Topics >  Leadership and Managing >  Leadership >  Personal Productivity > 

The Way I Work: Howard Lefkowitz

In the afternoons, I'll make the rounds of the office again. I love going into the contact center, because they tell me stories about the customers. The stories they tell--you can't make them up. One guy said he wanted two rooms. When we asked why, he said, "When I pick up whoever I pick up in Vegas, I don't actually want to take her back to the room with my stuff in it." One guy calls and says, "My dad just died. He always wanted to be buried in Vegas. Which hotel will allow me to scatter the ashes in the hotel?" We had to look up the ash-scattering policies of the hotels. We didn't find one for him. It's fun to hear those kinds of things. It keeps you in touch with both the sublime and the ridiculous. It's just a part of the brand that is Las Vegas.

We have the top Vegas acts coming through the office all the time. Someone comes by about once a week. There's a woman here named Sally who has bright red hair--she was one of our first three contact center employees, and she's still here. One day the comedian Carrot Top comes in, and he's got that crazy hair, and he goes, "Mom!" Now, the whole company calls her Carrot Mom. Last year, Nathan Burton, a popular magician, came to the office with a beautiful showgirl. He put her in a box with a curtain on one side and told her she was wearing too many clothes. A bustier came flying out from behind the curtain, then some frilly panties. Then the curtain dropped and the showgirl was gone, and I was standing there dressed in her clothing. He swapped a beautiful showgirl for me in her clothing. I thought it was a bad deal. Although the bustier was fine, I much prefer pumps. These interactions are good for the employees to see. It's self-deprecating. It connects everybody together. It's another way of creating a relationship.

At least once a month, I go out and take tickets at a box office or concierge desk--maybe I'll take tickets at Hoover Dam, or I'll go to the concierge desk at Mandalay Bay or Harrah's or Flamingo or Excalibur. It keeps me in touch with our customers, employees, and systems. I don't like the idea of sitting in my chair and reading a report. I work in the box offices because I want to see the customers' responses, to see the challenges my staff is facing. This way I get staff feedback, one on one. I think it makes employees who are off-site feel more connected to the company. No e-mailed report on sales and suggestions could replace that firsthand experience.

I have a night job. It's a whole other job. I go out about four nights a week. It gets in the way of my day job sometimes. Recently the comedy festival was in town. I went to the 7 p.m. Wanda Sykes show. Then I popped over to the MGM and caught Billy Joel for an hour and a half. Barbra Streisand was at the Planet Hollywood party--I got there around 10. The party went to about 3, then we all ended up sitting in one of the lounges, and the next thing you know it was 5:30 in the morning. Not all the nights are like that. But a few weeks ago, I stayed out all night, until 4 in the morning. I got home and I figured, my daughter's getting up soon, so I just stayed up and took her to school. It was a Friday. That happens occasionally. Why do you think I have a Red Bull refrigerator in my office? But every night could be a big night in Vegas, so I tend to monitor myself and limit my drinking to a few here and there. I'm always mindful when it's Tuesday or Wednesday that there's a lot to be done tomorrow.

If i didn't go out so much, I don't think I would be as effective. I wouldn't have as much hands-on information about the business. I have to know about this nightclub, that show. I have to be accessible to people who have questions or ideas. I look at the evening activities as a party, as recreation. I live in the entertainment capital of the world. I'm privileged to be able to go to the best shows, eat in the finest restaurants, go to the finest clubs. I love entertainment and have always been very social. In Vegas, the nightlife is kicked into high gear, and many people blend their day life and their nightlife. The hardest part is when your friends show up. It's their night in Vegas, and for you, it's Tuesday.

If I feel like I don't have as much time to spend with my family as I should, I'll knock off the partying a bit. I think my most critical job is as a father, and I love spending time with my daughter, doing all the goofy stuff dads and daughters do. I have a home theater with a 5-foot screen that I love--I just love watching movies at home. I do have a lot of leisure time; it's just not what most people would consider normal. I think the idea of balance is sort of preposterous. I think people live life in chapters. Right now, it's the busy season, but four or five weeks ago it was a different chapter. Some people try for balance every day or every week, but I can't do that. That's not achievable for me. What is achievable is chapters.

I'm a lucky guy; my wife understands that this is part of the business. I spend a lot of time with her on weekends and on vacations. I vacation as hard as I work. I make an annual pilgrimage to Hawaii over Christmas. I'm up at 5, at the dock by 5:30, in the water scuba diving by 6, and I'm back before my wife and daughter wake up. I bring about half a dozen books or so, and I plow through almost every one of them before I get home. Instead of checking my BlackBerry every five minutes, I look at it twice a day. Oddly enough, when I'm in Hawaii, I go to the same stores, the same restaurants as I go to in Las Vegas. But I'm not the concierge anymore. I get to ask the concierge for stuff. I get to be the customer.

Hannah Clark Steiman is an Inc. associate editor.