Much—maybe too much—has been written on the topic of leadership. Leadership in war, in business, in family and in politics have been the topics of thousands of titles of mostly unread books, articles and blogs, as well as the subject of countless videos and programs for sale to individuals and organizations. They are designed to teach leadership skills to an audience, who is undoubtedly more interested in being led than wanting to lead.
|
| W. Michael Murphy |
This is a fact that should be absorbed at the outset of any discussion of leadership because it is clear that all of us are not cut out for leadership roles. We are either vanquished by our personalities, our limited desires or the cruel realities of our work places. That said, we are often thrust, willingly or unwillingly, into positions that require us to bring others along to our way of thinking or find a new way to earn our bread. Suddenly and unexpectedly, we are managers. Instantly, we become department heads. Without warning we have gotten the promotion we desired but knew we didn’t deserve. It happens. Now what? Do we dash to Amazon.com and look for guidance in the hundreds of books on the topic? Do we cruise the Internet in search of help? Or do we look to those who have led others and emulate the best? This, I believe, is the way to begin.
I have had the great good fortune to have worked with and for a number of industry icons during my career: Kemmons Wilson, found of Holiday Inn hotels; John Q. Hammons, a premier developer of upscale and luxury hotels; Archie Bennett Jr., chairman of the board and director at Ashford Hospitality Trust; Mike Rose, former chairman of First Horizon National Corporation, Promus Hotel Corporation and Gaylord Entertainment Company; Laurence Geller, former president and CEO of Strategic Hotels & Resorts; Randy Smith, CEO and co-founder of HotelNewsNow.com parent company STR; and Steve Rushmore, president and founder of HVS.
They have been bosses, mentors, colleagues and friends. All great businessmen and all men who conceived, built and operated significant businesses that have endured. Each of these men were leaders with different personalities and skill sets, but they all share a few common chacteristics that I have observed and which I believe might be common to successful leaders everywhere. They have skills that can be copied, and with practice, adapted to your own personal style.
- They’re available to their staffs and their customers. All were likely to have grabbed a ringing telephone call from a complete stranger before their assistants could pick up and screen the call. This availability reflected openness to ideas that had not been filtered by layers of bureaucracy or subjected to a groupthink. They were interested and involved listeners. They had open doors and invited in staff members who wanted to meet with them—mostly unscheduled and without preplanned agendas.
- They were all ready and willing to examine new opportunities with an eye to taking the calculated risk, the measured risk, that could pay off in a new brand, a new way of looking at operating data, a new approach to valuing assets, a new way of managing the managers, a fresh way of designing a hotel to be built more efficiently and less expensively. They were open to change and to experimentation with untried approaches.
- Each of them has been maniacal workers, focused and driven and filled with an energy and enthusiasm that is infectious and that draws ambitious talent to their enterprises, people who want to be affiliated with excitement and success. All of these men have attracted seriously talented people to their organizations by example. They had enthusiasm and high, visible energy.
- Leadership requires more than listening skills, open minds and high energy, however. It also demands a steady hand and focus during the inevitable down time every business and every leader confronts, and it requires optimism in the face of obstacles that bring out the pessimist in most. Winston Churchill, Geller’s favorite, said the pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity while the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Leaders, above all else, share this ability and do what they can to instill in their staff this way of looking at the world. Leaders have a filter that separates fear of failure from their world view. They are optimists.
- Great leaders are persistent. And when persistence fails, they try another approach and persist at that. Of all character traits, this is the one least admired and yet most successful. All leaders are persistent.
- They liked what they were doing. They enjoyed their line of work. This bit you have to work out for yourself.
Books and articles on leadership are nice enough, but the most direct route to gaining the skills of a leader come from identifying those of your own leaders you find most compelling and which you can mimic. Flatter your favorite leaders by copying them. Open minds. Optimism. Energy. Persistence.
You earned or fell into a leadership position. Now it is time to lead using the approaches tested by others. Adapt them to your own personality, style and the characteristics of your organization. And then lead.
Michael has been active for over thirty years in all aspects of hospitality industry transactions. He has held executive positions with Holiday Inns, Inc., Metric Partners, Geller & Co. and ResortQuest International, Inc. where his roles have ranged from Chief Investment Officer to Managing Partner in charge of hotel acquisitions, sales and finance. In addition to principal activities he was responsible for the investment banking operations of Metric Partners and as Senior Managing Director of Geller & Co. led numerous asset management assignments on behalf of institutional lodging owners. He holds a BS in English from the University of Memphis and an MA in English from the University of Iowa. He is a member of and has served three times as Co-Chairman of the Industry Real Estate Finance Advisory Council (IREFAC) of the American Hotel and Lodging Association is the Lead Director of the Board of Directors of Ashford Hospitality Trust (AHT:NYSE) and a founding Director of the Atlanta Hospitality Alliance.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of HotelNewsNow.com or its parent company, STR and its affiliated companies. Columnists published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.