The RCS Hospitality Group Blog for Private Club Consulting

The Epic [Strategy] Fail

This article first appeared in the March 2019 issue of BoardRoom Magazine Research shows that 60-90% of strategic plans fail. Developing a strategic plan takes discipline, brutal honesty, and requires foresight with trends, the economy, and society. Consider, for example: Club #1, 2008: built a ‘formal dining room’ significantly larger than its casual dining in a new clubhouse even though club trends and their consultant advised against it. The dining room is now closed excep

How to Turn Technology from a Productivity Barrier into a Productivity Booster

In case you missed our BIG announcement this morning, just in time for the holidays, we are giving away an iPad to one RSCU subscriber; either a new subscriber, or a subscriber who renews for the 2020 year by December 15th. How you choose to use this iPad is completely up to you, but one of the reasons we have decided to give away an iPad is because we see technology as an excellent way to boost productivity, and as busy managers we all can use some extra productivity in our

Members Gone Wild

A member gets in another member’s face on the first tee and starts yelling expletives, irritated over who has priority on the tee. Fellow members and guests witness the incident and report it to the pro shop, but nothing is done to admonish the members outrageous behavior. Meanwhile, gossip ensues and permeates negativity throughout the club for weeks. Members appear oblivious to the common courtesy of picking up after themselves and their young children after spending all da

How Southwest Airlines Created an Amazing Customer Experience

Inc Magazine recently featured a story in which a pilot for Southwest Airlines held a departing flight for 12 minutes in order to ensure a passenger was able to make the flight. The passenger, was en route to grieve with his family as they prepared to take his two-year-old grandson off life support - clearly a difficult time. As someone whose job requires a significant amount of time in the air, seeing a story like this full of compassion warmed my heart. But, it also served

Provisions: Save the Date

September 25th is National Foodservice Workers Day! Hooray for us! It’s the day to tip our hats, and maybe add a little extra tip, to all the servers, cooks, dishwashers, stewards, hosts, bartenders, baristas, chefs, bakers, lunch ladies, hash-slingers, food runners, sommeliers, maître d’s and the managers who herd all these cats in the uniquely special environment of the food world. Food workers serve customers in fine dining restaurants, private clubs, fast food establishm

Totally Overwhelmed at Work?

Where to start when everything seems like a top priority I recently had a long conversation with a manager who was feeling “totally overwhelmed”. She had several deadlines looming, stress with co-workers, and felt like she couldn’t even think straight she was so stressed out. You’ve likely been there. Anyone in our business has at one time or another. Your ‘to do’ list seems to be growing and everything needs to be done…yesterday. When your blood pressure starts to rise and y

The (Unrealistic) Search for a Unicorn

A unicorn refers to an occurrence when those who are responsible for hiring candidates have unrealistic expectations of skills, experience, and salary for a position. The mismatch between the expectations of the employers and who is available for hire has me thinking about this Unicorn Phenomenon we continue to see. In other words, many hiring managers and committees are seeking a mythical candidate (unicorn), rather than understanding the reality of who is available and what

Bored at Work? Shift your Mindset

“Our brains are not wired for routine and repetition at work. Disengagement isn’t a motivation problem; it’s a biological one.” -Daniel M Cable, Author Do you find yourself dreading going to work? Is it because you truly dislike what it is you are doing, or is it because you are simply just bored? Fast Company’s Secrets of the Most Productive People offers a lesson in brain-training when it comes to combatting boredom at work, and shifting your mindset is easier than you may

Turning Setbacks into Comebacks

A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying. - B. F. Skinner Earlier this week, Inc Magazine posted an article lauding Google’s process of learning from failure; calling it brilliant and we can’t help but agree. Here’s how we think you can make learning from failures apply to hospitality in a club setting: Identify the most important problems Failures or mistakes provide valuable learning

Employee Training & Retention Trend Report: Part 2

Editor's Note: This is part two of a two-part series authored by RCS owner & president Whitney Reid Pennell for 2018, intended to help club managers and hospitality professionals understand the current obstacles in employee retention and training. Part One can be read here. Part One of this series on trends in employee retention and training discussed what obstacles are currently being faced by hospitality professionals and why they have occurred. Let's continue. What is bein

Employee Training & Retention Trend Report: Part 1

No Time to Train? Here’s What to Focus On

If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, by now you know how important we at RCS think training is. We believe that training is a process of continuous learning and development—not just a week at orientation, or a day every quarter. However as many of us are also former club managers, we also know that managers these days are often being asked to do more with less, which sometimes may result in less time to dedicate to training your staff. If you ever find yourself short

Ready When You Are: The Power of Online Training (Part Three)

The Top 4 Most Used Personality Tests for Management Teams

Have you ever taken a personality test? These tools are becoming more and more popular with employers as we strive to hire workers with specific qualities, rather than skills. After all, skills can be taught--but inherent qualities cannot. This is particularly important in the hospitality industry. We can train you to be a good server or hostess for example, but if you aren't naturally hospitable, friendly, and helpful, then all the skills in the world still won't be able t

Engaging with Adult Learners

As a manager, training is an inescapable part of your responsibilities, and unlike teaching wherein your audience is usually children chances are you will be working with adult learners. Engaging with adult learners has its own unique set of challenges. When you train adults, there is a greater need for mutual respect and for the learners to find the trainer credible with enough character authority to teach them something new. Once the trainer has established their skills an

Provisions: Let's Talk About The Importance of Pre-Shift Meetings

We often find ourselves talking a lot about timing when it comes to food and beverage service. Each player on the team from the host/hostess to the servers, cooks, and managers are responsible for keeping the dining room flowing and managing the timing of the table. However, the most important time in any food and beverage operation is the 15 minutes before each shift begins: the pre-shift meeting. Photo by Paul Sarlas Call it the warm-up, sound-check, or preflight run-throug

10 Training Tips To Deliver the Results You Want

This article originally appeared in BoardRoom Magazine in 2015 as "What is The Point...of Training?" What is the point of training? Does everyone on your team really understand the point of training and how best to make your training effective? We train for a variety of reasons, but they are all centered on producing change and to keep our service culture strong. We train to affect change in skills (how to do something), knowledge (critical thinking or decision making) or att

Cultivating Your Service Culture

This article originally appeared in BoardRoom Magazine in 2014. Customer service means different things to everyone. Wikipedia defines customer service as “The provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.” Businessdictionary.com defines it as “All interactions between a customer and a product provider at the time of sale, and thereafter.” But what does this mean in the club business? My general rule of thumb is to first realize that very often our cu

ALERT: TX Federal Judge Halts Overtime Rule

On Tuesday November 22, a judge in Texas ruled that the federal Department of Labor's new Overtime Rule--that raised the salary threshold under which workers would be eligible for overtime pay from $23,660 annually to $47,476--should be halted in its implementation. According to the National Club Association, "The ruling means that the rule WILL NOT go into effect on December 1, 2016 and that all clubs may keep their employees at their current salary and schedule without the

Whitney Reid Pennell

Founder & President

Whitney Reid Pennell is the founder and president of the award-winning RCS Hospitality Group. She is a published author and widely praised seminar leader, with over 20 years of club operations management and consulting experience.

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Leadership Lounge

RCS Hospitality Group : preparing you for the next generation

The Epic [Strategy] Fail

How to Turn Technology from a Productivity Barrier into a Productivity Booster

Members Gone Wild

How Southwest Airlines Created an Amazing Customer Experience

Provisions: Save the Date

Totally Overwhelmed at Work?

The (Unrealistic) Search for a Unicorn

Bored at Work? Shift your Mindset

Turning Setbacks into Comebacks

Employee Training & Retention Trend Report: Part 2

Employee Training & Retention Trend Report: Part 1

No Time to Train? Here’s What to Focus On

Ready When You Are: The Power of Online Training (Part Three)

The Top 4 Most Used Personality Tests for Management Teams

Engaging with Adult Learners

Provisions: Let's Talk About The Importance of Pre-Shift Meetings

10 Training Tips To Deliver the Results You Want

Cultivating Your Service Culture

ALERT: TX Federal Judge Halts Overtime Rule

Whitney Reid Pennell

Founder & President

Hospitality Training Online

AFFORDABLE.

CONVENIENT.

INTERACTIVE.

CONSISTENT.

"In this age of virtual worlds, RCSU is ahead of the game."

Michael Fay, CCM, CCE

FREE MONTHLY WEBINARS

quick

informative

valuable

no strings attached

no product pushing

“The RCSU webinars are exceptional sources for actionable and helpful information! I refer to them as “power hours” because they are jam-packed with great content and full of energy and passion for the industry."

Jackie Carpenter, CCM

Private Club Advisor

Whitney Reid Pennell

Founder & President

​

​

​

Hospitality Training Online

​

AFFORDABLE.

CONVENIENT.

INTERACTIVE.

CONSISTENT.

​

​

"In this age of virtual worlds, RCSU is ahead of the game."

Michael Fay, CCM, CCE

FREE MONTHLY WEBINARS

​

​

quick

informative

valuable

no strings attached

no product pushing

​

​

“The RCSU webinars are exceptional sources for actionable and helpful information! I refer to them as “power hours” because they are jam-packed with great content and full of energy and passion for the industry."

Jackie Carpenter, CCM

Private Club Advisor