Seasons of Success: How Sharp Took His Hotel To The Top
Seasons of Success: How Sharp Took His Hotel To The Top
Leadership: “Leaders have to set a pattern of behaviour for others to follow,” says Sharp.
He believes that trust – in integrity and openness – is the measure of a good leader. He thus strove to cultivate these qualities in himself in order to motivate and bring out the best in his employees. “By nurturing the full potential of every willing worker from top to bottom,” says Sharp, “I believe that businesses can tap a unique source of leadership and success for the 21st Century.”
Focus: In his early days, Sharpe was faced with many skeptics. For almost five years, he knocked on door after door looking for investors, with no success. It was the determination with which Sharpe wanted to achieve his single goal of building a hotel that kept him going. “If someone had told me ‘Look, you’re going to start today and spend the next five years wasting your time trying to get this thing start’, I would have said I can’t do that,” says Sharp. “But you never think about what it’s going to take of you. Think: I’ve got it now.”
Service: “With China, India, Russia and other developing countries growing in market importance, recognition and appreciation of a brand name will not only help gain market share but also open up many, many opportunities for development,” says Sharp. Throughout his career, Sharp has striven to ensure that his brand name is synonymous with quality. From the interlocking bricks of the driveways at Four Seasons hotels, no detail was too small for Sharp in his goal to provide the highest quality service possible to his guests.
Consideration: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” says Sharp. “That set in place the culture of the company, which gave us service, which allowed us to become the best.” Whether it was helping his employees after the Asian tsunami or refusing to fire his staff when business went bad after 9/11, Sharp was able to rise to the top on a platform of having treated others as he would want in return.
Management: Sharp’s vision had to do with service. He didn’t want to get involved in the ownerships issues surrounding his hotels; he just wanted to run a high-quality hotel. By refusing to follow the path of his competitors, and developing his own unique management schemes, Sharp was able to develop his comparative advantage and rise above the rest.
“Every road will have a detour and bumps,” says Sharp. “The choices are the forks in the road. Usually when you understand something and feel good it gives you the will to persevere, overcome the skepticism and see through the negative side that people present.” Sharp certainly had many detours along the way, but because he had passion for what he was doing, he refused to give up. “Whatever you do, don’t ever use a crutch, and don’t ever think of having an excuse for not having said, ‘Yeah, I did my best.’”
Seasons of Success How Sharp Took His Hotel To The Top
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“I started just from building one [hotel], it worked so let’s build another, and it worked so three went to four,” recalls Sharp. “It’s a matter of what I call stepping-stones.” He may not have set out to create the world’s largest network of luxury hotels, but that is exactly what happened. In the over forty years since he first entered the business, Sharp has taken the hotel industry by storm, transforming the idea of service and quality, and doing things on his own terms. What were the factors that helped this Canadian hotelier succeed?
Leadership: “Leaders have to set a pattern of behaviour for others to follow,” says Sharp.
He believes that trust – in integrity and openness – is the measure of a good leader. He thus strove to cultivate these qualities in himself in order to motivate and bring out the best in his employees. “By nurturing the full potential of every willing worker from top to bottom,” says Sharp, “I believe that businesses can tap a unique source of leadership and success for the 21st Century.”
Focus: In his early days, Sharpe was faced with many skeptics. For almost five years, he knocked on door after door looking for investors, with no success. It was the determination with which Sharpe wanted to achieve his single goal of building a hotel that kept him going. “If someone had told me ‘Look, you’re going to start today and spend the next five years wasting your time trying to get this thing start’, I would have said I can’t do that,” says Sharp. “But you never think about what it’s going to take of you. Think: I’ve got it now.”
Service: “With China, India, Russia and other developing countries growing in market importance, recognition and appreciation of a brand name will not only help gain market share but also open up many, many opportunities for development,” says Sharp. Throughout his career, Sharp has striven to ensure that his brand name is synonymous with quality. From the interlocking bricks of the driveways at Four Seasons hotels, no detail was too small for Sharp in his goal to provide the highest quality service possible to his guests.
Consideration: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” says Sharp. “That set in place the culture of the company, which gave us service, which allowed us to become the best.” Whether it was helping his employees after the Asian tsunami or refusing to fire his staff when business went bad after 9/11, Sharp was able to rise to the top on a platform of having treated others as he would want in return.
Management: Sharp’s vision had to do with service. He didn’t want to get involved in the ownerships issues surrounding his hotels; he just wanted to run a high-quality hotel. By refusing to follow the path of his competitors, and developing his own unique management schemes, Sharp was able to develop his comparative advantage and rise above the rest.
“Every road will have a detour and bumps,” says Sharp. “The choices are the forks in the road. Usually when you understand something and feel good it gives you the will to persevere, overcome the skepticism and see through the negative side that people present.” Sharp certainly had many detours along the way, but because he had passion for what he was doing, he refused to give up. “Whatever you do, don’t ever use a crutch, and don’t ever think of having an excuse for not having said, ‘Yeah, I did my best.’”
Seasons of Success How Sharp Took His Hotel To The Top
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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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