Leadership on the Line: A Guide for Front Line Supervisors, Business Owners, and Emerging Leaders, 2nd Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Leadership is one of those things that everyone recognizes when they see it but is difficult to define. Part of the problem is that it has so many forms. There is leadership on the battlefield, in the boardroom, in the factory, at academic institutions, in sports teams, in other words there is a leader in just about every activity involving more than one person. It is also a hard activity to carry out, because in nearly all cases the authority that the leader exercises is not based on any authoritarian right. Successful leadership is a partnership between the leader and the led, which means that the leader derives a great deal of their authority from the consent of the governed.
In this book, Rehkopf discusses the strategies good leaders employ from the perspective of the hospitality industry. He has managed hotels and resorts and opened golf and country clubs. His knowledge of the subject matter is thorough, yet his main themes are simple. If you are a manager, interact with your people, take an interest in their welfare and listen to their concerns. Leadership by controlling force is a managerial dead end, it works for a short time, as eventually people will leave. The first to leave will of course be your good people, as they are the ones with the most pride in their work and can more easily find another job.
The advice offered up in this book is sound, the American business world would be much more efficient if more managers were to follow it. Unfortunately, that is not the case. For a variety of reasons, so many managers choose to insulate themselves from their workers. While some professional distance is necessary in the work place, there are times when the human element must take precedence. By applying the basic courtesies of human interaction, good managers can motivate to an extent that no threat can ever achieve.
This book contains a simple blueprint for successfully managing a business in the hospitality industry. As such, all that aspire to or are currently managing in the business would be aided by reading and applying the advice.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Leadership on the Line: A Guide for Front Line Supervisors, Business Owners, and Emerging Leaders, 2nd Edition

A primer on leadership for front line supervisors, business owners, and emerging leaders everywhere. Easy-to-read, inspirational, and with plenty of real life examples, the concepts in this book are broad enough to apply anywhere in any industry attempting to deliver high quality service and to develop employees to their fullest potential.

Get 5% OFF

Click here for more information about Leadership on the Line: A Guide for Front Line Supervisors, Business Owners, and Emerging Leaders, 2nd Edition

Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Chip Conley has a bold vision - he wants to use his company as an instrument to make the world a better place. Rarely have I heard a businessman state his vision so boldly and this alone deserves a cheer.
Joie de Vivre - a lot of persons will learn to pronounce this soon! - is a boutique hotel chain and each property is unique. I have stayed at two and I can testify that the servce is outstanding. If ever you find yourself in San Francisco stay at the Miyako in the heart of Japantown. The faux ricepaper screens and artwork will make you feel as if you are in Japan and the deep granite soak tub and private sauna in the suite will round out the feeling.
Chip draws heavily from the work of Abraham Maslow in running his business. Maslow, as any MBA will tell you, is the guy who came up with the notion of the "hierarchy of needs" which postulates that all humans have basic needs for things like food and shelter and, as these are satisfied, higher order needs like belonging and esteem open up. At the top is "self-actualization" which is a need to realize one's full potential. What I did not know till I read this book is that Maslow had spent a lot of time pondering the implications of his theory for business and had actually recorded his thoughts in books many of which are now out of print. I will now scour the Internet for these.
Chip's genius is that he came up with an organized and disciplined method of applying these principles to his operations. The book is basically divided into three parts - one dealing with employees, one with customers and the final one with investors. For each of these, he offers tips on how to meet their lower order needs and then lead the way to them fulfilling their higher order needs and seeing that they are doing so.
He walks his talk. For example, during the double whammy of the dot.com meltdown and the 9/11 induced travel recession the hotel industry in California fell off a cliff. Conley took no salary for more than three years maxing out his credit cards to live and persuaded his senior executives to take 10% pay cuts. In his own words "...you make the right choice and acknowledge that yur lowest-paid employees deserve the greatest support during the most difficult times." What a contrast from the typical approach of firing dozens of the rank and file while preserving top-management perks!
Half of Joie de Vivre's employees clean toilets and make beds, but Chip has them feeling valued and and instituted recognition programs that move them up Maslow's hierarchy. For example, even chambermaids get to stay free for a couple of nights at any of the chain hotel so they can experience the service as a customer. I want to make an important point here and this I got from personal conversations with him. He doesn't just make employess FEEL valued. He DOES value them and looks out for what he can do to make their lives more meaningful. In fact his life's meaning derives from success in doing so. So there are things like sabbaticals for employess and many other perks that you willfind out about when you read the book.
Customers are easy to fit in to the hierarchy. A lot has been written about how to deliver great customer service and Chip does his bit with things like clearly communicating what each of his hotels stands for. He trains all his employees - particularly porters, desk clerks and others who interact with guests - to lookout for ways in which to delight customers. Thus, for example, a guest celebrating a birthday will receive a cake or special gift. Good section with lots of examples from other companies, but nothing stand-out here.
Investors are another story. I have never heard it explicitly mentioned that entrepreneurs should satisfy investors basic need - for return on investment and safety of principal for instance - and then move them higher up the scale as well. But Chip does this in various ways from only selecting investors who are aligned with his own values to drawing them into his vision for what each property is and can be. He describes a process where every consittuency, including investors, provides ideas about how to uniquely position each prospective hotel.
Conley totally disagrees with conventional wisdom that states 1) Money is the primary motivator for employees. He demonstrates that they come alive when you address thier higher order needs. 2) Customers stay loyal when they are satisfied. Satisfied customers are the minimum level to stay in business. You have to continually earn their loyalty by delighting them. and 3) Investors are exclusively focused on financial returns. This is important, but they will cut you a lot of slack if you keep them informed and make them feel as if they are in a cause that they believe in.
So, read this book and become an entrepreneur and do likewise. And please, pretty please with sugar and cream, let me buy some your stock BEFORE you go public.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)

Get 34% OFF

Click here for more information about Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)