Arnold Beekes

Especially in the Hospitality industry it is crucial that you love to help and serve other people. Of course you can learn how to do this. But if you really want to be good at ‘being of service’, then it needs to be a mindset, an attitude. The enthusiasm should be derived from your heart and not only from your head. That is the difference between cognitive enthusiasm and emotional enthusiasm! With emotional enthusiasm you ARE the message. With cognitive enthusiasm you (just) have a message. Let me share an example. At the golf club I do have my bag in a locker room. On Saturday’s I do play at 8.00 AM and then they should have unlocked that room. Last Saturday it was still locked, so I could not play. The man in the reception had no key and also the lady at the restaurant had no key. I had to wait for more than half an hour to get the locker room unlocked. This was not the first time this problem occurred. But making mistakes is human. Later I did see the manager and I...

Whether you know it or not, most of our behavior is driven by our assumptions. This is obvious in our personal life, but also in our business we are (heavily) influenced by assumptions.   The collective set of assumptions could be called the culture of an organization, or ‘the way we do things around here’. Let me give you some examples, which exists in business: -        The use of social networks is a waste of time. -        The website is the core of our business (as opposed to a mobile first strategy). -        If employees are not at their desks, I assume that they are not working. -        Going to conferences/ seminars is a waste of time and money. -        The marketing department looks like they are always dreaming. -        IT projects are always too late and too expensive. ...

   More and more research (positive psychology; happiness) indicates that giving a compliment is very important for the wellbeing, as well as the performance of employees. A compliment makes you feel good (yes, that is true for everyone!) and that will help you to more easily solve problems, be nicer to customers and/or come up with new ideas. So, why are we not giving that many compliments then? The reason might be our culture , in which we are trained to focus on the weaknesses, mistakes and faults, rather than focusing on the strengths. We are afraid that people will become lazy when we give them compliments, or maybe that they will start asking for a raise.  Again, this is not true. In most cases, employees give a higher value to a positive and motivating environment than to just their salaries. Therefor we need to practice to give compliments (at work and at home). And we also need to be careful if we criticize someone.   A decade of resea...

Lots of research indicates that most (more than 70%) of the change initiatives do not reach their intended outcomes. And because they do not produce the required results, we will launch new initiatives! This becomes an ongoing process, in which a lot of time and resources is wasted. What can de done? A starting point is to look at the inner perspectives of change. How does change work inside of us?  And what prevents change from happening? Here is a simple formula: Thinking ------>   Feelings   ------->   Actions ------>  Results This means that if I want different results, that I then have to change my thinking. Different thinking leads to different results. Sounds simple, right? Well, it isn’t that simple, because we are creatures of habits and these habits influence our thinking. Habits are thoughts which we have nurtured over time and which have become kind of embedded in our thinking. They are like the groov...

I have just finished reading the great book “ What Matters Now” by Gary Hamel. The book is centered around five fundamental, make-or0break challenges that will determine whether your organization thrives or dives in the years ahead! These issues are:         Values          Innovation          Adaptability          Passion          Ideology It became clear to me that most institutions are still build upon concepts form the industrial revolution (or even older). The most visible expression of which is its command & control style. In my case these institutions were my upbringing, school and university (which concepts started in the Middle Ages), military service, sports teams and big Corporations. This command & control style is hindering the most needed creativity. In order to change this, a change in dominant beliefs is crucia...