Page 150 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 3: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU
the back seat. Two days later when the valet pulled his car around
for his drive back to the airport, they had a blue Gatorade sitting
in the cup holder. In some companies, the valet would get in
trouble for touching personal items and of course wouldn’t have
removed the old Gatorade or put in a fresh one. At Ritz-Carlton,
the goal is to create an environment where blue Gatorade can
appear almost magically from an engaged workforce.”
Great leaders understand the importance of measuring the
engagement of their staff and strategically addressing ways to
maximize the motivation and passion of their people. They un-
derstand that while engaged staff do not necessarily cause emo-
tionally engaged customers, employee engagement is a necessary
condition for sustained customer loyalty. (Please see Figure 6.3
for the demonstrated correlation between employee engagement
and guest engagement at Ritz-Carlton.)

STRIKING GOLD

D What outside business experts or process leaders do you in-
vite into your company to evaluate the gaps in the quality
of your products, services, or systems?
D Whose processes do you study? Are you conducting site vis-
its to learn world-class best practices? Are the targets of
those site visits consistent with your key business objectives?
Do they involve both senior leadership and project leads?
D Do you measure the emotional engagement of your em-
ployees, either through formal, third-party tools such as the
Gallup Q 12 or more informal means?

D How are you measuring your company’s ability to foster an
ownership position among your employees? Are you as-
sessing the degree to which employees have the materials
and resources they need to do their job?

130