By conscientiously following and practicing the principles of leadership, by working to develop the traits of service-based leadership, you can become an effective leader in any situation.

As a first-time leader in the service industry, your focus should be on those employees who make up your service team.

Leading Your Service Team
Line employees are the most important staff a company has because they interface directly with customers. Their daily performance in meeting customers' needs establishes and maintains a company's good name and reputation. Clearly their performance is critical to a company's success.

Shoddy, surly, disorganized, and inconsistent service are clear signs of a lack of leadership. Employees are not to blame; rather it is management that must be held accountable. Conversely, high standards of service flow naturally from effective leaders. Your service team's performance is a direct result of your leadership. This leadership must include taking personal responsibility, possessing the will to lead, owning your failures, effectively utilizing your resources, and knowing your limits.

The Freedom of Taking Personal Responsibility
Personal freedom is often thought of as the absence of responsibility. In this respect, no one is free. Everyone is responsible for and to someone else. There is, however, a freedom that comes from accepting personal responsibility for oneself and one's sphere of influence.

When you blame no one else for the challenges you face, when you realize that where you stand today is the result of all your past decisions and indecision, you look to the true source of any difficulties. It is never the undefined "they." It is always the ever present "I."

Realizing this is the true source of your freedom. Instead of being buffeted to and fro by uncontrollable forces, you accept the power of your own authority. For good or ill, you are the one in charge of your life.

For the supervisor, this means that, as you seek opportunity, you also take responsibility for all aspects of your duties. Size up those around you, your superiors, peers, and employees. If they demonstrate responsibility, learn to depend upon them. If they don't, find ways to compensate for their inadequacies. In the case of your employees, take action as necessary.

In the end, you are the only one responsible for your success or failure. If something goes wrong, there is always more you could have done. In the case of the truly unexpected event, it's not so much what went wrong as how you respond to it. Instead of blaming circumstances or others, take responsibility to make things right. By accepting this degree of personal responsibility, you free yourself from the unpredictability of life and those around you.

The Will to Lead
Taking personal responsibility equips you to assume a leadership role. But the will to lead is a far cry from being willing to lead. A good number of people are willing to accept positions of leadership. But accepting and exercising leadership are two very different matters.
Having the will to lead implies a commitment to face whatever challenges may present themselves. Simply put, it's the will to make things happen. Consider this example.

Bob was the front desk manager of an older hotel. Hospitality was his profession, but running was his passion. Each day at lunchtime, regardless of the weather, he took a five-mile run. After running he used the employee locker room to change and shower before returning to work.

The poor sanitation and maintenance of the locker rooms disgusted Bob, but for a long time he said nothing. Finally, he had had enough and announced at a staff meeting that the employees deserved better and that he was going to petition the General Manager to clean and fix up the locker rooms.

One of the other supervisors commented that it would be a waste of time and that they would quickly return to their former condition. He said that the employees didn't care and wouldn't keep them up. Bob responded that it didn't matter whether the employees cared or not – he did!

Over the next few weeks with the General Manager's blessing, Bob organized the maintenance and housekeeping staffs to scrape and repaint walls, strip and refinish the floor, replace broken and unserviceable lockers, and improve the lighting. Then he got the General Manager to assign different departments the rotating duty of keeping the locker rooms clean. Finally, he checked them daily for several months to ensure that they were being properly maintained.

The end result was improved employee morale and a changed attitude about their locker rooms. Employees did care – they just needed someone to lead the way and to overcome the erroneous notion that they didn't. They needed Bob's "will to make things happen."

Owning Your Failures
When you or those you lead fail in any way, don't make excuses. While there may be mitigating circumstances, you must take responsibility for the failure. Whether you didn't plan or train well enough, you didn't devote the proper time or resources to the matter, you didn't establish priorities, or you underestimated the situation, the bottom line is that you failed. But failure can become your most valuable learning tool!

Rather than casting about for others to blame, carefully analyze what led to the failure and see what you might have done differently to achieve a positive outcome. This approach accomplishes two very important things:

· You establish your personal responsibility and authority, and
· You analyze and learn from your mistakes.

Do not be afraid to make mistakes. No one is error free, and those claiming to be take few risks. Leadership is distinguished by leading, not by hanging back in the pack. When you step forward to lead, you risk the chance of highly visible missteps. Remember that experience and "trial and error" can be life's most powerful instructors.

Often the greatest lessons are learned from mistakes. Winning breeds a sense of supremacy and complacency; whereas losing encourages critical review. Keep this in mind as you blunder along the way. While I've had some success in my career, I can honestly say that my most memorable lessons came from mistakes and failure.

Years ago in my first hotel, I took a proprietary interest in all aspects of the operation to the point of guarding its assets as if they were my own. While caring about one's operation is laudable, in one case I clearly lost sight of the larger picture.

One busy football weekend I was monitoring activity near the front entrance. A gentleman passed me carrying one of our beer glasses. I approached him and politely asked him if I could return the glass to the bar for him. One thing led to another until we had a full-blown confrontation over a 79-cent glass.

In hindsight this upsetting incident was unnecessary. Glassware loss from breakage and pilferage is part of the cost of doing business. The time and emotional aggravation related to this incident were not worth the insignificant cost of the glass. Add to this the complete alienation of a customer and all the people to whom he related his "horror" story.

Since that time I have come to understand that there are a number of "costs" in business that should be monitored and controlled in a systematic way, not by personal confrontation. This lesson learned was a small one, but one I will never forget.

Effectively Using Your Limited Resources
There is far more to do every day than you can possibly accomplish. As a supervisor, where you apply your time and energy is of critical importance to your team's efforts and success. Avoid frittering away your personal resources on marginal activities. Focus on the important things that will make a difference in your team's performance.

To do this you should make a list of the key items on which to focus and have a long-term plan of improvement for your operation, as well as a list of needed projects to accomplish. Despite the daily distractions and crises that inevitably come up, keep your focus on those key items. When things slow down or windows of time open up, refocus yourself and your team on those important goals.

It's also helpful to get away from your operations, even for just a day. Being away from the day-to-day problems will give a broader perspective on the issues you face and will help you recognize where to apply yourself.

Recognizing the Limits of Your Influence
Being an effective supervisor requires that you understand the parameters of your authority and the extent of your sphere of influence. For instance, what should you do when you report to a superior who lacks essential leadership skills?

Remember the freedom of taking personal responsibility. You cannot control your boss' skill or lack of it, but instead of getting upset, focus on what you can control. Do everything in your power to be the best leader you can be. Try to insulate your team from the worst effects of the situation. Do not disparage your boss in front of your employees. They will size up the situation quickly enough and will respect you even more for not trying to make him or her look bad.

Possibly your efforts will have a positive effect on your boss. If your area of the operation is performing well because of your leadership, it may cause him or her to take notice. Maybe your boss will become curious enough to ask about the secrets of your success. In any case, focus on your own efforts. If the situation should become untenable, remember that you retain ultimate control over your future and can make the appropriate decision at any time.

Understanding the limits of your influence also entails the recognition that you have more impact and control over your employees than you do your other constituencies. Your customers are removed from your direct influence since they are served by your employees. For the most part your influence on customers is secondhand.

Farthest removed from your influence are your company's shareholders. Unless as owners they take a direct role in your company, they are usually absent from the operation. Their role and status with the company is still of major importance, but their interests are served at a distance.

So as you work to accomplish your company's goals, concentrate on those nearest at hand and those over whom you have the greatest influence – the employees on your service team. If they do their jobs with enthusiasm and a sense of service, the needs of your other constituencies will also be met.


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.