In part two of this two-part executive interview, Bob Kharazmi, Global Officer, Worldwide Operations at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. sits down with The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center (RCLC) to share his thoughts on leadership. Mr. Kharazmi has worked at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company over three decades. RCLC: What is your perspective of leadership? Mr. Kharazmi: Leadership is about effectiveness, and effectiveness comes when you create relationships with your team. Your influence is dependent upon the relationship you have with your team. To create good relationships, leaders must be involved. A good leader does not just sit behind a desk and send emails. A good leader works shoulder-to-shoulder with his or her team. Leaders need to care and create an environment of trust within their team. They need to be inspirational, and they can only inspire if they have a strong passion in their heart for what the company believes. RCLC: What do you think are the most important qualities of leadership? Mr. Kharazmi: These are the fundamentals of being a good, effective leader: Number one is trust. If you are not trusted, you cannot lead. And to be trustworthy, you have to give trust first. You have to be transparent. Whatever you say in front of your employees has to be exactly the same as what you say when they are not around. Leaders must sometimes share difficult news, but it is good to be transparent. People appreciate transparency. You have to keep your promises. You cannot promise something and then not deliver. You have to have humility and give credit where credit is due. People will respect and care for you more. You need to be in the heart of soul of your people rather than creating an environment where they are intimidated. You should surround yourself with people that are smarter and more talented than you. The people around you will determine your success as a leader. RCLC: Why should leaders establish relationships with their teams? Mr. Kharazmi: There is formal authority and moral authority. Formal authority is when I am in the office, and my administrative assistant stays until five or six because I am sitting here. If I’m not in the office, my administrative assistant might stay until five or not. There is a question mark. When I visit properties and I ask the staff to do something, they say, "yes, sir" and write it down to remember to get it done. Now after I leave, they may do it or not. Again, there is a question mark. When the trust isn’t there and you have to check up on your employees—that’s formal authority. If you don’t create relationships with your team, then you are using formal authority. When you have a relationship and there is trust, then you have moral authority. This means your administrative assistant will sit in the office until five whether you are there or not. When you ask for something to be done, it will get done because you have a relationship and there is a connection. The employees will believe in what you say and do. When you are using moral authority, you don’t need to follow up on what you have said or check on people to make sure they are doing the right thing. Formal authority gets the job done to some degree, but it does not get the job 100% done. Moral authority gets the job 100% done. I practice moral authority because if I have relationships, then I have earned trust and then I only need to say something once. That’s it. Also, the vice presidents who report to me feel more comfortable because of this trust, and they tell me when they don’t agree with a decision. This allows us to work more collaboratively and more effectively. RCLC: How do you relate leadership to customer service? Mr. Kharazmi: Focus. Employees notice what issues are important to leaders and what they focus on. If leaders focus on customer service, then employees will focus on customer service as well. Leaders need to walk their talk. If I talk about cleanliness, I need to follow through. When I’m walking with my general manager around a property and I see something on the floor, I pick it up. It could be a cigarette butt or a napkin or something people might not want to pick up, but I pick it up and put it in the trash. We all serve the guests. It is up to leadership to keep that focus. This is true for the big picture as well. Sometimes we have guests that try to take advantage, and there are times when the guest is wrong. But you have to keep your focus. We serve the guests. We know that a small percentage of guests take advantage of who we are, but we never change. We remain committed to customer service because that is our focus. RCLC: Is there a time as a leader when you came up with a better way to manage people? Mr. Kharazmi: We don’t manage people. We lead people. Both are important, and one is not better than the other. Management is about efficiency. You manage your expenses; you manage your sales; you manage your hours; you manage things. Leadership is about effectiveness. It’s about how you can get the best out of your employees. Leadership is about people. The management part is relatively easy, but the leadership part is relatively difficult. This is because there’s not just one solution for unleashing the talent of your employees. It can be different for each person. I constantly learn as a leader. I learn from my people. I learn from the decisions that we have made collectively. I learn from the decisions I have made. I learn from all the feedback I get. One of the important issues for any person in a leadership role—or in a non-leadership role—is being open to learn. You can’t think that just because you have been in your position for 10, 20 or even 30 years that you know it all. Thinking that way is the first step to failure. If we constantly listen and learn, we will improve our performance. This is easier said than done because sometimes we believe we have all the answers—which is wrong. We don’t. RCLC: Was there a leader who was a particularly good role model for you? Mr. Kharazmi: Hervé Humler and Simon Cooper are both fantastic leaders and have been important role models for me. From outside the hotel company, I would say the former chairman of IBM, Louis Gerstner, is one of my role models. If you look at his leadership and what he did at IBM, it’s remarkable. IBM basically became obsolete when they stuck to their big frame computers. They didn’t move fast enough with the changes of the marketplace and the consumer. But Louis Gerstner jumped in and turned it around. He is one of the great leaders. RCLC: What is your leadership advice for others? Mr. Kharazmi: Human beings are generally not good at listening—and that’s true in both our personal and professional lives. When people come to me with issues, I try to really truly understand by using good listening skills. I don’t jump in and ask questions too early. Once they are finished talking, if I’m not totally clear, then I will ask questions. After I completely understand the issue, I ask them what they think the best solution is—and only after listening to their solution will I provide my advice. It’s interesting. Sometimes when they explain the situation to you, and you ask questions, then they come up with the solutions themselves. I strongly believe in collaboration. I don’t think I’m the smartest guy just because I’m sitting behind this desk. I know our people are extremely bright and smart and engaged. So I think their ideas can be better than my ideas. By listening, asking questions and then providing my guidance—we find solutions in a collaborative way. ∞ 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. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post Our Ladies and Gentlemen: Bob Kharazmi (Part 2 - Leadership) appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

In today’s tough operating environment, flexible working offers exciting opportunities for charities and non-profits in the UK. The role played by volunteers in making the London Games such a success is a reminder of how the third sector, which includes voluntary associations as well as social enterprises and community groups, makes Britain a better place. It is likely that many Team GB Paralympians, poised to spring into action this week, have already benefitted from the support provided by such organisations.  However, the third sector faces an increasingly tough operating environment. During the recession, charities saw their average financial surplus drop by 60 per cent, while research carried out by the Charity Commission suggests that, on average, 15-20 per cent of funds raised by charities are spent on operating costs. This got me thinking about how flexible working tools can help maximise the value of every pound raised. Save time With so many third sector organisations only able to afford dedicated part-time staff in key roles, why waste time on long commutes or travelling to and from meetings? Being able to work remotely, whether from home or an external site, is a simple way to save on travel costs and business downtime.   Extend reach Video conferencing can enable organisations to neatly sidestep the costly and inconvenient barrier of geographic location by allowing members to connect with volunteers, supporters or staff wherever they happen to be. Similarly, such tools have now made it possible to present a face-to-face pitch to distant potential funders or working partners in the time it would normally take to get to the office.    Build consistency As customers, we trust the businesses that are reliable. This is no less true of the third sector. High-achieving organisations have become skilled at building consistency into their business practices, reducing costs resulting from poor communication and inefficiency. By supporting effective project management and providing access to up-to-the-minute business information, flexible working tools are the perfect way to drive such improvements. One such example is Twestival, a single-day worldwide movement that uses the power of social media and web collaboration tools to organise offline events in support of global and local charities. In just over two years, Twestival has organised four such campaigns across more than 200 cities, raising $1.75 million. I believe that the third sector organisations that thrive in the future will be those that embrace this new world of work. The race is on.  Get goosebumps On the subject of the Paralympics, Channel 4’s video teaser is a goosebump-inducing masterpiece. Watch it if you haven’t already! I, for one, can’t wait until the opening ceremony on Wednesday.  Photo credit: Cornwall Twestival 2011

"Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can’t be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people." — Lee Iacocca, former president of Ford Motor Company and former chairman of Chrysler The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Leaders who are effective at motivating employees in the workplace are the ones who take the time to understand what drives individuals. We all work to fulfill a desire in our lives—it could be a hobby, a passion or even a way of life. When you are able to genuinely tap into the very core of your workforce they will go above and beyond for you every time! Authentic inspiration, the foundation for any high-performance team, is contagious. Imagine the results of creating an environment where the entire team felt responsible and committed to inspiring each other. The Ritz-Carlton encourages leaders at each property to build strong and lasting relationships with all the Ladies and Gentlemen. How well do you know the passions that drive your workforce? ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Motivating Employees in the Workplace appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Today we have a guest post from Jay Cross. Jay is the Johnny Appleseed of informal learning. The Internet Time Alliance, which he chairs, helps corporations and governments use networks to accelerate performance. Jay has challenged conventional wisdom about how adults learn since designing the first business degree program offered by the University of Phoenix. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School. Jay and his wife Uta live with their miniature longhaired dachshund in the hills of Berkeley, California. The world of corporate training has changed. What worked 20 years ago doesn’t work well in the social, always-on, networked world of business we now inhabit. These days, traditional training departments cannot build courses fast enough to keep up with the speed of change, and the Internet is our greatest source of information.  The Industrial Age is giving way to the Network Era. In the Industrial Age, workers were cogs in a machine. They were rewarded for efficiency and for meshing smoothly with their fellow cogs. In the Network Era, workers replace the machine; workers create the value. They are rewarded for delighting customers in innovative and non-routine ways. Collaborative organizations thrive in the Network Era. Trust that your employees will succeed when given the autonomy and freedom to work the way they want to is fundamental to becoming a collaborative organization. You don’t collaborate with people you don’t trust. Managers in collaborative organizations trust workers to be guided by corporate values and mission. Trust drives out micro-management. When management has high expectations of workers, they generally live up to them. When expectations are low, workers live down to them. Collaborative motivation dispenses with the concept that managers control workers. Instead, managers should inspire workers, set expectations and get out of the way. Collaborative infrastructure is the circuitry that connects workers with what they need to work and learn: co-workers, information, customers, news, models, plans, directives, gossip and more. Our paper calls these the "knows." The knows define the infrastructure required to support them: The "Know" Supporting Infrastructure Know who Profiles, expertise locators Know how Conversations, network Know why Purpose, aspiration, motivation Know what Content management systems, wikis, blogs, curation Know now Feeds, tweets, streams Know where Search, tags, indexes, rankings Know when Project management, shared calendar Collaborative learning is learning without borders, and it’s what the Network Era demands of companies that want to develop and retain their talent. Organizations improve learning by removing obstacles, seeding communities, increasing bandwidth, encouraging conversation and growing networks. It’s a natural way to learn and grow. Learning is now a critical daily activity; learning on the job is more effective than learning outside of the job. Learning must be embedded in work. As a result, work and learning are becoming indistinguishable. Experiment with bringing work and learning together by: Focusing on helping high performers work smarter; novices aren’t the only people who need to learn. No longer punishing people for failed experiments; if you never fail, you’re not innovating. Applying the 80/20 rule to critical functions and seeding communities of practice around them. Encouraging people to narrate their work, documenting what they do to share with others. Rooting out information hoarding; make sharing the norm. Some companies fire hoarders. For more on this topic, download the white paper: Why Corporate Training Is Broken and How to Fix It. Photo credit: nesster

Dear Ritz-Carlton: How do you encourage employee retention? Aren’t employees always looking for a bigger paycheck? Answer from Jeff Hargett, Senior Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: While I don’t believe I’ve ever heard an employee turning down a raise—or claim that they are paid too much for their work—money does not lead to happiness or the assurance of a long-term employee. We’ve all heard, "Employees join companies and leave people (typically their managers)." There are many ways to retain employees, but the most effective is through Employee Engagement. When staff members feel they are part of the larger organization, they are more committed to success—not only theirs, but their department’s and the entire company’s. They want more than just performing a task that results in a paycheck. If that is their goal, when your competition tempts them with a higher wage, you’ll soon find their letter of resignation on your desk. To encourage employee retention, you should assist employees to not only improve their performance in their role, but also increase their education through training, encourage participation in Quality Improvement Teams and build community through your company’s social responsibility network. Keep your employees happy, keep them engaged and don’t just "throw money at the problem." ∞ 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: Employee Retention? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

While getting ready to watch the Paralympics Opening Ceremony on Wednesday evening, I found myself re-watching some of the many highlights from the Olympic Games. Perhaps I’m biased, but track and field produced the most iconic celebration poses: an ecstatic Mo Farah, arms aloft in the shape of an M, and Usain Bolt’s now legendary "lightning bolt". What strikes me about these moments is the way in which they have become highly identifiable. At first, they stand out because they are so different from anything we’ve seen before. Later, the gestures become synonymous with the success of the individual. That is, they become familiar, recognisable - even expected - a shared reference point that we all "get". Now, I think innovation in business follows a similar path. Original thinkers often come out of nowhere. Hurtling down the track, they suddenly and unexpectedly take the lead. Think Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson. As with Mo Farah and Usain Bolt, our eyes are drawn to their victories and their winning ways. Eventually, the methods they use become familiar. The competition steps up a gear and attempts to emulate them. I believe we’re at this stage now with flexible working. A recent survey suggested a 50 per cent increase of flexible working during the 2012 Games. Those determined to move ahead of competitors will embrace flexible working. Others will hold back, perhaps biding their time while noting their opponents’ progress. To many, this new mode of work may seem unusual or even unnecessary. But as more businesses unlock increased productivity and a capacity to cope with disruption, my prediction is that flexible working will soon become an easily recognisable indicator of high performance - as well known as any victory pose. If you are a business owner or employee, which side of the divide is your business on? Photo credit: nickwebb

The Italian poet, Cesare Pavese, noted that: "We do not remember days; we remember moments." Some milestones are especially memorable—like your wedding day, the arrival of your children or a special birthday. At The Ritz-Carlton, we often have the opportunity to help with these momentous occasions. The story below exemplifies how the Ladies and Gentlemen—the employees—of The Ritz-Carlton provide meaningful and memorable service. An Owner at The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Los Angeles was planning to ask his girlfriend to marry him. He wanted to plan a special, over-the-top proposal, and approached the Director of Residences for assistance. The Director of Residences was delighted to be involved in the planning of the surprise, and presented several ideas to the Owner. After walking through the suggestions, the Owner fell in love with The Director of Residences’ idea of proposing on the helipad at the top of The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Los Angeles. At a height of 676 feet, the helicopter landing strip provides unbelievable views of the Los Angeles skyline, San Bernardino Mountains, the Hollywood Hills and the Pacific Ocean—a perfect place for a romantic proposal. The Director of Residences prepared all of the logistics. In order to get the girlfriend to the helipad without spoiling the surprise, The Director of Residences created and delivered a fake invitation to an "Owner’s Cocktail Reception" on the top of the building. On the day of the proposal, The Director of Residences solicited the help of the Residences’ houseman and team members from Safety and Security and Engineering to set up a special space on the helipad. They arranged furniture, hundreds of flowers and champagne, and even a rug with rose petals sewn into it saying: "I love you ―will you marry me?" In addition to setting the stage for the proposal on the helipad, The Director of Residences also hired a photographer and videographer to capture the special moment. When the Owner proposed, the girlfriend immediately said "yes," with tears of joy in her eyes. While the happy couple celebrated with champagne and enjoyed the magnificent view, The Director of Residences made arrangements for one more surprise. The Owner had flown in all of the girlfriend’s family from New York to surprise her and to celebrate their engagement, and they were waiting to surprise her in the Owner’s residence. The Director of Residences sent the photographer and videographer down to the residence where they were able to capture the special moment when the girlfriend—now fiancée—realized her entire family was there to celebrate with her. After the reunion, the group enjoyed an excellent dinner together in the private dining room of the hotel restaurant, WP24. The next day, The Director of Residences delivered the video and photographs from the event to the delighted couple so they could remember the special proposal for a lifetime. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Residences® and The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club® offer the opportunity to own a home operated by The Ritz-Carlton. The Ritz-Carlton Residences provides whole-ownership, luxury living in many of the world’s most vibrant cities and stunning resort destinations. For customers looking to own a partial share of a vacation home, they have the option to purchase a number of days per year at one of our Ritz-Carlton operated Destination Clubs. The Blog Post Guest Story: Memorable Service appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve either already implemented remote support tools into your service program or started thinking about it very seriously. So I’m probably preaching to the choir when I talk about the benefits of remote versus in-person support. Still, it’s nice to be thorough. If you’re already a believer of how cloud-based tools make the job of support easier, just consider this as confirmation of your good judgment. Here’s 5 big reasons your remote support tool delivers an immediate return on investment: Improved first-call resolutions Support organizations that adopt remote support tools consistently report improved first-call resolution rates - by as much as 70%. Support reps are able to securely connect to the customer’s system to share their desktop, upload patches, resolve the issue and provide product training quickly and easily close the issue the first time. Reps are able able to conduct up to 8 support sessions simultaneously, resolving issues quicker and ultimately supporting more customers within their day. CCH Wolters Kluwer, for example, reached 80% first-call resolutions using GoToAssist Corporate. Increase in customer satisfaction What if you could boost customer satisfaction just by resolving their issues quickly and easily the first time with tools like chat, screen sharing, computer diagnostics, support team collaboration and more? You would more than likely see CSAT rates jump as high as 90 to 97%. Read how Flir Systems is able to please customers by resolving issues faster with immediate "hands-on" remote support using GoToAssist Decrease in call volumes & call-handling times Lower total call volumes due to fewer repeat calls is another benefit of remote support technology. Your support reps will be able to resolve issues the first time, so customers do not have to call back time after time. Using team collaboration tools like session transfer and escalation helps resolve customer issues faster and facilitates new support rep training by leveraging the expertise of your entire support team. Most remote support organizations are able to reduce call-handling times by 50%. Improved customer retention & employee satisfaction Improved first-call resolutions, increased customer satisfaction and decrease in call volumes help with both customer retention and employee satisfaction.  Using remote support tools helps boost customer retention — your customers stay with you longer because your support team is able to deliver an outstanding customer support experience from start to finish.  Customer retention is more than giving the customer what they expect; it’s about exceeding their expectations, so they become loyal advocates for your brand.Today’s support organizations are motivated about raising the bar on performance. They often look to easy-to-use remote support tools to ensure adoption among support reps and to make the job of support easier. In addition, many companies ask their customers to provide feedback on the support experience using post-session surveys. The feedback and metrics can then be channeled into a unique program to recognize and reward employees. See how Ultimate Software maintains 97% customer retention and rewards support reps based on customer surveys and performance reports using GoToAssist Corporate. Overall cost savings Using remote support tools to resolve technical issues quickly saves money in several ways. Shorter resolution times, fewer calls combined with happier customers equals  higher customer lifetime values. You’ll also see a boost in support staff productivity, which saves time and money and fosters best practices.  In addition, since your teams are able to resolve issues over the internet, there’s no need to travel from location to location fixing things. Remote support tools let you support people and machines all over the globe in the same day (or even the same hour). That equates to thousands of dollars saved in travel costs too. Not sure what remote support tool to purchase? Rest assured, GoToAssist is the preferred choice in remote support, the worldwide bestseller according to IDC*, and scored highest among its competitors in customer satisfaction (4.29 out of 5) in TSIA’s 2011 survey of users of remote support products**. GoToAssist by Citrix provides essential cloud-based tools for supporting people and technology. With GoToAssist, IT managers, consultants/MSPs, help desks and contact centers can deliver secure remote support and IT infrastructure monitoring (if needed). GoToAssist’s easy-to-use and easy-to-deploy business solutions enable organizations of all sizes to connect with customers, employees and machines online from anywhere, anytime. Find out what GoToAssist product is right for your organization today! Photo credit: ironrodart * IDC, "Worldwide Clientless Remote Support Services 2010 Top 6 Market Share Leaders," Doc # 228728, June 2011. **TSIA, Technology Services Industry Association, "Measuring the Business Impact of Collaboration Tools within Remote Support Platform," Report # TSIA-EI-11-028, January 2012.

"We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we’ve established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile." — Earl Nightingale, an American Self-help Speaker and Author The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: The impact of disengaged employees extends beyond the office. People who are unhappy at work often carry their discontent home. They share frustrations with family and friends, and their unhappiness can prevent them from relaxing and having fun. Dreading Mondays and worrying about work also contributes to poor sleeping habits. Considering we spend 40 hours of a week at work, we should strive to find happiness at our jobs. As Mr. Nightingale points out, our goal should be to find work that fully engages us. The Ritz-Carlton measures employee engagement to ensure that we are providing our Ladies and Gentlemen—the employees of The Ritz-Carlton—with the resources that will support workplace happiness. What makes you happy at work?  ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Disengaged Employees appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

In a world of international meetings and flexible working, IT support is no longer a 9-5 job. Yet the structures most businesses have in place often fail to allow for this and instead restrict both IT workers and the people who rely on them. More and more companies are giving their employees the opportunity to work away from their desk. While this should be applauded, it means we need to rethink how we structure our offices. Not only are IT workers having to support workers who are away from their desk, they are also having to support a range of platforms that were unimaginable even five years ago. Gone are the days when everyone worked on a desktop computer and could only use software approved by the IT department. Now, employees are working with their own laptops, smartphones and tablets, often using their own software. The way IT departments function needs to reflect the diversity of this Bring Your Own Device culture. Going Remote With more business than ever taking place remotely via the Internet, it’s only logical for the support structure to also exist remotely. Freeing up IT professionals to work remotely will provide a sounder support structure for your business, while increasing your employees’ quality of life. A recent survey by IT Manager Daily found that a third of IT employees would give up 10 percent of their salary in exchange for the option to work full-time from home. Currently less than 1 percent of IT workers are given this option, but tools such as GoToAssist, which allows IT workers to use their iPad to connect remotely to a network and provide real-time diagnostics and support, make it easier than ever before. Coupling GoToAssist with other remote working tools means you can have a fully functioning IT desk without the need for an actual desk. Imagine a world without the frustration of only being able to get help with a technology problem when the relevant support worker is at their desk. The new generation of workshifting tools offer that world today.   Photo credit: H Sterling Cross