Industry experts shared their insights on effective leadership styles during a panel discussion at the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference last week in Atlanta. Jin Lee, CEO of ARA U.S. Hospitality Trust; Susan Santiago, president of the U.S. and Canada at Hyatt Hotels; Jay Shah, executive chairman at Hersha Hotels and Resorts; and Julienne Smith, chief development officer at IHG Hotels and Resorts, shared their personal motivational moves and strategies.
Shah, who recently transitioned from CEO to executive chairman last year after Hersha Hospitality Trust was acquired by private equity firm KSL Capital Partners, described his leadership style as information-led. "I use information to assess what the needs of the various constituencies are," he continued. "In the end, I would consider myself a good consensus builder. Good leadership stands on the shoulders of good leadership."
Smith said her leadership style comes from a place of wanting to be 1 percent better every day, and that has to come to a place of vulnerability. "So I call myself out often on making mistakes and I want my team and encourage my team to do the same so that we can learn from what we've done," she continued. "It's not throwing anybody under the bus—if we're in a group setting, it's our mistake. But behind the scenes, it's okay to be honest about what happened here."
Even when things are going well, there's always something that we should be improving upon, Smith continued. She admits she was not a natural-born public speaker, but after a while and doing it often, she has gotten comfortable on stage. Her young daughter helped Smith take the pressure off herself, saying: "Why are you nervous, mom? Everyone's going to be looking at their phones anyways," Smith reminisced.
Santiago said when she has a tough day ahead of her, she will go for a run in the morning. "It gives me the clarity that I need to go into that conversation, and really play it out in my mind ahead of time," she said.
As she takes on her new role in Hyatt's new Americas organization structure, Santiago said first and foremost it's about listening. "It's important as a leader to understand how you can be in service of your stakeholders," she said. "Literally going on listening tours is what I have been doing, and really understanding how can we be better, how do we need to structure ourselves. Part of the reorganization, the benefit of it, is allowing for us to have more time [to be strategic with owners], smaller portfolios for our teams."
Lee relies on daily yoga and deep breathing to get him through challenging days. Lee worked with Bill Kimpton, the founder and chairman of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, who said to always remember the three constituencies in your business—investors, guests and associates.
It's not always easy to have the "right" answer for each stakeholder, Lee said. "I'm very sensitive to the notion that the people who actually make the hotel business are our employees and associates, because they determine the execution of how good your business is," he said. "If you don't have good execution on the ground, then your hotel will not be as successful."
Shah said he keeps in mind a quote that he saw as a child that reads, "Do right and fear no man." He equates that quote to operating with a clear conscience, which requires the motivation to be correct, to have empathy and to do the work. "I use that to allow me to turn the volume down on the voices in my head and the voices out there, and then I just kind of push autopilot," he said.
For Smith, she has five things she does every day to ensure she isn't reactive in the moment, which can be detrimental. "Meditation, rest, nutrition, movement and hydration are the recipe for me to be my best self and not succumb to that high level of reactivity," she said. "Because if I'm if I'm calm, cool and collected as I like to be and it's because I do those five things, then I'm less likely to be reactive."