Career Success Factors

So, you want to be a hotel General Manager...... Traditionally, I think Food and Beverage management 😁 is the quickest and most efficient route to become a hotel GM (depends on your diligence and decision making). If you do decide and go the F&B route, brands such as Hyatt is fantastic with their F&B programs. But If you would rather stick to the rooms division, housekeeping is a quicker route to management than front office. I usually recommend transferring to front office after being an asst exec housekeeper for a while. Housekeeping prepares you better than front office. If you go the housekeeping route, the key to success is efficiency with deteriorating quality. Find the small and/or subtle ways to improve the department metrics that can have a positive snowball effect. For example, dedicating a PM/overnight team to stocking carts and closets significantly improves on time mannagement for the morning team. Creating and improving the training processes, cultivating your team through projects, being always available, are all examples on how to stand out in the department. Unfortunately, outside of management, nobody pays attention to housekeeping..... unless you are truly a standout. Take the time to understand the manpower planning, budgeting, and inventory and you will see yourself with great opportunities. If you go Front Office way first, you want to be the one that everyone goes through to get something done from that department. You want sales/conference services to know who you are and rely on you for the success of your department that have an impact on the groups. Master the art of keeping your composure. Learn to educate, and when you deny a guest, do it with grace no matter how much they scream at you. Be the best in not letting situations get beyond you, train yourself to think on your feet and always think about better/alternative solutions. No matter where you start, your focus should be your career. On downtime when everyone is chitchatting and looking for the best online deals, master your craft. Don't compare yourself to your colleagues, but to your potential and trajectory. There is always something that needs to be done or learned. Know the PMS and any programs you use.....better than the back of your hand. Everything is a learning opportunity. Never assume you are the smartest one in the room. Master listening and observing prior to speaking. Remain professional with your fellow colleagues; you can do something correct 1000 times and go unnoticed, but one slip up and they won't let you forget it. The final key to climbing up is learning what is required of the next role and adjusting your skills accordingly. So when you have the conversation with your supervisors, they have to give you specific examples of why you're falling short. The last and most important thing..... patience. Put yourself on a timeline of achievements, not time. Otherwise, you will start beating yourself up.

“I’m a CEO too, you know.” A friend once told me this with a wry smile. He was CEO of his 10-person startup. Then he paused: “But let’s be real - I’m not the CEO of DBS Bank.” That conversation stuck with me. Because not all titles are created equal. Singapore is drowning in inflated job titles. Recent data shows “Lead” titles jumped 38%, “Manager” postings up 24%. Salaries? Flat. One woman’s story: “Senior Manager” at 32, salary $4,200, taking meeting minutes. Her late-20s colleague? “Chief Operations Officer.” Fresh grad? “Manager.” This isn’t career progression. This is career fiction. I know a recruitment firm where everyone with 2-3 years becomes “Director of Talent Acquisition.” Sounds impressive until they try to move. A 28-year-old “Director” with 3 years experience? Hiring managers immediately know: small company, inflated title, coordinator-level work. The title becomes a liability, not an asset. Here’s what nobody warns you: In outplacement, inflated titles kill your chances. You get rejected because the title seems too junior, too inflated, or creates red flags. I’ve watched people explain their dotcom-era “Marketing Wizard” title for 25 years. Companies hand out fancy titles because it’s cheaper than raises. But it costs YOU. Future employers lowball you. You can’t take “lower” titles without looking like you’re moving backward. Your age, title, and experience don’t match up. You become unmarketable for legitimate senior roles. That “VP” title at a 15-person company just boxed you out of actual VP positions at real companies. My advice: Be cautious of small companies with big titles. Ask yourself: Will this title help or hurt me in 3 years? Would you rather be a “Director” at a startup making $5,000/month with no team, or a “Senior Executive” at an MNC making $7,000/month with actual leadership experience? The second option will always age better. Negotiate for substance, not style. Push for salary, scope, and actual reports over fancy titles. Document your real responsibilities. Be ready to “translate” your title in future interviews. And if title inflation is rampant, get your experience and leave. To fresh grads: If a small company offers you a “manager” or “senior” title straight out of school, be very careful. Your next job search will be exponentially harder when you’re 25 trying to explain why you’re a “Director” applying for mid-level roles. We need to stop pretending that inflating titles is harmless. It’s creating a generation with impressive LinkedIn profiles and unemployable resumes. Choose substance over style. Your future self will thank you. Yours sincerely, Supreme Commander of LinkedIn Hot Takes & Chief Evangelist of Calling Out BS

Over the years, I've learned that true hospitality entails not just delectable food and a lovely setting, but also consistency, personalization, and attention to detail. From the time a guest arrives until they leave, every interaction counts. Whether you're new to the hospitality industry or creating your own concept, here is my ultimate checklist for creating a memorable guest experience: ✔️ First impressions set the tone The moment a guest walks through your doors is the moment their experience begins. Make it count. Make sure to greet them with a smile, eye contact, and enthusiasm that embodies the character of your venue. Within the first few seconds, people remember how you made them feel. ✔️ Anticipate needs before they ask Good service turns into great service at this point. Is your visitor running low on water? Between courses, has the table been waiting too long? Does a frequent visitor have a preferred seat or dish? Teach your staff to watch and respond before a request is made. Proactive service fosters loyalty and demonstrates concern. ✔️ Perfect the little details Often, the smallest things have the greatest effects. Consider how the lighting changes from day to night, how a napkin is folded, or how the music enhances the atmosphere. A unified, unforgettable atmosphere is produced by these details. Every location is created with the intention of telling a story, and the details are what make the tale come to life. ✔️ A strong team = exceptional service Without an empowered, well-trained, and mission-aligned staff, no venue can succeed. Being a host is a team sport. Make an investment in your people. Celebrate your victories. Openly discuss difficulties. Above all, establish a culture in which each team member takes ownership of the visitor experience because their concern is evident. ✔️ Tech should enhance, not replace hospitality Use technology to make things smoother, not colder. Digital tools and AI can help personalize menus, expedite reservations, and increase operational efficiency, but nothing can replace the human touch. Instead of reducing interaction, use technology to free up more time for your team to spend with guests. ✔️ Guests don’t just choose food, they embrace experiences We are now in the experience business rather than the food industry. People go out to experience celebration, comfort, connection, and excitement. Create moments that transcend the plate by planning your areas, your service, and your narrative. That's what makes a new visitor become a devoted regular. A successful F&B venue is about how you make people feel, not just what's on the menu. That’s the heart of hospitality. What do you think? What else would you include on this list? I would be interested in hearing your viewpoint. #HospitalityExcellence #CustomerExperience #HospitalityChecklist #7Management

🎯 Why Most Business Problems Remain Unsolved (And How to Fix That) Last week, I had the privilege of facilitating a Problem Solving & Business Acumen workshop for our teams at L'Oréal Indonesia. 💡 The Problem We All Face (But Rarely Talk About) Here's an uncomfortable truth: we're wired to jump to solutions. In business, this looks like: ✔️ Launching promotions without understanding why sales declined ✔️ Hiring more people without diagnosing process inefficiencies ✔️ Copying competitor tactics without validating if they fit our context The cost? Wasted resources, frustrated teams, and recurring problems that never truly go away. According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2023, analytical and critical thinking are the #1 and #2 most important skills for workers. Yet, most of us were never formally taught how to think critically or solve problems systematically. 🛠️ The Problem-Solving Process: A Step-by-Step Guide Step 1: Define the Problem (Don't Jump to Judgment!) 📝 Craft a Problem Statement with 6 components: "How can [responsible party] improve/reduce [reality] to meet [expectation] within [timeline] without [anti-goals], in order to fulfill [reason]?" Example: "How can the product team launch a new product on time in Q4 2024 without sacrificing key processes, in order to meet the sales target?" Step 2: Find Alternatives (Issue Tree + MECE) Once the problem is clear, break it down using an Issue Tree. For instance, if mascara sales dropped -14% YoY: 📦 Placement → Gondola compliance, visibility, signage 🎁 Promotion → BOGO mechanics, POS materials 💰 Price → Elasticity, perceived value 🎨 Product Claims → Content freshness, reviews 🔥 Competition → Share of voice, endcap presence ✅ Ensure hypotheses are MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive)—no overlaps, no gaps. Step 3: Test Your Hypotheses Don't fall in love with your first idea. Run quick tests: 📊 For a skincare serum declining in pharmacies, we tested: ✔️ Hypothesis A: Reduced pharmacist advocacy is the issue → Micro-detailing pilot in 10 stores ✔️ Hypothesis B: Cold chain OOS drives lost sales → Warehouse SOP audit + temperature logs ✔️ Hypothesis C: Execution gaps suppress promo ROI → Endcap compliance audit Each hypothesis had clear KPIs and timelines—no guessing, just data. Step 4: Make the Decision (Impact vs. Effort Matrix) Not all solutions are equal. Prioritize: 🟩 Quick wins—do this! 🟦 Strategic bets 🟨 Fill-ins 🟥 Avoid Focus on low effort, high impact moves first. Build momentum, then tackle the big bets. 🚨 What Happens When We Skip These Steps? A mascara brand saw sales drop -14% YoY. The reaction? "Let's run a BOGO promo!" The result? Sales stayed flat. Why? Because the real issues were: ❌ Poor gondola compliance (only 68% correct facings) ❌ Weak influencer share of voice ❌ Competitor secured prime endcap space The lesson: Solutions applied to the wrong problem = wasted budget and missed targets.

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫. I had the chance to listen to Kapil Chopra recently, someone who deeply understands the heart of the hospitality industry. He shared a simple but powerful 4-step guide to winning in hospitality and honestly, it stayed with me because it was not theoretical. It was actionable. 1. Warm Welcome – Not just a greeting, but a signature. What is that one thing your guest will always remember the moment they arrive and more importantly, is it consistent? 2. Zero Defect Product – No matter how beautiful the ambience or engaging the team, if the core product is flawed, it all falls apart. Excellence and consistency in the basics has no substitute. 3. Anticipatory Service – This one is my favourite. How well do we understand our guests’ needs before they even ask? Are we observing, listening, noticing patterns and designing our service accordingly? 4. Fond Farewell – The last moment is often what stays the longest. Are we giving our guests a memory they want to return to? At The Table and across everything we do at Food Matters Group , this is the standard we strive for. It is not easy but it should be the reason people come back. #Leadership #Strategy #Hospitality #Growth #Success

Job descriptions are basically useless. There, I said it. You read "Project Manager" and think you know what the role involves. Which is miles away from the truth. I've seen project managers who spend their days in Excel building Gantt charts. And others who are essentially firefighters, jumping between crises and keeping teams from falling apart. Same job title. Completely different realities. The real problem? Job descriptions tell you what tasks you'll do, not what problems you'll solve. They list qualifications, not the actual skills that matter. And they're designed to cover the company's backside, not attract the right person. What you actually need to know: 1️⃣ What does a typical day look like? Not the sanitised version. 2️⃣ What are the biggest challenges someone in this role faces? 3️⃣ How do you measure success? And I don't mean KPIs - I mean real impact. 4️⃣ Who are you working with? What's the team dynamic like? 5️⃣ What decisions can you actually make? Here's my advice for veteran job seekers: Take the job description with a pinch of salt. It's marketing fluff. Talk to people who actually do the role. Ask them what keeps them up at night. Find out what they love about it and what drives them mental. That's how you learn about the real work. Not the bullet points in the job spec. #hiring #recruitment #careers

Throughout my recruitment career, I've observed a consistent disconnect between what candidates emphasize and what actually influences hiring decisions.   Elaborate job titles might look impressive on LinkedIn, but they rarely drive hiring decisions.   What Hiring Managers Overlook:   Complex titles like "Senior Vice President of Strategic Digital Transformation" or "Principal Customer Experience Innovation Lead" sound important but provide little insight into actual capabilities or achievements.   What Drives Hiring Decisions:   1. Quantified Impact: Specific metrics that demonstrate business value - revenue generated, costs reduced, efficiency improved, problems solved. 2. Transferable Skills: Core competencies that apply across industries and organizations rather than company-specific role descriptions. 3. Problem-Solving Evidence: Concrete examples of challenges identified and solutions implemented with measurable outcomes. 4. Results-Oriented Communication: The ability to articulate achievements in terms of business impact rather than job responsibilities.   The Strategic Shift: Instead of: "I'm a Marketing Director" Position as: "I help B2B companies generate 3x more qualified leads through data-driven campaigns"   Instead of: "I'm an Operations Manager" Position as: "I streamline processes that reduce costs by 25% while improving quality"   Why This Matters:   Hiring managers evaluate candidates based on potential contribution to their specific business challenges. Titles describe past roles; results predict future value.   When you lead with measurable achievements rather than hierarchical labels, you immediately differentiate yourself from candidates who rely on impressive-sounding titles.   What strategies have you found most effective for communicating your professional value beyond job titles?   Sign up to my newsletter for more corporate insights and truths here: https://lnkd.in/ei_uQjju   #deepalivyas #eliterecruiter #recruiter #recruitment #jobsearch #corporate #valueproposition #resultsdriven #careerstrategist

Here's what distinguishes strategic legal business partners from traditional counsel: 1) Lead with solutions, not obstacles. - Replace "we can't because..." with "here's how we could..." - When presenting legal issues, pair each concern with a practical recommendation. -Know when to use what tool and when. This requires technology awareness and competency. 2) Deeply integrate with your company. - Schedule regular time to sit with engineering teams during product development. - Understand what drives your revenue teams. - Learn your company's financial metrics as fluently as you know legal precedents. 3) Embrace decisiveness amid uncertainty. - Recognize that waiting for perfect information may cost more than making a reasoned call. - Develop a framework for escalating truly critical issues versus handling routine matters. - Build trust by acknowledging limitations while still providing actionable guidance. The most valued in-house counsel aren't just legal experts—they're business leaders who happen to specialize in law. #legaltech #innovation #law #business #learning

A title should mean something. In too many organisations today, it no longer does. Welcome to the age of title inflation. In my years as an HR leader I have sat in enough leadership meetings to know that some of the most recurring conversations have nothing to do with strategy, performance or culture. They are about titles.And the motivation is almost always the same. A need for visible career growth. A desire for status that signals to the world and to oneself that progress is being made. It feels like a reasonable ask. The problem is what happens next. The title comes first. Then comes the ask for compensation to match it. The logic is hard to argue with. And that is exactly why title inflation is so difficult to contain once it starts. And here is what organisations consistently discover too late. The title that felt so significant inside the organisation carries very little weight outside it. When that person eventually goes to the market and they will, they find that the designation that made them feel valued internally does not translate into the offers, the opportunities or the recognition they expected. The gap between the title and the actual capability it represents is visible to every external employer within the first conversation. But the damage does not stop with the individual. The colleagues who earned their titles through genuine growth and expanded responsibility quietly notice when a designation is handed out for tenure or to manage someone's aspiration. It does not need to be announced. People always know. And when they see that titles are distributed based on loyalty rather than contribution, something breaks in their belief that the organisation is a meritocracy. The most capable people, the ones with options, start to disengage. The connection between real work and real recognition disappears. And here is the real irony of title inflation. It does not actually solve the problem it was created to solve. The person who received the inflated title now has nowhere left to go. The ladder has run out of rungs. They are stuck, too senior on paper to move laterally, not genuinely ready to move up. What was meant to retain them has instead trapped them. And the organisation ends up with talented people in a state of quiet stagnation, holding titles that no longer motivate them and roles that no longer challenge them. The answer is not a new title. It has never been a new title. The answer is a genuine investment in understanding what a high performer is capable of beyond their current role. Mapping their skills, their strengths and their potential to opportunities in other functions, other geographies, other parts of the business. Showing them a real path forward rather than handing them a consolation prize dressed up as recognition. It is not a promotion. It is a placeholder. And the most talented people in your organisation will eventually see through it

Are You Solving the Right Problem? As leaders & professionals, we're often under pressure to act quickly when challenges arise. Our instinct—or perhaps muscle memory—is to dive straight into solution mode. But over the years, I've found that one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves is: Are we solving the right problem? Consider the hybrid workforce. Organizations often roll out solutions like employee engagement activities, gift cards, virtual celebrations, enforcing video-on policies during calls, or hosting virtual team-building sessions. While these seem like good ideas, they may serve as quick fixes that don't address the real issue. So, what's the actual problem? ❓Is it a lack of engagement? ❓A drop in productivity? ❓Struggles with team cohesiveness? ❓Or could it be something deeper, like communication barriers? ❓Disconnect between leadership and employees? ❓Or even more fundamental issues like trust and culture? Getting to the heart of the problem is crucial. 🛠️ 3 Steps to Identify the Right Problem: Observe and Listen: Start by carefully observing the symptoms. What are the visible signs that something's not working? Gather data and listen to feedback from your team. This will help you understand the nature of the issue. Ask Deep Questions: Go beyond surface-level explanations. Use techniques like the "5 Whys" to dig into the root causes. If engagement is low, ask why—several times over—to uncover the core issue. The real problem often lies beneath the symptoms. Understand the Context: Consider the broader organizational environment, team dynamics, and culture. What seems like an issue in one area might be a symptom of a deeper problem elsewhere. Context is critical to accurate diagnosis. Once the right problem is identified, solving it effectively requires careful consideration. 💡 3 Considerations When Solving the Problem: Engage Multiple Perspectives: Involve diverse voices from across the organization. Different perspectives can reveal angles you might miss and lead to more robust solutions. Collaboration ensures broader acceptance and better outcomes. Resist the Quick Fix: It's tempting to go for quick solutions, but they often only address symptoms. Focus on sustainable solutions that tackle the root cause. This may take more time, but the long-term benefits are worth it. Reflect and Iterate: After implementing a solution, reflect on its impact. Did it address the problem effectively? Be prepared to iterate and adjust as needed. Continuous improvement is essential for long-term success. The most successful leaders don't just jump to solutions—they take the time to define the problem accurately. By doing so, they create a foundation for meaningful, lasting change. So, before you dive into solving what seems like an urgent issue, ask yourself: Am I truly solving the right problem? #Leadership #OrganizationalDevelopment #ProblemSolving #HybridWorkforce #Culture