Like me I’m sure you want to make more money, gain more influence or simply refine your leadership skills, To gain more influence you need invaluable organization, communication and leadership skills, not just any, the unique set that are required for, The hospitality industry, why are they unique?
Our industry has a diverse range of people working in it. Some are students just earning money alongside their study’s, some are here as a first job, some are from other country’s and have a minimum level of English and different cultural backgrounds. All of them have chosen the fast paced and high pressure environment of the hospitality industry.
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How you communicate, earn respect and trust, set boundaries, targets and lead them will have a significant impact on YOU. You want to lead effectively, earn more money and get to the next level of your career, right?
Well if you do you need to first know how to: Manage stress, avoid burnout, navigate difficult conversations, build trust and respect, manage conflict, keep your team engaged and motivated, keep them productive, and you yourself need to be confident in your own abilities to be the one who deserves to be in the position your in or the position you want to get to.
This is the foundation of what is necessary to get to the top in our industry and is the foundation of what we teach.
Let’s assume you have mastered the skills needed to be a strong leader, either from one of our programs of your own experience and skills development, and say you want to gain promotion or get to the next level in your career, well those skills are necessary but you have to make sure you know, understand and follow our “10 commandments of promotion”.
These are the same steps that Cemal used to go from server and cook to working alongside company directors, going from minimum wage to putting himself into top 10% of earners in the UK. These are simple but how you apply them to your unique goals, will be the defining factor of if you succeed, or fall short. These are:
1. Become great at the job your doing.
Before you put yourself up for promotion you must understand that your being paid to do the job your doing currently. Whilst you’re boss may always be on the look out to promote someone to a higher position. They are going to look past whoever isn’t really strong in their current role.
Take it from me, I've promoted many people in my career, and which none of them were not at least in the top 10% of performers in their current role. If you put yourself up for promotion and you aren’t at least in the top 10% of performers you will actually look like you have no self awareness and possibly spoil your chances of being promoted in the future. Whilst this alone will not guarantee you promotion, it’s the first step to take if you want to get to the next level in your career.
2. Become unwavering positive
Ask yourself this question, do you want to follow someone who is negative? Do you trust that their negativity will be a great tool to use when things get hard?
Do you think wow their negativity really helped me get through the day? Im going to assume that’s a no.
When things get hard, when you occur challenges, or when you feel like you don’t want to deal with something. Being unwaveringly positive is the only way to be, you have to adapt a positive attitude in order to not only push yourself but to push other people. This doesn’t mean that your showing an overwhelming amount of excitement towards any and all challenges you face, everyone has their own way of showing positivity.
Your boss will see this and you will seem capable at facing future challenges if they put you in that higher position, or at least the attitude you need to have.
3. Show commitment to your job and company
You can show your commitment in many ways.
Simple ones like…..
Being productive when your there, showing positivity when asked to complete a task. Be punctual, meet deadlines.
More challenging things like.. coming in to cover shifts when your off.. going above and beyond to help your team and mangers. Acquiring new skills and requesting feedback.
Doing these things and being strong in your role will show your committed. Above all you can do everything right but if you don’t come across as someone who is committed your boss will certainly not consider you for promotion.
4. Speak in your bosses language (like an owner)
This is more important the higher up you go as. If you want to earn the highest salary, attain the most influence you must first think like an owner but who will know if your thinking like one, unless you speak like one. Even if you want to go from server to supervisor, you have to learn to speak like someone would in that position, that doesn’t mean you start telling people what to do and acting as if you’re their manager. No matter what position you want to attain, starting or having conversations about or putting forward ideas like:
1. Improving efficiency
2. Marketing ideas
3. Increasing sales
4. Cutting costs
5. Improving guest experiences
6. Improving processes and procedures
Be careful not to come across like the current processes are useless or you know better as that will quickly sour your relationship with your boss.
5. Let it be known that your interested in promotion
A lot of the time and if your like me, you may not even have to put yourself forward or apply for a higher position. You may just be asked if you follow the first 4 commandments.
By now you should be
1. Great at the job
2. Be unwavering positive
3. Shown commitment to you job and company
4. And your speaking to your boss in their language
Now you are ready to take that next step, if you haven’t already been offered promotion, then it’s time to put yourself forward or apply. Doing this requires expressing interest and letting it be known that you are looking to progress and have a career with the company your working for.
6. Make sure promotion at your company is possible.
Even if you are doing everything perfectly and have followed the other 5 commandments. You may have to promote yourself, that means once you know your value and have proven it to yourself, if promotion isn’t an option in the time you want, this means you will have to actively seek a higher position at another company. This can be a tricky situation to navigate as you may really like where you work and who you work worth. But if you feel you have outgrown your company and people your working for then you can waste your time and the possibility of a higher salary for those reasons.
Now maybe promotion will be possible in a time your happy with, then you may decide to stay and wait. Which can also pay off and show your commitment even further, everyone’s situation will be different but always do what you feel is best for you, without souring any relationships you have at your current job. You may be surprised but when you tell your boss your leaving for a higher role, they may actually all of a sudden have the position come available when you tell them your leaving. I wouldn’t use this as a tactic though.
7. Put promotion at the top of your priority list.
No matter what position your trying to attain it means your going to have to prioritize taking the path to get there. The higher up you want go, the more commitment will be required to get their, if you can’t prioritize that, someone else who does will. You have to be committed to learning the skills to get their, that will be the hard skills that the role requires. If you don’t show great leadership skills, as after all the higher you go you are going to have to become a better and more competent leader each time.
You may have to make the choice between personal and professional commitments. Each one will have their consequences. Instead of trying to attain a “work life balance” try doing what the most successful people do and try “work life integration”. This helps you look at your career and personal life as more of a partnership rather than the 2 competing for priority. This takes skill and self awareness and can be perfected as you grow.
8. Add value in the right places.
A lot of people think that they deserve a promotion just by simply being good at the job their doing. But that’s not the case, you need to find out exactly what value needs to be added and in what place for each role. Usually this means actively trying to bring as much value to the position you want too attain. Say you want to go from store manager, to a regional position. You want to make sure you have the best team, you want to be hitting your targets, you want to have a low staff turnover. That’s a given.
But you also want to be looking beyond that. You want to be 2 things. You want to have make your bosses or higher managers life easier, you want to be replying to them quickly, you want to practice top down communication, you want to be receptive to whatever ideas they come up with. Make sure you of course as mentioned before, unwaveringly positive. Number 2 is, actively put forward ideas to do things better, usually this will be improvements to processes and procedures and reducing costs. This shows commitment, it shows you can do the job well and it shows you are capable of stepping up into that higher role. This is where speaking your bosses language will really start to benefit you.
9. Overcome any challenges, even if that means getting support or guidance.
As you move up, you will come across challenges that you are used to and can deal with already. But you will most certainly come across challenges that you didn’t expect. With each challenge, there comes an opportunity, an opportunity for growth, an opportunity to prove to yourself that you are a high performer. The more challenges you can overcome, the more challenges you can foresee and prevent, the easier job will be, and the lower the chances you will come across setbacks. This requires either seeking guidance from someone higher up the chain, acquiring new skills, and developing your current skill set.
What matters is you overcome the challenges that you face, the challenge that your role or new role brings. This is where a lot of people fail as they can’t overcome setback or challenges, this where you can become stuck and your career progression can come to a stop. If you haven’t progressed for quite some time, ask yourself what challenge have I yet to overcome, what challenge is standing in my way of going where I want to go. The quicker you are able to overcome that, the quicker you will taker yourself to new heights. If you can’t figure out what challenge you must overcome, then you need to dig deeper.
10. Repeat this process until you are where you want to be!
Now let’s say you know where you want to go and you believe these steps will help you get there. What if we could work together to get you there and if we fail (we won’t) we will refund you? What if we could help you manage your stress, improve your communication skills and turn you into the leader you were destined to be?
What if we could get you to the next level of your career in hospitality, gain more influence, increase your value and make you more money? What if we could help you regain purpose and satisfaction in doing what you do, day in and day out? You can use what we have shown you already or you can find out more on how to get there.