Jon & Vinny's

Irina Bekker

Hospitality Team Shaper

Irina Bekker is a hospitality leader who brings a hands-on approach to team leadership, with a focus on empathy, communication and building trust. Her experience across hospitality and retail has shaped a people-centered approach to developing teams and strengthening workplace culture.

Leading From the Floor

I've always believed in leading by example and showing my team that I'm not above doing the work they do. I'm the kind of leader who's on the floor with the team, bussing tables when we're short-staffed, answering calls at the host stand or polishing utensils in the back.

Being present in those moments creates a level of trust that cannot be built from behind a desk. It also creates a better understanding of what the team experiences during a busy shift, where small pressures can quickly add up and affect how people perform.

Genuine interest in people matters just as much. When I worked in retail, my general manager once asked why the team didn't have the same rapport with him that they had with me. I asked whether he'd ever taken an interest in their lives outside of work.

He admitted that he rarely asked the team about what they did when they weren't in the building. Over the following weeks, he started genuinely getting to know them, and the difference became clear in how he showed up for the team and how they began coming to him for help.

Understanding What People Need

Emotional intelligence helps leaders understand how to bring out the best in each person. If a server is having an off day, belittling them or making the situation worse accomplishes very little. Sometimes the better response is simply taking five minutes off the floor and asking whether there is anything that can help.

The bigger skill is understanding what someone actually needs in that moment. A team member may come with a problem because they want help solving it, but sometimes they already know the answer and simply need to feel heard before they can move forward.

I've learned that it can be worth asking, ‘Do you want me to help you work through this or do you just need to vent?’ Jumping straight to advice when someone only wanted to be heard can leave them feeling dismissed, even when the intention was to help.

That distinction may seem small, but it can have a meaningful effect on trust. People are more likely to communicate openly when they know their concerns will be understood before solutions are offered.

Leading With Purpose

A concept I encountered during orientation at a hotel in Beverly Hills, credited to Simon Sinek, was the Golden Circle. The idea is that most people and organizations communicate from the outside in, starting with what they do, then how they do it and rarely getting to why. Inspiring leaders work from the inside out, starting with the purpose and belief behind the work.

“Taking care of the team creates the foundation for taking care of the guest. When people feel respected, understood and connected to the purpose behind their work, they are better positioned to bring that same care into every interaction with the people they serve.”

The first time I encountered the concept, something clicked about the difference between how I'd been taught to lead and the kind of leader I wanted to become. Instead of simply telling my team what to do and how to do it, I started explaining why the work mattered.

That means explaining why a standard matters, why the guest experience depends on it and why each person's role is essential. When people understand the purpose behind the work, they buy in rather than simply follow orders.

Giving the team that reasoning also creates room for people to contribute perspectives I may not have considered. Leadership becomes less about handing down instructions and more about creating shared understanding around what we're trying to accomplish.

Building Stronger Teams

The culture in hospitality has always emphasized putting the guest first, but I've long believed that success in this industry starts with the people brought in to support the vision. A guest experience is ultimately shaped by the team delivering it.

That makes leadership and training inseparable from the customer experience. A leader's responsibility is not only to address shortcomings but also to recognize that those shortcomings can reflect gaps in leadership, communication or preparation.

Taking care of the team creates the foundation for taking care of the guest. When people feel respected, understood and connected to the purpose behind their work, they are better positioned to bring that same care into every interaction with the people they serve.