A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself and his contribution to praise the skills of the others.

-Norman G. Shidle

It's easy to find information on how to build a team, but how do you know once you've got one?

Calling all leaders! "Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." ~ Jack Welch

Over the years I have concluded that there are two distinctive leadership qualities that are used. The first one is the active leader and the second is the passive leader. Both may very well be successful with the work they do each day in support of the company's success. However, the one big difference in these two leaders is that one is still primarily growing him/herself, and the other clearly understands success for him/her and the company is focusing on and developing others. 

To be a successful leader, understanding your leadership style is essential. What are your strengths, and what areas need improvement? Here is a leadership quiz that will help you learn more about your individual leadership traits. At the end of the quiz it will provide you with the major characteristics of your dominant style. Learning more about your personal leadership style will allow you to assess what qualities are helping or hindering you as a leader. 

The reason inclusion is so important is simple: When everyone matters and everyone knows he or she matters, employees are happy to come to work, and they're eager to give you their energy, creativity, and loyalty.  On the other hand, when people don't feel included, they become apathetic and perform at less than their full capacity.  To put it simply, all people want exactly what you want.  You want to be included, listened to, respected, and involved, don't you?  You want to be asked your opinion and have it taken seriously.  You want to feel valued.  And you want to be known as an individual and treated as such.  Well, so does everyone else.  That's why great leaders make sure that everyone in the workplace-no matter the rank or position-feels included and no one feels left out.

-Lee Cockerell, Creating Magic

Because of the need to serve internal as well as external customers, customer service must be everybody's job within a hospitality organization.  The housekeeper cannot defer to the front desk.  The kitchen cannot think that customer service only occurs tableside.  Moreover, management cannot divorce themselves either.  They are part and parcel of the entire quality service chain of events.  In fact, how management manages customer service and how service providers deliver it are the defining factors in this entire chain of mutual influence.

- William B. Martin, Providing Quality Service: What Every Hospitality Service Provider Needs to Know

It's true that many…marketing channels are primarily geared toward reaching current and potential customers, but you should also endeavor to reach another very important constituency through your full-spectrum marketing efforts—your employees.

-Kirk Kazanjian, Driving Loyalty

Honesty is so refreshing, isn't it? I was recently at a restaurant with my daughter, and we had something so interesting happen that it's worth sharing. While looking over the menu items, we both wanted to order meals on the healthier side. When the server stopped to take our order, she quickly deducted, by our conversation and menu orders, that we were trying to be healthy. She mentioned to us, very confidently, that if we want a lower calorie and lower fat meal, the turkey burger is not a good choice. She told us that she found out that it is injected with fat for flavor, which triples the calories and puts the fat content at a very high percentage. How refreshing to know the truth!  And, how she did this was in a caring and informative manner and not in a way to slam the restaurant.