Author Archives: Genevieve Matthews
Listening for Customer Wants, Desires, Fears and Frustrations
Back in July school holidays, we had the MOST amazing family holiday to Cairns and surrounds. We’ve been before and this time was special. We mixed up the wants and desires of family members. We took care of fears and frustrations. This meant – we had everyone’s needs met. We had rest days / pool…
A Quick Tip on Prioritising Health
Last week at a Goal-Setting Workshop for clients, I was blown away by the number of people in the session who wanted to work on their personal goals over and above their professional (work or business) goals. It showcased a real need for people to create and have time to sit down and think about…
Getting the Best out of Your Goal Setting
The divide in the room was fascinating. Half the room wanted to work on 12-month goals, a few were able to look at 3 and 5-year goals, and the rest were barely able to think about tomorrow, let alone in 3 months time. Goal setting is a very personal thing, yet when required to do…
Little Touches make a Big Difference
It was a simple green blanket. Not sure if it was the choice of green or the texture and warmth it exuded, however, I let out a very large sigh of relief and pleasure walking into this hotel room. In fact, there were many sighs of pleasure during this recent stay in regional NSW,…
Mastering Difficult Personalities: Unleashing Positive Intelligence for Effective Leadership
With the dynamic and evolving industry that tourism is, I believe exceptional leadership is the cornerstone of success. As leaders in the tourism industry, it’s not uncommon to encounter challenging personalities within your team. These situations, while uncomfortable, hold valuable lessons and opportunities for growth. For individuals, a team and a business. Let’s delve…
Leadership Success: The Fusion of Discipline and Purpose
In the realm of tourism, where challenges and opportunities weave an intricate tapestry, the climb to leadership greatness often stems from a delicate balance between discipline and purpose. Neither can exist solo or drive us to succeed separately. These two pillars, when interwoven skillfully, propel tourism business leaders to unprecedented levels of growth and…
Chat GPT on Leadership – A Must Read
Anyone else loving Chat GPT? The content creation in all forms of speeches, checklists, blogs, instructions etc. Seriously I’m loving it. I find it quite a phenomenal concept after years of being in sales, marketing, product development and leadership. It does take time to personalise, ask great questions, tweak and then polish it all up,…
Seizing Opportunities: Unleashing the Potential of Existing Talent for Tourism Business Growth
As the entire industry grapples with global staff shortages, I’d like to suggest it’s time to shift perspective and embrace a new approach. Rather than fixating on shortages, and the constant search for new staff, what about if the focus could be on the untapped potential existing within current team members? Are we fully aware…
How To Improve Leadership Confidence
One of the most frequent conversations I have with clients is about “How to improve Leadership Confidence”. It’s rare that in the beginning, because people always like to show me they’re confident and they have the “S$%T” together. Yes truly. However quite rapidly within a session or two, once the facade drops and raw honesty…
Difficult Conversations Made Easier
No matter how hard difficult conversations are, they only become easier with practice. In coaching sessions, when we have our accountability calls, I’ll follow-up and ask “How’d that conversation go with Mary, Tom or Sally….” (insert name of a person for said difficult conversation). I love hearing the responses, the progress, the hiccups and the…
Setting Staff Up for Success
Let’s imagine for a minute this is Chris and it’s a Tuesday night. It’s early, only 5:30 pm at the bar, however, suddenly 120 people descend and service is required. There is only 1 bar person on duty….. Chris. Now there are a few scenarios possible. Scenario One: Chris is amazing, and able to look…
Strategies For Dealing with Staff who are Closed to Change
Are you in a leadership role with some very long-term staff members? It can have its benefits and challenges. Growing a business requires developing people because for a business to grow the leader and team must grow. They go hand in hand. However, what do you do if you’re implementing change, new ideas, and initiatives,…
“Aloha” … You had me at hello
Made famous by Renee Zellweger and Tom Cruise in the movie Jerry Macguire in ‘96, the expression “you had me at hello” has never been more important for tourism businesses. The initial connection and rapport – a truly genuine and heart-felt hello and welcome is fundamental to the customer’s experience. Whether it’s via telephone, in…
5 Strategies to Address Staff Shortages and Improve Customer Experience
Tourism businesses are weighing up the situation, with seasonal impacts, domestic travellers now loving being back overseas, and our favoured international travellers not returning as quickly as we’d like. It’s easy to hesitate around staffing up, it’s likely that head counts are being reduced because the coming months aren’t what was predicted or hoped for.…
Weekend Habits that Set You Up for a Great Week
Weekend Habits that Set You Up for a Great Week Do you ever get to the end of the weekend and feel exhausted, disorganised, and in a complete state, wishing instead that you could start the week organised and calm, instead of playing catch-up? There are a few key strategies that successful leaders use to…
Consistent Growth in the Business
Consistent Growth in the Business Whether it’s season-on-season, or year-on-year, most tourism businesses want growth. They want to improve their average nightly rates, they want to improve their passenger numbers, they want more profit at the end of the day to make the business worthwhile and sustainable. Personally and professionally. Whether you work in a…
Mastering Time Habits
Unlocking Efficiency and Productivity for Tourism Business Leaders In today’s fast-paced world, time management is a crucial skill for individuals in all walks of life, especially for tourism business leaders. However, let’s reframe the conversation and shift our focus from mere time management to the development of effective time habits. By cultivating disciplined time habits,…
For Tourism Business Leaders feeling Overstretched and Under-resourced
Having faced unprecedented challenges in recent times, the tourism industry is not out of the woods yet. Staff shortages and under-trained staff issues continue to impact tourism operations and have a significant impact on the customer experience. Now labelled across the country as the #1 critical issue to be solved, tourism business owners and leaders…
Learn. Do. Teach.
When it comes to teaching and training staff, we love the LEARN DO TEACH model. As tourism business leaders, we’ve learnt a LOT. And we’re great DOer’s. Where I frequently see the gap is the ability to TEACH. Not because we can’t teach….. It lies in our lack of system and process to teach ie.…
Overcome High Anxiety and Stress
The long-term effects of ongoing stress and high anxiety are enormous. When we stay in a state of heightened fear, anxiety, and stress, it reduces our capacity to think quickly, and effectively, and more importantly, work through decisions, problem-solving, and conflict. Most people have no awareness of their ‘reduced’ state – it’s become so “normal”.…
Case Study:
The training was engaging and we had a great group to work with throughout the program. I feel better equipped to manage my stress at work. I am now more focused and better at setting priorities.
Wildlife Coast Cruises
Jess Patman
and Brett Lacco
Case Study:
I learnt a lot about communication and adaptability. Particularly how to find middle ground with people. I learnt a lot about how to deal with challenging behaviours with external stakeholder relationships.