My First Week - lessons learned and some remembered

It has been an intense week on this beautiful island of Flores.  Not one to sit still for long I have plunged into my many tasks wholeheartedly.  Good thing too as a kind of torpor had set in around here.  I liken it to a ship without a captain being run by too many first mates, one of which shall we say is a sneaky devil but I will return to that later.

A hotel, no matter how swanky or perfectly located, will flounder and do so in a spectacular fashion without strong leadership or as in the case of some, just outright bleed money and die.  Some would say this is normal given the country I am in now but I strongly disagree having evaluated hundreds of hotels in Europe, the United States and Canada, Morocco, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.  Some of the finest hotels I have ever stayed in have been the most humble of operations but it is in what they provided given their circumstances that have made them standouts in my mind.

This lovely hotel, with a fantastic (for the most part) staff who have been leaderless, without direction - it is almost a dream come full circle for me, a person who grew up in this business.  People in the hospitality and food businesses always talk of making their mark, putting their imprimature on something.  Without a strong focus and I believe a keen eye for detail and a willingness to adapt one could have a million great ideas that would never be fully realized.

Two words have been my mantra since getting here - Pacing and en Espanol, "piensa" (to think).  Villagers laugh and smile at me as I walk down the street muttering to myself piensa, piensa, piensa!  I go to bed, more tired than I have ever been, thinking constantly of what I have seen and what needs to be implemented.  I wake up and before I have even had a cafe con leche I am jotting down notes of what needs to be discussed with the staff and of course my Patron, the owner, a lovely man who has placed so much trust in me to make the necessary changes in this hotel that he has a love/hate relationship with.

Thus far, in just one week, I have established my presence and sometimes in a not-too-pleasant fashion but I have stuck to my guns so to speak and have the respect required from the staff who love their jobs.  As to those staff whose status quo I am threatening, so be it.  The gauntlet has been tossed down.