I always tried to successfully transmit the vision of the organisation to the followers and, at the same time, emphasise the importance of the staff for the hotel be cause without people, no organisation can survive. I constantly tried to motivate and empower the trainees. This was one of my responsibilities for their internship in the hotel where I worked. In addition, I was the leader for all banqueting and some events in our main restaurant. My goal has started by giving each employee an important duty and generating awareness of the importance of the purpose of the organisation and task outcomes. Through daily meetings in the morning I asked what we were supposed to do and achieve in that particular day. The trainees worked with function sheets carefully prepared by myself, so they had all the further information about their daily and weekly tasks. As the leader I gave them an idea how it could be done but always asking for better solutions. I wanted them to think and give me their ideas. It was always an interesting experience how these young followers appreciated to have responsibility. Some improved themselves and others just took advantage of the situation of not being controlled. In my case, I knew that I had to be careful but I tried everyday to show the followers that it was for their own development and that each one of them could take the best piece of the cake out. I needed to analyse their characters, how much they were interested in the job and whether they were willing to learn or do some time pass. Even for those who thought it would be holiday it was a hard duty to change their mentality. The positive result was to see how some employees have changed their vision and attitude towards the company and colleagues. Without any doubt, giving a certain level of responsibility to trainees is always risky. However, they recognised that I gave them a big task to do. They realized that the risk was now in their hands so they wanted to do the best to satisfy their leader.
It is also important that the followers know the leader is available anytime. My office door was always opened for any problems or questions. As I could see, everybody enjoyed and appreciated such attitude. As leader, I was open to hear what they think or feel about their job and matters. Trustworthiness was therefore created and I did my best to keep it at the highest level every and single day of work.
Desired learning
My experience until today is in my opinion a solid base, I will improve my leadership everyday through learning about others, my daily process of learning, talking with employees to find out what they would like to do and listening what they have to tell me about their job or about their subordinates/leaders. How can I become a better leader in the near future? My behaviour, as a combination of task and relationship, should guide me to become a good leader. The task behaviour is the level to which I provide directions for the actions of the followers, I set goals and I define their roles and how to assume them. The relationship behaviour is the level which I engage in two way communication with followers, listen to them and provide support and encouragement.
Furthermore, I will take the importance of developing the ability, confidence, and commitment of the subordinates. As a future leader, I should help the followers to develop their willingness and confidence to the extent that they are able and enthusiastic to perform whatever they are assigned to. I will also bring learning to work, that we hold meetings about new projects I want that the subordinates are involved, that they feel they represent much more than just workers. In these meetings, I should attend participation from everybody; development of our work should be our success in the future. These meetings should also help each person to self develop in order to grow personally and professionally. In addition, I believe meetings are important as they provide me a chance to motivate my staff and empower each one of them.
A further point in my leadership skills where I see room for improvement is the transmission of knowledge between leader and subordinates. Barriers, or simply the fact that your staff not familiar with something, can hold them back. Such fact is avoidable, the followers have to know as much as possible in order to enhance performance and help the team to reach the companies goals. Such exchange of knowledge is essential for any company, especially a multicultural one. If my objective is to become an appreciated leader, I should be able to communicate efficiently with my staff.
Hospitality industry is mostly a multicultural industry. Therefore, as a leader, I should be able to adapt to different cultures and understand different behaviours and skills. Another point in becoming a good hospitality leader is the perception of a problem before it even occurs. I teach my employees to predict situations and they should be able to find solutions about every matter without forgetting that I am always available to listen to them. In my future career as a leader I intend to create a successful team which is able to improve and learn about new things in the same way I do. I would like that they learn from me as I learn from them. Learning, being open, helping and motivating, empowering people and showing a trustful behave character are my essential tools to become a more successful leader in my future career.
Once the employees and I recognize and accept each others cultural values and upbringings we begin to work out alternative methods of not only improving employee moral but also increasing job productivity.
References
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Sashkin M., Sashkin M. G., (2003) Leadership that Matters,
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc
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Hall J., Johnson S., Wysocki A. and Kepner K., (unknown) Transformational Leadership: The Transformation of Managers and Associates. URL:
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Anonymous, (2004) Culture change as Transformational, URL:
http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/teaching/338/transformationalleadership.htm
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Goleman D, (1998) What makes a Leader?
Harward Business Review
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Prentice W. C. H., (1961) Understanding Leadership
Harward Business Review
