Culture, Service, & People: Aaron Kendrick

I love people and I love seeing things work smoothly and efficiently.  If I had to think about managing operations and staff at Highgrove in it's simplest form, those two things state it perfectly.
I've realized over time that in any organization, people are one of, if not the biggest, investment to be made.  My philosophy is pretty simple.  Happy people make happy people.  This serves us well in the hospitality industry.  I mean think about it, we are trusted by guests to run their entire event! Something as special as a wedding or important as a corporate event is put in our hands to be created and run seamlessly.  This can't be done without a team of staff that is committed, highly functional, humble and relentless in making things work not just good, but great.

How do we make this happen, you ask?  Simple.  I think about what I would want in a workplace and work hard to create that type of environment for our staff.  I know that as an employee I want to be known and invested in, I want to have clarity and understanding about why we're doing what we do and the reason behind all decisions, I wanted to be treated with dignity and respect, and I want to have fun.  I want to know that my work has a purpose and a point, otherwise we're just completing meaningless tasks!  Of course, this couldn't be done without 'buy-in' from every member of the team.
And I feel the need at this point to say that our staff is amazing.  Each and every member brings a different gifting to the table which makes it exciting to figure out ways to draw out those talents and use them to serve our guests at Highgrove.  This is the work culture that allows us and our guests to thrive.  This is the type of environment that sets the stage for guests to be blown away by a team member's willingness to go above and beyond for them.

Yes it is easier to just come to work and get things done.  But I don't want to settle for that and I don't want to work with people who are willing to settle for that.  Those are the little things that take extra time and energy to put into place and no,  I don't always do it right.  There is a lot of trial and error but in the end it is so worth it.  Guests get over the top treatment and employees have meaningful, purposeful work that is enjoyable, or I'd like to hope so!