_{In this episode, bestselling author and hospitality expert Taylor Scott reveals how the principles of welcome, comfort, and importance create emotionally connected teams that consistently outperform. Learn why emotional connection matters more than logic and how the GIVE framework applies to every industry.}

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The Uncomfortable Truth About Leadership That Gets Results

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Here's what most organizations get wrong: they separate relationship-building from business performance. Leaders talk about "results" as if they're somehow distinct from how people feel, how they're treated, or whether they experience psychological safety. But emotional connection and business results flow in the same river. After 20 years leading teams at Disney Parks, Wynn Resorts, and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Taylor Scott, author of Give Hospitality: A Hopeful Story of What Happens When We Live, Work, and Love from a Place of Generosity has proven something that neuroscience now validates. How you make people feel determines whether they deliver your results.

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The challenge? Most leaders still operate under an outdated belief that hospitality is soft, that focusing on people's comfort is a luxury you can only afford when times are good. The opposite is true. When times are hardest, when stakes are highest, authentically caring about how your team members experience their work becomes your competitive advantage.

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Why Emotional Connection Moves People (And Logic Doesn't)

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Let's get neuroscience-backed real for a moment. Taylor draws on Jonathan Haidt's powerful metaphor, imagine a person sitting on a six-ton elephant. The person (representing the logical left brain) can give direction, but the elephant (representing the emotional right brain) provides the energy to actually move. You can't move people into action unless you first move them with emotion. That's how humans are wired.

This matters because so many leaders spend energy on logic: "Here are the metrics. Here's the business case. Here's why this matters." Employees nod, they understand intellectually, but they don't feel it. Their elephant isn't moving. When Taylor talks about hospitality leadership, he's talking about activating that elephant, creating the emotional resonance that makes people want to go the extra mile.

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Taylor learned this viscerally working at Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando. A guest speaker came three weeks before opening and delivered a message that changed everything for him. "Whether you're in hospitality for two years or twenty years, the essence of hospitality is making people feel welcome, comfortable, and important."

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The GIVE Framework: Turning Hospitality Into a Business Practice

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So how do you operationalize emotional connection? How do you make it systematic instead of hoping your naturally empathetic people stay empathetic on hard days? This is where Taylor's GIVE framework (rooted in the Hawaiian spirit of Aloha) becomes tangible.

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Each letter represents a core value that both cultures and teams should embrace:

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G – Generosity (Give Compassion): Extending genuine care not because it's transactional, but because people matter. When leaders consistently show they care about their team's wellbeing, not just their output, everything shifts.

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I – Inspiration (Give Encouragement): Actively lifting people up through acknowledgment and belief in their potential. Not empty praise, but specific, earned recognition that shows you're paying attention.

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V – Volunteering (Give Kindness): Taking action that serves others without expecting immediate return. It's showing through behavior that leadership is generous.

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E – Elevation (Give Hospitality & Leadership): Creating environments where people experience belonging, psychological safety, and the experience of being fully seen.

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Taylor wrote Give Hospitality as a fable set in Hawaii specifically to help leaders understand these principles don't live in a textbook, they live in the everyday choices of how you show up. The characters in his story (many based on real mentors like his mom, his dad who's been an attorney for 47 years, his pastors) model what it looks like when leaders choose generosity, encouragement, kindness, and elevation as operating principles.

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Making Hospitality Stick When Everything Feels Urgent

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The most common objection Taylor hears: This sounds great, but we don't have time for hospitality. We're under pressure to deliver results. You don't have a choice between hospitality and results. When you get relationships right, results follow more quickly than you'd expect.

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Authenticity matters. In one powerful section of the conversation, Craig raises a concern, won't this feel performative to teams who've been burned before? Taylor's answer cuts to the heart of real leadership, you have to use empathy, which itself is a learnable skill. Empathy means pausing in the chaos and asking yourself: What are they actually thinking and feeling right now? In highly stressful environments, people's walls go up. They've seen leaders talk about culture before. They're skeptical.

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Your job isn't to convince them immediately. Your job is to keep showing up consistently, authentically, asking questions about their wellbeing, and following through. Mark Sanborn taught Taylor a principle that redirects this perfectly: "Be interested more than you're trying to come across interesting." When you shift from needing to prove something to genuinely wanting to understand someone's experience, the energy transforms. People feel the difference.

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Three Practices That Make Hospitality Real in Your Team

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1. Shift from monologue feedback to dialogue feedback. Old-school leadership is "Here's what I saw you do. Here's why it was wrong. Here's what you need to change." Then the leader leaves. Modern hospitality leadership is "I noticed something this morning. Can we talk about it? What was happening from your perspective? How does this impact our customers? What might you do differently?" Then you listen. Let them come up with the solution. It becomes their idea, owned by them, instead of compliance with your directive.

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2. Create a gratitude practice that literally rewires negativity. This sounds simple because it is. But it's profoundly effective. When you're frustrated, stop and think of five things you're most grateful for in this world. Neurologically, your brain cannot simultaneously hold negativity and genuine gratitude. You're short-circuiting the negativity loop by activating a different neural pathway. When you do this your entire energy shifts in 60 seconds.

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3. Align your vision (where you're going), mission (why you exist), and values (how you do things) and then model them relentlessly. This isn't a one-time exercise. It's a daily practice. Taylor still remembers the core values from Cosmopolitan (compassion, conscience, courageous, community) from 11 years ago. Why? Because leaders there walked and talked those values. People remember what leaders do, not what they say. And when your daily behaviors align with stated values, you give people a north star they can trust.

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Remote Leadership Isn't Harder, It's Just Different

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In a hybrid and remote world, everything becomes harder, right? Not necessarily. You can be physically distanced and remain emotionally connected. Three non-negotiables for remote hospitality leadership:

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1. One-on-one meetings. Not status updates. Real conversations where you genuinely ask how someone's doing and listen. Whether it's FaceTime, Zoom, or Teams, this is where connection lives.

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2. Team meetings. There's something irreplaceable about hearing the same message from the same person at the same time. Asynchronous is efficient. Synchronous is connecting.

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3. Consistent digital communication. Meet people where they are. That might be LinkedIn, internal Slack channels, thoughtful emails. Taylor used to blog from Disney World while walking around Epcot, and his boss in Vegas would like the posts. That simple act made him feel connected across distance.

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The Bottom Line: Love Matters in Business

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As Taylor says in his closing remarks: "I hope you love what you do. I hope you love who you do it with. And I hope you love who you do it for." That's the foundation of sustainability, engagement, and results. When people feel they belong, when they experience genuine care from their leaders, they bring their whole selves to work. They innovate. They stay. They tell others to work there.

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The world doesn't need another leadership philosophy. It needs leaders who remember the people on their teams are humans first. Hospitality leadership is simply the practice of treating them that way.

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Ready to take giving hospitality to the next level?

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• To get practical tools and actionable tips that will jumpstart your journey, download the Giving Hospitality Kick Starter Booklet here.
  
  
• Join the newsletter to be notified when a new episode is ready for you to listen and get every Kick Starter Booklet for all future episodes.
  
  
• And if you’re looking to elevate your entire C-Suite leadership team, learn how Craig Dowden can help your leaders perform at their highest-level visit https://www.craigdowden.com/executive-mastermind
  
  
• For a deeper dive, listen to the full-length episode of the Do Good to Lead Well podcast featuring Wes Adams & Tamara Myles:
  
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Did you like this article on giving hospitality? Does it help you become a better leader? Then check out these articles to help hone those skills even further:

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• Transform Average Teams into Extraordinary Ones: Teamship Over Leadership: The 10 Shifts That Transform Average Teams into Extraordinary Ones with Keith Ferrazzi
• Understanding Yourself: Self-Awareness in Leadership: Why Understanding Yourself Is the Non-Negotiable Foundation of Sustainable Success with Margaret Andrews
• Empathy Fatigue: How to Protect Against Empathy Fatigue: Essential Strategies for Leaders Facing Emotional Burnout with Craig Dowden
• Build Learning Organizations with Andrew Lo: How to Build Learning Organizations That Drive Innovation: Andrew Lo's Leadership Framework for Empowerment and Accountability
• Employee Wellbeing Drives Better Business Results with Mark C. Crowley: Why Employee Wellbeing Drives Better Business Results Than Engagement Ever Could with Mark Crowley
• ‍Feedback That Drives Growth with Dr. Michael Nevarez: How to Give Feedback That Drives Growth Without Triggering Defensiveness: A Psychiatrist's Evidence-Based Approach with Dr. Michael Nevarez
• Learning to Love Midlife with Chip Conley: Learning to Love Midlife: Why Life Gets Better with Age and How to Navigate Transformation
• ‍Unlock Your Creative Potential with Zorana Pringle: How to Unlock Your Creative Potential: Science-Based Strategies to Make Better Decisions and Turn Ideas into Action with Zorana Pringle
• Purpose-Driven Leadership with Lindsay Dodd: How Purpose-Driven Leadership Builds Award-Winning Cultures: Lindsay Dodd's Values-First Approach
• Sharing at Work with Craig Dowden: The Science of Sharing at Work: Leadership Lessons for Better Connection, Trust, and Wellbeing
• “Having it All” with Corinne Low: Achieving “Having It All” as a Working Mom: Evidence-Based Insights from Corinne Low

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