THE ART OF HANDS ON LEADERSHIP

THE ART OF HANDS ON LEADERSHIP

Letter to the Master Butler

Following my recent posts about Butler service, I received this message from someone working in the Maldives.

Hi Wayne,

I was reading your recent post on when Butler service goes wrong and wanted to share with you that it’s not just Butlers. I have worked in the Maldives all my life and I’m yet to understand the value of some of the expats we employ.

We have two senior managers, a GM and a Resort Manager, but after around 6pm we rarely see them in the operation in fact they shy away from anything F&B breakfast and lunch included. The restaurants pretty much run themselves and the guests enjoy our service, so everything appears to be tickety-boo. But I wanted to ask is it normal for senior managers not to be operational?

Our GM has a marketing background and our Resort Manager comes from Rooms, but neither seems particularly interested or visible around the resort at meal times. Corporate HQ visited last week and actually asked some of us, “Where are your managers?” We didn’t know what to say and I was quite embarrassed, I wanted to say we never see them.

So this was my reply: Luxury resorts are increasingly complex businesses and, of course, a General Manager cannot spend every hour walking restaurants, bars, villas and public areas. There are budgets, owners, corporate reporting, strategy, recruitment, commercial meetings and countless other responsibilities.

Visibility is an essential part of leadership? Particularly in a luxury resort environment where guests and employees are living within the same operation 24 hours a day. If the restaurants are busy at 8pm, the bars are operating, guests are dining, complaints are happening, VIPs are arriving and the frontline teams go through a multitude of unique experiences and senior leadership need to be there to see it.

And I agree, what is the purpose of employing international expertise if that expertise isn’t being transferred to the local team? An expat leader should bring experience, coaching, exposure, development and knowledge that ultimately makes the local team stronger.

The objective should be to develop talented Maldivian professionals who can eventually take those positions themselves. Perhaps the real question isn’t: “Where are the managers?” It needs to be “What value does leadership add when the operation appears capable of running without seeing them?”

I learned from the best and every mentor was hands on, operational and inspired local teams to shine brighter. What’s more what do guests expect? I know the answer to that and have seen operations without any leadership presence.