For Club Managers, change is something that we are always promoting and that when done right, can turned around a club for the better. During my career, I have seen terrible operations miraculously turning into great ones and vice versa, I have seen managers destroyed an operation both by implementing change just for the sake of it (when wasn’t needed) or by trying to implement a much needed change, but failing by doing it the wrong way.

As stated in our lesson commentary, people often resist change in general. Mainly because they feel change will affect their security whether is loss of status, job security in the organization, surprise and fear of the unknown, Fear of failure, etcetera.

However, as Simon Sinek mentions on his Ted talk “Why good leaders make you feel safe” “ When a leader makes the choice to put the safety and lives of the people inside the organization first, to sacrifice the tangible results, so that the people remain and feel safe and feel like they belong, remarkable things happen” (2014).

In other words, people need to buy into change; they need to believe that all these changes are good for them directly and not only for the organization, or the owners and managers.

At my previous job, I inherit an extremely dysfunctional Club; with exceptionally competent Managers and Directors, but a defective organization because of a poor leader; departments did not work together, rather the opposite, in plain words, one hand did not know what the other was doing. As a result, the Club was about to go out of business.

Needless to say, change was inevitable. However, most of the Managers were with the club for twenty-plus years and were extremely set in their ways.

As Sinek points out, “if the conditions are wrong, we are forced to spend our time and energy to protect ourselves from each other, and that inherently weakens the organization” (2014). When we feel safe inside the organization, we will naturally combine our talents and our strengths and work together increasing our chances to succeed.

By outlining the importance of all managers coming together bringing to the table their unique skills and years of expertise, we made them feel invaluable. With that we provided a sense of safety and sense of collaboration. Everyone felt the club couldn’t make it without their contribution.

There was a sense of pride, and without a doubt a sense of camaraderie followed, but as Schein’s planned change theory points out, “no change will occur unless there is motivation to change, and if such motivation to change is not already present, the induction of that motivation is often the most difficult part of the change process” (1980)

The motivation was crystal clear; we all needed the club to succeed and we collectively had the tools to make this happened.

References:

Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R., & Moran, S.V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.) Oxford: Rontledge.

https://managementisajourney.com/organizational-change-8-reasons-why-people-resist-change/

https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe/transcript?nolanguage=en%5C

 

 

The importance of nonverbal communication during the interview process… It happens all too often; you posted a job opening, later on you receive a call from the perfect candidate, or so you thought. Then this individual shows up and looses the job before he even opens his mouth. The problem is that many applicants do not realize how vital it is to dress and behave appropriately during a job interview.

Social scientists have spent a lot of time looking at the effects of our body language. In fact, “80 to 90 percent of communication is nonverbal, that is to say that it involved no exchange of words” (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). In other words, body language, and we make extensive judgments and inferences from body language. And those judgments can predict really meaningful life outcomes like who we hire or promote.

For example, as Amy Cuddy a motivational speaker points out, “Research shows that when people watch 30-second soundless clips of real physician-patient interactions, their judgments of the physician’s niceness predict whether or not that physician will be sued. So it does not have to do so much with whether or not that physician was incompetent, but do we like that person and how they interacted” (TED, 2012)

So when we think of nonverbals, we think of how we judge others and how they judge us. However, according to Cuddy, there is a bigger problem, the way we handle ourselves, the way we act, how we dress, our gestures, all these nonvervals not only influence others’ views of us, “studies show some evidence that our nonverbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves”

Cuddy refers to these as “expressions of power and dominance” (TED, 2012) in essence; nonverbal expressions of power and dominance are those gestures or corporal expressions that animals and humans do to express emotions, as well as moods. For instance, to show power, we make yourself big, you stretch out, you take up space, you’re basically opening up, on the other hand when we feel powerless, we do exactly the opposite. We close up. We wrap ourselves up. We make ourselves small.

So, by dressing and behaving appropriately during a job interview, not only we are influencing our interviewer in a positive way but also ourselves. Do you remember that last time when you bought a new suit? Or drove a brand new car for the first time? How did that make you feel? Did you notice all the attention you were getting? Well, let me break it to you, it was neither the cloths nor the car, it was your nonvervals that attracted that people.

So next time you go for an interview to get your dream job, act and dress as if you really want it!

References:

Amy Cuddy. Your body language may shape who you are, TEDGlobal 2012.Retrieved February 04, 2018, from: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are

Moran, Robert, Abramson, Neil, & Moran, Sarah. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. Oxford: Routledge.

 

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

―Steve Jobs―
A simple concept, yet, many people do not get it.

In 2011, I was working as a Director of Food & Beverage for a golf club in Indian Wells California. My then boss; an old school hard-headed General Manager was one of these people.

Jurgen was a micromanager whose arrogance was so big, he could not see the tremendous amount of talent among his team, We had an exceptionally talented Chef, a great Golf Pro and one of the best Grounds Superintendents in the Coachella Valley just to mention a few.

Jurgen controlled every part of the business taking away every bit of accountability and initiative from us. All decisions included one perspective only; his. As a result, he destroyed the morale of the staff and almost bankrupted the Club.

On June of that year, The Board of Directors decided to let him go and offered me the position. I was thrilled and afraid at the same time; the Club had lost an average of 13 members per year during the 10 years of Jurgen’s tenure; we went from 250 golf members to only 119.

Friends and colleagues advised me no to take the job, particularly because as to be expected, Jurgen never prepared me to become a GM, even though I was number two for eight years and becoming a GM would be the most natural move. So, I did not know much about golf or turf and my marketing and financial knowledge was very limited.

After a couple of sleepless nights I took the job. I knew that by “including the various diverse perspectives and characteristics” of my fellow Manager/Directors we were going to turn the Club around. After all, all I had to do was to let them do what they did best, and give them credit for it.

We immediately started holding weekly meetings where decisions were made in a collaborative way. We all were very capable individuals in our own areas and every one brought something to the table. As stated in the text, “inclusion is the process of incorporating all of those differences” (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014) by understanding that every one in that room had a unique set of skills, and that the only possible way for the Club to succeed was by incorporating all of those skills, everyone became an essential piece of the puzzle.

Because of the power of inclusion, in only twenty four months we were able to undo years of membership loss. In my third year as a General Manager, we had the best year since the Club’s inception (33 years).

As stated by the Authors, “incorporating diversity not only is a basic human rights issue, but it also can improve organizational functioning through encouraging creative problem solving and reaching new markets” (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014).

Moran, Robert, Abramson, Neil, & Moran, Sarah. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. Oxford: Routledge.

Mexico is one of the hardest working countries in the world; unfortunately, Mexico is also one of the countries where its people contribute less to their savings and retirement accounts.

Why?

Because we are a culture that adores instant gratification.

I was born and raised in a middle-upper class family in Mexico. My grandfather from my dad’s side made a fortune with a three story hair salon in the most posh area of Mexico City in the fifties; the golden era of the Mexican film and theater industry.

Their clientele included some of the biggest celebrities of the time as well as some of the most influential people in the city; politicians, singers, actors, ambassadors, etcetera.

My grandpa and his family lived very well; big house, big parties, many travels, but above all, he loved cars; he owned Lincolns, Cadillacs, Jaguars, and other nice cars. My dad’s first car was a 1956 baby blue Jaguar, which in those times and especially for a 20 year old, was very rear.

However, my grandpa never saved, nor did teach his children to save. As a result my grandfather struggled when he and grandma couldn’t work anymore.

I saw history repeating itself with my dad; he worked as a pharmaceutical rep for an American company and did very well for almost two decades, but again, never saved a penny. One day he decided to sell our house to start a business and after a few years of struggle, the business went bad forcing us to come to the States.

These terrible saving habits or lack of, were passed on to us, and like it or not, I have to admit that I have the same problem. I do not have a problem making money, but I most definitely have a problem saving it.

This subject came to my mind a few days ago when I was reading Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture, specifically the 6^th dimension, Indulgence/Restraint.

“Indulgence is when a culture allows for immediate gratification of the human universals we discussed earlier” (Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede & Hofstede, n.d.)

After reading the lesson commentary, I actually googled Hofsted’s comparison by country and compared Mexico with some of the best countries to live, and also countries where people save the most for retirement (Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, United States, Canada, Germany and France).

I immediately noticed that something really stuck out, according to Hofsted’s comparison, Mexico scored a whopping 97 points on indulgence while the other countries scored anywhere from  30 the lowest (Italy) to 68 the highest (U.S.)

This is consistent with Hofsted’s notion that “national culture is stronger as it is engrained in people earlier in their lives during critical value formation stages.” We are a culture where instant gratification and indulgence is been passed on from generation to generation. Been aware of it is in my mind, the first step to change it.

 

References:

http://money.cnn.com/gallery/news/economy/2013/07/16/10-hardest-working-countries/index.html

https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/mexico/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryhannon/2012/02/14/why-latinos-arent-saving-for-retirement/#6879d41a406f

http://conference.iza.org/conference_files/SUMS_2013/dal_borgo_m5011.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

Hi everyone!

My name is Marco, I am a Director of Food & Beverage for a motorsports private club in Thermal California, and I am a senior at PSU with 100+ units. Organizational Leadership is my major and I am taking this course as a requirement for my degree.

I am a veteran of the Hospitality industry with 27 years working for Hotels, restaurants and Private clubs, of these, 18 had been in some type of leadership role.

I love fast cars, food and wine. In other words I really enjoy my job! I also love traveling and experiencing other cultures, I am happily married and have a 3 year old boy and a 24 year old. I guess that counts as interesting?

Long-term goals? After I graduate from PSU next year, I plan to pursue a Masters in Management and Leadership at MSU to continue to grow and become a better leader

Favorite leadership quote? A have lots! As a matter of fact, I have a habit of keeping a little black book where I write one or two leadership quotes per day. However for this intro I picked two of my all time favorites:

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. —Lao Tzu

I love this one mainly because most of the “leaders” I know always boast about their achievements. A good leaders does not announce his/hers success. Given credit to others is in my opinion one of the best way to encourage participation and creativity.

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. —Max DePree

I love this quote because I really believe that the only way to become a transformational leader one has to be grateful and above all, be a servant. Most Leaders don’t get it, but Jesus, Madre Teresa, Gandhi, certainly did.

I look forward to working with all of you this semester.

Best,

Marco