807: Lead With Unreasonable Hospitality, with Will Guidara

Will Guidara: Unreasonable Hospitality: The Field Guide

Will Guidara is the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, which under his leadership received four stars from the New York Times, three Michelin stars, and in 2017 was named #1 on the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect and now his newest book, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Field Guide (Amazon, Bookshop).

Every leader is called to serve people. How we serve people matters. And the way people feel when we are serving matters a lot. In this conversation, Will Guidara shows us how to lead with unreasonable hospitality.

Key Points

Sometimes magic is just being willing to invest more energy into an idea than anyone else would deem reasonable.

Service is what you do for people. Hospitality is how you make them feel.

First impressions matter. Leaders have a key role in setting the standard for this.

Find a meaningful way to make magical the part of an experience that is normally neglected.

Identify persistent pain points and address them generously instead of reductively.

People remember both the peak and final moments of an experience. Stick the landing.

Resources Mentioned

Unreasonable Hospitality: The Field Guide by Will Guidara (Amazon, Bookshop)*