Put Your People First

Happiness starts with the people who work in the organisation. Everything you will do after reading this book will start with focus on the people you work with. You will learn why happiness is the best tool to grow your business, hold on to your people and to have happy clients, customers and guests that keeps coming back.

Monika: "Throughout the book, I am telling the stories of the many hoteliers that I have interviewed in person, via Skype or LinkedIn, as well as stories from my 22 years in the hospitality industry in 9 countries on 3 continents.

Today the hospitality industry is so focused on guests and technology that we do not give adequate time and resources to really improve the environment for the people that matters the most; our crew, team members, associates or whatever you like to call the people that work in the business.

I want to challenge the hotel approach to focus on care for people for real. The heart that it takes to look after your team on a daily basis, as well as when they are at their weakest; insecure, sick, pregnant, maternity & paternity leave or death in family.

I would like to see more companies taking the approach of:

Doing what is right, rather than what is right by the book

as companies like Southwest Airlines and Zappos are doing.

The hotel structure is old and have been the same for centuries, it should be changed and challenged in order to meet the future. It all starts with adjusting the size and shape of the box in which we operate, rather than asked everyone to think out of the box. I believe new structures, like self- management, could very well work for hotels, but it requires more inspirational leadership, rather than self-centered hierarchical managers."


PUT YOUR PEOPLE FIRST is for people about how to deal with other people at work (example stories are from hotels):

First chapters (1-4) is about WHY You should focus on fairness, trust and happiness and of course HOW.
The second part (5-6) of the book is about leadership styles and learning.
The third part (7-12) is real examples on how to deal with various areas of interactions that impacts the people.
The last part (13-15) is inspirational thoughts how to run you hospitality business.

The chapters are
1. Why focus on Happiness
2. Fairness the foundation
3. What makes us happy at work
4. Most happy from making others happy
5. The T-Rex leader
6. Learn from the best
7. Hospitality training in 15 minutes
8. Passion for people not numbers
9. Don't play with peoples money
10. Recruite and then support
11. Future hotelliers are valued assets
12. The power of social media
13. Where are we going?
14. Where do we come from?
15. The future is happy
Happy Hotel Check List

What made Monika write this book?
“Two years ago, I wrote a LinkedIn post, that has now circled the world over 2 years, raising debates and emotions whenever it surfaces. The LinkedIn post was about being tired of abusive guests who threatens with social media if they don’t get what they want, but the message was really about senior managers who for decades have overruled employees in order to please the misbehaving “guests” and by doing so reinforced their behavior."