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Elevating Your Career through Financial Education
with David Lund, The Hotel Financial Coach
Josiah Mackenzie
August 14, 2023
Good morning. I publish Hospitality Daily to help you thrive as a hospitality provider, and shared two conversations over the weekend I encourage you to check out if you haven’t already:
Work-life balance (with Alan Young, Puzzle Partner)
Empowering women in hospitality through storytelling, media & events (with Emily Kanders Goldfischer, hertelier)
We continue this theme today with a focus on financial literacy. David Lund is The Hotel Financial Coach, and shares not only why this matters to all of us, but is crucial for leveling up as a leader in hospitality.
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Elevating Your Career through Financial Education
with David Lund, The Hotel Financial Coach
David Lund
I don't want financial illiteracy to hold you back from higher levels of hospitality leadership, so today we're learning how to develop our skillset in this area with David Lund, The Hotel Financial Coach and author of The Prosperous Hotelier. A few highlights from our conversation today:
We all need financial literacy
David emphasized the crucial role of financial literacy for all in hospitality, not just those in accounting or finance.
For most people in hospitality, there's a trajectory that pulls you into leadership roles. You can really accelerate your career. But you hit a point where it's not only about the guests anymore. It's not about your colleagues, it's about the owner, it's about the money, it's about the brand, it's about making your numbers and understanding what's going on and being able to communicate up, down, and sideways about the numbers. If you're the GM or the Director of Ops or a division leader, you need to lead your people around the numbers. You can't do it all yourself by any means. You need everyone to have financial acumen.
Find a mentor for this area
The importance of mentorship here cannot be underestimated. David encourages us all to seek out mentors and to be open to learning from others.
There are lots of people out there who are more than willing to help you. You just have to ask.
Start with an area you don’t understand
The key to building your financial literacy is to begin with what’s puzzling you.
Take a second, third, and fourth look at things in your department that you don't understand. Is there a report that comes out that ends up in your inbox and you’re wondering what it’s all about? That's a clue to dig in and ask someone to explain it to you. Walk down the hall, find your boss. Walk down the hall, find the accounting department. Ask them to explain what's going on. They will help you and then you'll start unlocking some of the secrets, because we don't just create reports for fun or to burn through paper!
Be proactive - and shine
In the end, mastering financial reporting is key to making a difference and motivating others - and yourself.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs clearly demonstrates that, and if you can show someone that what they're doing makes a difference, they're naturally going to want to do more of it. A key to leadership is by showing people how they can make a difference. And sometimes you have to show yourself that you can make a difference, that you can be the one who turns things around. We have to have proactive to do this. If you can be the one that's on top of things a little bit more than everybody else, you're going to shine.
By building our financial literacy proactively through mentorship and taking the initiative to dive into the numbers and interpret what they are telling us, we can create wonderful experiences for guests and drive financial success for our businesses.
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