Leading in Tourism and Hospitality: The Values Approach That Creates Exceptional Teams
Your property has standards. Your training is comprehensive. Your processes are documented. And somehow, guest experience varies wildly depending on who's working. The difference isn't training; it's leadership.
Here's the approach that creates consistent excellence: The Hospitality Values Leadership Model. It recognizes that hospitality requires discretionary effort, and discretionary effort flows from values alignment, not from process compliance.
The Consistency Challenge
Hospitality research shows that guest satisfaction varies more by individual employee interaction than by property features. The same hotel can deliver dramatically different experiences depending on who the guest encounters.
This inconsistency isn't a training problem; the training is the same. It's a leadership problem. Some leaders create teams that consistently exceed expectations. Others create teams that consistently meet minimum standards.
The difference is how leaders engage the values that drive discretionary effort.
What Hospitality Workers Value
The Valuegraphics Database tracks 56 values that drive human behavior across a million surveys globally. When we profile people who thrive in hospitality roles, certain values appear consistently.
Service to Others (ranked 42nd globally but significantly higher in hospitality profiles) draws people to this work. They want to help. They want to create positive experiences for guests.
Relationships (ranked 2nd at 79%) matter deeply. Hospitality workers often value the connections they build with guests, with colleagues, and with regulars who become familiar faces.
Belonging (ranked 4th at 56%) creates team cohesion. Workers who feel they belong to a team, not just employed by a property, invest differently.
Respect (ranked 8th at 48%) determines engagement. Workers who feel respected bring their best. Workers who feel like interchangeable parts bring their minimum.
The Hospitality Values Leadership Model
Four leadership practices that create exceptional teams:
Practice 1: Enable Genuine Service to Others
Hospitality workers often choose this career because they want to help people. Leadership that constrains genuine service creates frustration.
Enable service through:
- Empowering staff to solve guest problems without escalation
- Creating budget flexibility for guest recovery moments
- Removing policies that prevent staff from helping
- Celebrating service moments, not just efficiency metrics
The question to ask is, "Is there anything preventing my team from serving guests the way they'd want to?"
Workers who can express their Service to Others value staying engaged. Workers who are prevented from genuinely helping become disengaged or leave.
Practice 2: Create space for Relationships to form
Relationships create stickiness with guests and with colleagues. Leadership can enable or block relationship formation.
Enable relationships through:
- Scheduling that allows regular guest contact (vs. constantly rotating staff)
- Time for genuine conversations (vs. constant task pressure)
- Team structures that build colleague connection
- Recognition of relationship-building as valuable work
The question to ask: "Can my team build real relationships with guests and colleagues, or are we optimized for efficiency at the cost of connection?"
Properties that sacrifice relationships for efficiency lose the human element that creates memorable experiences.
Practice 3: Build genuine Belonging
Teams that feel like families deliver differently than teams that feel like shift-fillers.
Build belonging through:
- Consistent team membership (vs. constantly shuffling)
- Team rituals and shared experiences
- Genuine investment in team members as people
- Protecting team members when things get difficult
The question to ask is, "Would my team describe themselves as part of something, or as individuals who happen to work the same shifts?"
Belonging creates ownership. Owners treat the property as theirs. Employees treat it as someone else's problem.
Practice 4: Demonstrate Respect in Operational Reality
Respect in hospitality isn't about politeness. It's about treating staff as capable adults whose judgment matters.
Demonstrate respect through:
- Trusting staff to handle situations without micromanagement
- Listening to staff observations about what guests need
- Responding to staff suggestions and concerns
- Treating staff with the same care you want them to show guests
The question to ask: "Do my staff feel respected by how they're treated, or do they feel managed like children?"
The experience guests receive often mirrors the experience staff receive. Staff who feel respected create respectful guest experiences. Staff who feel disrespected have little respect to share.
The Leadership Shift
Traditional hospitality leadership focuses on standards compliance. Did the room get cleaned correctly? Was the check-in process followed? Were the service steps completed?
Values-based hospitality leadership focuses on creating conditions where discretionary effort is natural.
Compliance creates minimum performance. Values alignment creates exceptional performance.
The shift requires asking different questions:
- Not "Did they follow the process?" but "Did the guest feel served?"
- Not "Were standards met?" but "Did the team feel proud of what they delivered?"
- Not "Was efficiency optimized?" but "Did relationships form?"
The Business Case
This isn't soft leadership. It's strategic leadership.
Properties where staff are engaged by values alignment show:
- Lower turnover (reducing constant training costs)
- Higher guest satisfaction (creating reviews and referrals)
- Better problem recovery (when staff genuinely care)
- Consistent experience (because motivation is intrinsic, not managed)
The investment is leadership's attention to values. The return is operational excellence that process compliance never achieves.
The Strategic Question
Before your next shift, ask this: What am I doing today to enable my team's values, their desire to serve, their need for relationships, their belonging to this team, and their sense of being respected?
The answer to that question determines whether your guests get service or performance.
Service is what happens when values are engaged.
Performance is what happens when standards are enforced.
Guests can tell the difference. Your team can too.
Remember: if you know what people value, you can change what happens next.
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