5 attributes of a good leader

Being in the wedding industry, my wife and I have the experience of working at a lot of different venues. One of things we first notice as we enter each facility is how we are welcomed and treated by the staff. In almost every case, we have found that the attitude of the staff is a reflection of their manager’s attitude. If the staff we first encounter is pleasant and warm, we can usually expect the banquet manager is pleasant and warm. If they are gossipy, rude, or otherwise negative, then our fears are usually correct that the banquet manager has the same negative attitude. 

We recently worked for the first time at a nearby Country Club and we were amazed at how much the staff went out of their way to treat us. They would run to hold a door for us. They constantly checked with us to see if we needed drinks, assistance, anything at all. Any request we made was a pleasure for them to fulfill. We enjoyed our evening so much we had to compliment the banquet manager at the end of the night on, not only her attitude, but the attitude of all of her staff.

Here are some practical steps you can do based on her philosophy she shared and what we’ve experienced, in order to create a winning team.

Lead by Example. There are a few key ingredients here. First of all, she displayed the attitude that she wanted to see in all of her staff. I can’t think of any situation I’ve been in, where an involved manager displays a negative attitude, and the rest of the staff displays a positive attitude. Another ingredient was her being involved. She didn’t sit back and watch and direct her staff. She was involved in every aspect of the evening with them.

Make expectations clear. It is important that each team member knows exactly what is expected of them. With weddings its fairly easy. She wanted her team to do whatever was necessary to treat the guests as…well guests. They were all there for a celebration and it was the staff’s responsibility to help them enjoy the celebration. And that meant having a positive attitude.

Let them see the bigger picture. The staff knew that they weren’t there just to clean up plates with leftovers or to serve water. But they were there for someone’s once in a lifetime wedding day. Its very easy in any job or organization to forget why you are providing a specific service and to focus simply on your own wants and needs. When you lose sight of the bigger picture your attitude changes. So remind your staff frequently of the bigger picture.

Remove non-team players. Likely one of the most difficult tasks, but very essential, is to fire, or otherwise remove, any person on your team who goes against your team’s goals and attitude. I’m not saying the first time someone disagrees with you, to fire them, but if you have someone on your team with a history of causing problems, its best to let them move on to another job. You owe it to the health of the rest of your team.

Praise in Public / Criticize in Private: Reward the actions you want to reinforce. Rewarding can be as simple as a word or praise, or something more tangible like a bonus or time off. They key is to recognize when someone is doing something great. This not only encourages that particular person to continue their excellence, but it also shows every other staff member an example of how they can perform. You would think it would be similar with criticizing, but there is one key difference. You can still make your correction and point in private, but without embarrassing them in front of their peers.

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