Every once in awhile an author’s think-piece hits the bulls-eye. A recent article by Elizabeth Green titled “Building a Better Teacher” (New York Times, March 7, 2010) does just that. But what does this have to do with hospitality? Actually, it’s a no-brainer.
Ms. Green describes how a veteran educator now working as a turn-around consultant came to the realization that despite all his knowledge and skills, he had no clue how to advise poor-performing schools to accomplish their main purpose: how to teach. So he set about researching what makes a great teacher, how can new teachers be trained to be more effective from their first day in the classroom, and how can the quality of teachers already in classroom be improved. The intended result is to produce a better product – fully-educated students capable of achieving success both academically and socially.
This isn’t far off from what we expect of our supervisors in hospitality. We expect them to educate employees to become fully capable contributors and to create outstanding guest experiences thus contributing to an increase in revenues and profits. We expect our supervisors to be accountable leaders.
In sum, teaching is all about leadership. And leadership is all about teaching. The two are almost synonymous.
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