If your team can't move without your approval - you're not leading!
This is not uncommon amongst many leaders. Call it micro-managing or whatever, but many leaders simply cannot accept that there are others who can carry out a task or job as well as they can, or are afraid to let go of control. It is often caused by distrust or fear of imperfection. It takes a strong leader to realize this, then take a leap of faith and make a change.
My son who is an Automotive Journalist and Marketer was invited by the local agent of a well known Japanese auto maker to test drive the latest model that was brought down by the agent to sell in the local market. A date and time to do the ‘test drive’ was mutually agreed upon between himself and the marketing manager. When he drove up to the showroom at the appointed day/time, he found that he could not do the scheduled test drive that day since the marketing manager had forgotten to obtain the Head of Marketing’s prior approval.
I get it that there are managers and workplaces that do expect low-rung employees to request permission every time for things like this. What I cannot understand is why this marketing manager was unable to decide to proceed with the test drive exercise as planned? He is not an entry-level or low rung employee who hasn’t seen the Pros-and-Cons list or has not been taught how to make decisions within his sphere of work. Mind you, this was a middle- or higher-level member of the organisation’s hierarchy.
Business success is not cemented just with smart processes and the latest technology or product, but with empowered employees. When workers are given autonomy to make decisions without asking permission first, you not only provide great service to the customer but also to the employee, Usually that translates to higher staff morale, lower employee turnover and elevated internal satisfaction ratings. When you remove barriers to service excellence, loyalty follows.
What comes immediately to my mind is the Ritz Carlton rule where every employee, from housekeepers to managers, could spend up to $2,000 per guest, per incident. No approval required; no questions asked. It was a rule that was introduced by Horst Schulze in 1983, based on his radical belief that luxury wasn't about opulent spaces. It was about making people feel at home, by trusting that their needs would be met instantly…without hesitation, without bureaucracy.
His extraordinary move revolutionized luxury hospitality whilst conventional hoteliers thought he'd gone crazy. He hadn’t! The genius in this move was that each $2,000 "investment" secured decades of loyalty, with the average lifetime value of a Ritz guest hitting the $250,000 mark. The rule had one profound focus: to build trust.
Let’s be clear. Horst Schultz while placing implicit trust on the capabilities of his employees didn’t give them authority merely by telling them “do anything necessary to keep our guests happy” and gave them the license to spend $ 2000/- without ensuring that they received some training and a framework for them to make decisions.
The first step was to give teams permission to make decisions and lay the foundation to make their own decisions. By providing this kind of training early on, such as coaching them to make decisions in an informed, logical, strategic and integrity-based way the Ritz Carlton had the opportunity to grow and nurture their employees to be strong assets and independent thinkers.
Four decades later, this one simple rule continues to define luxury hospitality at the Ritz Carlton hotels.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Motivational Speaker, Ex-Hotelier
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