Would you like to make your Organization the best? Here’s how!

Organizations we work in are much more than structures of mortar, glass and steel. They are actually living things that breathe, inhale and exhale energy and embody characteristics and emotions mirroring all of us who come in and work here. 

The kind of Organizations we represent can be underlined in three important constituent elements – 

 Progressive Organizations as edifices of good energy.

 Complex Organizations as matrixes of dynamic traits and mindsets of its workforce.

 Individual-focused Organizations with significance to the unique disposition and value that each of us brings.

We, as complex beings, need to be mindful of all these elements.

Progressive Organizations as edifices of good energy

People-centric organizations such as hotels, hospitals, educational institutions and the like are a world unto themselves. These are people-rich businesses like no other - both on the inside and out - such that for them to be a successful and harmonious venture there must be thoroughly trained and rightly attuned ladies and gentlemen serving discerning ladies and gentlemen (borrowing from and re-phrasing Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company’s Rule of Business).

A Progressive Organization is where we can achieve more than we could in a mediocre one. A Progressive Organization buzzes with happy employees and happier guests! In contrast, commonplace organizations are those where the only thing that attracts the guests is the off-season discounts.

We all have worked in both kinds of organizations. There, really, is no ideal organization but both companies, leaders and the team endeavour to make it a win-win place by benchmarking brand values and evolving the brand ethos.

Most of us want to work with wonderfully progressive organizations with utopian work environments without realizing that each of us is an essential cog in the corporate wheel. We as micro components and as a whole make the hotel or any other Company what it is – whether in tandem or in conflict with the hotel’s parent philosophy.

We must do a lot of internalization and introspection in order to make our organizations optimum places to be in. So, the buck must stop with us and not the Hotel owner, Corporate Training Manager, the General Manager or our Department Head alone. 

Organizations are complex 

Every place has its mixed dynamics as much as there is a mesh of people who work there and bring in their set of values, drives and energies adding to or depleting the corporate culture.

I used to lament about the deep-rooted politics, credit-stealing, clique driven and yes-man culture in one of my previous hotels. And now when my niece talks about her experience with a Swiss 
MNC or a progressively Indian Legal Services / Development sector and my husband brings his woes from the Consumer Durables line of business, I notice that things are not very different. 

And that the more the companies may be different in their areas and appeal, the more they are the same in their cultural dynamics. 

In the hospitality industry, the issue is compounded by the power of ten. After all, it is a business of the people, by the people, for the people; to shamelessly borrow from one of Abraham Lincoln’s famous thoughts. 

No organization is immune to the extremely complex and intriguing four categories that a group of people put together in a common work environment bring in, viz. - 

 There are great and efficient workers with questionable personal attributes.

 There are excellent people with a poor set of work-related skills.

 There are pathetic workers with deplorable personas, AND

 There are wonderful, top notch colleagues with exemplary attitudes.

It is, indeed, a mixed bag of thoughts and feelings depending on the personal and professional characteristics of the people in question. Our response to them, our kinetics of equations at work and the interconnected web of relationships therein is a result of the chain of reactions set off by each of these conductors. Isn't it?

Individual-focused Organizations

This finally brings us to the most important element. We, ourselves!

Individual-focussed Organizations encourage the zeal and enthusiasm, individuals bring to the table. Such companies fuel the passion of high performing individuals and charge up the fire-in-the-belly of employees who strive for excellence and optimal result orientation.

Passion for one’s work ensures that the tiller paves smoothly all the paths that lead to his work or Goal. Be it, then, the path of wisdom or desire or honesty or punctuality or efficiency or being not just able to lead but also always blend well with the team.

Enthusiastic employees arm themselves with the essential requisites for the road ahead - such as education or experience – and keep them well honed.

And, if it weren't for the fire-in-the-belly, then serendipity, creative genius, excellence, going beyond the brief and the marvel in the mundane would well be lost.

Individual-focussed Organizations recognize this and inculcate such an environment where these attributes thrive and grow.

Conclusion

Keeping all the above three cogs of the big wheel well oiled and continuously serviced will ensure a smooth and long professional ride in a self-promoted conducive work environment; colour, caste, creed, character, cultural mooring notwithstanding.

The essence of the hotel organization is no different whether you are in an exotic land or by the banks of an azure sea. So employ and integrate these three elements for a winsome formula whether you work in a beach resort in Belize, a luxury Spa in Phuket, the mountaintop  hotel in Swiss Alps, a Palace in India or a Wildlife Sanctuary in South Africa!

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