In this episode of the Proteus Leader Show, host Erika Andersen interviews Chip Wade, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), about the philosophy of "enlightened hospitality." Wade explains that enlightened hospitality flips the traditional business model by prioritizing employees, the community, suppliers, and investors above guests, creating a virtuous, cyclical relationship where each stakeholder’s well‑being enhances the overall guest experience. He distinguishes hospitality (the emotional connection that makes people feel valued, seen, and cared for) from service (the technical execution of tasks). Wade argues that this emotional differentiation is a powerful competitive advantage not only for restaurants but for any business, from car makers to shoe brands. He outlines practical steps for managers: hire for optimism, warmth, curiosity, strong work ethic, empathy, and self‑awareness; celebrate and reward those behaviors enthusiastically; and have the courage to remove employees who lack the emotional skills. The conversation underscores that while technical skills are important, the emotional component (about 51% of the employee skill set) is essential for delivering a caring environment that drives customer loyalty and business success.
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Hi everybody, and welcome back to the Proteus Leader Show. My guest today is Chip Wade, CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group. Before joining USHG as president in 2019 and then becoming CEO in 2022, Chip spent 30 years in operational leadership in the hospitality industry in Darden Restaurants, Legal Seafood, and Carlston Restaurants. So welcome to the show, Chip.
Thank you, Erika. I'm pleased to be with you. It's a pleasure to see you again.
Yes, you too. And I'm, I'm so happy and proud to be able to say that USHG and Proteus have been clients and friends for over 30 years, and we've kind of grown up together.
We sure have. Exactly.
I know that this topic of hospitality is really dear to your heart and you've made it dear to our heart too. So I'm thrilled to share it with our listeners. I think it's an unrecognized key to good business. So let's just dive in. So USHG has a philosophy that you call, and have called for many years, enlightened hospitality. So can you explain that to us and why it's so important to the enterprise, to your enterprise?
Sure, I'd love to. So for us, really, it's a philosophy that prioritizes our employees, the community, our suppliers, and our investors above the guests, which is a very foreign notion, if you will. Wasn't what I was taught in business school, right? What we all learned was the customer is always right and the customer is first. Enlightened hospitality really turns that model on its head. And again, we prioritize these 4 stakeholders above the customers, or in our business, the guests. Now, we also talk about this virtuous cycle. And so for us, it's not a pyramid, but it's a cycle where each of those stakeholders prosper and grow and win together.
Yeah.
So that's how we think about enlightened hospitality. where each of the stakeholders care for each other. And that care and that nurturing really leads to a better overall experience.
I love that idea that they're interdependent, all 5 of these things. And one of the things that I've always loved about enlightened hospitality is that the first element is taking care of each other, which hasn't traditionally been true in the restaurant business. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about that too.
Yeah, it's really this idea, again, building on what you said. When we think about hospitality, it's how the customer or how the employee feels about their interaction with us. Hospitality really is a dialogue, right?
Yeah.
If you do something for me, then hospitality is present. If you feel that I'm on your side, then hospitality is present. If my staff customizes your dining experience, then hospitality is present. And we believe the way that you make people feel— that starts with our employees, our chefs, our bartenders at every level, including here at the home office— the way that you make people feel is so important. They in turn will take that feeling and care for our suppliers and care for our guests.
I love that. So you start by how you make them feel, how you make staff feel as members of your community.
Yeah, absolutely. And we believe clearly that hospitality is a key business differentiator. It separates us from other competitors. Listen, this is an amazing notion, right? With cell phones, you can take a photo of an entrée, and many of our competitors can take a photo of that and replicate that. What you can't replicate is how you make someone feel. And that is the power. And it does start with our employees. And it starts with how the skills and behaviors that we look for. It starts with how we onboard and train them, but also just how we interact with them, how we celebrate with them, and then how we recognize them.
So you've started to talk about this a little bit, but how do you see hospitality as being key to the success of businesses that aren't part of the hospitality industry per se?
Yeah, I love talking about this. I think this idea, clearly we believe, again, hospitality is a differentiator, right? Lexus is not selling a car. Delta Airlines is not selling a ticket. What they're really selling is emotional connection. They're selling this notion of comfort. They're selling joy and happiness. And so if you can infuse and ensure that it maintains, meaning hospitality, part of your culture, you can differentiate yourself from others. There are commodity businesses, whether it's Nike or On Clouds, right? Their shoes are commodity. But how you feel about that product when you put it on your foot, how you feel about the interaction with the service person, we believe will determine whether or not you'll come back again and again.
Well, that's great. So the creation of that positive experience around the good or service between you and the company, between you and the people you interact with in the company, that's the key as far as you're concerned.
To any business. So I will add on that, right? So we draw a clear distinction between Service and hospitality. Service is the technical skill set or this technical behavior to deliver a chicken dish to our guests. It's the technical steps. And many restaurant companies have steps of service. When the guests sit down, we hope that you can greet them in a minute or less. The beverage is supposed to be delivered in 3 minutes or less. That is service. And again, it's the technical delivery. Of the product. Hospitality is the emotional connection that the servers deliver to the guests that are in our restaurants and how, again, our servers make you feel.
Yes. Period.
Period. Right? Do the guests feel valued, seen, heard, and cared for?
Ooh, I love that. Wow. I can really see how that is applicable to any business. I mean, I'm immediately Where this conversation is taking my head is all the places where I haven't felt seen and heard and cared for, and the places where I have. And those are the places I go back to.
In the world that we're living in today, right, where caring and being with others is maybe not as valued as it was in the past— technology is great, and it certainly has advanced kind of human nature, hard stop. But I believe what has happened is the intimacy, the closeness to being close to others.
Yeah.
And so for us, making people— again, I'm being repetitive, so my apology— feeling this notion of valued and cared for and nurtured and loved makes a big difference. I want to be with businesses and do businesses with people that recognize me. Not as just another customer, but as a human being and as a guest that has many choices. And I think that is powerful, whether, again, you're selling a car or shoes or a hotel room. We have so many choices. And here in New York, New Yorkers have so many choices on where to dine.
Yes.
And so they're gonna choose where they dine, not so much by the entree or the glass of Pinot Noir that they're tasting, but how you make them feel.
Oh, that's very clear. Very clear. It's so funny. I mean, it's, it gets very subtle because you can go into a place, a hospitality place or any place, and have them say, oh, well, we appreciate your business. But that doesn't mean you'll feel as though they appreciate your business. That's a whole other thing, right?
Absolutely. Danny is fond of saying this, right? When we're looking for employees, we look for 100% skill set. And so we talk a lot at USHG about 49% of that 100 is the technical skill set to do your job.
Yeah.
51% is the emotional skills and capabilities that we want. There are restaurants in New York That technically their cooks or their chefs or their SOMs may be better than some of our employees.
Technically.
Technically. But if you can't consistently deliver a caring environment, an environment where warmth and hospitality is part of the DNA, I don't want that person working for us.
Oh, that's great. That makes so much sense. So let's get real practical. We always promise practical takeaways. So what can managers start doing right now in any business to create more of an environment of hospitality with their teams and with their clients?
I would say a couple of things. One is it again starts with the employee. And so a leader today, regardless of the industry that you're in, you can begin to screen out and look for a couple of skills and behaviors that we believe are critically important.
Mm-hmm.
And I would say first and foremost, optimism and warmth. When you're hiring employees, ask questions around optimism and warmth. Number 2, curiosity. At USHE, we're interviewing and asking questions. Is the individual curious? Strong work ethic, Empathy, and then self-awareness. So we begin with this idea of each other, again, the employees in our virtuous cycle. And what an individual can do today is begin to look for employees that have those skills that I just articulated, number one.
Yeah.
I think number two is when you hire that person and those individuals begin to display those behaviors, celebrate, right? And I think organizations all too often fail to really enthusiastically celebrate their employees and the best work and the gifts that they bring to the organization. This is very interesting, and it's been 30 years in restaurants and hospitality. Rarely did I have someone talk about what are the gifts that you bring to your coworkers?
Mm-hmm.
Warmth and empathy and integrity. And so number one is hire right. Number 2, celebrate those employees and managers and leaders when they deliver on those behaviors. Enthusiastically reward and celebrate. Number 3, and this is critically important, have the courage to remove those employees who don't display those skills and capabilities.
Yeah.
One of the hardest things for young managers to execute on, which is I may love Chip Wade because technically he's a wonderful server, but I have to have the courage to go ask him to work somewhere else because he may not be delivering on those emotional skills I mentioned. So those are the 3 things.
Oh, I love that. That's so clear. Oh, how people are writing things down. We could talk for hours, as always. I love talking to you. So thank you so much, Chip. This has been great.
Thank you, Erika. I always enjoy chatting with you. Congratulations. I love our partnership, and thank you for being a friend of USHG's for well over 30 years.
Oh, thank you so much. And listeners, you can find out more about USHG and how you can increase your business's hospitality quotient, as they call it. You can just go to hq.ushg.com. That's where you can find out all about this. And to find out how Proteus supports leaders to do the hard work of people management with clarity and heart, just go to proteus-international.com. So thanks again, Chip.
Thank you.
Thank you all for listening. And until next time, here's to creating the life you truly want.
We hope you're feeling better equipped to create the career, the business, and the life you want. To find out more about how we support our clients in leadership, learning, and change, visit us at proteus-international.com. Have an excellent day, and thanks for listening. Thank you.
