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Focus in Circles

William “Will” Rushing

July 6, 2017

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Keeping Focused

As a General Manager of a hotel or any type of manager, you have a lot coming at you.
You can stay busy but not be productive.
You can stay engaged but not focused.
You can be looking but not seeing.

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Focus in Circles

Guest Comments

Operational Issues

Competition

Maintenance & Repair Issues

Food Service

Quality Issues

As a General Manager (the Leader), you have a lot of challenges and opportunities that could easily overwhelm you…

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To be effective, you have to categorize and then

prioritize the many opportunities that you are

afforded.

Focus in Circles (continued)

3 Categories:

Customer issues

Personnel & Staff issues

Finance and Control issues

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Focus in Circles (continued)

Customer issues

Quality of room
Cleanliness of hotel
Availability of amenities
Ease of check-in/check out
Friendliness of staff
Quality of food
Timely availability of room
Unwanted Noise
Room charges
Availability of hotel staff
Knowledge and professionalism of hotel staff

JUST SOME OF THE MANY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITIES

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Focus in Circles (continued)

Personnel & Staff issues

Training of Staff
Attrition of Staff
Morale issues
Call-off’s / absenteeism
Friendliness of staff
Engagement (or lack of)
Lack of customer focus
Lack of teamwork
Professionalism
Knowledge and professionalism of hotel staff

JUST SOME OF THE MANY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITIES

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Focus in Circles (continued)

Finance & Control issues

Food waste
Cost of food
Frequent comping
Call-off’s / tardies
Room occupancy rate
Excess inventory
Planned operational expenses
Unplanned operational expenses
Record keeping
Competitor’s pricing

JUST SOME OF THE MANY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITIES

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Once you categorize the issues into one of the three

circles, you then prioritize the circles.

I recommend the following priority:

Focus in Circles (continued)

Guest issues – Happy guests return and tell others!

Staff issues – A highly motivated staff ensures guests remain happy and dedicated to guests!

Finance and Control issues – Managing costs and records help with strategic & operational planning!

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-- As you address each of the prioritized opportunities, do so in a way that the issues don’t resurface.

-- A good method to use is the 5 Why Method:

Focus in Circles (continued)

Issue: Customer stated there was no oatmeal left in the free hot breakfast served each morning.

Why? (#1): We ran out of oatmeal at 8 AM (breakfast ends at 10 AM on Saturday).

Why? (#2): We had more guests eating breakfast on Monday to Friday than anticipated, leaving less supplies for Saturday.

Why? (#3): We had been sold-out that entire week due to several local events going on.

Why? (#4): We didn’t do our weekly inventory to ensure we had plenty of supplies on hand.

Why?(#5): The person who does this inventory unexpectedly took a week off (due to an illness) and no one was cross trained to do her job.

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Focus in Circles (continued)

Problem

Why?

Helps you get to the Root Cause!

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As a general manager, you stay focused on all three circles.
You quickly take care of those things that impact the customer.
Your prioritized all other opportunities and use directed efforts to complete them, one by one.
Daily and weekly review each circle, ensuring everything is in balance.

Focus in Circles (continued)

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Acknowledgements

The concept of the 3 Circles came from the book, “100 Tips for Hoteliers” by Peter Venison:

Venison, Peter. 100 Tips for Hoteliers – what

every successful hotel professional needs to

know and do. Nebraska, NE: iUniverse, 2005.

Print.

The Five Why’s is a standard Six Sigma process used by all.

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William Rushing

LinkedIn Profile:

www.linkedin.com/in/willrushing

Will Rushing is a former Naval Officer and a

graduate of University of Arkansas.