When your hotel or restaurant faces a leadership transition, you may not be ready to make an immediate hire. This may be a matter of wanting to take the time to identify the right person for the culture of the location or the company as a whole. On the other hand, it could be a matter of needing to right the ship before you move to a new person. In either way, an interim hospitality manager can help you navigate transition periods and lift your business to the next chapter.
Objective Approach to the Business
One important aspect of an interim hospitality manager is the ability to be objective. Many hotels and restaurants settle into periods of inertia. They can get locked in ways of approaching costs or customers, and into practices that may not work as well today as they did a year ago. When you hire an interim manager, you can give yourself an opportunity to step outside of the viewpoints that have run your business.
A fresh perspective often means you can find opportunity in places you didn’t know to look. This may lie in the area of sensible acquisitions, new sources of revenue, or more efficient cost structures. It can also mean taking a closer look at the staff on site. Getting to know your staff is vital, but an interim manager can evaluate people without pre-existing concepts of what their strengths and weaknesses are.
This can help in good times or in tougher times. Even if your manager leaves after a successful run with your property, a myopic look at some areas of the business can still set in. The best companies usually remain so because they remain open to innovation and change. You sometimes can take a positive picture and still identify growth opportunities; an interim hospitality manager might give you the opportunity to do so.
Time to Move Forward
You eventually need a permanent manager. But rushing to select someone can leave you stuck with whoever is available immediately rather than the person who is the best fit for your property. Each company has a unique mix of personalities, and a company culture that does not–and often should not–change overnight. Pushing a new leader into the mix, without taking the time to thoroughly vet and understand that leader, can create friction within the current team and set the new leadership up for failure.
A short term manager can give you the time you need to make a solid, well-reasoned choice for your future. He or she can step into the breach and manage your day to day operations without creating a leadership gap or leaving anyone wondering who will make decisions for the property.
If things have run smoothly up to this point, the interim manager can help keep the business steady while you work to identify the permanent replacement. If the business is faltering and you are replacing someone because of job performance, the short term manager can work to correct your course. In many cases, you want to move the property into a more steady state, rather than introducing a new leader in a state of potential chaos. An interim hospitality manager can help move you to a place where a new manager will be more comfortable.
