IAHI Leadership Institute:
“One of my best decisions.”
Kevin Hilchey
President & CEO
Lodging Host Hotel Corporation
Being decisive is a good thing if you’re the leader of a hotel
company, right? That’s what I always believed, because after all,
we have to make hundreds of decisions every day, and the sooner you make
them, the sooner things get done. But one of the most valuable things
I learned at the IAHI Leadership Institute is that what’s important
is not how quickly you can make decisions, it’s how well you climb
the decision ladder.
The Leadership Institute was one of the best educational experiences
I’ve had since I worked on my MBA more than 25 years ago. It helped
me step back into the world of academia, and take a critical look at
my organization, its structure, and my leadership style.
For example, when it comes to making decisions that affect my business,
I tended to act quickly, based on what I knew from previous experiences
or events, But the Leadership Institute taught me that decisions have
to be based on data, because every situation is different. If you climb
the decision ladder too quickly, you can overlook data that might lead
you to a different conclusion.
This made me take a second look at the way I make decisions. The Leadership
Institute helped me look at difficult management situations in a more
academic way, collect more data, and analyze it more thoroughly. It also
reminded me of the tools I have to recognize others’ leadership
and communication styles to better understand the other side of the discussion.
At the same time, it helped me interact better with my team and involve
them more, so they have a sense of ownership in decisions. This is one
of the most significant changes in my leadership style since attending
the Leadership Institute.
Another significant change is the way I look at turnover — one
of our biggest challenges as an industry, and as a company. Because of
our high turnover rate, we look at employees as replaceable. But other
companies don’t. At the Leadership Institute, I had a great opportunity
to learn from others outside of the hotel business, whether it was through
the instructors, case studies, or other executives attending training
at GE’s Leadership Development Center. Discovering how they view
employee tenure compared to our industry was a real eye opener. They
heavily invest in their employee development and training. They use their
people assets the best way they can. And when they put together teams,
they make sure they have the right mix of personalities, skills and styles
to accomplish their goals. In fact, when they have employee turnover,
they see it as a failure on their part — not just part of every
day business.
Besides learning from those outside the hotel business, I also had the
opportunity to interact with and learn from people who are leaders within
the hotel industry — from the IAHI and IHG. After spending four
days together, we now have a relationship that will last our entire careers.
When it comes down to it, I believe that having the opportunity to attend
the Leadership Institute says something about IHG and the IAHI. It says
that they’re collectively interested in and willing to invest in
the development of their franchisees — and not just select franchisees,
but those across a broad spectrum of owners, both large and small. To
me, it was a positive expression of their belief in our ability to make
the company a better place for everyone.
In closing, I’d like to tell my fellow franchisees that if you
have the opportunity to attend the Leadership Institute, take it. I wish
I’d done it sooner. It made a significant impact on me, my employees,
and my business. And we’re all better for it.
Kevin Hilchey is the President and CEO of Lodging Host Hotel Corporation.
He has served on the IAHI’s Southern Regional Committee and the
Holiday Inn Express Brand committee for the last six years. Lodging
Host owns and operates 14 hotels, including 6 IHG brands with 3 more
projects under construction, including one IHG brand.
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