You can’t build a team when there’s a lack of trust. In his book, "Speed of Trust," Steven Covey noted: "trust is not some soft, illusive quality that you either have or you don’t; rather, trust is a pragmatic, tangible, actionable asset that you can create—much faster than you probably think possible." Developing and nurturing trust within your organization will lead to more efficiency, improved teamwork and a better work environment. EMBED TRUST INTO YOUR CULTURE One of the primary ways to build trust is to make it an integral part of your organization’s culture. At The Ritz-Carlton, our employee promise states: "By applying the principles of trust, honesty, respect, integrity and commitment, we nurture and maximize talent to the benefit of each individual and the company." This statement not only makes a commitment to the employees of The Ritz-Carlton, it also reinforces that The Ritz-Carlton operates through "trust, honesty, respect, integrity and commitment." It is the backbone of our culture. DEMONSTRATE TRUST THROUGH EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT Articulating your organization’s values is important, but consistently living those values is what rapidly builds trust. Empowering employees is an actionable and impactful way to show your faith in them. There’s a myth that trust can only be earned over time, and certainly, deep trust can take years to develop. However, you’ve probably also heard stories of teachers who put an "A" next to each student’s name on the first day of school. These teachers are showing students that they have confidence in the students’ abilities right from the start. This initial sign of faith can inspire advantageous results. At The Ritz-Carlton, employee empowerment begins on day one. Employees are told at orientation that they’ve been hired because they’re the best, and the organization believes in them and trusts them to represent The Ritz-Carlton. They’re immediately empowered to spend up to $2,000 per day per guest—that’s a powerful sign of trust. COMMIT TO TRANSPARENCY AND COMMUNICATION Honest and open communication also helps build trust. Be sure your organization has an effective way to share information with employees. When employees feel they’re in the loop, they’re far less likely to participate in gossip. Every employee at The Ritz-Carlton participates in a brief, standing meeting at the beginning of the workday called "daily line-up." One of the goals of daily line-up is to share announcements and keep employees informed about any corporate or hotel news. Of course, senior leaders are not expected to provide employees with detailed explanations of each business decision, but having an open door and being available to answer employees’ questions will circumvent unnecessary speculation. CREATE SYSTEMS FOR FAILURE A culture of trust also must allow for mistakes. As the former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden noted, "If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes." You want your employees to be doers. If they feel like the sky will fall on them the moment they mess up, then they’re not feeling the safety net of trust. An organization that doesn’t value slip-ups as opportunities for learning breeds defensiveness rather than innovative thinking. The Ritz-Carlton has a process known as MR. BIV (Mistakes, Rework, Breakdowns, Inefficiencies, and Variations). Through this process, The Ritz-Carlton impersonalizes problems and shifts the focus from blame to solutions. Establishing trust in your workplace is only half the battle. Don’t forget to actively maintain the systems you’ve put into place. Think of your organization as a garden. What happens to a garden if you don’t take care of it? The weeds spring up and eventually take over. If you detect weeds in your organization, you have to handle them immediately. Weeds are broken systems, discontent employees, unethical managers or any other threats to your atmosphere of workplace trust. When you keep your garden of trust perfectly pruned, you’ve provided the right conditions for rapid growth, and your organization will thrive. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers a three-day Executive Education Program. This program is designed for senior executives who wish to lead sustainable positive change in their organization. Participants return to their organization with an action plan to implement their key learning from the session.

In 2011, with over 2,000 clubs worldwide, the executive team at Anytime Fitness wanted to improve customer service levels. Their goals were to have more consistent communication and service from their corporate all the way to their members. Known as "The club for busy people," Anytime Fitness wanted to go beyond that maxim to become "The club that cares the most." To help achieve its goal they looked to The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center in hopes of gaining the perspective of a company that delivers Gold Standard customer service. Additionally, they wanted to learn from another industry that addresses the challenge of being open 24/7, 365 days a year. Consistency and uniformity are key As a result, two senior executives from Anytime Fitness attended the "Legendary Service at The Ritz-Carlton" course in 2011. They were so impressed they invited a Ritz-Carlton Culture Director to come onsite and teach about customer service at Anytime Fitness. Together they developed specific service standards to ensure consistency and uniformity throughout the organization. They also crafted implementation programs. By 2012, when Anytime Fitness held their Annual Conference, The Culture Director from The Leadership Center rolled out the service standards to an enthusiastic corporate team. "The Ritz-Carlton Culture Director ‘wowed’ us," said Debra Griffith, Director of Support at the corporate office for Anytime Fitness. "She exemplified what The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company stands for…class." During the presentation the Anytime Fitness team realized, if exemplary service can be delivered in a hotel, it can also be delivered successfully in a gym. To present the newly minted customer service standards and help put the ideas into action, The Ritz-Carlton Culture Director facilitated a session with 17 Anytime Fitness support team—who carry the tagline, "We Coach 2 Inspire!"—before traveling with them to regional meetings and introducing the program benefits to franchise owners and club managers. Through multiple follow-up sessions with The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, Anytime Fitness has continued to develop programs that benefit customers and employees. Here a couple of the program highlights: Anytime Fitness instituted the watchwords, "Never and Always" to remind all employees of six critical service initiatives such as to never say "no" but instead, always offer what can be done in any given situation. Following the strategic plan developed by The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, Anytime Fitness put into action the principles behind the acronym, PLEASE. To an Anytime Fitness employee PLEASE stands for Personal, Listen, Empathy, Anticipate, Sense of Urgency, and Encourage. Each element of the PLEASE program gives direction to employees’ actions, helping them deliver excellent service to every club member, every time. The collaboration between Anytime Fitness and The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center has been a successful one if you consider the spirit with which employees enjoy delivering Gold Standard Service, the retention of club members, and the recognition Anytime Fitness has received in the recent past. To name a few of the awards received: Forbes magazine named Anytime Fitness one of "America’s Most Promising Companies" — February 2013 Entrepreneur magazine ranked Anytime Fitness #1 on its "Franchise 500" list — and #1 in the "Fitness Businesses" category — January 2014 Minnesota Business magazine ranked Anytime Fitness the #1 Best Company to Work For in Minnesota (large companies) — June 2013 In spite of the high acclaim the company has received, Anytime Fitness isn’t resting on its laurels. Delivering consistent customer service and continuing to improve upon what was learned from The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center is the goal of everyone in the Anytime Fitness organization. As Griffith noted, "We want to be The Ritz-Carlton of the fitness business." ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers a one-day class called: "‘Radar On-Antenna Up’: The Ritz-Carlton Way of Fulfilling Unexpressed Wishes and Needs." There is no greater experience in service delivery than to surprise and delight a customer, and this program shows how the Ladies and Gentlemen of The Ritz-Carlton take service excellence to the highest levels every day.

English writer Douglas Adams once said, "To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity." Everyone at your organization—regardless of role, level or location—is responsible for upholding the reputation of your brand. The following guest story demonstrates how one employee at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre acted with integrity by showing genuine care and concern for guests and their personal property. During a busy afternoon in the Laundry Department, a Laundry Attendant was completing his normal duties of sorting and washing the linen. The hotel had been completely booked the night before and there were large piles of linens coming down the chute to be cleaned that day. While the Laundry Attendant was moving a large heap of sheets across the room, he saw something sparkle within the pile of laundry. Curious, he paused to investigate. He put down the bundle he had been moving, sorted through the pile of laundry and he finally saw what had caught his eye: a beautiful diamond earring! Overlooked and Unnoticed The Laundry Attendant gently picked up the earring and examined it. Given its size and the way the stone glittered in the light, he knew right away that it must be of great value. Since the earring came out of the pile of bed linen, he assumed it must have been lost by a guest while she was sleeping, and then overlooked when the housekeeper cleaned the room. The first sentence of The Ritz-Carlton Credo states that: "The Ritz-Carlton is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission." The Laundry Attendant acted upon the principle of genuinely caring for guests by providing his finest personal service. He immediately delivered the earring to a Loss Prevention Officer so that the item would be in a secure place. While no missing jewelry had been reported, the Loss Prevention Officer thanked the Laundry Attendant. The earring was locked in a safe and the Loss Prevention Officer hoped a guest would realize the loss and report it missing. Integrity Generates Safety and Security Sure enough, a few days later a guest returned to the hotel and reported that his wife had lost her treasured diamond earring sometime during their stay at the hotel the week before. After verifying the identity of the guest and description of the jewelry, the Loss Prevention Officer was able to confirm the earring belonged to the guest’s wife. The guest was overjoyed that the earring had been returned and personally sought out the Laundry Attendant to thank him for his good deed. By turning in the valuable piece of jewelry, the Laundry Attendant not only created a memorable guest experience, but also reinforced the guest’s trust in The Ritz-Carlton brand. Your employees need to understand your business conduct standards and the importance of applying these standards to their work every day. When your organization acts ethically and with integrity, this results in greater customer confidence and increased loyalty. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers executive education as well as courses and presentations on customer service, employee engagement, leadership development, and sustainable culture transformation. 

"The toughest thing about the power of trust is that it’s very difficult to build and very easy to destroy. The essence of trust building is to emphasize the similarities between you and the customer." — Thomas J. Watson, Former CEO of IBM The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Trust is a key factor when it comes to selecting which products to buy, services to use and where to seek employment. We trust the reputation of the organizations we choose to do business with. The Ritz-Carlton builds internal trust by empowering our employees. Empowered employees have the ability to immediately resolve guests’ problems, and this is one way we build trust with our guests. Through open communication we, as a company, work tirelessly to maintain the trust we have built both internally and with our guests. There are times we make mistakes, and as Thomas Watson points out, one mistake can begin to erode trust. When it comes to building trust, the keyword is consistency, and when it comes to rectifying problems, the keyword is immediacy. Hopefully, your employees and customers will forgive the occasional misstep and give you the opportunity to regain their trust. Which organizations have made special efforts to earn your trust? ∞ On Monday, April 13, 2015, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center presents "Your Journey to Service Excellence," The Ritz-Carlton approach to legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. This special Symposium takes place at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, and early-bird pricing is available through December 31, 2014. Learn more about the keynote speaker, the presentation speakers, and the members of The Ritz-Carlton Executive Panel. The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Power of Trust appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Dear Ritz-Carlton: How do managers at The Ritz-Carlton connect with employees? Answer from Jeff Hargett, Senior Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: There is a difference between Management and Leadership: "Things" (budgets, invoices, scheduling, reports) are managed behind a desk in an office. People are led. Therefore, in order for leaders to best connect with their staff, they need to be in the mix with their team. One of the characteristics of Emotional Intelligence is Social Skills. Leaders need to develop these skills by interacting with their direct reports so that there is a strong teamwork atmosphere. We call it "Lateral Service." The leaders from various departments at The Ritz-Carlton can be found in the Heart of the House helping to prep for a banquet or up on the floors stripping dirty linens when there is a "tight-turn." These opportunities build great connections and camaraderie among the staff. As for remote employees, leaders can’t limit their connections to just emails. A phone call out of the blue to "check in" can work wonders. Managers should make connecting with employees a priority. ∞ On Monday, April 13, 2015, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center presents "Your Journey to Service Excellence," The Ritz-Carlton approach to legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. This special Symposium takes place at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. Learn more about the keynote speaker, the presentation speakers, and the members of The Ritz-Carlton Executive Panel. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Managers Connecting with Employees appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Dear Ritz-Carlton: How much of The Ritz-Carlton service excellence "traits" are taught versus already exist in the people you hire? The above question is from an attendee at "Symposium: Your Journey to Service Excellence" in April. Answer from Alexandra Valentin, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center:   Service excellence traits set top performers apart from bottom performers. But are these traits innate? Are they part of a person’s DNA? According to experts, service excellence traits can be taught. Author Matthew Syed states in his book Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice that "The evidence shows that some kids start out better than others, whether at math, English, golf, whatever. But, the key point is that, as the number of hours devoted to practice escalates, so the relevance of these initial differences melts away. Why? Because, over time, and with the right kind of practice, we change so much." Practicing excellence begins early in life. Parents and mentors teach us principles, stress good character and help us mold and refine our values. Ideally, we each grow up with role models that enable us to practice excellence. When we measure talent at The Ritz-Carlton, we’re looking for those innate talents that have been practiced and honed throughout a lifetime, and then we build on those talents and continue to develop them. Part of our Employee Promise is "By applying the principles of trust, honesty, respect, integrity and commitment, we nurture and maximize talent to the benefit of each individual and the company." The Ritz-Carlton believes in service excellence training and dedicates more than 250 hours to practice annually—including a daily practice every day. Practice doesn’t create perfection, but it certainly creates service excellence traits. ∞ Join us for a one-day symposium, "Your Journey to Service Excellence." The day includes a keynote speaker, a Q&A session with The Ritz-Carlton executive panel, an optional networking reception and presentations about legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Service Excellence Training or Hiring? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

We are pleased to announce that on November 12, 2015, Herve Humler, President & Chief Operations Officer of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. will be participating on The Ritz-Carlton Executive Panel at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center’s Symposium: Your Journey to Service Excellence at The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner. Other panelists include Leeny Oberg, Chief Financial Officer; Lisa Holladay, Vice President, Global Brand Marketing; Edward French, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer; and Sue Stephenson (@RitzCarltonCSR), Vice President of Community Footprints. This full-day event will offer various learning opportunities, including building and sustaining a corporate culture, understanding what drives passion in employees and a closer look at how The Ritz-Carlton turns each guest interaction into a memorable moment. Keynote speaker Steve Gutzler (@SteveGutzler), President of Leadership Quest, a Leadership Development Company, will speak on Emotional Intelligence for Extraordinary Leadership. Steve possesses an exceptional ability to communicate clear leadership and business/sales solutions with humor, clarity and insight. To learn more about the Symposium, watch the video and hear what our past attendees have to say about the event. We hope you will take advantage of the early-bird rate by registering and paying before September 1, 2015. The Symposium is limited to 200 attendees, allowing for intimate presentations and enhanced opportunities to network, including a breakfast, lunch and dedicated reception. ∞   The Blog Post Your Journey to Service Excellence appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

"Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him." - Booker T. Washington, American Educator, Author, Speaker, and Advisor The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Leaders have many tools they can use to help the individuals on their teams succeed. However, empowering your employees is one of the most impactful ways to demonstrate that you trust them. When you empower employees to make decisions without asking for managerial approval, you’re trusting them to make the best choices for your organization. The Ritz-Carlton has built a culture of empowerment and gives our employees—known as our Ladies and Gentlemen—the resources to take care of our guests. After all, the customer experience is in the hands of our Ladies and Gentlemen. Empowering our Ladies and Gentlemen not only shows that they are trusted, but also enables them to spontaneously create memories for our guests that stay with them long after they leave. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton.  The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Empowerment and Trust appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Culture change expert Dr. John Kotter stated in an interview that "70% of all organizational change efforts fail, and one reason for this is executives simply don’t get enough buy-in, from enough people, for their initiatives and ideas." Securing buy-in from most of your employees will require extra effort. However, you increase the odds of your success if you take the time to engage employees in your change management plans. Convincing Your Employees If your organization decides to move forward with culture change or other change initiatives, you will have employees who will welcome the shift, but you also will have to win over these types of employees: the tenured employees who have seen change initiatives fail in the past the negative employees who tend to forecast doom and gloom even when the sun is shining the "I told you so" employees who feel they are smarter than the decision-makers the "I hate change" employees who are more comfortable sticking with the status quo the "does this mean more work?" employees who are already feeling overwhelmed the "last-minute" employees who don’t want to jump on the train until it’s leaving the station Embracing everyone in your organization won’t be easy, but here are seven strategies that can help your staff feel more secure throughout this time of transition. 1) Solicit Buy-In Prior to Launch At The Ritz-Carlton, one of our Service Values is: "I’m involved in the planning of the work that affects me." This means that major decisions should not be made in private, executive meetings and then simply announced to employees. As you begin making plans, consider holding focus groups or taking surveys and soliciting employee opinion. An organization had to make a decision that they knew many employees wouldn’t like. They decided to hold focus groups with key stakeholders—even though management felt this wouldn’t change the ultimate decision. The focus groups provided the opportunity for stakeholders to share concerns and for leaders to explain the reasons the change was needed. In the end, management made the unpopular choice. However, because they’d had a chance to give input prior to the decision, the key stakeholders were not only more receptive, but also helped minimize the concerns of their colleagues. In addition, management was able to address several of the concerns brought out in the focus groups, and this showed employees that leaders were listening. The decision—while still disappointing to many—was embraced without protest. 2) Communicate Consistently It’s likely there will be some confusion during a change process. Employees may feel disoriented as your organization lets go of old processes and embraces new procedures. In order to help your staff feel more comfortable, make sure to communicate with them often. Think of your organization as a sailboat, and you’re simply changing your course. When you turn your boat, the sails often luff or flap as they adjust to the shifting winds. As captain, you can keep your crew from panicking by reassuring them you’re headed in the right direction. Employees will feel safer knowing that someone is at the helm. 3) Lead by Example It is vital that your senior leaders model any change initiatives for your employees. If your senior leaders do not "walk their talk," employees will quickly stop trying as well. Your staff will think, "Why should I make these extra efforts if the people running the organization aren’t bothering?" Leaders who don’t back up their words with actions lose employee trust. A change initiative requires a team effort, and management should be fostering trust and leading their teams. Senior leaders can introduce a change process, but it’s their active participation that demonstrates the organization’s commitment to change. 4) Reinforce and Remind It’s natural to want to see immediate results, but it may take time for employees to catch-on to new methods. William Bridges notes in his seminal book, Managing Transitions, that employees will need to go through a psychological transition. He asserts that "when a change happens without people going through a transition, it is just a rearrangement of the chairs. It’s what people mean when they say, ‘Just because everything has changed, don’t think that anything is different around here.’" Your organization needs to give employees time to psychologically adjust and absorb the new processes—while also ensuring that employees don’t hold on to old methods too long. Meetings, training sessions and written standard operating procedures (SOPs) can help reinforce changes. At The Ritz-Carlton, our culture is reinforced through a daily meeting called "Line-Up." These meetings take place at the beginning of every shift at every Ritz-Carlton hotel around the world. Each day this line-up meeting focuses on one aspect of our Gold Standards and gives employees a chance to share how they have enlivened the culture. 5) Establish Accountability If you do not enforce following new methods and procedures, your employees might be tempted to slip into old patterns. Accountability often can be established through metrics and reports, but leadership may also need to check in with employees more frequently when launching new initiatives. This can be handled through one-on-one meetings or through smaller team meetings. The advantage of team meetings is that there’s an element of collaboration—the idea that we are in this together. But there’s also an element of peer pressure—if everyone else is committed to change, then even your change resisters will feel pressure to conform to the crowd. You have to be careful when establish accountability because you don’t want to create an environment where employees are being asked to police each other or where your staff feels like Big Brother is watching over them. On the other hand, remember that people are creatures of habit—habits make up 40% of our daily activities—and some monitoring may be necessary. 6) Invite Employee Feedback As you’re going through your change process, make sure there’s a channel for employees to offer feedback. There are several ways this can be accomplished: an employee suggestion box employee surveys at key checkpoints town meetings where employee feedback is encouraged, responded to and recorded an open-door policy by senior leadership When you give employees an outlet for their concerns, they have a proactive way to express themselves—rather than complaining, venting and grumbling behind closed doors. They’ll also feel that they have a voice and are a valued part of the change initiative. 7) Measure & Celebrate Progress When you have a big goal ahead of you, it’s easy to feel like you’re not making enough progress or that you may never make it to the finish line. To prevent feelings of defeat, it’s important to measure your progress. Establish key metrics right from the start, and let your team know what the goals are. Consider creating signage or a digital dashboard that keeps your employees informed of progress. This kind of transparency will allow staff to see that their efforts toward change are making a difference. In addition, this focus on metrics will create a feeling of teamwork and will squelch rumors and speculation on your organization’s chances for success. It’s also important to celebrate incremental successes along the way. Small celebrations will renew your staff and reward them for their efforts. For example, if part of your goal is to raise your HCAHP (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) or Net Promoter Score, why not have mini-celebrations as your score begins to improve? Think of these smaller celebrations as a cup of cold water along your marathon route. Emphasize the Positive Tackling a change initiative can be daunting, but try to focus on the end results. You can even try to make the process fun by giving it a theme. At The Ritz-Carlton, when the sales team participates in an annual thank-a-thon, the event includes costumes, treats and motivational videos. Just because a project is hard work—doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable. Keeping your teams focused on the benefits and outcomes will help everyone think beyond the day-to-day challenges and remember the purpose of committing to change. ∞ Join us for a one-day symposium, "Your Journey to Service Excellence." The day includes a keynote speaker, a Q&A session with The Ritz-Carlton executive panel, an optional networking reception and presentations about legendary service, employee engagement and developing a customer-centric culture. The Blog Post 7 Ways to Engage Employees in Change Management appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

The following is a guest post by Steve Gutzler. Steve is a published author on leadership and Emotional Intelligence. He has also delivered over 2,500 presentations and will be the keynote speaker at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center’s symposium, "Your Journey to Service Excellence," in November. Great leaders inspire us. They ignite the best version of ourselves. Most importantly, they motivate us to accomplish our best work and they make us feel important. A leader who is capable of that inspiration and motivation has a high degree of Emotional Intelligence. Here are the basic competencies: Emotional Self-awareness - Leaders with high self-awareness are attuned to their inner signals, recognizing how their feelings and moods affect them and those they interact with daily. Self-confidence - Self-confident leaders take on challenging assignments. They possess a sense of presence, poise and self-assurance. Emotional Self-management - Leaders with emotional self-control find ways to manage their challenging emotions and impulses. Staying calm and clear-headed is a hallmark of a great leader. Transparency - Leaders who are transparent communicate their values and live them. They are open about their feelings, beliefs and choices. They are leaders who can admit fault, apologize… and move forward. Optimism - A leader with optimism can quickly shift from a problem and convert it into a challenge to be solved. They see life through the lens of possibility and positivity. They believe the future can and will be brighter. Developing Others - Leaders who are adept at cultivating abilities show a genuine interest in the success of others. They ask about their goals, strengths, what they enjoy. These leaders provide constructive feedback and lift the vision of those around them to see the next level of what’s possible. Working with leaders, I find the number one enemy to personal leadership effectiveness is their ability to manage their emotions. This is a challenge because of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol is released in response to fear, anxiety and stress by the adrenal glands as part of the fight or flight mechanism. Once you feel threatened or "emotionally hijacked," the alarm to release cortisol has sounded and your body becomes mobilized and ready for action. Cortisol levels build up in the blood, which wrecks havoc on the rational mind and physical body, often leading to missteps and over-reactions. Leaders who fail to emotionally self-manage these moments can sabotage their best efforts and put at risk key relationships with team members and even their clients, affecting their bottom-line results. I’ve worked hard over the past several years to partner one-on-one with leaders and teams to ensure they play at their best and remain smart during stressful encounters and challenging relationships. To excel in your field and become an emotionally intelligent leader, practice these four tips: 1. Make a strong first impression Smile sincerely Have extraordinary eye-contact Take genuine interest in others immediately Greet others with warmth, charm and ease 2. Lead the conversation toward their world not yours Enter conversations by asking sincere questions Treat them like the VIP they are Ask follow up questions rather than "one-up" them with your opinions or stories 3. Affirm their stories and actions Affirm their ideas and working solutions Affirm their unique personal drive Affirm their progress… point it out Affirm what’s working, shine a light on it 4. Work daily to self-manage your emotions Learn the power of not responding immediately Understand that emotional hijacking can last 18-20 minutes, take time to breathe Learn to disengage so you can re-engage more powerfully Don’t treat yourself like a machine - take rest and recovery seriously The highest performing leaders work to improve their Emotional Intelligence skills daily. Which tip will you choose to boost and improve relationships and connections with others this week? ∞ Sign-up by September 1st and take advantage of the early-bird rate for The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center’s one-day symposium, "Your Journey to Service Excellence," on November 12th.  The Blog Post What Does it Take to be an Emotionally Intelligent Leader? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.