By Greg Dardis / Guest Column
Danny Meyer was set to take the LSAT in 12 hours, and the 25-year-old from St. Louis found himself making a confession over dinner with his uncle: He didn’t want to be a lawyer.
“Why don’t you just do what you’ve been thinking about your whole life?” his uncle asked. “All you’ve ever talked about is food. Open a restaurant.”
It was true that food had always captivated Danny, even as a boy. He remembered specific dishes he’d had dating back to a young age, like the time he was four and fell in love with stone crab at the Lagoon restaurant in Miami Beach.
Danny took the LSAT but never applied to law school. He began working as an assistant manager in an Italian seafood restaurant, making $250 a week. He learned as much as he could about how restaurants work and studied cooking in Italy and France.
Today he is 58 and the wildly successful restaurateur who founded Shake Shack, the burger joint that made headlines when it went public early last year and catapulted to a staggering valuation.
Mr. Meyer speaks about “enlightened hospitality,” which goes beyond the technical delivery of a product and pertains to how the delivery of that product makes its recipient feel. He hires people with a “high hospitality quotient” – the emotional skills needed to serve each customer well.
In his book “Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business,” Mr. Meyer identifies five core emotional skills: optimism and kindness; curiosity about learning; a strong work ethic; a high degree of empathy; and self-awareness paired with accountability. These qualities enable a server to be an entrepreneur, Mr. Meyer says, adapting to unique situations and coming up with quick solutions.
Hospitality will define the next cycle of the economy, Mr. Meyer believes. If you can make people feel important and cared for, you’ll gain the critical edge against the competition.
While his book applies hospitality to business at large, it is particularly relevant to public speaking. In training sessions through Dardis Communications, we often remind clients that a public speaker is the host of a gathering. You’ve asked people to come and you’ve set the terms, which means the onus is on you to guide them through the presentation with grace.
Let your audience know what to expect: how long you’ll talk, what you’ll be covering, how you’d like to handle questions and whether you’re preparing an allotted period for inquiries. A good host doesn’t neglect to point out the basics: where the restrooms are, whether there will be breaks in the presentation, if or when they can expect food.
Hospitality in public speaking requires preparation. Will the room be a comfortable temperature? Will the audience be able to see and hear well? Who could you call to find out more about your audience? Is there someone you should cater to – a decision maker who may have a preference about where she sits, when you meet or what she drinks? Contact her assistant to find out. These small gestures can go a long way.
The more work the speaker does, the less work the audience has to do. Absorbing the presentation is made easy. One of the presentation techniques we share with clients is to “clear the news,” as we say, when a new slide appears; read the contents of the slide right away for your audience. Then step away from the slide to elaborate. That way you’re not making audience members decide between listening to you and reading the slide.
Another subtle exercise of hospitality comes in how you field questions. We coach clients to invite questions by asking, “What questions do you have?” –opposed to the typical wording, “Are there any questions?” Our language suggests that you expect and welcome questions. It makes people feel less shy about raising their hand.
Some executives may consider these tips below their pay grade. But hospitality is not an act; it’s an art. It feels good to practice. My parents taught me that hospitality is not just the purview of a busboy but the mark of a gentleman.
Growing up in Farley, my mom was well known for the warmth of her hospitality, whether she was welcoming in our mailman, priest or football coach. She made each guest feel like part of the family. I could see she had a powerful gift. I try to harness it each time I walk up to a podium.
Greg Dardis is the CEO of Dardis Inc., located at 2403 Muddy Creek Lane in Coralville. For more information, visit www.dardisinc.com.
