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De-Stress For Success Part of being successful in hospitality is having a clear mind. Here’s how some of your peers achieve a Zen state and get those winning ideas flowing. Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Caryn Eve Murray

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Whenever Jennifer Duffy seems a bit too stressed out by the demands of her job as public relations manager at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, executive chef Marc Ehrler urges her to indulge in one recipe that never seems to fail.

“He looks at me and says, ‘You need to get on your bike,’“ said Duffy. “It is a way to relieve stress, a way to feel good, and a way to clear your head.”

The recipe not only works, but it seems there are ample servings to go around: Duffy, Ehrler, banquet chef Ken Harvey, server Terry Clayton, and banquet sous chef Vince Renteria now cycle regularly with a number of other colleagues, as well as on their own. They even created an employee team at the Arizona resort, calling themselves the Loews Ventana Canyon Green Team.

Last November, the Green Team competed in (and finished) its first competition, a 109-mile road race throughout the city known as the El Tour de Tucson. But for Duffy, the grand prize is hers every time she steps out of her office and onto those two waiting pedals.
  
“Some of my best ideas come while I am exercising,” she said. On her solo rides, when she is beyond reach of all physical reminders of her job’s demands, even her ever-present cell phone seems to relax – with good reason. “This is Tucson and when I ride my bike all the way north, there are some spots when it just isn’t in service…. You start to feel like you are one with the road. Your mind clears. Heading north out of Tucson is one road going forever and ever; you can think about life, clear your head.”

Shifting gears as they leave Tucson, Duffy and her colleagues have found that the counterbalance to the fast-paced hospitality industry is a good fast-paced bike ride. And it’s only one way hotel professionals recharge their batteries and clear their minds – sometimes at a slower pace or no pace at all.

Ehrler – a lifelong fitness enthusiast – finds himself craving the same tried-and-true recipe for many of the same reasons. In the kitchen, he can oversee between 70 to 110 staffers on any given day, but on his bicycle, he is sole supervisor of himself and the road before him.

“I try to ride a minimum of two days a week and when I don’t, I feel very different at work. Either more tired or more cranky or more irritable,” he said. “Your mind is in a different place [when you have been riding]. You see the big picture in a different way.… It is you, the bike and nature.”

Of course, to avoid stress while cycling, the rules of the road rarely differ from the rules of the kitchen: “Your bike has to be well-tuned. It’s the same thing as working in a kitchen. You know your equipment, you have to check everything out – you need the water, the food, and replacement for the pieces that break. You have to be organized.”

John Irvin, general manager of the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, NY, has managed to find his stress-busters right on site at the 135-room resort, which is open from mid-April until just after Thanksgiving. And high occupancy levels, such as the month-long 98 percent rate the hotel was running last August, may be great for business but also ripe for stress.

“So I get out of the office and walk the property” which, with the golf course, tennis courts and lakeside of Lake Otsego is more than 100 acres, he said. “Or I hit the golf course. It is right there. I just walk across the parking lot. The golf course is all along the edge of Lake Otsego. Even though it is operated by us and under my responsibility, it still gets me out of the hotel.”

He doesn’t even care about water traps. “I gave up the stressful side of golf years ago,” he said. “I have been playing for years and if I break 100 I am happy and if I don’t, I don’t care.”

He also lives next door to the hotel and has a built-in stress buster at home: his wife, Nancy. “When I walk home at the end of the day, I have a wonderful wife who knows knows not to ask me about work. Or sometimes it really helps if I am having a tough morning and I say, ‘Why don’t you come over and have lunch with me?’“

With responsibility for 26 properties in nine states – and a total of 2,000 associates - Dean Riddle, corporate director of human resources for the Waterford Hotel Group in Connecticut, still manages to describe himself as basically “unstressed.”

In a job that requires him to conduct interviews, training, recruitment and spend about half his work time on the road at various properties, his sense of inner balance didn’t come without effort.

“Those of us who choose this industry are obviously dedicated to people, but to take it to another level, I am in human resources, so I am all about people,” he said. “And what I was finding a few years back was that I was expending so much energy and time taking care of my guests and associates that by the end of the day my battery was pretty sapped. Over a period of time, I was negatively impacting my work-life balance. “

Becoming unstressed-for-success is now the byproduct of his cardio workouts, yoga and visualization. (Riddle has centered himself so successfully that he now shares wellness tips and pointers in the company’s quarterly newsletter.)

“It is very rare that I am not in the gym 45 minutes to an hour at least four times a week,” he said. But his workouts are building strength in more than his cardiovascular system. “I consider the gym time to be ‘my time.’ I escape for an hour, re-energizing and recharging and getting my thoughts together for the next day,” he said.

At home daily  – and once a week in a formal class – he also supplements that routine with yoga. “It keeps my flexibility and de-stresses me,” he said.

He also engages in visualization, which means he doesn’t have to go anywhere special beyond his office; he just needs to reach deep into his imagination.

“When I go to get a glass of water in the break room and am feeling overwhelmed about prioritizing my day, I visualize how I see the rest of my day going. I formulate a nice solid plan and take a step back and look at everything going about my day. It’s a quick mental break,” he said and it lets him compose his thoughts and regroup, if necessary. He can even do it during his commute.

His final ingredients to ward off stress are unleashing laughter at work and leashing up his two dogs at home.

“I try to laugh at myself to keep things on an even keel,” he said. “And I do try to find humor in everyday tasks; we have a lot of fun here. A good belly laugh will do you wonders.”

At home, Scout and Willy, his two rescue dogs, rescue him from stress too. “I find I walk into the house and they just completely relax me. Dogs are unconditional love.”