545: Will Guidara - The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect (Unreasonable Hospitality)
Sep 17, 2023
auto_awesome
Will Guidara, an expert in hospitality, discusses the power of exceeding expectations. Topics include the importance of small details, finding inspiration in Miles Davis, caring authentically, the power of journaling, attention to detail in creating an excellent restaurant experience, advice for finding passion and choosing the right mentor, and the remarkable power of giving people more than they expect.
Surrounding oneself with the right people is crucial for long-term success and personal growth.
Being cool in leadership means creating a contemporary experience, reinventing oneself, and encouraging collaboration.
Feedback, self-reflection, and investing time in getting to know team members are essential in building trust and improving as a leader.
Deep dives
Surrounding yourself with the right people is vital for long-term success
Jim Collins emphasized the importance of choosing the right people to surround oneself with in order to achieve long-term success. This advice has had a significant impact on how the speaker has designed their business. They value their Learning Leader Circle, which is a platform where they provide valuable insights and open applications once a year. The speaker personally reads and selects the applicants for this exclusive circle, which meets monthly online and has an annual in-person leadership retreat. The focus is on surrounding oneself with individuals who challenge and push each other to think differently, fostering personal growth and reflection.
Influenced by Miles Davis, leadership philosophy focuses on collaboration and coolness
The speaker shared how Miles Davis influenced their leadership philosophy. After receiving feedback to be more like Miles Davis, the speaker studied his approach and identified eleven words that defined his style, such as collaboration and coolness. These words became the inspiration and mission statement for their own business. The speaker emphasized the importance of being cool, meaning creating a fine dining experience that feels contemporary, reinventing themselves continually, and celebrating collaboration to bring out the best in their team.
Feedback and self-reflection as crucial elements of leadership
The speaker highlighted the significance of feedback and self-reflection in leadership. They mentioned the importance of being open to feedback and being confident enough in one's ideas to stick with them, even if others disagree. The speaker discussed the need to build trust with team members by investing time in getting to know them and understanding their strengths and weaknesses. They shared how their father's teaching on journaling helped them reflect on their interactions, learn from their mistakes, and continuously improve as a leader.
The power of teaching and learning through teaching
The speaker emphasized the value of teaching as a means of learning and personal development. They mentioned how teaching and training were key aspects of their business culture, and how they encouraged team members to become knowledgeable and confident in sharing their expertise. The speaker also discussed the importance of public speaking as a leadership skill and shared their own experience with practicing and studying public speaking to improve their abilities. They highlighted the importance of structuring opportunities for team members to become comfortable with public speaking, fostering their professional growth.
The significance of attention to detail and valuing small things
The speaker stressed the importance of attention to detail, particularly in areas such as lighting and music. They mentioned that even seemingly minor details can significantly impact the overall customer experience. For example, they mentioned adjusting the volume of music depending on the crowd size and adapting the lighting according to natural light changes. The speaker highlighted the need to assign responsible team members to address these details and to coach and train them to ensure consistent excellence.
Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of your fellow learning leaders and receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right...
“Intention means every decision, from the most obviously significant to the seemingly mundane, matters.”
“My dad says “The best way to learn is to teach.” He taught me to study for tests as if I were going in to deliver a presentation. At EMP, I made teaching part of our culture.”
"Public speaking is a leadership skill."
Excellence is about small details — A couple of examples of that were lighting and music.
“Maybe people don’t notice every single individual detail, but in aggregate, they’re powerful. In any great business, most of the details you closely attend to are ones that only a tiny, tiny percentage of people will notice.”
"Some of the best advice I ever got about starting in a new organization is; Don’t cannonball. Ease into the pool."
Magic: “Too many people approach creative brainstorming by taking what’s practical into consideration way too early in the process. Start with what you want to achieve, instead of limiting yourself to what’s realistic or sustainable.”
“Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.” – Penn and Teller
"Often, the perfect moment to give someone more responsibility is beforethey’re ready."
The daily 30-minute meeting: “A daily 30-minute meeting is where a collection of individuals becomes a team.”
Find hidden treasures: Will's dad had his own platoon in Vietnam. It wasn’t a great platoon. On it was a guy nicknamed Kentucky, Kentucky was lazy and wasn’t in great shape. He wasn’t that smart, but he was skilled directionally and had a great feel for being in the woods.
“A leader’s responsibility is to identify the strengths of the people on their team, no matter how buried those strengths might be.”
“Business like life is all about how you make people feel. It’s that simple and that hard.” - Danny Meyer
"In restaurants, our reason for being is to make people feel, seen, it's to make them feel welcome, it's to give them a sense of belonging. The food, the service, the design, they are simply ingredients in the recipe of human connection"
“The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. I still give The One Minute Manager to every person I promote. It’s an amazing resource, in particular on how to give feedback. My biggest takeaways were: Criticize the behavior, not the person. Praise in public; criticize in private. Praise with emotion, criticize without emotion.”
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
“What criticism offers you, then, is an invitation to have your perspective challenged—or at least to grow by truly considering it. You might stick with a choice you’ve been criticized for or end up somewhere completely different. The endgame isn’t the point as much as the process: you grow when you engage with another perspective and decide to decide again.”
“The aggregation of marginal gains,” or a small improvement in a lot of areas. In his words: “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
Get the Snipd podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share & Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode