Let your employees WORK for you!

So its been a very busy couple of weeks. I've been teaching almost every day, which is wonderful, and working hard to find out what my guests need, how to help them not just improve their skiing, but really enjoy and celebrate their ability to improve!

To that end, I emailed Katie Fry, the director of all four mountains here at Aspen to let her know that I had some ideas for my VIP guests, and perhaps guest services overall. I thought I might just email her a few ideas.

Her response was, lets have a meeting, and lets get Dee Byrne involved, our new director of Business Development. I was shocked. Really? Okay...

So we got together and met for a couple of hours, and Katie and Dee were excited and open to these ideas, and they formed a task force company wide, and asked me to Chair it.

We are now building a ten person team from ticketing to the Treehouse to Ski School to explore the guest experience in Aspen!

This is exciting and wonderful, but I have to say, one of the most incredible things about this is the way, consistently, that the Ski Co values its employees. I was just a person with an idea.

And the company I work for is interested in constantly evolving and becoming the best company it can be. The company culture is hungry to continue to change. It is always looking for ideas, and because of that, its employees feel valued.

Because we feel so valued, we are fiercely loyal. We are appreciated, so we work harder. We are listened to, so we feel ownership.

I have never worked for a company that understands, so clearly, how easy it is to get your employees to work as hard as they can for you. Listen to them. Value them. Be open to ideas from everywhere.

This idea is clear right from the top: our CEO, Mike Caplain, started as a liftie here. Aspen is a culture of impetus. If you have an idea, and a willingness to follow through, you will make it. And they'll help you get there!