How to Address Performance Issues When the Property Is Doing Well (And Why Most Managers Get This Wrong)
The most dangerous time to manage a hotel is when everything is going well.
Occupancy is up. RevPAR is climbing. Guest scores are solid. The team is busy. The owners are happy. The GM is being told they are crushing it. And underneath the good numbers, three or four small performance issues are quietly compounding into a culture problem that will surface in nine months and nobody will be able to trace back to the cause.
This is the most common pattern I see in hospitality operations. Performance issues do not become urgent when the property is struggling. They become urgent when the property is succeeding, because success absorbs the consequences and gives every manager permission to ignore the underlying problem.
This article is about why that pattern exists, what it costs, and how to address performance issues without waiting for a crisis to force the conversation.
Why managers avoid the conversation when things are going well
The instinct is rational on the surface. The team is busy. Disrupting them feels risky. The performance issue is small enough to ignore. The numbers are good. Why pick a fight over a uniform violation when the property is at 92 percent occupancy?
The reason is that the uniform violation is not actually about the uniform. It is about whether your standards are real or theatrical.
Every standard in your operating manual is either enforced or it is not. There is no middle ground. The team watches what you tolerate, not what you say. If you walk past a uniform violation today, you have just communicated to every team member that the uniform standard is a suggestion. The standard is now whatever the team decides it is, not what your manual says it is.
Multiply that across 30 small standards over six months and you do not have a hotel running to its operating manual. You have a hotel running to whatever the most senior team member decided was acceptable on a Tuesday in February. The standards in your manual become decorative. The actual operation drifts to a different standard. Nobody made a decision to change anything. The change happened by default.
By the time the consequences show up (an OTA score decline, a guest complaint pattern, a near-miss safety incident, a team conflict that escalates), the relationship between the original drift and the current crisis has been lost. The GM blames the new hire. The new hire was just learning the standard the team was actually operating to. The standard the team was operating to was the one the previous GM tolerated for six months.
This is why successful properties are more dangerous than struggling ones. Struggling properties get scrutiny. Successful properties get deference. Deference is what allows drift to compound.
The coaching conversation nobody wants to have
The other reason managers avoid performance conversations during good times is more honest: they do not know how to have the conversation without making it feel like a punishment.
Most managers have two modes for performance discussions. The first is the firing-track conversation, where the issue is so severe that documentation and HR involvement are required. The second is the casual mention, where the manager pulls someone aside in the hallway and says "hey, just a heads up, try to remember the pin placement next time," and then walks away hoping it landed.
Neither mode works for the small-but-compounding issues that need real attention without being treated as a disciplinary matter.
What you need is a third mode: the coaching conversation. A documented, structured, supportive conversation that names the behavior, names the standard, confirms understanding, sets a clear expectation for the next event, and follows up to verify the change. It is not a warning. It is not a punishment. It is what the word "coaching" actually means: a deliberate intervention designed to make a person better at their job.
Most managers have never been trained to do this. They were promoted because they were good at the job below them, and they were never taught how to develop the people now reporting to them. So they default to one of the two modes they know, and they avoid the modes when neither one fits.
The TWF seven-step coaching protocol
The Wilkinson Firm runs a documented seven-step coaching protocol that we use across every team member, every venue, every event. It is borrowed from the leadership philosophy in our Manager Handbook and refined through several years of operational experience. Here it is.
Step 1: Observe Clearly. The behavior has to be observed directly, not reported third-hand. If you did not see it, you cannot coach it. Get specific about what happened, when, and what the team member did. "I noticed that during the cocktail hour you were on your phone for about three minutes near the bar entrance" is observable. "I heard you have been on your phone a lot" is not.
Step 2: Correct Privately. The conversation happens away from the team and away from guests. Never in the heat of an event. Never in front of someone else. Pull them aside, after the immediate moment has passed but before the end of the shift. The privacy is what allows the conversation to be a development moment instead of a public correction.
Step 3: State Specifically. Name the behavior, name the standard, name the impact. "Phone use during a service period falls outside our Professional Conduct standard. Guests notice when staff are not engaged. The standard is that phones stay in your locker or pocket during the entire event window." Specificity is what makes the coaching land. Vague feedback produces vague behavior change.
Step 4: Confirm Understanding. Do not assume they got it. Ask. "Does that make sense? What would you do differently next time?" Listen to the answer. If they cannot articulate the standard back to you, the conversation has not landed and you need to clarify before the conversation ends.
Step 5: Follow Through. This is the step that separates real coaching from theatrical coaching. The next time the team member is on a shift, you check the specific behavior. Did they keep their phone in the locker? Did they engage with guests during the cocktail period? You do not have to make a big deal of it. You just have to verify. If they did better, name it. "I saw you stayed off your phone during cocktail hour tonight. Good adjustment." That recognition is what makes the coaching stick.
Step 6: Formal Warning. If the same behavior repeats after documented coaching, the next conversation is a formal verbal warning. The Director of Operations is notified. The conversation is documented in writing. The team member knows that the next step is more serious. This is the inflection point where coaching transitions to discipline.
Step 7: Suspension or Removal. Only after documented coaching failure across multiple events, or after a boundary-crossing incident that bypasses the normal sequence. Full documentation to the Director of Operations and the CEO. Both approve. This is the structural protection against impulsive decisions made in the heat of an event.
The seven-step protocol does not exist to slow you down. It exists to make sure that when you eventually have to remove a team member, you have the documentation and the consistency to defend the decision, and the team member has had every fair opportunity to improve. The protocol protects everyone.
The Build Through versus Hold the Line distinction
Not every behavior should be coached. Some behaviors are immediate-action moments that bypass the entire seven-step protocol. Knowing the difference is what separates a manager from a supervisor.
Build Through (coaching required): - First or second late arrival with communication - Service technique error on a complex event - Incorrect uniform component, isolated occurrence - Poor attitude on a difficult shift - Incomplete binder form, isolated - Miscommunication with a peer - Performance drop after a deployment gap
Hold the Line (immediate action): - No-call no-show, second offense without acceptable explanation - Intoxication or impairment on the floor during any event - Physical altercation with staff, guest, or client - Harassment of any kind - Theft, dishonesty, or financial misconduct - One Voice Rule violation that damages a client relationship - Conduct that triggers a client termination threat
The Build Through column gets coached. The Hold the Line column gets removed. Confusing the two is the most expensive mistake a manager can make. Coaching a Hold the Line behavior teaches the team that boundaries are negotiable. Holding the line on a Build Through behavior teaches the team that small mistakes are career-ending. Both errors damage the operation.
The discipline is in knowing which column the behavior belongs to and acting accordingly.
What changes when you actually run this protocol
The properties that adopt structured coaching see three shifts within 90 days.
Performance issues stop accumulating. Small problems get addressed when they are small, before they compound. The team learns that the standards are real. Drift stops happening because the system is structured to catch drift before it becomes culture.
Documentation gets better. When you eventually need to remove a team member, you have a paper trail. The decision is defensible. The team understands why it happened. The legal exposure drops dramatically because every step of the process was documented and consistent.
The team trusts the management more, not less. Counterintuitively, structured coaching does not damage the relationship between managers and team members. It improves it. Team members would rather work for a manager who tells them clearly when they are off and helps them get better than a manager who avoids the conversation and quietly stops scheduling them. The first manager is a leader. The second is a coward. Team members can tell the difference.
What to do tomorrow
If you are running a hotel and recognizing this pattern, here is the starting point.
Pick the three smallest performance issues you have been ignoring because the property is doing well. Write them down. Identify the team members involved. This week, have a coaching conversation with each one using the seven-step protocol. Document the conversation. Follow up next shift.
That is it. The protocol scales from there. But you have to start with three real conversations to break the pattern of avoidance.
The cost of not doing this is the culture problem you will inherit nine months from now that nobody will be able to trace back to today. The cost of doing this is three uncomfortable conversations and 20 minutes of documentation.
The math is not close.
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Want help building a coaching system at your property? This is the kind of work our HR Consulting division specializes in. Book a 15-minute call and we will walk you through what a structured performance management system looks like for your operation.
The Wilkinson Firm operates two divisions: hospitality staffing and HR consulting. Both run on the same operating philosophy. People deserve to be developed, not discarded.