I recently visited The Moat House in Acton Trussell at the invitation of Stuart Maun who I got to know while he was Sales Manager at Kilworth House; a hotel we have used frequently to run leadership development programmes.  He has now been promoted to being General Manager of this privately owned hotel and is an prime example of someone with excellent personal  leadership skills.

He did a brilliant job where he worked before and was a key part of our decision to use that particular venue – his attention to service and the way that he looked after us was impressive and you could see how it rubbed off on the staff that he worked with.  Every person there respected him, enjoyed working with him and were keen to support him in the best way that they could.  He never stopped thinking about what could he give to the client to make their experience an even better one

Having watched Stuart at his job to see what it is that makes him such an outstanding Manager I think it comes down to two things that we talk about so much.  ‘Listening’ and ‘Appreciation’. This is naturally in addition to having all the ‘technical’ skills make a successful hotel.  Watching him with his staff and with the customers there is no question that he does far more listening than talking – he listens intently and without being distracted by anything else that is going on around him.  You feel listened to.  Clients love him.

The other thing is that he focuses on people’s strengths – he really values them and he tells them so.  He notices things that his staff do and he tells them specifically what it is he notices that they are doing well.  They then feel good about what they are doing and want to do even better next time; so on a very regular basis he is developing their strengths.  As a leadership style it has impressive results.

There is now evidence coming out of our ears that says we need to focus on people’s strengths and yet somehow we find that a somewhat difficult thing to grasp.  We seems to feel it necessary to tell people where they are getting it wrong – our colleagues, our team, our children and even our partners.  We look for the things we don’t like rather than the things that we do.  We do it because we care and really want to help them improve but maybe that actually knocks their confidence rather than builds it.  The more confident we are the more likely we are to do a better job.

If you want to develop your leadership skills you can try it for yourself.  Make a conscious choice to really look for the little things that people are doing well – the fact they are always cheerful, how they really listen to others, how they always remember your name, how they communicate in such an open way, how they always do what they say they are going to do etc. etc.  Look for those things and tell them.  Really choose to look for everything that you appreciate and value about them and sit back and watch what happens.  See how it makes you feel.  And when you decide to visit the Moat House for a really fabulous experience watch Stuart – he is good at it!

PS. The food at The Moat House deserves a Michelin star and the meal I had will remain in my memory for ever – far better than The Fat Duck in my humble opinion.  Even better, is that the tasting menu, which we experienced, is an incredibly reasonable price. 

To read more about Stuart and how his vision got him his dream job and Penny’s comments on other subjects see Penny’s blog at www.insights-in-leadership.co.uk