{"product_id":"lessons-from-the-front-desk-mike-davis-9798175828840","title":"Lessons from the Front Desk: Leadership, People, and Life in the Hotel Business","description":"\u003cp\u003eLeadership lessons rarely arrive in a conference room.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSometimes they come from a housekeeper standing in your doorway. A maintenance employee working the night shift. A manager who isn't ready for the promotion you want to give her. A hotel on fire five hours away. Or a dinner your wife has covered with foil and left waiting in the oven.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eLessons from the Front Desk\u003c\/i\u003e, longtime hospitality leader Mike Davis looks back on a career that began almost by accident. After five years as a public school teacher, he answered a newspaper ad in 1988 and entered the hotel business with no hospitality experience and very little idea what he was getting himself into.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat followed was a career spanning hotel general management, regional operations, acquisitions, turnarounds, organizational change, and decades of learning how to lead people-and how to run a business.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough candid stories from the front desk to the executive office, Davis explores both sides of leadership: the human decisions that shape a culture and the operating decisions that determine whether a hotel succeeds. He writes about developing employees, handling mistakes, managing rates and labor, recovering dissatisfied guests, making difficult personnel decisions, leading through crisis, and learning when to step in-and when to get out of the way.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut this isn't a textbook about running hotels.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's a book about what happens when business becomes personal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWarm, practical, and self-reflective, \u003ci\u003eLessons from the Front Desk\u003c\/i\u003e is for anyone who has led a team, managed through uncertainty, made a decision they later questioned, or discovered that some of the best leadership lessons come from the people they were supposed to be leading.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBecause eventually, the numbers fade. The awards get boxed away. The buildings change hands. The titles disappear from the organizational chart.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat remains is the people.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Mike Davis\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798175828840\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/28\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 114\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.36lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.27d","brand":"Mike Davis","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":50666319020287,"sku":"9798175828840","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_628afe6c-01f7-475b-a99e-82a544e7183d.jpg?v=1792016789","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/lessons-from-the-front-desk-mike-davis-9798175828840","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}