How do you empower your team members?
In the hospitality industry, where service and empathy are essential, leadership must go beyond managing tasks—it must focus on understanding people. A manager’s true strength is revealed not just in achieving efficiency, but in seeing beyond surface behaviors to uncover the humanity behind them. When team members struggle, it’s easy to label them as problems to be fixed or dismissed. But often, what they need most is someone to ask the right question, to listen, and to show unwavering support in moments of personal crisis. Empathy isn’t just a soft skill—it’s a transformative force that can change outcomes for individuals and the organizations they serve.
Ricky Flores, Assistant General Manager of Glo Best Western, exemplifies this kind of leadership. In this conversation with Visual Matrix, he shares how compassion and curiosity helped him empower a struggling team member in a time of profound hardship.
