Happy Tuesday! Football season is officially back and I’m pretending it’s not going to be in the high 90s this week in Georgia. False Fall was great last week, but I’m ready for Real Fall.
Note: This is a free, un-paywalled post. Enjoy!
Management is hospitality in disguise.
Why it matters: Viewing management through a hospitality lens can transform leadership, boost team morale, and improve workplace culture.
Just as restaurants create magical escapes for guests, managers can craft enriching environments for their teams.
I was inspired to write this week’s newsletter as I’m reading Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara right now. One quote stood out to me:
The moment you pursue service through the lens of hospitality, you’ll understand there’s nobility in it. We may not be saving people’s lives, but we do have the ability to make their lives better by creating a magical world they can escape to, and I can see that not as an opportunity, but as a responsibility and a reason for pride.
Sure, this quote (and the book) is about the restaurant industry, but in reality, every manager is in the service business. Managers "serve" their teams by:
Creating welcoming environments: Foster a positive atmosphere where team members feel valued and comfortable from day 1
Anticipating needs: Proactively provide resources, support, or guidance before team members have to ask
Solving problems swiftly: Address issues quickly and effectively to maintain smooth operations and improve team satisfaction
Providing personalized attention: One size does not fit all in management. Understand and cater to each team member's unique strengths, challenges, and aspirations, especially when having development conversations
Crafting meaningful experiences: Make work rewarding by connecting daily tasks to larger goals and personal growth. Align the work to personal goals where possible, and provide opportunities for growth between team members
The bottom line: Embracing hospitality in management isn't just an opportunity—it's a responsibility. Will Guidara is onto something here, and we should absolutely be applying his thoughts towards hospitality to the way we manage our teams.
SOMETHING EXTRA:
🤖 Is the new Pixel 9’s AI image editing too good? I saw this on Threads over the weekend and thought I’d share.
The Verge also wrote an article about the far-too-realistic AI editing functionality.
🎧 Shopify knows what good DX looks like. As someone who has built on top of Shopify for a decade as a third-party dev, I loved listening to this Dev Interrupted podcast episode with Eytan Seidman.