When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind. ~Seneca
For me and my life I have purpose and passion. I see it now and I embrace it and welcome it. It was not however always that way. I played around with it a lot after I found it. I was not quite sure if it was; real, wanted, genuine, worthwhile, embarrassing, and above all it was a big puzzle for a long time.
My purpose came to me through a series of events over a 30-year period. Looking back, I can see the evolution of the purpose and having followed the steps and taken the direction I did the purpose was born. Not born, it was created by following a path. In the beginning the path had no direction or any indication that it would be part of a journey. It just looked like an option and a means to an ends.
My story starts in 1987, I was working as the assistant food and beverage controller. 1987 is also the year my first wife and I got married. Early in the fall of that year my office phone rang and it was the hotel manager’s secretary calling which had never happen before. She said the manager would like to see me and could I come to his office, now. Sure I said and off I went. He welcomed me and asked me to have a seat. He said he had good news and bad news, which would I like first. I thought for a second and said, bad. He then told me the hotel had just hired my brother as the financial controller and the company had a strict policy on nepotism and that would mean I needed to be transferred to another hotel. Wait a minute, I thought, what about me I was here first, did that matter at all. I quickly concluded that it was of no consequence. He then asked If I was ready for the good news, “yes”, I said. Well the company is offering you a transfer to a sister property out west. “Oh! doing what”, I said. To which he replied, “I don’t know, there is an envelope here, let me see….staff accountant”, he concluded. “Staff accountant, I don’t know anything about accounting” To which he replied with a shrug of his shoulders, “I am just the messenger”. My career plan at the time was to become a F&B manager!
Well my new young wife and I chewed on this option for the weekend and we decided to go for it. So off we went from the chilly fall nights to the somewhat tropical western island.
The new job was very different and I did a deep dive into the world of credits and debits. I attended night classes for accounting and I really liked my new roll. I progressed quickly and over the coming years my skills grew strong. I was particular effective because of two things, my ability to communicate and the operations experience I had from rooms and food and beverage, I quickly learned this was very valuable as NO ONE in my field had it, they were all real accountants.
Well fast forward just over 20 years later and I am back at the same hotel in ther east and now I’m the Hotel Controller. Having been the controller of three other hotels, a regional controller, a hotel manager for a two-year sabbatical and a 4 year run at our corporate office as the Director of Finance. My primary responsibility as the head of the finance and accounting department in the hotel is to ensure the books are clean and balanced. But what I get paid the big bucks for is being the businesses “chief financial information officer”. The reality at this point is the information stinks! In any business of any size communication around the financial piece is key. No communication on the numbers and poor results with no understanding of why is the result. Incomplete financial statements with the tell tail signs of missing invoices and bungled accruals, budgets and forecasts that totally miss the mark and monthly financial commentaries that don’t make sense. This is what I was producing. Why? Well I could not get the 75 other non-financial leaders in my hotel to help. As the financial leader I cannot sit in my office and dream up what’s going to happen next month in the kitchen, the laundry or any area with any accuracy. It just does not work that way. The information must come from all the departments so they own it, and in turn deliver on it. Well I tried everything to get these managers to play ball with me. Memo’s, sermons at the department head meeting, 1-1 discussions. All of it no avail. What I got with few exceptions was either incomplete, not accurate, late or not at all. I was failing and producing lousy work, I felt awful and I was pretty sure this gig was not going to last. I was frustrated and alone.
My new general manager Ian sat down with me, he asked what was going on in my area. I discussed openly my frustration with the other managers and their lack of follow through with the financial information I needed to produce good results. I expected him to say something like – leave it me I’ll light a fire under them! But he didn’t. He said something pretty un usual, “I have an idea, lets create a workshop for the managers, we can call it hotel finances for dummies”. I thought for a split second and said, “I don’t time for that, look at my desk and I’m already here 10+ hours a day, and I’m not a teacher”. He looked me straight in the eye and said, you can do this and besides it’s the right thing to do”. With that he concluded that this little workshop project was now part of my annual bonus criteria, no workshop no bonus Mr. Lund.
So I somewhat reluctantly set about putting this monster together. I mean, where to start and what to include and where to get all this information? The days and weeks passed and I was pretty sure what I was putting together was not so hot. Its accounting and who will be interested in it? The day approached when the workshop was scheduled. Human resources handpicked 45 leaders to attend. It was scheduled from 9.30 – 4:00. No turning back now. I was convinced that I was going to suck wind and so would my workshop. I was scared and not comfortable with the idea of being up in front of 45 managers with nothing but accounting to talk about.
Well something magical happened that day. Sometimes it was rocky, I was unclear with some of my examples, the exercises were ok, but overall the day went pretty well. What happened at the end of the afternoon blew my mind. I wrapped things up and I got a small round of applause. I thanked everyone and gave them a short evaluation. 10 questions to rate from 1-5 and open area for comments. As the participants finished they gave me their evaluations and a couple of leaders stopped to thank me and share their experience. Before I knew it I had a lineup of managers wanting to talk to me and thank me. I heard some amazing compliments that shook me to the core. I knew right there that I was onto something BIG. What a feeling to know that I had touched so many people in a profound way. The surveys also revealed some incredible comments. “Finally someone explained the P&L”, “we should all have this training from day one”, “I had no idea what you did with my forecast”, “the owners actually see my projections” were just a few.
Over the coming weeks it was decided that I would host a second workshop and it filled up to the point that there was a waiting list. Early the following year my hotel submitted the workshop to our brand who had an annual contest and it won the international innovation award!
Over the next seven years I delivered the workshop many times to my hotels and the hotels in my region. The experience was always the same. A line up of leaders wanting to share their thoughts and appreciation for my work and thanking me for helping them. Hotels would call me and ask me to come deliver my workshop.
From my workshops I saw four things emerge that had a big impact on the hotels, the leaders and me.
- The leaders had no idea what their forecasts and budgets were used for or who saw their information. Once I explained who their audience was, that it wasn’t just me asking them to jump through hoops each month they saw their impact. They could clearly see that they made a difference. This is a fundamental human need. This created part of the much needed “want to” for their financial participation.
- The leaders also gained a clear understanding that this work is not so difficult. Open discussions in the workshop by members of all departments demonstrated time and time again that the information I needed was basically the same in each department. Somehow getting everyone together to discover this powerful stuff. Right away their financial participation went way up. I was no longer the hound chasing these managers each month. Magic. I learned that the leaders all want to be financially astute. They see the impact it has on their career and upward mobility. To speaking finically is powerful stuff. The only person in my business that can deliver this financial knowledge to them is me.
- Return on investment. In a really short period of time, like 60- 90 days I could see departments literally get their financial game going, where before there was no game. Having department managers that are now engaged in running their department finically. The quality of their work improved and so did the operating results. Managers started coming to me with ideas on how to reduce expenses, labor and where we can drive more revenues. Unbelievable!
- The fourth thing that was revealed by the workshops was my leadership. For the first 20 years of my career I had it all backwards. I thought and believed that because I was the director of finance that these managers should and would follow my directions and requests as it related to producing their financial information for me. This was profound in the fact that it didn’t work ever, period. It wasn’t until I created the workshop that the mangers really got in the game. Here is the nugget and it’s a BIG one. It was not until I served them first. Those leaders had been thumbing their noses at me and the expectations I placed on them with my monthly schedules, required due dates, etc. Once I served these leaders FIRST they were more than happy to reciprocate with the work. It was not as if I had been the hard ass before, I really thought I was trying to ask nicely for what I needed, but it’s not enough to ask, in order to lead we must serve first.
All of the 30 plus years of my career one day came to a screaming halt, which is another part of my story. When it did I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to take this financial leadership service to the world. To change the way hotels and business lead and educate their managers financially. To create the kind of magic I experienced every time I helped someone else see their financial abilities and start to put them to work.
Purpose. I was not put on this planet to be the most awesomest accountant. I was sent here to help change the way we lead and educate our managers. To show them what’s possible for their career. To show them that the numbers are not so scary and not so mysterious.
The purpose also extends itself to helping directors of finance to learn how to be financial leaders inside their business. Helping them discover their purpose to be better more effective financial leaders, to have greater impact with their business and a more fulfilling career.
Writing this also helps me see how important the work is and the purpose produces the passion.