Page 124 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 2: EMPOWER THROUGH TRUST
now available provides great opportunity for us to understand
the essential components of long-term, effective leadership. And
yet, our newspapers and newscasts remind us daily not of our
leaders’ effectiveness but rather of their failures. It is important
that we expect leaders to be role models and to lead us in pro-
ducing significant results. The standards and values that they live
by set the bar for the others in the organization.”
While human failings occur with Ritz-Carlton leadership, the
standard has been set to foster trust, and it is producing results
that trickle down to the day-to-day experience of frontline work-
ers. Julie Lytle, executive assistant of rooms at The Ritz-Carlton,
Laguna Niguel, appreciates the unique attention to employees’
needs. “I know this sounds less than objective, but I can’t imag-
ine a more respectful environment from the application process,
through orientation, and into the daily training. The leadership
lives the Employee Promise. They continue to help me feel spe-
cial and valued. They spend so much time, money, and effort
welcoming, nurturing, and putting all of us in the places where
we need to be to serve the guest.”
Clearly, leadership at Ritz-Carlton understands the impor-
tance of creating an environment of respect at all touch points
in the employee’s journey, but additionally they appreciate the
benefits of allowing staff to grow in the direction of their interests.
Julie continues, “There’s a lot of opportunity to move around
within the hotel. Ritz-Carlton routinely promotes or hires from
within. The individual hotels and the company itself are very sup-
portive if you want to try new things, and they offer an online
process to do that. I started at Ritz-Carlton in 1989 as an on-call
banquet server and then became a full-time banquet server. Over
the years I’ve been a telephone operator, front-office agent, front-
office team leader, and now executive administrative assistant. The
whole philosophy is that we’re a team and we don’t separate our-
selves into different areas, while at the same time we have ample
opportunities for movement within our hotel or in hotels
throughout the world. I know I could take what I have learned

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