Wednesday, May 11, 2011

FINAL NARRATIVE

Hi everyone,

I see a lot of familiar faces but for those of you who I haven’t had the opportunity of meeting yet, my name is Krystal Brownfield.  I feel honored to have been selected for the Marriott Management Development Program and will continue to contribute to the leadership team here at the beautiful San Diego Marriott Marquis and Marina in the DW’s Restaurant food and beverage outlet.

I am privileged to be here with all of you  and I am really excited to being this process.  Just to give you a brief background of myself- I was born and raised in a small city in Northern California.  I decided to move to San Diego because it just seems like a city that has it all, and I won’t lie and say that the 70 miles of gorgeous beaches didn’t help with the decision.

I am a recent graduate of San Diego State University’s Hospitality & Tourism Management program with an emphasis in meetings and events. 
My goal is to remain in a constant state of growth while consistently setting new goals for myself and this team. I am a driven individual and confident that my understanding of the importance of communication, teamwork, organization, passion and dependability will work well with the amazing team that has already been
established here.
For the last two years, I have been working at this property. I began my time here as a seasonal server at the Tiki Bar during the summer.  Upon completion of that, I was asked to stay on staff and work at the Lobby Lounge as a food runner and then later on a cocktail waitress.  As most of you know, I later moved over to this outlet and have been a host and server here with you at DWs.  I am very aware that most of you have been working in this particular outlet and in the hospitality industry much longer than myself. I want each of you to feel empowered to make your own decisions when faced with situations and know that I will support you 100%.  If for some reason it wasn’t handled properly then we can work together to find an approach that will be more effective in similar situations in the future.
  
During my time as your co-worker, I learned that each of you possesses different strengths and each have a passion for different aspects of your jobs.   I don’t know about you, but I am most inspired by people who are passionate. Passion is one of those traits that are contagious.  If you care strongly enough for something, it will radiate and make others want to be a part of it.  I would like to work together to make this restaurant not only a great place where we can provide exceptional service and amazing experiences to our guests but also a place that you are proud to work at. 
 In order to achieve this, I will be spending my first week speaking to each of you in turn. We will have a one-to-one opportunity to acknowledge challenges that you are facing in your role as well as what needs to be done for you to reach your goals.  I want to highlight the fact that I will rely on you to be honest with me and, in turn, I will be honest with you. I have high expectations for every one of you and I have no doubt that, together, we can exceed our goals.

To me, leadership is not a role, it's a process involving how an individual influences others towards a particular goal. I have included the image of a sunflowers life cycle to help you grasp my idea of leadership. 
After preparing this and trying to place myself in a singular stage, I realized leadership is not always a linear process. There is a lot of back and forth that takes place.  I believe leadership development occurs across one's life span.

My leadership journey is just about to pick up pace as I take on this new challenge.  Each individual encounters different experiences that shape their views and values and no two leaders are identical.  Some of us are more relationship oriented while others are much more task oriented.  In my opinion, I fall somewhere in the middle.  It is important to me to connect with my team but still be as productive as possible.  

I am a big believer in the
Situational Leadership Theory which states that there is no "best" style of leadership.  I plan to analyze each situation before making any decisions on how it would best be handled.  The most successful leaders are those that adapt their leadership style to the maturity of the individual or group they are attempting to lead.
 
Along with the values I have already mentioned, I believe that a leader should be empowering, inspirational, empathetic, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, have integrity, the ability to adapt & the endurance to conquer whatever adverse obstacles they encounter. 

During this coming week I would like you to come up with a few values that are most important to you to discuss in our one- on-one meetings.  T
his will help me get a better understanding of what is most important to each of you.
I am a very approachable person and my door will always be open to each and every one of you.  If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.

Thank you!

My Leadership Map

HTM491- Krystal's Leadership Map