George Cozonis was general manager of The Plaza Hotel in New York when I spoke with him for The Luxury of Attention.
He grew up inside the business. His parents ran a restaurant in Chicago, and he spent his childhood in the back of it, playing in the storeroom with the boxes after big deliveries. It did not seem to him that his parents had jobs, he told me, so much as that they were always taking care of the restaurant, its guests and its employees as though they were extended family. It was simply their way of life.
At seven, his father had him picking up trash in the parking lot for a dollar a cottage cheese container. From there came dishwashing, food prep, busboy and cook, and eventually his first role at The Ritz-Carlton in Phoenix, where he absorbed the idea that we were all ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. His career was continued rather than begun.
The parking lot taught him something he still carries. He told me how humbling the task was, and how a clean place is paramount in hospitality.
“This is probably where my desire for uncompromising levels of cleanliness comes from, or as I refer to it with our staff, all areas must be ‘surgically clean.’” George Cozonis, then general manager, The Plaza Hotel, New York
Chapter 2 reads each of those early stations as the wrong section in the moment and the right one in retrospect.
His third appearance is a negative example, and he offers it with an admission of his own. As a young assistant manager, with half his team out and a long line of guests waiting to be seated, he asked the food and beverage director for help.
“I asked him for help and he simply walked away without a response, and made absolutely no effort to call in support. I will always remember that day. It taught me a lot about being there for your team, having integrity, and leading by example.” George Cozonis, then general manager, The Plaza Hotel, New York
He pairs it with a mistake from his first leadership role, as a room service supervisor, when more than half his team called out and he tried to cover the shift by working harder instead of calling for backup. You cannot win a war without soldiers, he learned, and good intentions only go so far.
In the book, George Cozonis appears in Chapter 1, The Calling, on a childhood spent in his family’s restaurant; in Chapter 2, The Apprenticeship, on what the parking lot taught him about cleanliness; and in Chapter 3, Leading by Example, on the director who walked away and the lesson he took from it.