Professionalism
Field Notes 008 · On professionalism
Hospitality is deeply human.
The people who welcome us carry lives beyond the front door.
They arrive having celebrated birthdays, argued with partners, worried about elderly parents, slept badly, laughed with friends or received difficult news.
Guests do exactly the same.
Neither arrives as a blank canvas.
I’ve often thought that professionalism is misunderstood.
It isn’t about suppressing emotion.
Nor is it about pretending that life outside work doesn’t exist.
It asks something much more realistic than that.
To recognise that, for a short period of time, another person’s experience depends upon your ability to be present.
Some days that comes easily.
Others require considerably more effort.
The question for leaders, then, is not whether people should leave their personal lives at the door.
They can’t.
The more important question is whether they’ve created an environment that helps the team carry those things without being overwhelmed by them.
I’ve written previously about pre-meal briefings.
They often focus on bookings, operational details and the day ahead.
Perhaps they should also prepare the people, the team.
Not by asking them to hide what they’re carrying.
But by ensuring they feel supported enough to carry it well.
The strongest hospitality cultures don’t expect perfection from their teams.
They create conditions in which people can ask for help before they reach breaking point.
Where managers know their people well enough to notice when something isn’t right.
Where colleagues naturally step in for one another.
Where support is a proactive part of the culture rather than a response which is probably too late.
When people feel looked after, they are far more capable of looking after others.
This isn’t simply good leadership.
It’s good hospitality.
Guests experience the emotional climate of a business every bit as much as they experience its interiors, its food or its service.
The wellbeing of a team is never hidden.
It reveals itself in the atmosphere.
Professionalism, then, isn’t asking people to become less human.
It is creating an environment where they can remain human, while still delivering the standard of hospitality the guest deserves.
For leaders, perhaps professionalism begins long before service.
It begins with how well you care for the people who will spend the day caring for everyone else.
A question worth exploring is: How do we create the conditions in which the team are genuinely capable of delivering exceptional hospitality?
/Heidi