Josiah: Do you ever find yourself inspired by what you see others doing in hospitality but are not sure it’s feasible in your environment? Our guest today has some advice for you. Craig Poole is the president of Reading Hospitality, which owns and operates the Double Tree Hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania. He’s a three-time Hilton Connie Award winner and was recognized as general manager of the year by the American Hotel and Lodging Association. This week we heard about how he achieved this by empowering the people around him, and in today’s episode, he shares his advice for us on driving change.
Craig: I would say if it’s in your heart, it’s in your soul and you really want to do it, you will because the world is changing and people are looking at changes for their hotels. They know they need them. They need to have a differentiator. You have to do it because you want to do it and you have to care. It’s a process. You have to work through it with people.
Craig: Mahatma Gandhi said to be the change you want to see. Do you want to be the change? Be the change. But you can’t complain about it. You can’t say they do this, they do this, they do this. These people, these people, these people, we can go in there. We can change it. It’s not as hard as we think it is. It’s really not.
Craig: It just takes a leader. It takes one leader. One leader goes to San Francisco. They take one hotel and all of a sudden, all the hotels will follow. They’ll follow you and when they’re following you, you’ll be behind them. You’ll be calling them, not just your competition, they’re doing it too. They’re doing it like us. No, no, they’re doing it and I want them to do it. And, by the way, I’m going to send my people over and I’m going to help them do it too.
Craig: And now you’ve got a movement, and the movement’s bigger than the a “blamement” That’s my new word for the day! They’ll know what to do. If they’re meant to do it, they’ll do it. If you get fired for doing the right thing, you’ll find another job. But you don’t compromise doing the right thing. Somebody doesn’t like you because you’re doing the right thing. You shouldn’t be in that company, in my opinion. And I’ll say another thing If I was a listening GM and they did it, they could say I can do that, and not many people can, because they don’t make people try. But imagine when you try to do something that’s so far out of your scope that you do it. Those are the greatest moments in life. But any moment in life, once you cross over from being just doing this and trying to get just the bonus or just the recognition and instead you’re doing something greater and bigger and more remarkable oh gosh, it’s worth so much more than money, so much more joy in it and longevity.
