The one mistake virtually every young manager in the hospitality industry makes is that they all try to do too much. This is understandable, especially for managers taking on their first job or managers getting promoted to department heads or higher for the first time. Rather than lean on your staff, you feel as though you must do everything on your own to ensure it is done properly. This only ensures one thing, though, and that is that virtually nothing will be completed properly and far more will be missed since you are directly involved in every aspect of the business.
First and foremost, realize that in order to get promoted, you need to make other staff promotable, which means training your staff members in every aspect of the job. Second, you simply cannot do everything on your own, which is why some department managers have staffs in the dozens. Rather than being underwater all day, every day, working 70-hour workweeks and working seven days a week, start thinking about delegating some of your tasks out to managers and crew leaders in your department.
Identify and Define Delegatable Tasks
There are obviously some tasks you are not going to be able to delegate, but a large portion of the basic tasks under your purview are delegatable tasks. For instance, if your boss wants you to improve dessert sales, have a supervisor come up with half a dozen ways to improve dessert sales by 15 percent. When you delegate a task, give clearly defined goals and rules for the employee(s) to follow to ensure their success.
Create Delegation Committees
Some tasks, due to their nature, may be too complex for one person to handle. Employees love recognition, so name a committee to address specific challenges and assign multiple employees (and at least one supervisor) to be on the committee. Give them their task, outline the goal and rules as mentioned above, the schedule them time each day or week to work on this task. Assign a leader to the committee (this will help with his or her leadership skills) and have him or her keep you updated on the committee’s progress. When the task has been completed, conduct a meeting that will include all members of the committee to discuss their possible solutions.
After the committee has reached its conclusions and presented them to you, allow them to implement the final solution to the challenge presented. There may need to be adjustments to their proposal along the way, so build time for these “adjustments” into your ultimate timeline for everything to be in place. This entire process will help every staff member involved improve in their understanding of the business as well as their leadership skills.
About That Free Time…
Initially, delegating tasks will take considerable time, as you are going to have to directly oversee your staff members as they learn their new tasks but eventually, these tasks will be off your plate and onto theirs. You will notice that you are no longer required to work seven days a week, 70 hours a week, but that does not necessarily mean you get to slack off, either.
It is now up to you to make better use of your time. It is now time to make yourself even more promotable with cross-training and learning your direct supervisor’s job. For instance, for a banquet manager, the next step would be a Food & Beverage Director. You cannot expect to be promoted without already knowing and understanding the role the F&B plays at your property, so approach your F&B about creating a development plan that will allow you to learn his or her position and prepare you for the next step.
Additionally, start to expand your knowledge beyond your department. Using the banquet manager again as an example, catering sales would be a natural transition into a different department within the hotel. After getting approval from the F&B, approach the Catering Director about possibly allowing you to shadow a catering sales agent or the actual Catering Director on slower days or days when you know you will have available time to learn the position. The more knowledge you possess, the stronger your bargaining power for promotion or in placing yourself ahead of the competition when searching for a new position.
Interested in obtaining the top talent in the hospitality industry for your hotel or hospitality organization? JDI can help! Joseph David International is one of the top-rated hospitality recruiters year in and year out because we work hard to find the ideal fit for both the candidate and our clients. For more information about our hotel executive recruiting services, click here.