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There is so much to learn from those who have proven themselves to be great in their field. So who better to learn from than the great hotelier himself, Bill Marriott. I have enormous respect for this man and the empire that his family built beginning in 1927 with a nine-stool root beer stand that grew into the Hot Shoppes Restaurant chain and evolved into today’s Marriott International hotel company. His success is obvious, but what I love about this company is the attention to important details that are always put forth by a simple, basic, and very actionable message, as you can see above in Mr. Marriott's 12 Rules of Being a Successful Manager. This is how 90 years later Marriott business is more than booming.
What is good leadership? It starts with leading by example. Don't expect your staff to do something if you're not doing it yourself. Absolutely every single thing you ask or require of your staff you must also be willing to do yourself. This doesn't mean you need to do their jobs, but it does mean you should know how to and you should be willing to pitch in when necessary. It also means you need to abide by all of the same rules, and you must be consistent. Many owners try to justify their bad behavior by telling me, "Yeah, but I am the boss." But all that their employees see is a boss who is lazy and two-faced. You can't exempt yourself just because you're in charge.
The financial and human resources needed to fulfill the mission of any initiative - be it one that pertains to customer experience or to some other area of the organization - are always in short supply. Even if they aren't, the problems of time and attention still remain. For example, just because you have the money to do something doesn't mean you have the time or the organizational "bandwidth" to do it. Attempting to juggle multiple initiatives - even just a few - significantly affects employees throughout the organization.
Constantly query employees. As a leader, you have to keep your ear to the ground and listen for the sound of complaints from your staff. It helps to have a process in place to root out process problems and then follow up to make sure they're resolved.
Rude employees are rude for a reason: you allow them to be. It's not their fault—it's yours. You hired wrong, you trained wrong, or you coached wrong. Just as you must kill an aggressive cancer by nuking it with chemotherapy, you must eradicate rudeness by displaying a zero-tolerance attitude. We don't care if an employee "makes his numbers" or excels at some other aspect of his job. If he's rude, he has to go. Fire him, and for good measure, encourage him to work for a competitor.