On the third night of a holiday trip at the St. Regis in Princeville Kauai, a hand written card arrived wishing us a nice stay, referencing my past trips to Hyderabad and thanking me for staying at the resort. This was a nice touch, but what make it something to blog about, was the note was from a colleague working for Starwood located in Brussels! That's thousands of miles away in a very different time zone.
My definition of "virtual leadership is a geographically dispersed team that thinks and acts like it is in one place." I was thoroughly impressed that the Starwood business system allowed there teammates to reach out to guests around the global and deliver and personalized, written note and gift. No, the card was not actually signed by Rob, but the note was something only he could write and someone signed on his behalf. WAY better than an email.
This made me wonder - what if their business system was so robust, that teammates could enter the Starwood card number of their close colleagues and be notified when they checked into a Starwood resort. Then, they could chose to send an appreciation note or note. That would be acting like we are in one place.
So - would this be a great virtual business practice, or just plain creepy?
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