In my last blog about creating your vision I made the recommendation that you should really dream in creating your vision and not to worry or doubting about achieving it. This next step, the mission statement takes a closer look, We will define your purpose and future position more closely and develop an approach and a strategy that will help you to formulate and reach your objective. The foremost most important aspect here is your purpose. The WHY ! Why do you really want what you want ?
There must have been an initial trigger for you to like the hotel industry. What was this first original trigger ? The big bang of your career . Try to remember that very first time when an inner voice talked to you and said: “This is what I want to do too !” My trigger was not a fancy hotel, great and impressive service or food; travelling or staying in beautiful resorts in exotic locations. My trigger was a plain business card. I was 12 and holding it in my hand. It was a business card of a young man who had graduated from the high school I was still attending. Friends of my father were handling each other the card and eventually I held it in my hands too.
I read: Rick Hope, Food & Beverage Manager, Sidney Hilton. Embossed on the card was the proud Hilton International Logo. I heard the people around me talking about this person and that he had graduated from my Highschool 2 years ago. And in my own mind, I spoke to myself and said: “You will do this too.” I guess, it was my “Inner Voice” doing the talking. I never forgot it. At age 12, coming from a small town in Germany, not being a very good student and having continuously troubles at home I had absolutely no connection with the hotel business. Until this day, I had never been in a Hotel. And the city I came from had only two hotels. The Hotel Central and the other one I do not even remember the name. All this happend within 30 seconds. Fast forward this by 4 years; I am now 16 years old and am working as a dishwasher in a 2000 room resort at the Baltic Sea. 1000 miles away from my home. A few weeks later I am no longer working washing dishes but helping the Bartender in a fancy Bar as his barboy. My life had put me on a path to fulfill my deep rooted wish for adventure, travel and to see and the world. I had found the perfect vehicle for it.
Tip: Pay attention to the small stuff ! Those split second intuitions which come from your inside. Just a whisper of a thought or idea. It is your Inner Voice trying to tell you something.
A young and very intelligent young and ambitious lady from Cairo-Egypt finished high school with honors and decided to take on an internship at an international 5 star hotel in a well known resort on the Red Sea. She knew, she had a passion for Marketing. Prior to her decision to work in the hotel industry, she had done 3 different practicums in a bank, a pharmaceutical firm and a large Egyptian newspaper. She found the work in these companies to be rather boring with little opportunity for her to ever travel out of Egypt and to be treated equally for her performance. In her country, she knew, her career would never have a real chance to evolve. Her personal mission statement read like this :
“ I shall provide most excellent and unique marketing services to the best hotel companies in the world and work in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. My educational credentials. My solid and always growing expertise are my driving force and I shall be the head of marketing operations for a large international hotel company and work with them out of their regional head office by age 35. My reward will be a good salary, recognition, equal opportunity and advancement,”
This is a very powerful ans effective mission statement It is explicit, concrete, determined and well founded with appropriate reasoning. This lady is today the head of marketing for one of the largest hotel companies in the world planning, overseeing and coordinating all marketing activities for over 100 hotels in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. During her career she also worked with Ritz-Carlton , Accor and Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces.
Then there is the Mission statement of Klaus P. Reincke a great Hyatt Manager. It read like this: “As the General Manager and Vice President in one of the best 5 star hotels in the world me and my well trained and motivated team provide the most excellent and personalized services for my guests and assure them to always have a safe, relaxed and sophisticated experience.” A very different approach and formulation. He saw himself clearly in the “People business” He was one of my Mentors and I remember well his focus on excellence, training and motivation of the staff. He was a great motivator and a true gentleman. He was, what I call a “Classic Career Hotelier” , a Gentleman and a good friend of the great Horst Schulze . They don´t come like this anymore and often I wonder, why not ?
But back to the trigger for your aspiration: Did you have one and what was it ? What was it really, which made you decide to consider or begin the hotel career. Was it a hotel visit and the friendly waitress in the restaurant ? Was it the beach club, the good food on a nice place, was it a work experience, maybe a practicum ? You know the answer. Just write it down and continue to find more reasons WHY you want to be in the hotel business and WHY you want to become, lets say, the Director of Rooms Division ? Spend some quality time and find as many WHYs as you can, then line them up by importance for you. Is it the money, the image, the suit ? Is it the nice office, the prestige, the fable to work with computers and converse with VIPs ? Is it the privilege to dine in the restaurant instead of the cafeteria ? Maybe it is the joy of becoming part of a group of dedicated people who are experts in providing the best services possibel and getting satisfaction out of this service ? If you cannot find a beginning, simply do this: imagine for a moment, that you are actually the Director of Rooms and imagine how your day goes by, the things you do, the conversations with guests, the advising and managing of the front office members, the meeting with the General Manager, the morning briefing and so on. As you do this exercise you will find the reasons, why you want a specific position.
A hotel owner once told me, that he liked the fun and excitement in his parents hotel kitchen. He also enjoyed the special treatment and the opportunity to actually help out and feel like a “Grown Up”. And really, he got involved in the kitchen routine from young age on. He said, that he could not have imagined to do anything else. Then there was the son of a very famous TV personality. He fell in love with a beautiful city where to oceans meet. He said he was fascinated by the city and decided stay and live there. He too was a trained Chef , Restaurant Manager and would later became a successful General Manager . Today he is the Director of a global consulting firm with worldwide connections and his own YouTube channel.
Like I said earlier, these are just some examples. Depending on who You are and what your circumstances are , some of these mission statements might seem far fledged – and for others maybe too simple. That is ok. But these are real life reflections of successful and rewarding hotelier careers. My first written vision was to become a Director of Food & Beverage Operations of a 5 star hotel in the USA. I reached that goal in 6 years after my apprenticeship. When I worked at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City I updated my vision statement and wrote daily affirmations in my journal. Eventually I would become the General Manager of a 5 Star deluxe Hotel in Dubai. a few years later.
With this information and some real life examples you should have no difficulties formulating and crafting your own Mission statement. All You have to do from here is actually believe in yourself and in your vision and mission. It will come true as long as you belief in it. It sounds simple and it is simple. The challenge many young hoteliers have to overcome is to simply trust, believe and re-affirm their future success and prevalence. Here is the best way to reduce limiting believes and doubt:
Step 1: Free yourself from the present moment, your circumstances and daily challenges you might have and catapult yourself into the future. A future in which you are actually the – let´s say , the Executive Chef of a 5 star hotel, you want to be. Imagine this for a moment and let it sink in.
Step 2: See yourself in your kitchen office. See the chefs working in their stations and taking care of their working routines. Take a deep breath and reflect for a moment. Let your mind go back to your last position. You were the Sous Chef of another hotel. You had been working in that hotel for almost 2 years when the personal manager called you and asked if you would be interested to move to another hotel as the new Executive Chef. Imagine this phone call , remember the moment and how you had felt. Internalize the emotion and the moment.
Step 3: Go back further to the time, when you had been a Chef de Partie and you were promoted to Sous Chef. Imagine how it must feel being promoted. I know, it feels good. Just pretend for a moment and try to grasp this feeling. Shape it, like a Japanese gardener shapes a Bonsai tree and take good care of it. Preserve it.
Step 4: Repeat step 3 so many times and arrive at your present moment and do a quick calculation: You worked as a Sous Chef 2 years before you were promoted to Executive Chef. You worked as Chef de Partie 4 years and as Demi Chef or Comis another mere 2 years. These are only 8 years of commitment to quality work, hard work and a work excellence mentality. If you are not falling for one of these “Get rich quick on the internet boys”. 8 years are actually not a long time. This is an average number of course. In a 3 star hotel it might go much faster but you should focus on working with “The Best” only ! it is a door opener !
Step 5: Now you have all the ingredients for a crisp and precise mission statement. Lets stay with the Executive Chef example: You could write it like this: I am the well known Executive Chef of a great 5 star business hotel in Asia and work with an excellent and motivated team, serving my guests the finest selection of tastefully and perfectly prepared culinary creations’ in the region . Financial rewards and professional awards are the consequences.
Take one more look at the time table: 2-3 years as Sous Chef, 3- 4 years as Chef de Partie and 1-2 years as Comis/Demi Chef de cuisine. That is approximately 9 years you would take to reach the Executive Chef level. Of course a lot depends on your choice of company, the place of your initial apprenticeship and country and last but not least your talent, your quality and excellence you do in everything you do. Your commitment to excellence will be a most decisive factor in your career development.
Here is another example: You want to become the Executive Housekeeper of a 4 Star Hotel: Here are the timelines and stages: Asst. Executive Housekeeper 2 years, Floor Housekeeper 2 years, Junior Housekeeper 2 years and trainee or apprentice 2 years. All in all, if you are , let´s say 19 right now and want to become the Executive housekeeper of an average size 4 star hotel you can be there within 7-8 years, that means it is possible that you be an Executive Housekeeper by age 28. Again, the most decisive factor will be your level of quality and excellence not only in your ability to provide superior clean rooms and public spaces but also the ability to recruit, train and motivate your team and hold it to the highest standards possible. In order to show up on your company´s radar you should take advantage of inhouse training opportunities and accumulate some specialized knowledge about materials, room design and sharpen your leadership skills. Of course performing your job function at an above average level is your routine.
Helen Keller famously said: “The only thing that is worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” A remarkable quote for a women who was blind and deaf. I am sure you have been creative in creating your vision and agile in writing down your mission. I have no doubt in my mind, that with your own timetable you will start out on a journey which will be adventurous, deeply satisfying and ultimately most rewarding in any aspect. How to fight overthinking and career mistakes are subject for another blog. . If You need help or assistance sent me a mail and I will be happy to mentor you.
In my book “The Perfect Hotel Career” I provide more important planning details for your career but your vision and mission statements provide the essence of your purpose, the driving force and reasoning behind your ambition. When you have read my entire blog and are still with me, I assume, that you are a goal getter and are really serious about going for the top. You will do yourself a great favor to get to know Horst Schulze, the founder and former CEO of Ritz Carlton Hotels. His book “Excellence Wins” is a Must Read and prepares your mind for entering into the dimension of excellence. You will learn how this great hotelier “ticked” and how he applied his personal vision and mission to become a legend in our industry. Not only will his book give you an insight into the Ritz Carlton phaenomen but also help you to prime yourself for a career in any of the top global companies.
I know you will make the best out of this information and am always there if you need a guiding hand.
Helmut H Meckelburg