Are you ready to pursue a career in business? In addition to the management skills offered by the generalist Business Schools, the key skills that continually appear on the CVs of Top Managers are those born out of hospitality management.
Here are 5 of the key skills that will make you an accomplished manager, whatever your industry.
Listening and communicating clearly
Exceptional communication skills are highly valued in most sectors. The further up the hierarchy you go, the more important they become. Motivating your employees, negotiating with a partner or convincing a customer are just a few examples where you will need to demonstrate your ability to listen and communicate clearly.
This requires :
- displaying the right body language,
- adapting your speech to your audience,
- empathizing and inspiring confidence,
- being open-minded and friendly.
These skills are all taught and practiced in Bachelor Degree in Hospitality Business and Management courses.
Creating and nurturing networks
One of the key skills required in the hotel and restaurant sector is the ability to create effective networks, not only to attract business partners, but more importantly to encourage customer loyalty. A happy holiday maker may recommend a hotel for a company seminar, and vice versa. Regardless of industry, employers will want to hear you illustrate your mastery of concepts such as "customer relationship management" and "guest relations".
Knowing how to multitask
Being able to fulfill multiple roles is a necessity for the General Manager of a hotel. By its nature, hospitality requires a high degree of flexibility and the ability to juggle several tasks simultaneously. Over the course of a day, you may be required to organize a banquet, respond to customer requests and deal with infrastructure issues, while maintaining a professional demeanor.
Students in hospitality management have a head start. They develop and practice these skills from their Bachelor's degree onwards, especially if their course includes a preparatory year and internships.
Cultural sensitivity
Hotels and tourism companies are more likely than those in other sectors to deal with customers of diverse nationalities and cultural backgrounds. The ability to be aware of one's culture and to go beyond one's own cultural norms is crucial.
Cultural awareness is an essential social skill for providing excellent customer service in any industry, as people's tastes and sensitivities are to a large extent conditioned by their ethnic and linguistic background.
Prestigious universities offering Bachelor and Master's degrees in hospitality business and management rely on the cultural diversity of their students, on awareness-raising workshops, and on practice during international internships.
Teamwork
Whether you're new to the business world or the member of an executive committee, teamwork will be an essential part of your success.
Hospitality management students are exposed from the very beginning of their studies to the requirements of a sector where each day brings different challenges. They train to design and manage restaurant concepts, they analyze front-office processes, and engage in many other activities where teamwork is required to ensure customer satisfaction.
In conclusion, the profiles of top managers show that those who aim for a successful career in business will perform particularly well if they are good communicators, multi-taskers, culturally aware and able to work in a team.
By examining these core hospitality skills, it's easy to understand why hospitality management students succeed when they enter the business world.
