The Five Diamonds of Customer Service Leadership

In a city celebrated for remarkable architectural gems, the Wentworth
Mansion, built in 1886, is clearly one of Charleston, South Carolina’s grandest examples of Victorian design. The original owner, Francis Silas Rogers, spared no expense in providing a magnificent home for his 13 children and the attending staff. The conversion in 1998 to a 21 room, small luxury hotel was quite successful; the awards and praise have been substantial.


Today, the Wentworth Mansion is recognized by the American Automobile Association (AAA) as a winner of its exceptional and coveted Five Diamond Award. This designation is awarded annually to the very best hotel and restaurant operations in North America, less than 100 in total, certainly the top 1% by any measure. The Wentworth Mansion’s aspiration from its conception was to achieve the Five Diamond Award, and had easily achieved the Four Diamond level in its first 3 years of operation.

When I was asked to take on the responsibility as the Mansion’s leader, my primary goal was to achieve the Five Diamond Award. In my first year at the property we did not achieve the Five Diamond level, instead maintaining a respectable Four Diamond status. In the second full year of my leadership, we received the Five Diamond distinction. The Wentworth Mansion has received the honor each year since; four consecutive years. As a result, the property is meeting its financial goals and fulfilling the investment group’s expectations.

Why has the Wentworth Mansion been so successful? I attribute it, in large part, to a management philosophy that extends a level of service far beyond efficiency and courteous behavior. It is a philosophy providing for the customers’ needs through the Five Diamonds of Customer Service Leadership. The guide for providing leadership in customer service leadership is based on the principles of Polarity Management™, in which an effective leader recognizes and capitalized on the tension, dilemmas and interdependent opposites which exist in organizations. Actions critical for this level of leadership success is to:

Provide Unconditional Caring AND Conditional Respect
Educate Yourself AND Train Others
Give Staff Freedom AND Hold Them Responsible
Seek Customer Feedback AND Create Anticipatory Service
Manage Costs AND Equip People

As an experienced manager these principles may sound familiar to you. What makes this approach different is how you apply them. Within each “Diamond” is a range of leadership actions that recognize dilemmas or paradoxes, translating what is complex and challenging into simpler strategies. We will explore these actions in greater detail after I take you to the genesis of my philosophy of customer service at a time when I was emerging from my youth to adulthood.

The Five Diamonds of Customer Service Leadership grew out of my own life experiences that have taken me from cutting lawns as a boy near Cleveland, Ohio, to three decades of hospitality management throughout the Southeast and Midwest. For me, there is no denying that my work ethic, approach to managing organizations, and leadership style all began when I first knocked on doors in my neighborhood, asking for the opportunity to cut a neighbor’s lawn for a whopping $2. Like many boys, I was eager to earn money for the things I wanted. First it was comic books, then a microscope, then a bike. And in the American tradition, I soon had my eye on a car. 

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