Sydney Ackerman

Leadership Shadow
Leader: Frank Kastelz (Omni Hotel Operations Manager)
Shadow: Sydney Ackerman

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
What Happened...........................................................................................................................2
The Cycle.........................................................................................................................................4
Creating a shared vision...............................................................................................................4
Climate and Expectations............................................................................................................5
Developing Relationships............................................................................................................5
Motivate and Inspire for Service Quality....................................................................................5
Providing Feedback.....................................................................................................................5
The Results of the Cycle..................................................................................................................6
How the Experience Made Me a Better Leader...............................................................................6
Documentation.................................................................................................................................8

Sydney Ackerman

Introduction
On February fifth, I was able to shadow Frank Kastelz, the operations manager at the
Omni San Diego hotel. I was interested to see how people view Frank because he just joined the
Omni team a couple of months ago. He has been walking through a lot of departments promising
change, and there has been little if no visual evidence that any change has happened.

What Happened
Yet, Mr. Kastelz keeps a professional and almost threatening tone as he walks around the
Omni. For example, he shares office space with the banquet team, I was in his office, waiting for
him to arrive, and the banquet team was already there. There were two men in the office and one
woman. The men were sexually harassing the woman, (one man was worse than the other), and
when Frank walked in, everything changed. Frank did not talk to the banquet team except for a
simple hello as he walked into his office, however, as Frank was talking to me, there was silence
in the office, the only thing you could hear besides Franks voice, was key strokes on the
computer keyboards, it seems as just Franks mere presence made the team fear him.
Right after Frank greeted me, we started to talk right away about items that he was
expecting around each department. For instance, with the Omni kitchen, he spoke about how the
employee cafeteria is his hot button, because it was in bad condition when he got there, he told
me that good cafeteria food, is what keeps employees working and happy on the Las Vegas Strip.
In my opinion, as a leader I agree that keeping employees happy in general, reflects better
service, however the fact that a lot of his focus (as an operational manager) is on the employee
cafeteria concerned me a little bit. Frank told me that constant reinforcement is the only way to
get anything done; otherwise people do not think you are serious. I completely agree, the only
way to let people know that you are serious is to remind them of the situation often. With the

Sydney Ackerman
employee cafeteria, Frank said how he wanted the salad dressings to taste better, he wanted the
cafeteria cleaner, and he wanted the food constantly refreshed. At the Omni, the chef who is
responsible for the employee kitchen is also responsible for the banquets, and manages the
stewarding department. So they should not be spending that much effort making sure the
employee cafeteria is spotless and well stocked with good dressings. When Frank and I actually
went in there to speak to chef, Frank first complimented that the cafeteria looked clean. Then he
complained that the dressings did not look appetizing and finally complimented chef again that
the food looked fully stocked. All of this interaction with the chef took approximately five
minutes.
After a quick talk with Chef (who was shaking in his apron), we walked to the back
office of the front desk, where the manager on duty, and the director of rooms were sitting.
Because I work at the Omni, I know how managers act when Frank is not around. While Frank
thought he was sneaking behind the director of rooms, to see how things truly are I could
already tell that director knew we were there. The director is normally cocky, laid back, and
controlling. However, when Frank and I snuck behind them, the director was sitting straight up
in his chair, and letting an assistant manager overlook the schedule (something that does not
normally happen). Frank seemed pleased (from the five minutes we were behind them), with the
work that was going on and the manager took it upon himself to generate high-fives between the
three of them.
We walked through the cafeteria using his reinforcement technique, after just talking about
communication is key and I see the general manager standing by herself texting a table away
from us, but facing us. We continued to walk through the cafeteria; passing right in front of her,
and neither of them said a word to each other. They did not even look and wave at each other

Sydney Ackerman
when it seemed like that is all Frank was doing throughout the whole hotel was waving at the
random bellman and banquet staff. At that moment I thought it was the most hysterical thing,
how could someone just say communication is key when that same person does not even make
eye contact with their own boss?!
We finished up by strolling through a banquet, where the staff was less than pleased to
see us, Although, Frank did compliment to the supervisor how good the room set-up looked. We
then went back to his office (after our fifteen minute walk-through) where he showed me what
numbers he was crunching, and where we talked more about his leadership.

The Cycle
Creating a shared vision
His visions of a leader is a person who manages by walking (not talking), and in general
people will listen to you because they want to be led.
His visions and expectations about a better employee cafeteria, was expressed, and some
action did take place. He did walk through the cafeteria and talk to chef, however I felt that they
could have talked a lot more, he could be more specific about what he (Frank) wanted, and come
up with a solution together, or at least Frank could have motivated Chef a little bit more. My
leadership philosophy is all about teamwork. I could never just have a five minute quick
conversation on what was a hot button of mine. I would want to and need to be more involved
with the situation.
He did reinforce his service standards with Chef by complimenting him about the
cleanliness, reprimanding him for the dressings and complimenting again on a fully stocked
kitchen, and even checked in with the front desk (no pun intended) about their service standards

Sydney Ackerman
regarding the V.I.Ps for the day for a few minutes, and seemed pleased. Frank did take action for
reinforcement in those aspects of the day.

Climate and Expectations

As far as trust, Frank seems to think that micromanaging is a form of constant reminders,
which makes a lot of enemies around the hotel. Frank does not see most problems as a conflict,
just things that he can fix himself, again, a form of micromanaging. Micromanaging causes the
climate to be stiff, and uninspiring because every idea a person has is just going to get re-written
into Franks idea. When I asked about what makes him successful as a leader, he replied by
saying You have understand that you do not know everything, and trust people, however as the
day went on he kept insisting how you have to put your ideas in peoples heads and make them
think it is their idea. So when all is said and done, Frank does act like he trusts people at all
when he puts his own ideas in their head.

Developing Relationships
His communication style seemed to be though e-mail and texting. Although we did do a
short walk throughout the hotel, it was no comparison to how long we were in his office
responding to e-mails and just talking about his communication philosophy, which seemed
humorous as I thought about us not even approaching his boss earlier in the cafeteria. In person,
his communication style did not seem to be effective because everybody seemed to fear him
rather than wanting to better their work for the company, or even for themselves.

Motivate and Inspire for Service Quality

His methods for motivating and inspiring were simply just agreeing with work that was
already being done, such as when we were in the back office of the front desk, with the high-five.
Frank simply said looks great to me, and threw in a sarcastic remark. My leadership style
would to be a little more inspiring and say something like Youre doing such a great job Chris!

Sydney Ackerman
(the manager), Thank you Ramon (the director) for doing such a great job teaching Chris.
Overall, I do not think that Franks methods for motivating and inspiring were effective.

Providing Feedback
The feedback method in my opinion, seemed okay. I was pretty happy with the way the
Frank handled giving Chef Feedback. I like the style of what I call the critique sandwich which
is a complaint or critique squished in between two compliments. I do believe it was effective; the
chef seemed pleased with the compliments Frank gave, and was already calling people to bring
the dressing back into the kitchen.

The Results of the Cycle

After the shadow, I spoke with some employees about their opinions on Frank. The
banquet staff seemed repulsed over Frank. Apparently, that department does not get to have a
critique sandwich; they only hear all of the complaints he has. They (I spoke with three
separate people at separate times) all said that he never thanks them for their work. The only time
he smiles at them is in passing when he smiles and waves. A person from the front desk said that
they feel that he is always watching them and they can never do anything to please him. People
from my department (In Room Dining) said that we should not trust him because he is promising
too much change, and all he does is walk in and critique us, they ask how are we supposed to
trust him? I spoke with Chef privately, and he said that Frank will soon understand what is
really important to the hotel. The overall message I took from all of this, is that nobody has trust
or respect for Frank, and that people are doing work out of fear of being fired.

How the Experience Made Me a Better Leader

Yet, if people are still doing their work, isnt that all that matters? No! By shadowing
Frank, it helped mold my leadership philosophy a little more. For example, I want everyone to

Sydney Ackerman
feel as if they are a part of a team, a team that I am on as well. Frank had to have felt the tension
and fear in the room and that does not make a hotel run properly (in my opinion). It does the
opposite, it makes people perk up when you are around, and slack off the moment you are not;
for example the banquet office and their sexual harassment. I want to spend time with the
workers and come up with solutions, and I want people to know that we will fall and rise
together. That is what I have learned most from this experience, is that a leader needs to be a
team player for togetherness.

Sydney Ackerman

Documentation

Sydney Ackerman

Sydney Ackerman