Lesson 3: In this GrowthTrack session, you will learn the hospitality principle of becoming an “agent” on behalf of your guests.
This session will focus on Danny Meyer’s insights into the mindset for hospitality. In the clip below, he describes the different mindsets of a “gatekeeper” and an “agent.” If you can shift your mindset to become an agent, you will dramatically increase your ability to provide a higher level of hospitality.
Watch the video below. Then go through the reflection questions.
Agents and gatekeepers have fundamentally different mindsets. In this clip, Danny Meyer explains why superior hospitality requires workers to be agents, not gatekeepers.
“In every business, there are employees who are the first point of contact with the customers (attendants at airport gates, receptionists at doctors’ offices, bank tellers, executive assistants). Those people can come across either as agents or as gatekeepers. An agent makes things happen for others. A gatekeeper sets up barriers to keep people out.”
– Danny Meyer, Setting the Table
For each of the following questions, write down your reflections in your journal.
1. In your own words, how would you describe the difference between a gatekeeper and an agent?
2. Think about your own hospitality context. Identify one way you might be thinking like a gatekeeper. Why might that be?
3. What are the barriers you face to move from a gatekeeper to an agent mentality?
4. How can you overcome that barrier to move to an agent mentality?
Identify three specific situations in your hospitality context where you can shift from a gatekeeper mentality to an agent mentality.
1.
2.
3.
Which one of your ideas do you want to implement in your hospitality context this week? Write out your plan to do it.
We welcome and encourage comments on this site. There may be some instances where comments will need to be edited or removed, such as:
If you have any questions on the commenting policy, please let us know at heretoserve@globalleadership.org
“We welcome and encourage comments on this site. There may be some instances where comments will need to be edited or removed, such as:
If you have any questions on the commenting policy, please let us know at heretoserve@globalleadership.org”