1.1.1.

Four fundamental roles a manager has to fulfill

 Know the employees
All the data collected along the years reveal that the most important and efficient
thing a manager can undertake to improve his/her performance and to increase the
employees’ retention is to spend time trying to learn which are their strong and weak points.
In healthy organizations, managers know not just the name of most of their employees, but
also a little about their families and major interests. Managers that are capable of obtaining
the maximum yield from each member of their team have considerably better results than
those who don’t know this. The most efficient method to get to know the employees is to
allocate enough time for communication with them.
A manager can increase his/her performances on a short-term , in an efficient way, by
using the power that he/she is invested with by the position he holds, by threating the
employees and demanding submission. But since the employees’ retention is an objective
itself, this method will soon start to show its limits.
Each individual on the planet is different and expects to be treated like so.
Unfortunately, when a person becomes a manager, he tends to lead the others the way that he
would like to be leaded. It is a “golden rule” of the unexperienced managers, because it can
only work if the team that he is managing consists of people that resemble him a lot. And that
happens very rarely, since the dimension of the teams are in continuous growth, in order to
reduce costs and increase productivity. The rule can still be applied though in one aspect, and
that is giving the employees the same level of respect and dignity that the managers would
want to be shown themselves (Katcher & Snyder, 2007: p. 55 ). Therefore, it is very
important to learn how to lead people that are very different from us, and even if at a first
glimpse, it seems very difficult to run a team that consists of people who are totally different
and view the world from different perspectives, it is in fact profitable and can have a huge
impact on the evolution of the business.
As I stated before, there is a fine line between a manager and a good leader, that most
of the managers are afraid to cross, in order not to get too “friendly” or close to their
employees, because, from their perspective, this can diminish their authority. If we think
more about this, it is exactly the opposite, since creating valuable boundaries with the
employees is the key to success for any kind of business. A good way to create these
boundaries is to communicate on a more personal level, because this will increase the
employees’ dedication towards the tasks the manager is demanding from them, but most of
the discussions held between a manager and the employees are unidirectional. Another
important aspect to take into consideration is that communication should be held in particular,
even in an organization where a high level of teamwork is important: employees must be
managed individually.
The “ugly truth” is that even if you are the best person in the world, the employees
more likely don’t see you that way. When you have control on the needs of other people, they
tend to see you through different lenses than the ones you look through yourself. And this is
completely normal, since the posture of manager totally influences the interactions with the
members of the team. Even when you, as a manager, try to diminish this authority, by
engaging in personal discussions, the employees will always expect from you to delegate
them some tasks. To build a trust-worth relationship, it requires more than just small talks
with the employees.
In the book called The speed of trust ( 2008 ), written by M.R.Covey, the author states
that if the manager builds a trustful relationship with the employees, it is a time-saving
method, since he doesn’t have to communicate all the small details of a task, by verifying
them and demanding frequent and voluminous reports. Of course, these things still need to be
done, but it is less time-consuming, for both sides, and there is more time left to do the
effective work, the one that provides the results.
From the manager’s point of view, he is definitely part of the team that works for him,
but this is not entirely true, since the employees don’t see their boss like being part of the
team. There is anyway an important ingredient to take into consideration as a manager, which
makes the team work at the highest level, and this is trust.
The wisdom of Teams ( 2015 ), written by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K.Smith,
reveals that the most important element that ties and distinguishes the teams with superior
results from the other ones is the level of trust built between the members. Psychologists state
that the process of building trust has as a cornerstone the communication, and this is
evaluated by the others from two points of view: quality and quantity. The quantity refers, of
course, to the frequency of communication, while the quality of it is perceived by the
employees ( since they are the main focus ) based on whether the discussions are important
and useful for them.
In the hospitality sector, this role can be easily followed by a manager, since, in
comparison with other business-sectors, the number of the employees is not very high, so
communicating with each member of the staff is not such a difficult task. Of course this
depends very much on the manager’s willingness to built that strong connection with his
employees, that we were talking about previously.
Getting to know your employees represents 40% of the total value created by
applying the four fundamental behaviors.
 Communication regarding the performances
No matter how different we are as individuals, there are some generally applicable
issues that define all of us: the need to grow and develop and the need to be appreciated for
everything we do. As a manager, it is very important to always keep in mind that the
employees expect a feedback for everything they do. I will discuss more in another chapter
about feedback, so in this section I will outline the importance of this issue in general terms.
Even the technology that we use on a day-to-day basis is based on performance
communication. Management is maybe the only human activity in which the feedback is not
rapid, frequent and periodic. The relationship between the managers and the employees
remains, probably, the only “place” where feedback is not given out, since it doesn’t seem
something compulsory. When asking the subordinates with the best performances, most of
them evaluate their boss as being an excellent manager, for the same reason: they
communicate with them regarding their performances.
It doesn’t matter if the feedback is positive or negative, because if it is stated in a
professional and polite manner, it has a huge impact on the employees’ work. Sometimes,
they don’t even feel the need to be told that what they are doing is right and correct, but to be
addressed when they do a mistake, in order for them to learn from it and grow. This however
is not good on a long-term, because if the feedback is only negative, the employees will start
to feel that the manager is concentrating just on the negative aspects of their work, without
highlighting their performances. On the other hand, the manager has a different perspective,
which is that when doing something right, it is not necessary to point it out, as the employees
are doing nothing more than what they are paid for. It is a wrong way of thinking, because
everything that is realized at a higher level is based on communication regarding the
performances. This is actually a tool used to motivate the employees and a good reference
point when reorganizing the team.
Evaluating the performances of the employees is not an easy task. Effective employee
management plays an important role in the organization operation. A good way to evaluate
the performances is through an inventory management system, that will provide customized
summary and statistics of the employees’ performance to the managers, using dashboards
(12th International Conference, 2017: p.331 ). Like this, the performance of the employees
can be analyzed in a time-series or cross-compared with other employees for the similar job
responsibilities. Some important metrics to take into consideration when evaluating these
performances are the hours the employees worked, the numbers of incidents that occurred in
a given time-period, that are best evaluated by the managers in a visual presentation. It will
lead not only to increasing the supervision of the employees, but also to a possibility to
compare their efficiency with other employees that work in the same domain.
It is important to take into consideration that only rarely employees will do more than
carry out the tasks they were charge with, so it is very important not just to communicate
about performances after the work is done, but also underline clearly what exactly you, as a
manager, are expecting from your employees. Furthermore, you must make sure that the
subordinates are doing the jobs in which they are performing well, meaning that each
employee has to carry out some certain activities related strictly to the sector he is working
in.
In the hospitality industry, talking about performances is very important, as the work
the employees are doing have a direct impact on the company’s clients. Encouraging and
motivating the employees, by pointing out their performances, help increase their
productivity and improves their relations with the customers. This of course, on a long term,
leads to higher profits and the appearance of the competitive advantage.
Communication regarding the performances represents 30% of the total value created
by applying the four fundamental behaviors. This means that, if you get to know your
employees and know how to stimulate them to obtain the best results, by discussing
frequently about their performances, you will reach, as a manager, 70% out of what you need
to do for obtaining the desired results and keeping your team together.

 Demanding more
Studies applied to numerous organizations reveal that if a manager wishes to have
excellent results, he has to be willing to permanently raise the employees’ performances. It is
not enough to expect things to happen on their own, by accepting the “comfort zone” of the
subordinates. It is the manager’s responsibility to understand what the external change
implies for his own group and coordinate the employees’ activities in such a manner that it
satisfies the organization’s expectations.
 As interesting as it might sound, as a manager, you have to constantly stress your
employees. How can this be something good to do? By knowing the difference between the
two types of stress: the distress and the eustress. The first one has negative effects on the
human brain and on the way that an individual carries out his activities. Anyhow, we have to
think about stress as something that is constant ( which is, unfortunately, true ). Under the
level of distress, there is the positive aspect of it, the eustress. This is the one that helps a
person prepare, be impatient and willing to take risks. In other words, it is the one that has a
positive impact on the human brain and on the way we tend to do things.
The ideal “place” where the subordinates should be, in order to achieve the best
results, is exactly on the demarcation line between eustress and distress, just over the line that
flinches to fear, but without really getting there. It is necessary for them to have a lot of
energy, but they shouldn’t start panicking. The only method to know, for each subordinate,
where this demarcation line is positioned, is to push him in distressful situations and be aware
of the moment he starts to lose their efficiency. Each of us has an own “limit-point”, from
which the yield is decreasing. Many leading cadres are facing, at the beginning of their
careers, the problems regarding the average-employee: he doesn’t want to get better, he
doesn’t want to be promoted but, technically speaking, he is doing his job. He doesn’t do it in
an outstanding way, but in such a manner that he fulfils all the requirements. But, as a
manager, you are responsible not only with the statu-quo ( the present situation ), but also
with the improvement of the whole team’s performances, and the most competitive way to do
this is to improve the performances of each member of the team.
In one way or another, the efficient manager always demands more, by constantly
encouraging the employees to test their limits and try to exceed their expectations. When
talking about the hospitality sector, demanding more for the employees doesn’t really seem
like something achievable, since each department has specific tasks to fulfill, that are quite
stagnant. Moreover, promotion is something unachievable, since most of the times, each
hospitality department has a “manager” that is stable and hard to be replaced.
Demanding more represents about 15% of the total value created by applying the four
fundamental behaviors.
 Delegating responsabilities
Learning how to delegate responsabilities is an important step in the transition of
becoming a leader/manager. Nowadays, too many managers believe that, due to the fact that
they are more efficient and smarter than their subordinates, they should try to solve
everything by doing the things themselves. But, if you are an effiecient manager, you should
know that the key of success for a long-term period is to master the art of delegation.
There is a fine line between delegating responsabilities and simply assigning a task.
Delegation means that you, as a manager, transfer the liability for one of your usual
responsabilities to one of your employees, for a long period of time or even permanent. Once
you decide to do so, the process is relatively facile, and it requires five steps:
1. Defining the desire for help.
2. Stating why you chose a specific person to fulfill that task. Here, there are
some criterias to take into consideration, by paying attention to the following issues:
 What is that person good at;
 What does that person enjoy doing;
 What does that person need to do;
 What does that person want to do.
3. Demand a clear acceptance.
4. Describe the task or the project as clear as possible.
5. Talk about dead-lines, quality standards and reports.
Delegation is the fourth part of the ”Management’s triad” because, while the first
three components of it create value for the team, the delegation process creates capacities for
the organization. The managers are the ones responsible with delegating the responsabilities,
but the company is the one that benefits from this action. In other words, you, as a manager,
can obtain results from your team just with the first three part of the ”Management’s triad”,
but delegating the tasks offers growth potential for the entire organization.
For a better understanding, I will give an example: there is a task that both the
manager and the employees are capable of fulfilling, but the first one could do it better. Who
is the one that should actually do it? The answer is a bit surprising: the task should be
accomplished by the subordinat, not by the manager, because the workforce in the case of the
first one is cheaper. If, for the majority of the things that a manager can accomplish, there is a
possibility to obtain an acceptable result with lower costs, this is the alternative to pick.
The employees don’t view this tactic in a friendly way, since they already have
enough work to do and are, most of the times, busy. But this is not a valid reason not to
delegate tasks, because it leads to a state of grounding when it comes to productivity and,
taking into consideration the relation between productivity and profitability, together with the
fact that change is inevitable, equals with a death-spiral of the organization.
 When holding the position of manager in a business that is part of the hospitality
sector, delegating responsabilities works on a hierarchical level. The head-manager delegates
responsabilities to the departments’ managers, while they decide if they wish to do the work
themselves or delegate the responsabilities even further.
Delegating responsibilities represents about 15% of the total value created by
applying the four fundamental behaviors.

Fundamental roles of a manager

15%
Know the employees
Communication regarding
40% performances
15%
Demanding more
Delegating responsabilities

30%

Figure 1:: The four fundamental roles of an efficient manager

As a conclusion, being an efficient manager is not a result easy to achieve, since there
are a lot of lines to cross and a lot of situations when you need to act accordingly. Of course,
there are many other roles that a manager has to fulfill in order to become efficient, but there
are the main four ones. As I will state in the following chapters, most of them have to do with
the relations that are born with the employees, and, of course, with the type of business you
are running.