively written for 4Hoteliers.com by Sarah Muxlow, it is highlighting the challenges and issues which the global hospitality is facing today.

Sarah is writing for hotel and restaurant owners, hotel chain managers, producers/growers/sellers of food & beverage, restaurant associations, governing bodies and hotel schools. She is looking at the problems they face...competition, trends of branding, staff shortages, unskilled staff, turning out students who are looking for good in-house management training schemes with hotel chains, what makes a good quality training course at a hotel school and more... 

www.writeup.com.au

Sarah has a large following of regular readers whom are waiting anxiously every week for her material to come out. Why not market your products to this exclsuive group of industry professionals by sponsoring this popular article.