Two days ago, I shared an account of how I delivered yet another gold standard pep talk of potentially life-changing inspiration.😃 Today I’d like to complement it by sharing some really interesting insight I read a few years ago in the book on management First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. The job of a hotel room attendant never seems very glamourous or desirable – and few people envy those who are employed to change the hotel room bed sheets, replace the towels, clean the loos, and so forth. But in the book, Buckingham and Coffman offer a particularly insightful section that stuck with me - focussing on what makes the best hotel room attendants - and how it defies conventional wisdom about hiring and performance.
The authors, gathering data from extensive studies by Gallup, a research-based consulting company, emphasise that the best performers in any role often share rare and unique talents rather than merely learned skills. This is especially true for hotel room attendants, which is a seemingly routine job that still shows huge performance variation based on the individual’s talents, traits and psychological orientation.
Gallup found that the best hotel room attendants weren’t necessarily the ones with the most experience or training. Instead, they had natural inclinations that made them thrive in the job in intriguing ways. For example, these guys really took personal pride in cleanliness and order; they had genuine empathy toward guests and their experience; and they had a strong internal standard for excellence. The research found that the very best members of staff cleaned thoroughly, not because they were told to, but because it bothered them to leave anything out of place. Their internal sense of “how things should be” drives their performance. Their job gave them a sense of purpose that one might not expect in such a role. The best attendants didn’t just see themselves as cleaners. They believed their work made a real difference to a guest’s experience, their customer satisfaction, and whether they would likely return.
I think this is a fascinating psychological interpretation, because it confirms how the best workers are able to reframe their roles to find deeper meaning that onlookers would scarcely expect. Even in low-autonomy, low pay jobs, people who believe they are contributing to something larger tend to perform better and experience greater job satisfaction. This was reflected in the fact that the most outstanding room attendants were attuned to subtle guest signals. If a guest left workout clothes out, they might leave extra towels. If they noticed children's toys, they might adjust supplies, or leave a note, or even in some cases create an imaginative toy scenario on the windowsill as a surprise for the returning family. This indicates high social intelligence and empathy. And although the job of hotel attendant might be easy in terms of fluid intelligence and task learning – being the best in those roles involved traits that are not easy to learn - they come from lateral intelligence, emotional attunement and a profound ability to adapt behaviour accordingly
I believe this is a great lesson, not just for managers looking for wisdom in optimal recruitment, but for anyone in a role that might be undervalued by society. The world needs all kinds of people doing all kinds of roles – and it’s not the prestige of the position that primarily defines the potential of the performance - it’s the depth of purpose, pride, and presence an individual brings to it. In any role, there is always room for mastery – and although it’s harder than most imagine, there are profound rewards attached to thriving in your role. When we bring heart, attention, and pride to the simplest of jobs, we don’t just elevate the work - we elevate ourselves.
