Sensitivity Training for Managers

The Guest Yelled. The Manager Smiled. And She Cried in the Storage Room. She followed every SOP. She stayed calm. But when the guest lost control — she was left alone. The Story I've visited a friend who owns a hotel in Abuja and reached out with a classic problem: “Our staff don’t last more than 4 months.” So I sat down with a few team members. One housekeeper broke down mid-conversation. Last week, a guest screamed at me. Said I was stupid because his room wasn’t ready. My supervisor just said, ‘Just apologize and move on.’ But I did nothing wrong. I’m tired.” That wasn’t an isolated case. It was a pattern: Guests misbehave. Managers stay silent. Staff take the damage. The Problem: No Protection from Guest Misconduct In hospitality, we’re taught “the guest is always right. But when staff are abused — and leadership chooses guests over people — trust collapses from the inside. The Consequences 💔 Good staff quit silently 📉 Poor service from emotionally drained employees 🔁 High recruitment and training costs 🤐 Guests learn there are no boundaries 💬 Culture of fear replaces hospitality Root Cause Analysis 1. No clear policy on guest behavior boundaries 2. No emotional safety system for staff 3. Managers afraid to confront difficult guests 4. “Service” misused to justify silence The Solution We Introduced ✅ Zero Abuse Policy Guests who insult or intimidate staff are addressed immediately and warned once. Repeated behavior = management intervention or removal. ✅ Staff Incident Reporting System Created a digital and anonymous log for any incident — reviewed weekly by leadership. ✅ Empathy Training for Managers Supervisors trained to support staff during guest tension, not dismiss them. ✅ Guest Code of Conduct A brief line added to booking confirmations: “We treat our guests with warmth and expect the same in return.” ✅ Emotional Recovery Breaks If a staff member experiences abuse, they’re offered a 10-minute pause and support, not told to “shake it off.” The Results After 3 Weeks 🔒 Staff reported feeling “emotionally safe for the first time” 😊 One ex-employee reapplied after hearing about the policy 📈 Staff performance and smiles improved noticeably 💬 2 guests were professionally corrected — and surprisingly thanked the hotel for setting boundaries Advice from Dr Jeff HD Hospitality doesn’t mean humiliation. 💡 Respect must go both ways — from staff to guest, and from guest to staff. If your people don’t feel safe, they’ll never serve with heart.

To Employers: Please Teach Compassion. Last night, I had to make a difficult call to my husband's employer to let them know he needed to come home urgently. Our young son, who has epilepsy, was experiencing a prolonged seizure that wasn’t stopping — even after administering rescue medication. We going to hospital in an ambulance. The response? Rather than offering support or even a basic expression of concern, the manager approached my husband, informed him of the call, immediately asked, "Does this happen often?" and then walked away, visibly frustrated. I understand that people have jobs to do. That unexpected absences can create challenges. But let me be clear: this was a medical emergency involving a child. One who was not responding to medication and required hospital care. This is not just about my son or my family. This is about how we train and support our managers to respond to real-life crises with empathy. It’s about creating workplaces where employees are treated as human beings — not as inconveniences when life takes a turn. If you're an employer: ✔️Train your managers in compassionate leadership. ✔️Prepare them for how to respond when staff face personal emergencies. ✔️And remind them that showing humanity is not just good practice — it's the right thing to do. We remember how people act in our hardest moments. Let’s ensure those moments are met with kindness, not coldness.

A manager has a new parent on their team who is breastfeeding.  There’s a big trip coming up to visit the team’s largest clients on the opposite coast. The manager’s first instinct? “I won’t even ask her to go on the trip. That would be too hard on her, and it’s not really a necessary work trip anyway. She can go to the next one and we’ll just zoom her in to the key meetings for this one.” Sounds thoughtful, right? Well … maybe not. It could be problematic because they just made a decision for her, instead of WITH her. That decision could impact future opportunities for career growth. So if you’re faced with a scenario like this, don’t assume. Try giving them the choice instead … but still in an empathetic way: “Hey, we have this work trip coming up next month and I wanted to get your thoughts on it. How are you feeling about the trip?” See how they respond, and then try to create a supportive environment where they feel comfortable sharing however they truly feel … that they do not want to go - or that they are super excited to go. This brings your direct report into the decision process rather than having someone else make the call for them. It also shows the new parent you understand and care, and want them to be able to decide what's best for them (without penalty, whatever they decide!) This is one of the most critical learnings from our manager training: helping leaders recognize when their assumptions might actually unintentionally limit their employees instead of support them.