After twenty-five years in the hospitality business, I state categorically that poor service comes from poor leadership.

Show me an operation with shoddy, inconsistent service, and I'll show you an organization lacking in leadership. This observation flows naturally from the understanding that leaders who recognize service problems in their organization take corrective action. They set priorities, establish a plan of action, lead employees to execute the plan, and follow through to completion.

Why, then, is poor service so often the rule rather than the exception? In my career I have met many competent, hard-working, and professional general managers who voice a clear and unequivocal service vision for their operations. They understand the need for well-defined standards, thorough training of employees, and constant reinforcement of service ideals. Yet they struggle to establish and maintain high standards of service. While we all recognize the many demands on our time, the challenge of employee turnover, the training burden in a detail-intensive business, time constraints, and ever-present budget pressures, these are not the root problem.

The most significant source of the problem is the lack of well-developed and consistent leadership skills among subordinate managers, those who direct the day to day activities of the operation's line employees. While Senior Executives and the General Manager may clearly understand and articulate the requirements of service, unless that "gospel" is communicated faithfully, consistently, and continuously to line employees by their immediate supervisors, there is a breakdown in the service message.

Some supervisors demonstrate exceptional leadership skills, but many do not. Often my biggest challenges were created by supervisors who did not treat their employees properly, who did not communicate expectations, and who did not understand the basic requirements of managing people. These profound failings were crippling to the organization and required many hours of counseling, training, and, in some cases, terminations to remedy.

In time I realized that training line employees to smile and be friendly was a waste of time until I could be assured that my supervisors developed basic leadership skills. From that point on I focused my efforts on training supervisors. Regardless of background or education I wanted them to learn to be effective leaders, to paint and preach a vision of excellence, establish goals, communicate expectations, provide support and training to their employees, and solve the inevitable problems that arise when people work in a service context.

The training called for a clear set of guiding principles that would shape our efforts. I made it clear that our employees were truly our most important resource and must be treated with dignity and respect. Supervisors were told that their primary job was to provide direction, support, and training for their employees and that, based on their experience or education, I held them to a higher standard. I also provided detailed guidance and training on how to develop line employees and correctly counsel and discipline when necessary. Finally, I put a positive emphasis on communication and problem discovery. In time these concepts were formalized into a leadership guide that I issued to newly hired supervisors.

How successful was I in achieving my ends? Frankly, the results were mixed. While many supervisors responded positively, others seemed incapable or unwilling to grasp basic leadership principles. After much invested time and effort, these individuals were encouraged to take their talents elsewhere. But on the whole, the effort yielded improved employee morale, lower turnover, better two-way communication, and a more upbeat, team spirit among all staff.

Consistency and high levels of service will always be a challenge in our industry. Without competent and committed leaders at all levels, General Managers will always be trying to "do it all." In time they will burn out or be forced to compromise their standards. In either case the result is service breakdown.

Note:
Ed Rehkopf is the President of Professional Business Communications, a company providing written documentation to the hospitality industry. He is the author of Leadership on the Line, A Guide for Hospitality and Service Sector Supervisors and is currently working on a book on hospitality benchmarking. He can be reached at REHKOPF6@aol.com.