By Ray Titus

When I read a book, I’m looking to get three or four good ideas out of it; that’s a great book for me. But what impressed me about Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect is that it has so many ideas that resonate with so many people. I gave the book to 20 members of our board and asked them for the one big idea they took from it, and I got 20 different ideas – and none of them hit my number one. 

In the book, Guidara lays out how he and his business partner, Daniel Humm, earned the title of World’s Best Restaurant for their Eleven Madison Park restaurant in 2017. Seven years earlier, it had been named one of the world’s 50 best, which would have satisfied most people but wasn’t good enough for the two men. They devoted themselves to elevating Eleven Madison Park to the absolute top spot by giving their guests and employees “unreasonable hospitality” – going above and beyond expectations to make them feel valued. 

“Fads fade and cycle,” Guidara writes, “but the human desire to be taken care of never goes away.”

It’s one of the book’s three key takeaways for me – and it’s an idea that transcends what we traditionally think of as the hospitality industry. Whether you have a restaurant or a retail business, you need to make your customers feel like they’re the most important thing in your world.

Takeaway #1: Hospitality Is Everyone’s Business

Guidara comes from restaurants, but his ideas translate across all industries. No matter what kind of business you lead, it’s your job to make your customers and employees feel cared for and cared about. Everything comes down to that. 

One of his best ideas is the Dreamweaver, a restaurant employee whose job was to create memorable experiences for guests. There was the family whose children had never seen snow; Guidara had a car take them sledding after dinner. There was the group of Europeans who craved one of New York City’s famous street foods; he got a plate of $2 franks from a hot dog cart. What are you doing to make your customers feel special – to show them you’re thinking of what would make their day?

Takeaway #2: Dream Bigger

As I read the book, I kept asking myself why do we limit our goals and dreams? Why don’t we have the guts to stand up and say, “I want to run the biggest and best in the world!”? We don’t dream anywhere near as big as what Guidara dreamed when he ran a very good restaurant in New York City and yearned to make it the greatest. 

Because of this book, I’m pushing my people to dream bigger and to get out on the branches where the best fruit can be found. You have a greater chance of falling and getting hurt out there on those branches, reaching for that fruit, but that’s where the rewards are.

When I talk to our board, I speak openly about wanting us to dream bigger. I want everybody to start looking at life a little differently and not be so conservative and worried about what we’re going to lose but to think about what we’re going to gain. I’m setting the bar much higher at United Franchise Group than ever before because of this book.

Takeaway #3: Bring Your Team Along

Guidara and Humm got Eleven Madison Park to number one, but it took time, tweaking, and many more people contributing than themselves. Whatever your goals are for your company, you have to be able to put the whole team behind it and give them the tools to reach the goal with you – creating the kind of culture that makes it possible. 

Underlying this is what Guidara describes as the need to balance control and creativity. We all have certain standards we want our teams to uphold, but we have to give them the freedom to decide how they will follow those rules. Otherwise, they’re just order-takers.

We’re very goal-oriented at my company, but I’m more of a coach than a boss. I challenge people and we set high goals, but we motivate by encouragement and reward, not by giving orders and penalizing people who don’t measure up. 

The Bottom Line: Above and Beyond

The poet Maya Angelou may have said it best: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” As Guidara proves, keeping that idea foremost in your business practices can bring results beyond your wildest dreams.

Bonus Read: Do You Have IT?

Bringing others along on your quest for greatness is one of the many ideas I’ve followed for years and explored in my book, Do You Have IT? I’ve been fascinated by that question since I heard someone talking about the pop megastar Britney Spears.

Recording her first album, Britney got to the studio early every day, stayed late and worked her tail off. Someone from the studio said everyone knew Britney would succeed because “she just had it.” 

That fascinated me. What is “it”? Do people have it naturally, or can they buy it? Can they learn it? How? My questions led me to write a step-by-step guide for how to take a business or your life to the next level by identifying the thing that inspires you to move forward and achieve your dreams.

After you find your “it,” I identify 12 actions to nurture what you’ve spotted in yourself, from making a plan for it to working hard at it, sustaining it consistently every day, bringing along others to share it and, like Guidara and Humm, never giving up on it.