“We have seen all too clearly that there are men, now
in power in this Country, who do not represent authority, who cannot cope with tradition, and who believe that
the people of America are ready to support revolution as long as it is done with a cultured voice and a handsome
profile.” - Spiro
T. Agnew -
My new American Heritage Dictionary indicates that a profile is 4.
A biographical essay presenting the subject's most noteworthy characteristics and achievements. 5. A formal
summary or analysis of data, often in the form of a graph or table, representing distinctive features or characteristics.
I am somewhat troubled by some of these words; presenting noteworthy characteristics and achievements - representing
distinctive features or characteristics. These words make me think that they mean that a profile is more about
perception than reality. Sometimes an individual has distinctive or noteworthy characteristics that are so well
known that a simple silhouette brings them to mind.
Do we really know all we need to know about these individuals by simply looking at these profiles? I think not.
A profile never tells the entire story.
In 1954-55 a freshman U.S. Senator from Massachusetts wrote a book profiling eight of his historical
Senatorial colleagues, such men as John Quincy Adams, Sam Houston, and Robert A. Taft. Instead of
focusing on their storied careers, John F. Kennedy chose to illustrate their acts of integrity, when they
stood alone against tremendous political and social pressure for what they felt was right. For this book (Profiles
in Courage) Kennedy was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. I think that JFK understood that any profile
only focused on one or two highlights and never the whole package.
Later in this month, I will be joining three of my colleagues attempting to cover the Fundamentals of Resort
Management at a workshop during the ARDA Convention and Exhibition in Orlando. Our program will
highlight eleven different subjects and we will spend 5 or 6 minutes of each subject. The allotted time will allow
us to illustrate only certain aspects of each subject rather than attempting a full profile. Our brief glances
will be supplemented with a substantial participant manual that will provide actual working documents as well as
additional insights from each panelist.
Two additional handouts will be placed on the workshop tables. One of these handouts will be for the enlightenment
of the participant and the other is designed to enlighten ARDA. The first of these documents will be an
actual written profile of each of the session speakers. I assume the idea is to provide credibility to the session
by attempting to establish that we (the panelists) know of what we speak. The problem with such profiles is that
ARDA asks that the speakers submit their own profiles. I’m not so sure that (given the opportunity) Jimmy
Durante would have made modifications to his nose in the silhouette presented above because that nose was a
trademark, however I am sure that regardless of what the profiles say about my colleagues on this Fundamentals
panel, anyone would be hard pressed to find anyone better qualified to speak on the various subjects.
Who knows more about HOA Organization and Fiduciary Issues than Reg Billups, VP of Association Management
for Starwood; on the Management of Timeshare Resorts by Management Firms or In-house Management than Woody Cary,
President of TRICOM Management, Inc.; or Exceeding Service Expectations than David Fries, former Executive
VP of SPM Resorts, Inc., who recently set up Sun Hospitality, LLC (a contract housekeeping firm) and
serves as its President and COO. As many of you know, I have been around this industry and, regardless of what
they said in their profiles, I know talent when I see it and with Reg, Woody and David, this panel is loaded.
The second handout will be the ever-present speaker-rating sheet where the participants have the opportunity to
judge if the presenters lived up to their profiles.
Final thought
It will be my pleasure to have a seat on the same stage with these experts and I will attempt to offer some
fundamental thoughts on Resort Resources such as Reserves and Human Resources. In this day and time we all know
that maintaining our resort staffs has become one of management's most difficult tasks. During my time with the
microphone I will present some fundamental information concerning exactly what is included in the term Human Resources
and some thoughts on the risk and rewards of having or not having a HR Department.
One would think that I am wandering away from the subject at hand (profiles) in these final thoughts. Nothing
could be farther from the truth. In taking a fresh look at the issue of HR, I ran across some thoughts by Paul
J. Sarvadi on Entrepreneur.com, concerning Recruiting and Selecting Quality Employees. Paul indicated:
“If you want your business to attract and retain good clients, your comprehensive people strategy must include
a recruiting and selection strategy that attracts and retains quality employees. Following a well-thought-out,
structured process will help you best match the right people to the right jobs in your company.”
Mr. Sarvadi indicated that we all knew the first step in this process was the development of an accurate
job description. That would be a job description that reflect careful thought as to the roles the individual will
fill, the skill sets they'll need, the personality attributes that are important to completing their tasks, and
any relevant experience that would differentiate one applicant from another. It was Paul’s second step that fascinated
me. That would be:
“2. Compile a "success profile." In addition to creating job descriptions, it's important
to develop a "success profile" of the ideal employee for key positions in your company that is critical
to the execution of your business plan. These might include such positions as team leaders, district managers and
salespeople. For example, let's say you currently have 20 salespeople. Within that group, you have four that are
top performers, 12 that are middle-of-the-road and four that aren't quite making the grade. If you could bump the
number of folks in the top group from 20 percent to 33 percent, that could have a dramatic impact on your company's
performance.
To accomplish that goal, you need to profile everyone in the sales group to identify any skills and attributes
that are common to the top group but missing from the other groups. Using this information, you'll be able to develop
a profile to help you select the candidates most likely to succeed in that position. Remember, you can't tell if
you've found a match if you're not matching candidates against a specific profile.”
Now isn’t that a radical final thought? A success profile... Who ever heard of such a thing? I think I will
use that in my HR presentation at ARDA. See you there.
JS 4/05
