Luxury Hoteliers Magazine 3rd Quarter 2019 | Page 56

8. Surprise and celebrate. “I want everyone to know that, despite the reality we’re running hundred million dollar hotels, there’s a place to have fun while creating excellence,” says Dan. “And, because we test every employee— some two-hundred-and-fifty questions—there’s a lot of pressure to succeed. During the opening ceremony of the Abu Dhabi EDITION, I wanted to catch GM Stefan Soennichsen off guard with a special surprise. When Stephan stood in front of his team of five- hundred from fifty-six countries to announce his hotel’s score, one of my team members ran up on stage, grabbed the microphone, and said, ‘Stop! Stop! Stephan, we have important news! You’re team scored 98.8% giving your hotel the highest score ever.’ “Stephan shed 56 ILHA tears of joy as the crowd erupted with cheers and applause,” Dan says. 9. Keep it real. “Dan has never let promotions and growth go to his head. He’s super smart, strategic, and results oriented. Yet, after all these years, I can joke around with him,” says Kate Harth. “In a meeting, he stated that he wasn’t the smartest person in the room. I quietly snickered. Later, after the meeting, I told him how I wanted to say something sarcastic. He said, ‘Oh, so it was you who made that noise?’ I told him I wanted to call him out.” And, he replied, ‘you should have … it would have been funny.’ “In the end, I’m always learning, pushing myself to new heights, and feel I’m part of a great adventure. And, if you don’t know Dan Flannery, watch him go into one of his hotels, past or present, and see the impact he has on anyone who works, or has worked with him,” Kate says. About the author Bob Brown, president of Bob Brown Service Solutions, www.bobbrownss.com, pioneered Marriott’s Service Excellence Program and has worked with clients such as Disney, Ritz-Carlton, Conrad, Viceroy, Four Seasons and Nordstrom, and works internationally with the prestigious hotels such as Burj Al Arab in Dubai. He has appeared on the Food Network, is author of bestselling The Little Brown Book of Restaurant Success selling over 100,000 copies and was rated the #1 presenter at the National Restaurant Association Show 2017. ©Bob Brown Service Solutions 2019.