Dear Hospitality,
We are a remarkable sector.
Every day, across pubs, bars, restaurants, hotels, kitchens, head offices and boardrooms, we develop people, create opportunities and change lives. We provide first jobs and lifelong careers. We mentor, coach and develop each other and we do all this whilst bringing joy and happiness by the bucket load to guests who love us for it.
And that’s the end of this open letter.
Well done everyone.
If this letter actually did end there, hospitality, you could be forgiven for feeling rather pleased with yourself. High fives all round, cue Louis Armstrong’sWhat a Wonderful World, slaps on the back, celebratory whoops.
But hold on.
Before you break out the victory parade, alongside all of that good sits a much less flattering reality.
Misuse of power and bullying exist in your sector. They cast a shadow over everything mentioned in the opening paragraph. They damage confidence, careers, businesses and perceptions of hospitality itself.
Many of us have experienced it, many of us have witnessed it and, if we are really honest with ourselves, some of us may even have contributed to it.
Hospitality is demanding. Guests deserve excellence, businesses need profit and people need to perform at their best. Standards and accountability are hugely important and leaders at every level are often required to make difficult decisions.
The question is not whether hospitality should be demanding. Spoiler alert. It is and forever will be.
The question is whether those demands can be delivered through fairness, respect and great leadership rather than intimidation, humiliation or the misuse of power.
So can hospitality be demanding without being demeaning?
Great leaders at every level of hospitality prove every day that it can.
Change is happening. More people are talking about the benefits of reducing misuse of power and bullying, more people are listening and more people are findIng the confidence to speak openly about experiences that might once have remained hidden.
Imagine a time when there is nowhere left for misuse of power and bullying to hide and hospitality is known as much for how it treats its people as how it treats its guests.
It would be the opening paragraph without the shadow.
So where does responsibility for culture sit? With HR? With the CEO? With the board?
The answer, dear reader, is each of us.
Whether you work on the front line, in a kitchen, in a hotel, in a head office or around a boardroom table, this includes you.
We finish this letter with a painting created by a Good Apple Effect supporter, somebody who cares deeply about reducing misuse of power and bullying in our sector and helping hospitality enjoy the benefits that come with better culture.
The conversation has started.
Please be part of it. Explore the Good Apple Effect website, learn more and continue the conversation.
Kind regards,
Elton Mouna
Founder, The Good Apple Effect C.I.C.
