Page 108 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 2: EMPOWER THROUGH TRUST
want to keep it fresh and as hot as possible. Service doesn’t start
until 12:30 p.m., and we have to plate everything up over 45
minutes; the chef has an estimate of how many people he will
need. As the food comes down, the servers allow the office people
to do all the detail, and they start getting tables set. First we will
be stacking chairs, garbage will be picked up, and the dividing
walls will either be put up or taken down. The maître d’ or direc-
tor will use a microphone, telling us where the bread and butter
goes and the salt and pepper.”
When senior leaders pitch in with frontline workers to get
a job done, they demonstrate that service must be delivered uni-
versally on behalf of coworkers in order for it to maximally occur
for customers. Esezi Kolagbodi, doorman at The Ritz-Carlton,
Berlin, discusses the impact of leaders sharing the workload: “I
appreciate my company because a supervisor is never too impor-
tant to drive a car down for me, the doorman. And the hotel man-
ager assists me in carrying luggage without my saying a word. In
short, it’s a place where leaders show you that we are all one,
where leadership is not saying it, but doing it. And I mean in all
areas of the hotel.”
This spirit of leadership through teamwork is reflected also
in the comments of Ricco de Blank, general manager of The
Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo, who notes, “Service must start with me.
Service is what makes us Ritz-Carlton. Others can copy the de-
sign of a hotel or make a better design, but great service lasts for-
ever. I eat in the employee dining room. I serve the employees’
lunch on Saturday. I paint their locker room. It is the least I can
do since they run the hotel.” By encouraging lateral service,
cross-training organically occurs, departments become less iso-
lated from one another, and staff members gain a greater empa-
thy for the functions of those in other areas of the business.
While some leaders might think customers cannot infer the
quality of training offered inside of a business, Robin Sanders of
Sanders Travel Centre disagrees. “I think Ritz-Carlton offers the
best training at all levels of their business,” she remarks. “Other

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