Before I wrote a word of my keynote for the Nevada Hotel & Lodging Association’s Women in Leadership Conference, I sat down with 15 women leading teams across nearly every major hotel and resort on the Strip. I asked them directly: what’s weighing you right now?
The answers were remarkably consistent. Self-doubt came up again and again, even from women who had clearly earned their seats at the table. What I heard underneath it all was an energy problem, not a time management problem.
Here are the three shifts I shared in response:
- Separate fact from the story. When something goes wrong, write down what your inner critic is saying, then split it into two columns: what actually happened, and the conclusions you’ve drawn about yourself. Usually, the first column is short, and the second one is doing all the damage. Work with the fact. Learn from it, fix it, and move on. Your inner critic is not your inner coach.
- Lead with curiosity, not a script. Motivation looks different for every person on your team. In your next one-on-one, skip the status update and ask: what part of your job do you forget is even work? Then find a way to give them more of it.
- Let the team solve the problem it’s living with. Take one recurring problem your team complains about and bring it to them without a solution attached. Ask what they’d do with no budget increase. The people closest to the problem usually understand it best, and their answer is often better than what you would have paid for.
None of these require a larger budget or more headcount. Just a different lens on the energy already in the room.
Thank you to our guest blogger today, Rebecca Ahmed with Energetic Impact.
