Isadore Sharp: The golden rule

Four Seasons founder and chairman Isadore Sharp talks about the golden rule and how it helped him build a high-performance company culture that became the best in the hotel industry. | Part 3 of 4

[@balgobinnavin4145]

Our leader, a true and trustful person.

[@hashali]

Thank you Mr Sharp, i came across your name when the late Mrs Betty Fox mentioned your support for the Terry Fox 'marathon of hope' in one of her speeches. She stressed the fundamental role you played in continuing the Terry Fox legacy.
I think your support of the Terry Fox foundation mirrors your integrity of action and supports what you describe here in this video: being authentic and building a company based on a true ethical credo. The Four Seasons, being one of the largest and most prestigious hotels on earth, testifies to the fact that ethical business practices are not based on mere lip service or philosophy. Rather, as your team and you have shown, it can actually be a firm and differentiating competitive advantage in the marketplace.
I hope more businesses, founders and leaders adopt this kind of strategy, and execute it in their industries with the same level of integrity.

[@octavianmsongamwanja5917]

The best talk I have ever heard. I had to transcribe to solidify my learning. We all have something to offer. We are only gonna succeed as a team, it's not about me, but it's about the we. Well if we're going to make service our competitive advantage. That can only be done by the people who are going to deliver that product our line people, the doormen, front desk, housekeepers, engineers so if we are going to ask them, to make us the best. We had to give them what they needed to rise to that occasion and that's when we set in place the concept of the golden rule. We would give our people the respect of the intent that they're entitled to. We would give them what they required to want to work in an environment that suited them.That's why they stayed with the company. And that they would have satisfaction in the results of what they were going to accomplish, so that was the third strategic decision. But each one of these were following the one before so that was how we were going to become the best. Well that idea was put forward ah oh I guess there was 19 late 70s 1980 and it didn't receive much support, senior people who felt that you know that's motherhood your talk in this is business that's philosophy. Fortunately, I, you know I've always controlled the company and as you will discover when you are the founder and you control something, it's no longer a democracy. So you don't ask permission, you have got the privilege to be able to decide what you think is right and you're gonna follow through, so the people who don't buy into it, we parted company with the most senior people in the company. because I knew that if you only gave lip service to something that you were gonna rely upon that was going to be authentic. You had to believe it and you had to be prepared to act that out. So that took many years being able to not send him, you know we had a mission statement that we did write out, but we never circulated it, it was just so we would understand that we could communicate personally our goals, our beliefs, and our principles.
So the next senior person that I put in charge he and I traveled to every hotel and we met with the senior people and we discussed what we intended to do and would they as a group be able to live within the hotel. I'm talking when you're working for the company, this is how we expect you to behave and how we expect you to treat people who you work with. How you live your personal life is yours. Well that took time years to sort of get that message across discussed and then when it slowly seeped out to the bottom of the triangle, that's when we could use it.
So to set a strategy based upon an ethical credo could we create a highly motivated competent workforce, based upon an ethical credo of theory. Well over the next 20 years, through the practice of that by thousands of people, that theory is now a fact. There's no doubt we have over 45,000 people working for this company, every one of them understands and believes in that theory. Because it's the way they've been brought up, it's not something that they had to remember, it's not something that was foreign to them. That one principle of the golden rule is embodied in every scripture, because when we started on this I wanted to know a little more about it. I asked my wife Rose, I said Rose would you do some research, who were the scribes who came up with this very profound single statement and she did and she came up and showed me a list of all ten religions and in each one the scriptures. It embodied the principles of the golden rule every one of them so it's part of a universal belief system. So wherever we've gone and wherever we are going, it's not something that's foreign to people mm-hmm and we don't talk about, it's something you act and people see and believe what you do not necessarily what you say. So that took many years but now it's embedded, its part of the company culture is the most important the brand and the culture are the two things that will keep this company's legacy going indefinitely.
So it's one thing to be part of sort of a series of belief systems, it's a whole other thing to turn that into a competitive advantage for business. Did you find that you had to sort of refresh that regularly where there are certain things that you did to reinforce it along the way. And you know I'm fascinated by your concept that it wasn't hard to translate in different locations, as you expand it around the world?
No! very interesting! Well you know we can all in good times, we can all be fair with our friends, things are great, we're good for everybody, give you a bonus. Everything's going good what do you do in the downturn? How do you then manage to deal with your principles? Both in business and then with your employees? When things are not going well. Now there's no doubt, look when markets turn, you have to manage that, so you do reduce and downsize and you do it carefully and you do it in a manner which doesn't affect the company at all. So it's not what you do, it's how you do that. So wherever we've had to and we've gone through this many times, where the markets turned 74, 81, 91 the SARS all these times we've had economic cycles. We've been able to stand by our principles, by letting people know why we're doing something. And how we go about that, so when the most difficult thing in any business you're running is dealing with your people, there's going to be some people who have to be terminated, for whatever reason. How that is managed is crucial, so if you are in a situation and 5% of your workforce has to be laid off for a period of time.
Our management people worldwide deal with that so sensitively, that they look after the person as best they can they try to find them another job. They keep in touch with them and bring them back as quickly as they can. But they have to remember that if you're losing 5% of your workforce 95% are still with you and they are their peers. They are their friends and they see how you've managed through that process and that's where leadership means the most.
How you handle things when things are going south, as an example a couple years after the markets turned and we're back on good times again. I was in Istanbul talking to the general manager and I asked him, I said because Turkey is a tough place to work. They live with terrorism, earthquake everything, but the people are just so energetic and so enthusiastic the role they've got and I asked, I said how did you manage during the downturn? He said; we didn't lay anybody off. I said, well how did that happen? He said, we as management decided we would only get three weeks out of every month pay. Because their ex-paid costs are a major part of our labor cost, they took a major reduction in their salary, so they wouldn't have to lay anybody off. They didn't come and tell us that, I only found that out because I asked the question when I was there. That's leadership and that's what I mean by you demonstrate to the people, how you act your actions speak much louder than your words so that type of approach permeates throughout the company, there's a sensitivity about how they deal with their people in a manner which is very different and it works.
You talked very eloquently in your book also and described the concept of trust as the
emotional capital of four seasons. Tell us about that!
Well that video we were just watching before I came on when he talked about risk you must take risk, he's right, but never risk what you can't afford to lose and you can never ever compromise your trust, because once you lose that you never get it back. It'll take a lifetime to build and minutes to lose, so that's something that is embodied in this; do unto others principle. It's you know simple concepts of leadership trust, integrity and optimism so people understand, that's is who you are and you try to make sure that doesn't ever enter into people's decisions. How they will come to what is the right thing to do and that's so important, because sometimes it's costly and sometimes you know you're gonna pay the price for doing the right thing.
So it's you know I can't keep referring to your video up there as he mentioned we're all born with a DNA of our own. We all have something that is ours the skill sets, gifts might be something that's unusual and then we're all brought up so is it nurture in nature it causes us to be who we are. And I think it's a combination of both so if we're fortunate to have an upbringing that encourages you, gives you the confidence that you need, the support that we all need that lets you then develop your skill set. So we try to make everybody understand we all have something to offer and we are only going to succeed as a team. It's not about the me it's about the we. And therefore if we get people to be involved in a meaningful way that they are participating in what everybody's doing and they all get self satisfaction out of it. You build this sense of cooperation and trust plays a major part of that. When people know what you use what they hear you say, they believe you build that credibility up over a long period of time and that's why I mentioned when we first talked about using this Golden Rule as a mission statement, if the people at the very top weren't about to carry on in a trusting way it wouldn't work and that's why I say it took a long time to sort of get that down to the very bottom, where everybody then bought into it.

[@samanthadesantis189]

Absolutely love this philosophy and the culture you’ve created within your company. I respect people who are committed to excellence and treat their staff well & with respect.

[@elisabethrossen2286]

love your corporate culture

[@user-tu8kq4is7q]

[@natural.7]

Can I find this somewhere in writing?

[@ramzyrtema9707]

How can we get the translate of this 👆👆

[@evrensevgi7194]

learn english

[@reginar7937]

There is no Golden Rule at FSHB..Senior Staff of 10, 20, 30 years who built & maintained the 5 Stars of the Hotel permanently laid off with an insulting severance package and only option to re-apply with a lower pay rate and all Seniority gone, this is what happened following 3 months of the Pamdemic hotel closure...Its a disgrace!

[@USCollege]

agreed; without a founder's guidance, everything disintegrates

[@natural.7]

Maybe Mr Isadore is not even involved in this?💭🤔 He is 89 years old now...

[@seanmcaddle6121]

He sold the hotel out in 2007

[@ClevelandBuckeye-gw5dz]

He's lying he's such a bad boss