Training Articles (formerly Member Blog)

Training and development goes beyond just focusing on core job skills or teaching everyone how to implement the latest promotion. It is also about focusing on personal development - more specifically, a focus on health and wellness. At Marriott, we consider ways our training programs can make a personal impact! Here is a recent example from one of our senior leadership courses.

Everyone has a challenge. It's a matter of choice on how you will approach. My suggestion is to take what you have, keep moving and pedal on. In the video, I share how my diagnosis with Parkinson's Disease has been both a blessing and a calling.

I just returned from CHART’s 88th Hospitality Training Conference in Atlanta, and my initial post-conference to-do list is overflowing with exciting new items.

As I close out my time as CHART President, I would like to take a moment to reflect on not only the past 2 years as President-Elect and President, but the 4 years in total I have been blessed to be a part of the board.

As a trainer in the restaurant industry, I am expected to be an expert on a wide variety of topics and skillsets. On any given day, I could spend time working with our managers and employees on leadership principles, communication skills, recruiting, hiring, service, portioning, inventory control, cash control, delegation of tasks, and on and on.

At the Miami Conference, I shared my passion for ending childhood hunger as part of my CHART Talks session. Given the fact that 40% of all food goes to waste and 20% of US kids live in poverty, we as a 13 million dollar industry should 'own' hunger. Employees want to work at businesses where they can feel good.

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.” – Peter Drucker This power statement by Peter Drucker, considered the father of modern management, is not only true for individuals, but also true for organizations such as CHART. CHART is excited to partner with TDn2K, to conduct the 2014 Trends in Hospitality Training and Development study.

Does your hotel or restaurant provide diversity training? Why not? Perhaps you did at one time, but the dropped it during the recession as a cost-saving measure. Perhaps you feel it might be necessary someday, but only after Congress passes a new immigration law. Or perhaps you haven’t even considered it because you don’t think you have a diversity problem in your workplace or don’t see how this type of training could possibly help.

The beginning of a new year is often when hotel managers, fresh off the holiday hamster wheel, take the time to hunker down and create exciting new programs to teach our teams. For most of us, at some point in the development process, we open our presentation software of choice and begin to assemble dozens of slides with articulate bullet points and a motivational quote thrown in for good measure. There is no question that hotel managers and trainers know their way around PowerPoint, but in this new world and in a new year, maybe it’s time to take a new approach.

What chain restaurants execute daily is just this side of miraculous when you think about it. It’s an enormously complex feat to sell cheeseburgers, pizzas, tacos, burritos, chicken dishes or fish sandwiches with a uniform shape, weight, flavor, temperature, ingredient consistency and safety to tens of millions of different diners with clear-cut expectations, every single day.

At our recent T3 Conference in Colorado Springs, I became the first CHART member to complete all twelve of our training competency workshops. I was very happy and proud of achieving this professional objective, and I was also very appreciative of the immense amount of time, care, and effort that went into developing the program and creating the incredible content delivered in those sessions.

At the Miami Conference, I shared (in less than 9 minutes), the important role that the General Manager plays in the success of your organizations. It's critical thus that he/she is given the proper tools and that training is addressed. In our research, we identified specific under-developed competencies which are key in ensuring that the General Manager has the skills needed to be a successful leader.