Simon Sinek contrasts two hotels: at Four Seasons, a barista named Noah says he loves his job because managers ask how to make it better. At another hotel, management only pushes performance and points out mistakes. Leadership environment shapes how employees behave and how customers experience the business.
Chapters
Okay, so I was in Vegas for a business trip a bunch of years ago, and the client put me up at the Four Seasons, which is a lovely hotel. And the reason that Four Seasons is lovely is not because the beds, though the beds are nice. It's because the people who work there, well, they happen to have a coffee bar at the Four Seasons down here, which you can go visit in the lobby. And one afternoon I went and bought myself a cup of coffee. And the barista working that day was a kid named Noah. Noah was funny and engaging and charming, and I had way too much fun just buying a cup of coffee. So, as is my nature, I asked Noah, do you like your job? And without skipping a beat, Noah said, I love my job. Now, in my line of work, that's significant. Like versus love, right? Like is rational. I like the people. I like the challenge. I get paid well. I like my job. Love is emotional. It's a higher order connection. It's like, do you love your husband? I like him a lot. You know.
Not the same.
So Noah said, I love my job. So immediately my ears perked up. And so I asked him, tell me specifically what the Four Seasons is doing that you would even say to me, I love my job. And again, without skipping a beat, he said, throughout the day, managers will walk past me and ask me if there's anything they can do to make my job better. Not just my manager, any manager. And then he said, I work for another hotel as well, and there they drive performance. They catch us doing things wrong there. I just like to keep my head below the radar. I just want to get through the day and collect my paycheck. And he said, only at the Four Seasons do I feel I can be myself. Now, if you think about this, our experience of Noah at these two different hotels will be profoundly different. Not because of Noah, but because of the leadership environment in which he works. And so often we blame the people who are on the front line for the customer experience when we never consider who they working for, what's the leadership environment that they've created. And so to to be able to make that comparison was a once for me, a once in a lifetime experience. That same person, two different places, entirely different point of view about his work.
