“The Leadership Perspective” is a series of articles designed to assist millennials and emerging leaders with navigating difficult situations. Each week, successful business leaders provide targeted, actionable advice to enhance your perspective and improve your leadership skills.
This week’s article features three exceptional hospitality leaders:
Chris Cigna, Vice President Sales at Groups360
Meg Fasy, Principle at FazeFWD Sponsorship Marketing
Lenny Talarico, Director of Corporate Sales at Blueprint Studios
In my household growing up, the word “bored” and the concept of boredom were not allowed. I considered it a sign of disrespect to my parents, who provided my brother and I with endless activities and abundant resources for entertainment. Sometimes, my parents planned options for us to choose from. However, it was often left up to us to create our own activities and adventures.
This philosophy has become an invaluable tool in my career, especially as we work in an increasingly “do-it-yourself” era of professional development. Most organizations no longer offer formal professional development programs, resulting in gaps in skillsets, blind spots, and stagnant growth. In reality, a myriad of learning opportunities exist both within your role and outside of it. Actively taking advantage of these opportunities can foster individual growth and development. Too often, many employees, especially those in entry- and mid-level roles, fail to recognize these opportunities and therefore don’t exploit them, which can lead to decreasing motivation, and dare I say, boredom.
To put it simply, you must manage your own professional development. With insight and advice from three successful hospitality leaders, this article outlines five things you can do to take control of your career development.
1. Get a Notebook
Growing up, I really wanted to get better at basketball and so, I found a notebook. Every week, in this notebook, I would write my strengths on one page and my weaknesses on the next. From this, I developed a workout plan focused on improving the skills that limited my performance and maintaining those I had already mastered. With my notebook close by, I then went out and practiced in my driveway.
To this day, I use this model for professional development in my career. I still list the skills that I want to improve and those that I want to maintain each week. Chris Cigna extends this practice suggesting to, “create a roadmap for yourself that generally outlines the type of advancement (short and longer term) that is desired.” In tracking your specific goals and skills, you are starting an honest conversation with yourself, which is essential to your individual learning and growth.
2. Seek Feedback
Learning is a lifelong process. High performers are constantly seeking feedback and making adjustments as part of their routine. Chris shares, “when talking shop with my leadership, counterparts, and team members, I write down concepts and ideas that are shared conversationally and then test them situationally to see what works best. If something proves to be successful, I then have another tool in my toolbox to help me move things forward.”
Another option is to start the conversation yourself, especially if your boss doesn’t offer the feedback you seek freely. Initiate a regular 1:1 meeting in which you share and review one success from the week and then ask for advice on one element you can improve. Write the feedback you receive in your notebook – and don’t be afraid of the constructive criticism. Negative feedback can always be turned into a positive lesson. Work towards sharing your goals with your boss and continue to engage so that you stay on track to meet them.
3. Pursue a Mentor
Mentorship is especially important for those who desire to improve, but don’t have formal training opportunities in their organizations. Meg Fasy says, “I am a big proponent of having a mentor(s). If you know someone that you feel is savvy, smart and you can connect with, then ask them to be your mentor…be prepared to discuss what your goals are and be transparent on what you need from them.”
You can also think about the fact that every organization has senior leaders who want to nurture and develop talent within their company. Don’t hesitate to reach out to the role model(s) within your organization and schedule a time to meet. Do your research, know their background, and prepare good questions. If they offer to help, plan another time to keep the conversation going.
4. Become an Expert
Improving your skills and developing your expertise is integral to your professional development. For Chris, “I set aside time on a weekly basis to self-educate by reading developmental articles made available by Harvard Business Review and other feeds that come through LinkedIn.”
As Meg so effectively puts it, “I learn best from talking with people. I have friends in various areas of the industry that when I want to learn something, I reach out to them to talk it through. As an example, I wanted to learn as much as I could about sponsorships in a digital format. I first reached out to a few of my event marketing friends that work for tech companies to see what they were doing, what challenges they were facing and if they had seen anyone doing it well.” Only after gathering a majority of the information she needs from her network does she act on their recommendations and begin her independent research.
No matter your learning style, you can open doors for yourself by being curious and asking questions. Begin by actively seeking and discovering where your department or company needs help. Perhaps it is assisting your team with a new software integration, guiding a virtual transition, or developing a more efficient process. No matter the issue, the point is to learn about and become an expert on an emerging issue within your organization. This will not only differentiate you from others in the same role, but also can propel your professional growth and lead to future career opportunities.
5. Spark Attention
As Lenny Talarico so perfectly states, “volunteer, volunteer, volunteer. Early in my event career I became involved in a number of industry associations. I served on those local chapter boards, I sat on a local community government board, several non-profit boards and even my HOA board… this allowed me to gain experience, improve my skills and knowledge, and grow my personal network”.
These efforts ultimately increased his visibility within his own company. Engaging with various industry organizations “drove a tremendous amount of ‘free public relations’ to the organization employing me at the time. As my employer began to recognize [my] benefit to their bottom line, measured through business referrals, award recognition, inclusion in publications and speaking opportunities, departmental policies related to industry engagement became a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) by which we measured other employees throughout the company.” Simply put, your involvement in external and internal organizations, industry associations, community groups, and/or learning opportunities increases your visibility not only throughout your industry but within your own company.
In many ways, your career is what you make it. By taking the initiative to improve and develop the skillsets that can advance your career, you can, in the process, push “boredom” out for good.
