Lesson #4: The ‘Golden Rule’ Is Your Golden Ticket To Success
Lesson #4: The ‘Golden Rule’ Is Your Golden Ticket To Success
From its customers to its staff, Sharp wanted to create a culture of service that was based on the Golden Rule. How can something like that be put into action? First, says Sharp, get the right people on board your team. For instance, before you can work for the Four Seasons, you must be scrupulously screened through a series of five interviews. “To be at the top we get service standards down to the bottom of the pyramid, and that process begins for us with our hiring policy,” he says. “We hire for attitude. We want people who like other people and are, therefore, more motivated to serve them. Competence we can teach. Attitude is ingrained.”
According to Sharp, the driving force behind his success has been his desire to treat Four Seasons employees with the same level of respect that they in turn are expected to give their guests. The success of this policy has shown itself not only in terms of employee engagement and satisfaction. For the past nine consecutive years, the Four Seasons has been the only Canadian company to land on Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 best companies to work for in the U.S.
“Businesses are all relationships, based on common values, values such as staying true to your word,” says Sharp. “Every religion also enshrines those values, so you can have different religious beliefs, but underlying those beliefs, you’ve got people who must have similar values, and can work together.”
Sharp’s commitment to his employees has been tested in the aftermath of many well-publicized events. In the aftermath of 9/11, the hotel industry began to suffer the effects; people were not flying and traveling as much, so there was a severe downturn. However, whereas its competitors were laying off staff to reduce their costs, Sharp refused to let the Four Seasons go down that same road. He refused to lay off his staff or lower his hotel’s high quality of service, demonstrating his commitment to both customers and employees.
The tsunami crisis in Southeast Asia was a similar test of Sharp’s commitment to his credo. Waves pounded the Four Seasons hotel in the Maldives and within 24 hours, all employees and guests were safely evacuated from the island. But, the damage didn’t stop there. With the resort now closed, hundreds of employees were all of a sudden out of work “at the moment when they needed income most as they started to rebuild their lives and communities,” says Sharp. “We couldn’t let that happen.” Sharp subsequently sent all his employees to other Four Seasons hotels around the world in order to keep them employed. “In true Four Seasons fashion, they have become a dynamic part of the teams at these hotels, embracing our guests with their caring service.”
Lesson 4 The Golden Rule Is Your Golden Ticket To Success
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There are some who would argue that there is no such thing as ‘business ethics’. Sharp is not one of those people. In outlining the credo with which he wanted to run his company, Sharp declared that the ‘Golden Rule’ was going to be one of the cornerstones of the corporate culture that he was trying to create. “We aimed to treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves,” says Sharp. “Enforcing our credo was the hardest part, and senior managers who couldn’t or wouldn’t live by it were weeded out within a few years.” It was a painful process, says Sharp, but one that had to be done.
From its customers to its staff, Sharp wanted to create a culture of service that was based on the Golden Rule. How can something like that be put into action? First, says Sharp, get the right people on board your team. For instance, before you can work for the Four Seasons, you must be scrupulously screened through a series of five interviews. “To be at the top we get service standards down to the bottom of the pyramid, and that process begins for us with our hiring policy,” he says. “We hire for attitude. We want people who like other people and are, therefore, more motivated to serve them. Competence we can teach. Attitude is ingrained.”
According to Sharp, the driving force behind his success has been his desire to treat Four Seasons employees with the same level of respect that they in turn are expected to give their guests. The success of this policy has shown itself not only in terms of employee engagement and satisfaction. For the past nine consecutive years, the Four Seasons has been the only Canadian company to land on Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 best companies to work for in the U.S.
“Businesses are all relationships, based on common values, values such as staying true to your word,” says Sharp. “Every religion also enshrines those values, so you can have different religious beliefs, but underlying those beliefs, you’ve got people who must have similar values, and can work together.”
Sharp’s commitment to his employees has been tested in the aftermath of many well-publicized events. In the aftermath of 9/11, the hotel industry began to suffer the effects; people were not flying and traveling as much, so there was a severe downturn. However, whereas its competitors were laying off staff to reduce their costs, Sharp refused to let the Four Seasons go down that same road. He refused to lay off his staff or lower his hotel’s high quality of service, demonstrating his commitment to both customers and employees.
The tsunami crisis in Southeast Asia was a similar test of Sharp’s commitment to his credo. Waves pounded the Four Seasons hotel in the Maldives and within 24 hours, all employees and guests were safely evacuated from the island. But, the damage didn’t stop there. With the resort now closed, hundreds of employees were all of a sudden out of work “at the moment when they needed income most as they started to rebuild their lives and communities,” says Sharp. “We couldn’t let that happen.” Sharp subsequently sent all his employees to other Four Seasons hotels around the world in order to keep them employed. “In true Four Seasons fashion, they have become a dynamic part of the teams at these hotels, embracing our guests with their caring service.”
Lesson 4 The Golden Rule Is Your Golden Ticket To Success
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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