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I recently stumbled across an article about the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and their frankly astonishing approach to employee trust.

In 1983, the company did something that would make most corporate finance departments clutch their pearls, 

they gave each employee the power to spend $2,000 per guest incident without any approval (SFT, 2024).

Yes, you read that right. No forms. No fifteen-stage sign-off process. No “we’ll get back to you after the next budget review in Q4.” 

Just: “You’ve got $2k. A guest has a problem? Fix it. Now.”

It was the brainchild of then CEO Horst Schulze, who understood that true luxury wasn’t just marble floors and gold taps, 

but making people feel at home, instantly (Schulze, 2019). 

A bit like having your mum on speed dial to sort out life’s disasters.

The $2,000 Mindset in Action

The stories that came out of this policy are legendary.

There was the forgotten laptop. A guest left it in Atlanta but needed it in Hawaii for a presentation the next day. 

The housekeeper, suspicious of UPS’s promise to deliver on time (see my other piece, Deliver to Promise, Don’t Promise to Deliver), 

simply got on a plane, hand-delivered it, and flew back the same night.

Or the overheard conversation. Two executives were discussing where to host their annual conference. 

A Ritz employee picked up their $600 dinner tab. 

A small, well-timed gesture  and they moved their yearly event to Ritz-Carlton hotels.

These weren’t just acts of great service; they were lightning-fast problem-solving opportunities turned into moments of delight.

 And all because employees had both the skills and the authority to act without asking permission.

When Trust Goes Missing

Sadly, I’ve seen the opposite play out.

In hard times, insecure leaders often start tightening the reins and not in a good way. 

Hotel bookings? Needs sign-off. 

A customer visit? Approval required. 

A refund to keep a client from leaving? Form 17B-Blue, in triplicate, please.

When trust is stripped away from the people driving your business, it’s not just morale that suffers, your customers feel it too.

I once overheard a conversation that still makes me wince:

“It’s almost impossible for me to come and see you to get this sorted. 

My manager is on holiday for two weeks and insists on approving all expenses. Earliest I could get there? Three weeks.”

That customer wasn’t a customer much longer.

Why Trust Pays

We spend serious time and money recruiting staff, training them, getting them to buy into our values. 

They sacrifice evenings, weekends, and family time to represent the company. 

The least we can do is trust them to make the right call.

Yes, very occasionally, someone will abuse that trust. But that’s the exception, not the rule. 

Trust is not a privilege, it’s the baseline for doing the right thing.

Plenty of companies, like Ritz-Carlton, have proof that empowered employees create loyalty that no marketing campaign could buy. 

Others choose to micromanage until good people leave, taking their talent, their initiative, 

and their best customer relationships with them.

The choice is yours.

Have you seen trust turn into extraordinary results or witnessed what happens when it disappears?

References
SFT (2024) Ritz-Carlton’s $2,000 Rule: How Empowering Employees Builds Brand Loyalty. [Online] Available at: https://www.sft.com/ritzcarltontrust (Accessed: 8 August 2025).
Schulze, H. (2019) Excellence Wins: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.