The Power of Power

Sorry all, it's been more than a month since my last post. It has been a whirlwind month, to say the least. Every post covers a new area of learning for me, so you must be thinking that with so many things I have been learning this past year, what did I start with in the first place?!! Scary.

Actually, quite invigorating to know that there is just so much more out there to learn that you can't possibly get bored. I think out of the several wow moments I have had the past month, I will share with you my observations about the power of power.

What is that!!!

Power of power is what people can do together as a team, and as individuals when they are given the opportunity and power to apply their passion.

I just came back from Club Med. My sister had to drag me there kicking and screaming (it was meant to be my Christmas present). There are two things I have always said I would never be caught dead at - one is a cruise ship and the other is Club Med. You see, I hate confined places, I hate being sociable while on a holiday, I hate "ra ra" things, and I hate to be told what to do. To me, being on a cruise ship and Club Med are all these things.

Anyway, I went.
And... I thoroughly enjoyed myself and even found management applications to share with all of you.

Wouldn't you just love to know how I became a Club Med convert! It was simply the customer friendship that Club Med is all about... not customer service, not customer care, but customer friendship.

What I found in the Club Med team of GOs (Gentile Organisers for those unfamiliar with Club Med jargon) was a team who love what they do and enjoy every moment of it. They were spontaneous, they were organised. They listened, they talked. They partied and showed you how easy it was to have a good time. They did everything to ensure that their customers had a good time. There were certain mishaps that threw off their schedules and planned events, but they quickly found alternative ways of entertaining and not one of them even mentioned the mishap or sought sympathy for it. They sang as one.

I am quite convinced that their job description has just one sentence "Do anything you need to do to make sure your guests feel like family and that you have fun while at it".

And this is what we should be telling our teams in the organisations we work in and let them get on with it. As a leader, our role is to provide a vision, a direction, a method and to walk the talk. Our role is also to pass the power you have as a leader to your team and let them fly. Power releases passion and energy in individuals and team power is positively explosive. Holding back power on the other hand sucks out the passion and energy in individuals and turns them indifferent robots... really!... and you don't want that for sure.

I went to Club Med ready to sulk and scowl at the staff there. I went away with hugs not from the staff, gosh no they are not staff anymore as far as I was concerned, but from a bunch of enthusiastic, passionate and just simply lovely and gentile people!

Just as I closed this post, I decided to google "Club Med" and found that their new signature tagline is "Club Med - Where Happiness Means the World". It really describes what I have just been writing. Wow!