Empowering with Perspective - Michael Hraba, Partner at Waterford Hotels & Inns

Josiah: Today's the last day of May. It's the last day of Mental Health Awareness Month, and I want to close out our conversation on this really important topic by sharing something that one of the hospitality leaders that I look up to most shared with me A personal story and some of his own leadership experience that I think is going to benefit you as well, by not only ensuring the mental health of your team, but by inspiring them and leading them well. Michael Hraba is a partner at Waterford Hotels and Inns and runs operations for the company's portfolio, which includes iconic properties in the San Francisco Bay Area. In today's episode, we're going to be looking at why giving your team perspective is so important for taking care of them and leading them well. Here's Michael. 

Michael: You're alleviating people's insecurity where you have a great employee who's a great human, that's just scared, and especially in luxury, people are so scared of entitled. The problem is it's like in poker When you lose, when you win big, you don't remember it. You only remember your big beats, your big losses. And it's the same thing in hotel. That's some part of the messaging that I struggle with is that of 100% of your time and experience in hospitality, 95, 98, even more percentage of the people are kind, loving, patient, understanding people. But you remember the sore thumbs and you remember the really mean, entitled people and that makes people nervous When you don't have a lot of experience. What's really important and one of the I actually could tell you how I learned to erode the ego. 

Michael: One thing was William Shatner, an article I read during the pandemic. It was prior to him going up and having the overwatch. The overview effect, which he said, crippled him. Everyone thinks you go out in space and there's stars and it's beautiful and it's amazing. No, it's pitch black. You look back at the earth and you're like that's all there is And he said take it easy. He's like in the end, absolutely nothing matters Nothing. And of course, your health matters, your mental health matters, the people you love matter, and being an empathetic, caring person out in the world. That's not what he's talking about. He's like take it easy. 

Michael: One of the things about the head work is that I'm like ooh, i said that. I wonder if I sounded dumber. I wonder what they're thinking about me. Guaranteed, nobody is thinking about you negatively. Everybody's all in their own head. And so when you can erase that anxiety or insecurity that other people are thinking about you or other people are thinking you're doing a bad job or whatever, that comes with understanding in growth of experience And you know I'm only 46, but I'm at an age where I'm like I have a lot of intentionality, i have a lot of presence, i'm very present And I'm doing my best. And so, in that you see service staff in these positions that don't have as much experience, that haven't broken a sprinkler, that flooded a hotel, that haven't made mistakes that you recover from. 

Michael: I'm going to even say something personal that I was in like a year and a half marriage and it didn't work out And I was so scared. The biggest failure of my life that I was going to have to go back to my parents, who now are married alive, 56 years, my sister who is in a loving, successful relationship, my friends they're all these expectations of the notion of the bond of marriage and whatever. I was mortified And the first thing my parents said to me is now you get to focus on your happiness And now you get to begin your life. And I'm actually emotional from that right now. I'll cry anytime, but that taught me so much about who I am and my boundaries and how I need to be treated and how I need to be seen and heard, and it taught me more about how to hear and how to be available and know. And so the 15 years with my current wife it's gone so fast because we're so happy. 

Michael: That being said, you see, these service staff that end up without all these life experiences think everything matters and every interaction matters. And from a from a hospitality guy experience yes, you want to put on the play, you want this to be a flawless ballet And you want everything in me's end place right, and I'm totally about that And I'm not marginalizing our goals in hospitality, but people need to know it's okay.