Introduction – Becoming My Own Project
Introduction – Becoming My Own Project
I once managed a hotel that operated more like a banana republic than a business.
- In another hotel, I learned more about leadership during a flood than in years of management training
- A credit policy taught me responsibility
- An overbooked hotel taught me calmness
- A dishwasher taught me respect
- A revenue experiment taught me curiosity
And so it continued.
Every hotel, and many of the people I met throughout my career in hospitality, taught me a lesson.
None of these lessons came from textbooks.
They came from real people, difficult situations, mistakes, successes, and occasionally complete chaos.
For more than 25 years, I was asked to analyse hotels, businesses, and organisations.
I learned to observe before judging, question assumptions, and look beyond the obvious.
Often, the problem everyone could see was not the real problem at all.
Only much later did I realise I had never applied that same way of thinking to myself.
I decided to apply my advisory methodology to myself.
This series is the result of that decision.
These are not articles about hotels.
They are stories about what hospitality taught me.
About becoming a better professional, a better leader and, ultimately, a better human being.
Perhaps some of those lessons will resonate with your own journey as well.
Overview of Articles
The articles in this series are listed below:
- Introduction
- Numbers in the Ballroom – Curiosity
- Growing Pains in the Restaurant – Perseverance
- The Stewarding Manager – Respect
- The Overbooked Hotel – Calmness
- The Flooded Hotel – Leadership
- The Revenue Experiment – Looking Beyond the Obvious
- The Credit Policy – Responsibility
- The Banana Republic Hotel – Governance
- Hotels + Public Money – Trust (Part I)
- The Pamir Dome – Purpose
- The Gourmet Restaurant That Happened to Have Rooms – Highest-&-Best-Use
- The Most Admirable Hotel General Manager I Know – Authenticity
- The HR Director Who Learned to Love Numbers – People and Performance Belong Together
- The CEO Who Initiated a Dialogue Rather than an Instruction – Organisational Learning
- The COO Who Managed Pace – Patience
- Trust is the Final KPI – Trust (Part II)
- The Professional I Could No Longer Trust – Discernment
- The People Who Taught Me – Gratitude
- Hospitality Taught Me Humility
About the Author
Raoul Gransier is a Senior International Adviser and owner-focused hotelier with more than 25 years of operational and advisory experience in hospitality, tourism, governance, and performance improvement.
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