I have sat in 1000’s of shift briefings, and I cannot tell you how often not only was I bored but so was the team. And bored colleagues do not pay attention or retain information. Sadly, many great leaders are not able to run positive motivational shift briefings, as they lack the tools to do so.
Make the most of the 15 minutes to inform and motivate your team.
A good shift briefing sets the tone for the day. Often the shift briefing is a run-through of information. Starting with Statistics, yesterday and today. An overview of VIPs, arrivals, and ending with complaints, issues, and positive reviews/feedback. All of this is essential information for the team.
However, when conducting hotel operational reviews, I often ask the colleagues what they remember at the end of shift meetings. You can imagine what the response generally is.
How to Improve Presentation and Engagement?
Start with a bang, engage your team within the first 2 – 3 minutes. It will set the tone for the day. Start with some positives; are you ahead of budget, have signed a new event or account, acknowledge a colleague who went above and beyond their duties, or highlight positive guest reviews.
Simply reading through lists/reports does not engage the team. So what can you differently to motivate and involve colleagues.
Be Prepared
- Ensure all information is correct and ready to present
- Advise colleagues in advance if they are presenting and what
- Create a schedule of who is presenting and what
- Handouts or Demonstrations are prepped
- Stay focused
Have Different Colleagues Present Daily – especially progress on Team Goals
- Creates ownership
- Shifts goal accountability to the team
- Provides variety
- Builds confidence
Know Your Guests
- Do not just read a list of names- personalized the information where possible
- VIPs – select the top VIPs and present more information about who the guest is
- VIPs- what amenities, room blocked, greeting, etc.
- Repeat Guests – who they are, revenue and number of stays
- Returning Guests that had previous complaints or issues – be aware
- Special Occasions/Celebrations reminders
Quick Facts – short, fun, informative
- Assign a different colleague daily to present on different topics
- Brand messages (facts, music, company information)
- Learning/Training Point
- A positive/inspirational message for the day (quote, YouTube, TikTok)
- Fast team building activity
- A daily fun challenge
Issues, Challenges, and Complaints
- Utilize a Guest Recovery system to log for review
- Do not engage in the blame game
- Always present in the positive and as a learning lesson
- Presenting an issue with the tools to solve an issue is more powerful than reciting issues with a warning not to do this again
- What can be done differently
- How can we prevent this in the future
- How was the Guest issue resolved, and were they satisfied with the outcome
Acknowledge/Congratulate the Colleagues
- Highlight positive Guest feedback
- Acknowledge a colleague went out of the way to another colleague/guest
- Who completed training or activities to improve their skills
- Promotions
- Leaders in sales, upsells, loyalty signups, etc.
Energizer activity
- Energize the colleagues with an activity that gets them to stand up, move around and perform as a team
- It should be fun, high energy, and involve everyone in a non-embarrassing manner
- Create a team dance, chant, or song
- Lead a Zomba, Hip-hop exercise
Ask Better Questions
- Avoid Closed questions such as “Any Questions?” that will ensure that the colleagues do not ask questions
- Ask Open questions that tie in with topics discussed, “How can we improve?” or “What else can we do?”
- Directed questions provide the opportunity for the colleagues to show they were paying attention and allows for further clarification
Whatever tools are utilized to motivate and engage your team, make the most of this time. Use it to focus on targets, highlight achievements, improve operations, elevate service levels and provide key learning points. Create an SOP with your Hotel format for an effective team briefing. Remember a successful team briefing is positive, focused, informative, and fun.
