Professionalism, prowess, and power through `profection`
Mind your Ps and Qs (26)
Tourism`s success has always been predicated on the spirit of hospitality which, to my mind, represents an essential part of the `care economy`. While normally associated with the medical/health sectors, caring has always been about meeting the physical, psychological and emotional needs and requirements of people wherever they are, especially when traveling away from the comforts and safety of their home base.
Just as doctors are judged on how well they listen to and treat those with ailments, study symptoms, share their knowledge and wisdom, and demonstrate their bedside manners, our hosting communities are at their best when their perspectives about care (as a core tenet of hospitality) and decency are similar.
As well as when such perspectives direct them to be concerned about the wellness or well-being of their guests and hosts, create meaningful value and serve to enhance their presence (including the presence of their communities) as a purposeful social and life-affirming practice…revealed genuinely through a natural and unpretentious responsiveness.
Unfortunately, the quality of services provided, and the nature and outcomes of host/guest encounters, can be arbitrary, inconsistent and difficult to control. Such uncertainties can make it difficult for tourism to thrive if entire hosting communities, consisting of different stakeholder groups, fail to demonstrate their passion or care for their communities and each other (for example, consider the problems when there is an inability to offer adequate healthcare).
These are all problems that can be countered by industry leaders and governments who demonstrate through their ethics, value systems, behaviors, actions, and spheres of influence that the concept of caring is or should be non-negotiable, especially among and between employers and employees…everyone deserving respect…everyone’s dignity needing to be protected.
“My appreciation of the power of hospitality and my desire to harness it have been the greatest contributors to whatever success my restaurants and business have had. I learned how crucially important it is to put hospitality to work, first for the people who work for me and, subsequently, for all the other people and stakeholders who are in any way affected by our business – in descending order, our guests, community, suppliers and investors. I call this way of setting priorities “enlightened hospitality”. Danny Meyer, Setting the Table, The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business.
While he might have sung, “I am nothing without you”, it has led many industry leaders, such as Horst Schultze, Ritz Carlton Hotels to recognize the vitality and importance of “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen”, affirmed through utilization of the validation ladder.
Furthermore, countering such problems can also be achieved through corporate and community social innovation, appropriate behavioral change, and the formation of successful private-public relationships and partnerships characterized by a clear business agenda; strong partners committed to change; investments by all parties; rootedness in the community; links to other community organizations; and, a long-term commitment to sustain and replicate the results.
As a phenomenon recorded since the beginning of history, hospitality activities go far beyond the provision of food and drink, accommodation and security. While hospitality takes place in contextually different settings – domestic, commercial and societal – and is assumed to be an ingrained cultural and religious practice, it is not a reliably codified process.
Sure, there may be intentionality to soothe or master the building of relationships between hosts and guests, but evidence of hospitality being disavowed among groups whose views, looks, and behaviors differ, seems to be on the uptick. As a crisis of trust it’s essential we find ways to respond and rectify.
Obviously, the nature and characteristics of hospitality differ in accord with where it occurs – geographic locations – and with the people’s prevailing cultural and religious customs and expectations. In commercial as well as other settings, its application is always determined by the application of ingrained knowledge, the capability and skills of hosts, and the varying needs, requirements, expectations of, and responses from guests, all at different points in time. As such, it’s essential to know how these customs and expectations can be accommodated.
Historically for hosting communities, hospitality has always been a protective device…a means of welcoming and disarming the stranger (guest) to determine (and quell) the extent to which they might be a threat, and to assess whether friendship is possible, and relationships can be fostered. Not to yell at crowds, “Go Home”, but to find solutions through constructive conversations and acts of decency.
When delivered, hospitality is expected to be bestowed with benevolence and care, flair and speed. On the other hand, it’s also expected to be a reciprocal act, which in commercial settings necessitates payment for services rendered and value received…possibly contentious if either party feels slighted which, if not rectified in timely ways, can result in disagreements, compromised reputations, and further erosion of trust.
While those individuals who work in the medical and health care professions are trained to heal and `follow the Hippocratic Oath – “do no harm” – the practice of hospitality or service management, carried out in caring ways, can be quite ambiguous, especially when culturally determined expectations are not known or can’t be met. Problems that cannot help but be unique, situational and evolving.
Given the circumstance, some problems can be anticipated, but for the most part no singular dictate or script to follow is likely to do justice. What’s required is common sense learned and honed from experience, the resolve to find the right or best solution, and the need to replace mindsets that are fixed with mindsets that are growing in order to improve the performativity of individuals and organizations.
To this end, Henry Mintzberg has argued that management can’t be a profession, but that doesn’t exclude managers and entire hosting communities from being professional. They can. They must. But with care.
Certainly, and depending on the setting and situation, the work required to offer and deliver a wide range of hospitable services tends to be specialized. It is comprised of a multitude of specified circumscribed tasks, activities, roles and relationships that are highly scrutinized by all patrons given that hospitality is offered in the public realm.
The prowess of those involved in these sectors and the quality of the work provided ultimately is determined by visitors and guests. It is done in accordance with the nature of the value created, captured, and deemed beyond satisfactory. Professionalism that is made evident when customers are appreciative of and admire the actions, aesthetics and attitude, the skills and knowledge, and the grace and gratitude of their hosts.
There are many characteristics and attributes associated with professionalism – how the work of caring and hospitableness is done, carried out, communicated and assessed (e.g. McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index). But these efforts can be undermined if subjected to an inordinate amount of control, sabotage (even against talented employees) and the arbitrary abuse of power (the bully pulpit) within institutional and organizational settings. Power that can wreak havoc with employees and destroy the intended qualities and perceived value of hospitality.
When professionalism is misunderstood, misinterpreted and misapplied the essence of hospitality and caring dissipates; visitors and employees disappear; and, loyalty dies out. Professionalism depends on a high degree of humanism and humility, deep curiosity, critical thinking, and requires application of a different leadership playbook based on genuine and generous feedback and application of soft power – the ability to obtain preferred outcomes by attraction rather than coercion or payment – and through service leadership that references principles and purpose in search of progress, what I like to think of as being the pursuit of ‘magnificence’ and astonishment.
To this end, many visitor-serving enterprises must be vigilant in terms of what they exhibit and how they communicate when it comes to portraying professionalism and appropriate behaviors within their organizations. Especially important when it comes to training programs that explain and embed the concept of hospitality that is decidedly inclusive and unifying.
But that is just the beginning. Virtually all organizations rely on the effort of teams that are at their best when industry leaders and managers recognize the value of empowering employees – shared ownership, shared future - and successfully encouraging and fostering self-determination and self-directed teams. A necessity when really engaging with employees and being concerned with their well-being.
Yet, many SMEs face knowledge and resource limitations when it comes to training and motivation. No wonder more industry associations, NGOs, governments, colleges and universities are adamant about providing needed assistance. I have favored Tourism HR Canada, for example, for doing an admirable job, and now learning how Destinations International are lending newfound support for improving the vitality and flourishing of communities, especially through the Global Stewardship Innovation Lab.
Even when it comes to undertaking research, entrepreneurs need to be encouraged to think like scientists. The notion of professionalism demands that we recognize the importance of undertaking essential research that focuses on the core problems and opportunities facing communities-as-destinations. An undertaking that also means recognizing the limitations and misuse of tourism data – how data can take on a life of its own - a problem among communities that seem intent on collecting information to encourage tourism’s expansion or growth rather that improving its quality…its competitiveness rather than its cooperativeness…its profitability rather than its principles or ideals.
With too many high-profile destinations anxious to continue their growth but suffering from too many visitors in certain locales, a sense of professionalism suggests that leaders need to avoid dominance mindsets that represent moral hazards. Instead, they need to re-think ‘why’ their communities are pursuing tourism. To serve what purpose, whose purpose? To benefit whom and how? In service to what principles, ideals, and aspirations?
Similarly, when it comes to achieving professionalism in research and data gathering. These days it behooves communities-as-destinations to determine how to advance their transformation as acts of progress and advancement or what I often call `profection`. Not an aim for perfection, which is virtually impossible, but a focus on actionable insights and what`s next as Federer (the tennis star) explained in his commencement address to graduating students.
It is a focus that requires data be supported by appropriate business models and the necessary capabilities essential to ensure destination readiness; and an extraordinary focus on design, architecture, discretion, authenticity and sustainability as practiced by friends of mine, the principals (José and Denise) of Inkaterra, Peru through promoting attachment to nature.
While there are other useful sports and nature-based references and analogies, nothing will change until we adjust our decisionscapes – a skill that can be learned from artists who are fervently engaged in ``the work of art`, creating something, tangible or intangible, that can come from nothing…jobs-to-be-done insights leading to critical inputs to more predictable organic growth…the basis for achieving desirable and meaningful outcomes.
Done well, perhaps we can encourage all communities-as-destinations to achieve ‘profection’ that embodies prowess, refines the notion of professionalism; utilizes the right kinds of power; and redistributes the power of hospitality throughout entire communities, giving renewed energy, kindness, fairness and structure, and power to the people, many of whom are creators and have vested interests in ensuring that their communities-as-destinations, and what they have on offer, will Astonish! Now, and well into the future.
It's time we recognized ‘profection’ as a floating parade of talent.