Jeff Higley discusses how he discovered his aptitude for leadership at a young age and how a combination of both being his genuine self and knowing his stuff weaves through many of his leadership styles and successes. He shares how he tackles risks and how he works hard to develop skills needed for leadership which don't come as naturally to him. He also talks about his advice to his younger self and how loving what he does helps him manage work/life balance.
Jeff Higley discusses how he discovered his aptitude for leadership at a young age and how a combination of both being his genuine self and knowing his stuff weaves through many of his leadership styles and successes. He shares how he tackles risks and how he works hard to develop skills needed for leadership which don't come as naturally to him. He also talks about his advice to his younger self and how loving what he does helps him manage work/life balance.
I am Rachel Humphrey with d e I advisors. We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering personal success in the hospitality industry, and I am delighted to welcome to the show today, an incredibly well known hospitality industry executive. Jeff Higley, the president of the B H N Group. Jeff, welcome to the show.
Jeff Higley:Thank you Rachel. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to see you. We don't cross paths enough, so even though it's digital, it's great to chat with you. I'm looking forward to it.
Rachel Humphrey:And for anyone out there who's not familiar, Jeff, with your bio or background, I would encourage them to visit d e i advisors.org and check out your bio there. You and I are gonna spend about 30 minutes together today talking about your path to hospitality, industry leadership, and some of the lessons you've learned along the way. So we're gonna jump right in. One of the things that I personally love about our industry so much is that everybody's path, everybody's journey is so incredibly different. You and I have had a very. Different or unique path, but yet we've ended up in similar places with similar networks in a similar industry. So tell us a little bit about Jeff's journey to leadership and how you got to the role that you have today.
Jeff Higley:It's a it's a long and winding road, so I'll try to be brief. When I was a young kid I had incredible role models, my parents. But I think it, yeah the women in my life were incredible role models and still are to this day. My mother was very strong work worked, had seven kids, worked through the whole time. My, my grandmother was a Rosie the Riveter. And talks about when. She was the only person that walked into a bar afterwards. She's the only female. And just just taking that role of being themselves and being leaders in their own right. I have five very strong sisters who have very strong personalities and leaders. My wife, my three daughters. It just goes on and on. That kind of taught me just a leadership role. A. And be aware of everything in your surroundings. I thought I had leadership qualities from the very beginning, from, I was senior class president in high school very active in college with the newspaper and just our class. Got out of school and knew that I was destined, the lead in some. And so became a sports editor, covered sports forever. So I got to see Alpha personalities in, day in and day out. Interviewed many coaches, successful coaches and players n b a major league baseball, football, college, football. And high school, you really don't realize the leadership abilities that high school coaches have because of the influence that they have on such a variety of people and young people, very influential people. My career, started out in the newspaper business and daily newspapers. It worked my way up eventually left sports and became a the managing editor of a magazine that still exists. It's called Hotel Management, but now it was a hotel in motel management back then and became the managing editor. So led the team in terms of, just producing the magazine. And it was a, at the time, in, in late, mid, late nineties, that. There was no internet and we had a big staff just cranking out a lot of copy and the career just kept growing and growing From there, I went on to s t r became, Le had a leadership role there and very influential in my life. All of them there, particularly Randy Smith, mark Lao, Amanda Height, who's still there as the president. They all let me do my. And, my thing tends to be letting people do their things right? You outline what you need them to do and what you'd like them to do and then let them go. So that path to leadership then became when I had the opportunity to to join North Star Travel Group and the bhn Group, north Star's, the parrot company to lead this Events company. And so I guess the common denominator that leadership journey has always been, I just believe that I knew what I was doing. Even though all the time, there were times that I didn't. And, but at those times I wasn't afraid to ask and I'm still not afraid to ask. And I know we'll talk a little bit about some of those qualities as we go along here today. But I think that journey, it was long, it was very diverse, it was very just opportunistic in the sense that if I had an opportunity to do something, Yeah, why not? Let's do it. It sounds fun, it sounds enriching. It sounds an opportunity to grow. So I think that's a key to any journey to leadership is identifying, opportunities and leaping at the ones that that sound like a good chance.
Rachel Humphrey:I love that. And you've talked about so many topics in that introduction that I definitely wanna cover. One of the things that's interesting, and you and I have not talked about this previously, is there's a direct correlation for women, especially between participating in youth and high school sports and ending up in the C-suite. So your comment about the impact that coaches have as leaders, there is something that really resonates with me and you and I are definitely gonna talk about that some other time. I wanna talk a little bit about taking. Cuz one of the things we hear from a lot of leaders is that their scariest risks have resulted in some of their greatest growth as leaders. And you mentioned both pivoting from sports to the hotel industry, which would've meant leaving the comforts of one subject matter that you knew very well, your connections, your contacts moving to another. And then when you switch over to the B H N group on the conference side as part of North Star getting. A complete pivot from journalism there maybe, or the editorial world. How do you tackle risks? How do you decide which ones are worth taking? Do you consider yourself a risk taker in general?
Jeff Higley:Yes, I'm a risk taker. I in general they may be varying degrees of risk. I probably stay away from, the big leaps. I'm a little too too much of a I don't know, freight of cat's the right word for that, but that's what I call Taking to me as a calculated proposition. Obviously you have to weigh the pros and the cons. In my particular case, I was fortunate enough to position myself where the risks Cy worked was taking in my career moves. Were two very respected organizations. And that lessens the risk because there's a trust factor. And when you build that trust factor with something, I think your risk your aversion to risk just gets reduced greatly because there's a comfort level there. Yes, while I I tend to take risks. I also tend to take my time to make those decisions. I think that's probably. One of the attributes that sometimes endears me to people and sometimes makes people frustrated with me. I'm a classic. Let me sleep on that. Guy because I wanna make sure I'm thinking it all the way through. So it may not be a a decision when it involves particularly a bigger risk may not be a decision that I make Snap, but with all of that said, it still boils down to what you feel in your gut. And, I had the pleasure. I've interviewed him many times, but. Sebastian Baine from Accor. Okay. And this was at our high cap conference last year. And, I asked him a similar question and he responded. He said, I think with my stomach interesting. If it feels right in my gut, in my core. Then I'm gonna go with that. So he and I, I agree with that a hundred percent. That's a lot of where that risk decision making takes place. It's okay, it feels right here, so I'm gonna go with it. It's, and it, sometimes it is a risk, sometimes it isn't. But I feel the same way hiring people, generally in the first few minutes, you're gonna take that risk and hire somebody because it feels right in
Rachel Humphrey:the. I definitely go with my gut in the hiring side as well, and I think what you said is interesting. You think things through, but you don't make snap decisions about it. But I like what you said too about taking a risk in going to reputable places, takes a little bit of that edge off. That's great advice. Anyone who's listened to the show before knows that I love to share why I have asked. Certain guests to join us. Something that I have learned about you or heard from you that has really impacted my own style of leadership in the industry. And I remember asking somebody when you made the decision to pivot over to the V H N group, are you surprised by Jim's successor? And they said Absolutely not. Jeff has the deepest and broadest relationships of anybody else in this industry. And that really resonated with me because it was a reminder to me that relationship building can impact our trajectory in ways that we don't even think about. It may not be closing a deal or getting someone to respond to an interview or something else, but it can really. Be a huge part of our personal brand or who we are. Talk a little bit about how you network, how you have built those relationships that are now legendary in our industry. And what advice you would give to others that see that as maybe a challenge that they have in their own leadership development.
Jeff Higley:First of all, it's glad, I'm glad to find out exactly why you invited me. I appreciate that. I'll go backwards in, in the way you asked the question. I think, the advice that I give, number one is be yourself. I think, I hope that I portray an image of this is what you get and I'm gonna be this way. Whether it's whether we're having an argument over. Something I wrote or, a philosophy that we have at B H N or whether we're agreeing over and talking sports over a beer. I think the more that you can be yourself, the more that you are yourself around people, the less you have to go, wait a minute, what do, how do I have to act around CTO or Jeff Belotti versus, a GM at a hotel? To me, it's I'm gonna act the same way. That's all I know. I think that genuine approach to building a relationship is really the essential element to it all. And, I mean with my, my career being so oriented in the early days with media, the other thing with relationships is as long as you're fair to people, they are okay. Even if you have to write something that's a little, maybe not completely flattering for them. So telling both sides of the story in that regard was always my mantra. I'm, I'll always call you, you may not want to talk, but I'll always call you and ask you for the other, for what your take is on this. So you know, that genuine open approach has always been. Has always worked for me and this is a hospitality that embraces that kind of personality. It really does. Cuz these are people all the, all the way through. If I'm on stage and. A little bit of a ham comes out, that's okay. People maybe roll their eyes, but they go, yeah, that's ley, we expected from him. I, that genuine approach is I think what sells people. You don't, I don't have to be anything. I'm not because people know what
Rachel Humphrey:I am. I love that and I love being your genuine self and not having to be somebody that you're not in building those relationships makes them. Much deeper than if you are pretending to be something that you're not in order to develop the relationship. You just mentioned being on stage and I, as I had the opportunity to speak with Stephanie Ricka the other day of Hotel News now, and she says, I picked print journalism and yet I view her as one of the most. Dynamic public speakers that we have in our industry, especially on the moderating side. Has public speaking come easily to you? Same type of thing in choosing print journalism where you're not imagining a future of being a public speaker. Much like relationship building, public speaking is one of the biggest hurdles that a lot of people feel that may impact whether or not they become the leaders they wanna.
Jeff Higley:Yeah, it's, it's a tough thing. I, whether I'm speaking in front of one person or probably the biggest crowd is maybe three, 4,000. I'm a wreck side. Total wreck on when I'm on stage, and people are like, really? You don't look like it? I couldn't, believe me, I'm a wreck. But I think it goes back to what I was talking about before. I'm, there's a comfort level of, Hey, this is what I am. And I've, and people ask me a lot, what's your advice about public speaking, the Old Brady Bunch theory of you imagine everybody in their underwear and, that relaxes you. And that that, that's not for me. Basically it boils down to me. If you know your stuff, you're gonna be fine. So do your homework. Speak about what you really know. Don't try to talk about something in depth that maybe you don't, maybe you touch on it and, admit, yeah, I know a little bit about that, but that's not my, my, my forte. Just, I think that's an important element to it because if you know it, it shows, there's a confidence in you. It, there are some speakers, Jann Fry tag from CoStar. He's just a fabulous speaker because he knows his stuff and I learned a lot from him while I was there, just watching him and there are many others. Many others. It's it's amazing the the vibe you get from a speaker who knows they're comfortable with their subject matter. So that's always a key thing. And, in my case also, I will admit, I do use a confidence monitor sometimes on stage with with our events to make sure I don't miss anything. But, just trying. Again, inserting some of your personality into your public speaking is really important too, because then people can relate to you as a genuine person that they can relate to, right? You're not some. W statue up there trying to to espouse these things. You speak what, you speak in confidence with confidence, and you speak from your heart and people can relate to that. And of course the other advantage is if you're on stage and there's a bunch of bright lights and you don't see who's out there, you can't see them. So you're like, okay, maybe the room's empty. I don't know, but I'm gonna, that puts. But yeah, there's still, it's still and it and I talk to a lot of people in in, in green rooms and speaker ready rooms, and it really is fascinating how many people are very nervous regardless of their their experience speaking, their stature in the industry. Nobody wants to go out there and mess up. There's that nervous nervousness that that you have to.
Rachel Humphrey:No, I think knowing your content preparation incredibly critical. I do get incredibly nervous, which always shocks people. Whe when we talk about this a little bit I disagree with you. I don't like the bright lights because I wanna know if I'm engaging people or not, because I feed off of whether people are finding whatever I'm saying or leading valuable. And so it makes me more nervous when I can't see whether we have people's attention or not. So that's an.
Jeff Higley:Difference. Yeah, that's a fair statement. And I will say that, even with Bright Lights, you can see Yeah. Bright there's a few rows there. And one other piece of advice that was given to me early on was, scan the crowd. And find a couple people that are friendly looking to you and maybe they're nodding their head or smiling and focused on them and look at them and they're giving you reassurance all along. They may feel, they may be thinking, oh, this guy is just full of it, and, but at least their body movement, their body language is giving you. That confidence that, okay, I'm doing okay.
Rachel Humphrey:I'm doing okay. I will add too that confidence monitors are not easy to be public speaking Trump. So that's a whole skillset. You can be a great public speaker and then actually have to learn how to manage that.
Jeff Higley:Oh, especially the teleprompters man. Yeah, they, they're, they can be a little tough, but yeah. But.
Rachel Humphrey:You mentioned believing early on that you had leadership in your genes in your path, and that's, it's something that we don't hear from a lot of people as you continue to recognize that, Hey, I may be a leader someday. Certainly there were probably some skills that you came across that you did not innately have or that you knew that you would need to develop or maybe saw in others that you're like, I need. Learn a similar skill. Can you gimme an example of maybe a skill or two that you've had to work on to develop and how you went both about identifying that it was important for your leadership, but also how you went about developing it?
Jeff Higley:Absolutely. There, there's one that I still battle to this day. And and that I wanna make sure I have it the right way. It's being sometimes I have difficulty being direct with people and telling them exactly what I want to tell them because it may be a little inflammatory or it may be confrontational. I have a very difficult time with that, and it takes a lot. Of self of preparation to gear up for that. I, my, my answer to that let me rephrase that. My, my learning process for that has been to watch people. And. Understand, trying to understand the dynamic of what's going on, whether it's, directed at me or I'm involved in a meeting that people, have that personality trait that allows them to do that. And it's a it's something that you really have to push yourself to do if you don't have that natural directness. You don't wanna go overboard, but you gotta. Being firm. I'm fine with that, but there's sometimes where it's just, I don't wanna create a confrontation, even if the subject matter, might be leading to that, and that's what, I've basically, that's what, retracing some of the things that we've already talked about. It still boils down to, knowing what you're talking about being yourself. But being, clear and concise in the message. And as you can probably tell by this interview, sometimes I'm not clear and concise. I ramble a little bit. So trying to really focus on that clear and conciseness is is a big that clarity. It just, that, that's a challenge for me that I'm a lot better than I used to be, but I still, like everyone still have a ways.
Rachel Humphrey:It's incredible that being yourself and knowing your content weaves through several different aspects of your leadership for you, I think that's a really interesting thing to look at. Do you define your leadership style in any way, do you think, we hear some people say, I'm a servant leader. I'm an empathetic leader. I'm a teams first. Like at. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but is there a way that you would say, I, when I think about my leadership, I think that I am a what leader,
Jeff Higley:The first word that comes to mind. I'm a people leader. I and by people I guess that's empathy. I really put myself in the position of the people I'm leading and try to. Establish guidelines, principles that. Fit their needs, not only for work, but for non-work. I'm a big believer in the work life balance being important. It's not always there a hundred percent the way you want it. We have to work hard sometimes and. And I, you sp you speak of Stephanie and she probably will, she'll be nodding her head if she's watching this. I, I've always told people when they say, oh, can I do this? Can I take this day? Can I know I'm gonna get my pound of flesh outta you someday. So yes, please do it because there's gonna be a weekend or an evening that I'm gonna need you. Finish this project. And that to me, I think carries a lot of weight with people with a leadership style when you when they see that you're putting yourself in their position, the, the other thing that sticks with me and this comes from a leader His name's Mike Malley. He was the publisher that hired me at Hotel and Motel Management. And I knew he shared the same traits when I had applied for the job. He called me at 10 o'clock on a Friday night and and I picked up the phone. I didn't know who it was. And his work ethic was just strong. But he told me this and I've really kept it very top of mind. He's as a leader, you. You don't wanna lead a bunch of clones, you want everybody to be able to express themselves, to be themselves. There's there, there's that that thread again. You want to a, hire people that are a little bit different from you and with skill sets and personality personalities, et cetera. But when you're leading them, you try to lead them obviously in a collective way. There has to be a certain. Set of parameters you follow, but on an individual basis, when you're dealing with them one-on-one, you personalize that leadership to what? Works for them. It, being a leader, yeah. I feel like, yeah, I did do have that in my genes, but that doesn't mean it's always easy because you've gotta really think about that group setting versus the one-on-one setting and what works for some, doesn't work for others. But, the key to me is really that individuality and allowing that to take. And allowing that to shine through. Because at the end of the day, I know I, I could probably say this with certainty. I'm never the smartest guy in the room. Even with my team, I look at this and go, they got, I got a lot of smart people that I wanna learn from that even, Some of the people I'm, leading today and have led in the past 10 years, the a generation or two behind me, what they bring to the table. So you have that back and forth leadership where you know it, it's okay to learn from them and it's okay to show them that you're learning from them. So really to me, it's all about that. Focus on people that people leadership.
Rachel Humphrey:I love that. And learning from each other, regardless of our roles within companies or the industry is so important. I knew we were gonna run short on time and we will. I wanna talk, you just mentioned work life balance and certainly earlier you talked about your wife and your children. Talk a little bit about how you have managed, you've had jobs that have been very demand. From a time standpoint, but also from a travel standpoint, how have you managed? And we think about work life oftentimes only asking women, but it certainly applies to everybody. How have you really managed those two things and what are some of the lessons that you've learned along the way?
Jeff Higley:I'm not sure, I've managed that all that well to be quite frank. Do, as I say, not as I do, is it's yeah. It's a tough thing, if you really like what you're doing, work doesn't always feel like work. Especially in our industry, when you do travel you tend to be around people who. Hospitable who are friendly, who are in the same boat you are in terms of that you find commonalities and you and that makes work seem less like work. It's a very difficult thing. I, god bless my wife, who has, been, put up with my travel and, long hours for forever my kids. I think at the end of the day, it's all about when you're home You're there and you make the most of that, doing whatever you can at that moment in time to help ease the pain of the past two weeks, even if it's an hour long. Let's go up to let's go up to the beach or let's go take a drive along the lake. We live by Lake E and that's soothing. That work-life balance is a tough thing. And I guess the last thing I'll say is, find something that you really like. I'm a big sports fan. I watch a lot of sports. I try to go to sport sporting events as I can. But truth be told, like when I come back from a very. Long trip. I go to my yard, I go dig, I, it helps work out a little bit of the stress, but then you also see, the fruits of your labor with your plants and your flowers and and the like. Finding, balancing it by finding things you like both at work and at home, can help ease that. That's stress, but it doesn't mean that there's never gonna be stress, and you just have to try to manage that as best as you can.
Rachel Humphrey:I appreciate that. That's great advice. I, one of the favorite questions we ask here at d e I advisors is about advice to our younger selves. And the reason I like it so much is I think reflection is really important and we are all works in progress. We continue to grow professionally, personally, throughout our careers. What would you tell. 21 year old Jeff Higley about how things turned out or something you could have done differently or just in general about this incredible journey that you've been on.
Jeff Higley:First of all, invest in Berkshire Hathaway. Try out loud and number two, stop following the Cleveland Browns. Browns fans will appreciate that. The, I've been thinking about this question and it's a tough one to to really come to a, a one thing, one piece of advice, but I guess the it goes back to just make sure you're true to yourself. Make sure you like what you're doing. That you feel good about where the direction you're heading and. Just go with the flow. If I had changed anything about that. Yeah. There's certain things, I would've become a, maybe a little bit of a tougher leader earlier and, maybe that would've enhanced my career tr trajectory a little faster. But but all in all, I think most of the messages I would have to myself are, Hey you're you're doing okay. You're gonna do okay if you stay on the path of doing what you think is right and continue to have a little fun. Don't be afraid to have some fun.
Rachel Humphrey:I love that. You definitely have had some fun. Jeff, I wanna talk just very quickly about the motto of d e i, advisors, of course is to empower personal success. And you've given some incredible insights, some of your reflections today. What is one additional piece of advice you would offer to our listeners about either a path to leadership or empowering their own personal success?
Jeff Higley:I, I would, Find people that can help you find people that can be mentors. And that doesn't mean they have to be gray haired, 40 year industry veterans. There are people next to you in, in, if you're in a cubicle or there, there are people around you that you can, Eli. Education from, all you have to do is open your eyes and listen. And I think that's what the final message I would have is that if you're a listener, you're gonna do well. Because if you're a listener, you'll learn. And if you're a listener, you'll be able to understand what other people are thinking. And. Big human race evolution that we have going on. Trying to understand what other people are thinking is becoming more difficult every day. But the more effort you put into it, the more you're gonna get out of it. And truly, I think help yourself get a better picture of where you're at and what directions you may have available.
Rachel Humphrey:That's tremendous advice. Very powerful. Be a good listener and be a good learner. Jeff, I have appreciated personally, professionally, your leadership in the industry. The many things that I have learned from you are great collaboration in the past and continuing forward on many of the things that you're involved with. So on behalf of the d e I advisors team, just wanna thank you so much for your time today and sharing your insights with.
Jeff Higley:Thank you Rachel and and to the whole d e I team. You've got a great team and thank you for being part of it. And ditto to you. I've learned a lot from you and will continue to to do so I hope we continue to cross paths regularly.
Rachel Humphrey:I'm sure we will because one of my favorite things is always to flip the seats and get a chance to ask people the questions that are used to the ones who are doing all of the asking. But to our audience, thank you so much for taking the time to visit with us. Today, we hope that you have liked what you've heard and you will visit us at d e i advisors.org to hear from the many industry leaders who have shared their paths to leadership and the insights they've learned along the way. You can also stream all of our interviews from your favorite podcast streaming service. So with that, I say thank you so much to Jeff. Thank you so much to our audience, and we hope you'll tune in again.