Lindsey Ueberroth, CEO, Preferred Hotels & Resorts, interviewed by David Kong

Lindsey delves into the pivotal moments of her transformative journey at Preferred Hotels & Resorts, highlighting key lessons she's gleaned. She discusses the importance of integrating diverse perspectives, reflects on invaluable advice she's received, and outlines the qualities she prioritizes when interviewing executive candidates. Additionally, Lindsey provides insights on mastering effective communication, optimizing work-life harmony, and the art of networking. 

Transcript

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David Kong 0:01

Greetings. My name is David Kong. I'm the founder and CEO of DEI Advisors. We are a non profit organization dedicated to personal empowerment. Today, I'm delighted to welcome Lindsay Ueberroth. She's the CEO of Preferred Hotels and Resorts, as well as Beyond Green. Lindsay is very well known in the industry. She's been a transformative leader for Preferred. We're delighted to have you, Lindsay.

Lindsey Ueberroth 0:26

It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

David Kong 0:29

It's a pleasure to have you, lindsay, let's start with your journey as a transformative leader for preferred. A lot of people listening to this show would credit you for having grown preferred hotels and resorts so tremendously. I wonder if you can share some highlights of that success and also the factors that contributed. to that success.

Lindsey Ueberroth 0:50

Sure. Gosh, it's been 20 years now that I've been at the company and it's hard to believe that time has gone fast. But when I look back and reflect on Some key highlights. The first one, this was a little earlier on in my career was launching a brand. We launched a brand called Preferred Boutique and it was, focused on, these little gems of properties, 100 rooms or less. And so going through the whole process of launching a brand was an incredible learning experience and something I was incredibly proud of. Now, fast forward, I think probably 10 years later, we then rebranded and it was an interesting process to then move from a company who had a multi brand segment, so we had four different brands and watching what was happening in the space as we look at the hotel and hospitality industry, where out. A lot of new brands were being launched and we decided to be a bit contrarian and actually retire a bunch of our brands to collapse under once. And then we became, not a family of brands, but a branded house. And that was another incredible experience to go through, especially when you're communicating with 650 independent hotels and getting the buy in to do that. So that was another unique process just for a lot of reasons, but primarily just being a little bit contrary to what was happening in the marketplace. And another big one was actually during COVID which as we all know, was such a challenging time for the hotel and hospitality industry. And that was when we had just acquired a sustainability leadership company with the intention of launching a brand that really focused on sustainable leadership in the hotel space. So to, to make the decision to move ahead with launching a brand in the middle of a global pandemic was was quite a journey. And one that I'm. So thrilled that we did because it was a bright spot during a lot of what was happening and I feel like it gave us A bit of an edge to not just hunker down and stop and wait for this to end, but really to invest in something that we know is important to our industry in general. So those, there's a three big highlights, and I think all of them were just based on having a bit of courage of conviction about what is the brand stand for in terms of quality where we want to sit in terms of, being a leader in the independent space and not being too worried about what the competitors were doing, but really focused on what we wanted to do and how we were going to differentiate, which sometimes can be a challenge. It makes people feel really uncomfortable.

David Kong 3:08

That's a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing those highlights. And I want to compliment you for being so strategic and innovative over the years. You were very quick to Adapt to what's going on. You also had in mind to differentiate the company in so many different ways. And you focus on quality. I was a general manager at Hyatt and there was a tough competitive of ours at that time. It was a preferred hotel. It was the Oakbrook Hills golf resort.

Lindsey Ueberroth 3:34

Okay. And

David Kong 3:34

that was tough competition. So actually from a very early time, I have gotten to know your company and I have high admiration for you.

Lindsey Ueberroth 3:45

I must admit the chains keep us on our toes. So it's good. Competition's good. I always tell people that.

David Kong 3:51

Yeah, it is. Now, what are some of the most important lessons that you've learned on your journey?

Lindsey Ueberroth 3:59

I'm not just my overall journey as a leader. Um, early on I think I made the mistake of thinking that I had to have all the answers. That it was my job. When you're the leader you have to know all the answers. And I've learned obviously over time and with a lot of experience that is not the case. It's not my job to have the answers. It's my job to, I think to look at a couple of key things. And one is I think my greatest gift is to be able to hire really talented people and surround yourself with talented people in each of the areas that you need to succeed in and give them the authority and autonomy. To do what they do best. And I look at my job as being maybe the tiebreaker or the decision maker. When, not everybody necessarily agrees. And I'm there to remove obstacles. And I'm there to to be a relationship builder. But, I've definitely learned surrounding myself With really talented people is it is the best thing that I don't have to have all the answers, but I need to have people who can provide me with with feedback and objective perspectives. And then that helps me ultimately make decisions when that needs to be the case. I've certainly learned you have to remain curious continually challenging myself. I With each of the things I talked about, there was that, that moment in time where you got, okay, we accomplished it, but then you're just starting all over again, right? There's never a kind of a, an end point. So that, that, that constant, curiosity of, okay, what's next? How do we evolve this? How can we be better? There's never just an end point, right? And that better than anybody. There's always, there's always an end point. The yard the yardstick keeps moving and then I think also importantly is failure is inevitable and I tell people it's so we want to celebrate successes But it's okay to fill You celebrate failures too because it gives you the time reflect and say what did we do wrong? And how can we never repeat that and I just feel like it in some ways accelerates it accelerates success after that, because You're able for whatever reason to look at failure a little bit differently if you're able to say, okay, that's okay But now what? So those are all I think Things that I've had to get comfortable with over time that I tell people failure is okay. It's how we respond to it. That's not right. We have to respond to it in a good manner

David Kong 6:04

Thanks for sharing those wonderful lessons along your journey. I totally agree with you. For a lot of people who became leaders initially, they thought they needed to have all the answers because When they were coming up the ladder, they were expected to have all the answers, but then once they become a leader It's much more important to put together a team that would have the answers rather than you having to have all the answers. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. That's a very important point. I also like what you said about curiosity because I have always felt that if you want to be innovative, you have to be curious. And that's how you learn. And this last point that you made about challenges being inevitable, and those are wonderful opportunities. Let's talk about that a little bit. What is your general approach to challenges and how do you deal with disappointments?

Lindsey Ueberroth 6:57

Yeah, I, it's part of the process, I think that especially when you're building brands, I think that and you can have a lot of advisors and, whether it's design firms and, different people that you bring together, I think that everybody's got opinions, right? So you have to know that not everything's going to be accurate out of the gate. And I think that being comfortable with the fact that, you're going to have to pivot from time to time, and that change is inevitable, I think, is really important. I definitely think it's important, as I said, to reflect when you've had a disappointment. Okay, what went wrong? How could I have dealt with this differently? And for it to be a healthy process, not a finger pointing process, whether that's me internally with my own, my own failings as I've, or my own disappointments but most certainly as a group, like, how can you do that in a productive, healthy manner to get that, that constructive criticism out on the table to to move around with it. And then I think the other thing is too, when I think of disappointments, I think of maybe we've had a customer that's left us. And, there's easy customers and there's more challenging customers. And I also have to remind myself and the team, focus on the good partners. Sometimes we put a lot of energy behind the disappointments, right? And it's a mental and emotional energy about why this happened and it's not fair and it's not right. And you spend all this energy and you're saying, okay, review it, but then go focus on. The great partners go for a focus on the wins, put your energy into that. Don't spend so much energy on the disappointments and cause you can get into the spiral of it's not healthy and it's not productive. And I'm just a big believer in putting your energy behind the things that are going really well. The great partners, the great teammates, and you can be disappointed for a period of time, but make it quick and then move on and focus on the more positive areas.

David Kong 8:41

I like that very much. Especially this last point. I read an article years ago from Harvard Business Review and it talked about firing your customers and I thought that title was intriguing so I read The article and it made a lot of sense. It's exactly what you said. Sometimes you spend an inordinate amount of time and effort on people that are never going to be happy.

Lindsey Ueberroth 9:06

Exactly versus those that are good customers. Put all your energy behind them. We want more of that

David Kong 9:10

Thanks for sharing that. Now, you alluded to this earlier, you have 650 hotels and you have general managers, owners, sales and marketing professionals, operation folks that all have different opinions about how something should be done. How do you coalesce these diverse opinions and align people on your company priorities?

Lindsey Ueberroth 9:33

That's The million dollar question, right? It's it is part of what I think is fun. So, I've had a lot of great role models in my life. And so I've, when you get to watch people and see how they can do it and do it well I've tried to emulate a lot of that and it definitely starts with number one, just active listening. You really just have to be comfortable with listening instead of trying to always be thinking about what your response is. And I, I think. Active listening, whether that's internally with our own associates very important with our hotel partners, really hearing what are their priorities, what do they need so that you can respond to that when appropriate transparent communication, I think sometimes I've found over time that just being really transparent, and I think when I say that, not that people are hiding things, but in it, being comfortable with saying some of the challenging things, but doing it in a thoughtful manner is important. We try to create a lot of opportunity for providing input in a safe place that takes a lot of time in organizations. And it's been something that. We've worked on quite a bit in our organization because being in a trusting environment is the only way it works, right? So how can you allow people to say what's on their mind and not have them feel that they're going to be admonished for that's their opinion and that's okay. So we spend a lot of time on creating opportunities within our organization to share feedback and give feedback. Two good examples. So every month with my president, we do something called the what's update. So everybody from around the globe can dial in and we go over all of our corporate goals where we stand on certain initiatives, we'll invite different departments in. And so it's a great way for us to share information, allow for questions. I think it's a good way for everybody to know how the company is doing. We also just partnered with a new company called Empower to do an associate opinion survey that's anonymous and confidential and taking all that feedback and then being able to communicate back to the organization to say here's the top three things that we heard, here's what we're going to do and here's the time frame in which we're going to do that, I think helps foster a lot of that trust and allows people to to get aligned and feel that there's, That sort of culture, but then I'm just a huge fan of celebrating successes because then everybody it gets people aligned and big and little I think that's super important is to celebrate success and everybody knows, you know what the priorities are and we're all in this. We're all on the same team here. So those are a couple examples of things that we do but it's been it's a lot It's a lot of work, but it pays off.

David Kong 11:57

That's really wonderful advice. I appreciate your sharing that. Improving communications in a company through these bi- weekly calls where everyone can dial in and ask questions, sharing company priorities is a very good way to engage people. Also like what you did about the survey company, helping you solicit feedback and the way that you're respectful and humble and accepting the feedback and doing something about it and showing people that their feedback matters and you develop plans. That's a wonderful thing to do. People feel much more engaged and trusting because of that. So thanks for sharing those tips. Wonderful. Now, what's your advice to someone who is working really hard, but still struggles with his or her career?

Lindsey Ueberroth 12:47

That's a great question. Because I do get to talk to a lot of people that maybe are a little frustrated with where they're at in their career. I try to use the advice of go back to a time in your career or your life. When you were really excelling, when you really were like, I'm happy with what I'm doing, I'm successful, I'm, I feel very confident and reflect on what you were doing, where you were at what were the sort of the practices and routines that you had in place and how could you get yourself back to that? Because sometimes I think a lot of it just has to do with reframing And then what are the, I do believe in the stop, start, continue also are there things that right now maybe you should stop doing that are going to make your life a little bit more productive or move that forward and what are things, it's all about setting priorities, but I think if you can go back to that place where you were really at the peak you're like, I was at my best. What was I doing? Who was I, communicating with? And I think that's always a good process to reframe how to get yourself back to that positive part. And then obviously mentors, going and finding people within your organization or outside of your organization to be your mini board of directors to, I think, help objectively work with you in areas of, What, where exactly are you struggling to be able to give you some objective feedback, constructive criticism and help you, because half the time we're just, we're overly critical of ourselves. So sometimes you need that sort of outside personal board of directors to, to help you. Navigate and see through the forest a little bit better because I think most people are much harder on themselves and sometimes we just get in our own way.

David Kong 14:30

So true. A lot of us are so hard on ourselves. I'm one of those people.

Lindsey Ueberroth 14:34

We are our worst critics. So that's, it's a challenge.

David Kong 14:40

And I like what you said about pivoting and reminding ourselves that we were successful and going back to what made us successful. And personal board of directors, I like that very much. We all need a personal board of directors, people that we can trust. And somebody mentioned A place where it's like the bat cave where you can go and hide and have someone listen to you and offer you advice and encouragement. That is so important. I totally agree with you. Now, you mentioned mentors earlier. I was wondering, what is the best advice that you've received? Your dad, Peter Hubroth, is a legend, and so many of us look up to him, and he's mentored so many people, and no doubt, You've benefited from this wisdom. What is the best advice you've heard from him?

Lindsey Ueberroth 15:30

Yeah Peter's my uncle they're both great mentors though. This is a funny story, but I will start with my uncle because I remember early on. I think I'd only been out of college a couple of years and he was in the same office as me and he. Asked me to come down and meet with him. And I walked down, I think I was thinking about going to business school at the time, and he said, why do you wanna go to business school? And I said, because I, I wanna run a company. I wanna be in business. And I remember him looking at me and the first thing he said is, you should never walk into a meeting. Without a pad of paper and a pen to be ready to take notes, it shows that you're prepared and you're actively listening to the person who's asked to meet with you. And then he pulled out the newspaper and asked me if I could give three headlines of what was on the front page of any newspaper. I failed that test too. And he says, you need to be Aware of what's happening in your world locally and globally to be successful and in the business world, Lindsay. And like I said, it was just one of those things. I remember just leaving with my tail tucked behind, and it's just leaving and thinking so simple. And to this day, I, I. My uncle stills across the street. I still walk over to his office with a pad of paper and a pen, I don't think i've ever written anything down, but i'm ready and I sure you know We'll have read the headlines on the newspaper but really simple things and to him again It was you know, and my father I would say is aligned in the same way of he's always been a big believer in You know listen a lot more than you speak His other big thing was never be afraid to ask questions. He said, how many times have you gone into a meeting and there's so many people that never ask a question and then they leave. And then there are, everybody's talking on the sidelines, he's you should never be afraid to ask a question. He's that's the only way you're going to get to the root of problems or really learn. It goes back to this being curious side of it. And and my father in particular is an incredibly humble man who also taught me that kindness is not a weakness and that there is a way. To be kind in business. And he's one of the few people I know that could fire people and they're still friends and there's, it is just this, it's always about the approach, right? And I've just always said those are silly little things and some of 'em are sound overly practical, but you really realize if you just listen and you're kind and it helps you make good sound decisions and. Treat people with respect. At the end of the day, everybody wants to feel respected and heard. And I think that, those are incredibly important in in being a leader, being able to just listen and sometimes hear not things that you want to hear, but it's the only way that you can improve,

David Kong 18:04

So I heard you talk about being curious, practicing active listening skills and being humble, respectful, and kind. Are there other qualities that you will look for when you hire people to join your executive committee?

Lindsey Ueberroth 18:20

Obviously a strategic thinker... somebody who's resilient. A question I ask is, tell me about a time when something didn't go what happened? How did you deal with. I think it's important just to see how people Deal with adversity. I look for a sense of humor. I think people with a great sense of humor are incredibly intelligent. As leaders, it's important to bring levity and humor into what we do. We've spent too much time at work to not have fun every once in a while. I'm looking for people that have an entrepreneur spirit. People who are thinking in the perspective of if this were my company how would I deal with this and I think that's so important because it's a skill set that allows people to take the right calculated risks within your organization. So it's something I'm looking for. Not somebody who just wants to be told what to do, but somebody who really is akin to I want to run this as if it were my own, in the sense of being respectful about how do we grow revenue and how do we manage costs?

David Kong 19:19

I love that. I too like to hire people that would take that entrepreneurial approach to things as if they own the business. Absolutely love that. Now you have a very hectic travel schedule. Your hotels are all over the world and you attend a lot of meetings and that takes you away from home. How do you balance the demands of work? versus your personal needs.

Lindsey Ueberroth 19:47

I call it the ebb and flow. So I've learned that there's going to be the busy times and I, I prepare for that. And, but when I do have downtime I focus very heavily on, on self care, so having that routine when you come back to make sure that you're, physically, mentally and emotionally taking care of yourself, I think is really important. The other thing that I've learned over time, and this was something, gosh, years ago when I actually worked with a professional coach, I set up routines for myself. So like on Sundays, I tend to get myself organized for the week. I'm one of these people that does little routines before I go to bed at night, like getting the coffee ready for the morning, little micro things. I learned a lesson years ago because I was sending a lot of emails and working over the weekend. And I found out that was giving people a lot of anxiety because they felt that I wanted an answer over the weekend. So I've also learned all those little things Work both ways, right? So I can get organized on the Sunday, but I don't need to send out 100 emails to everybody. It's going to create anxiety, so it's creating those little boundaries and those routines. that reflect what you hope everybody else is doing with their lives. I'm also a big proponent of, taking your vacation. And I just went on a great vacation and I told people if it's really critical, call me, I don't want to be on my email. I really need to regroup and recharge. And we have to practice what we preach, right? So go take your 10 day, two week vacation and really disconnect and tell people how they can get in touch with you. If you have a great team, you don't have to worry about that as much.

David Kong 21:17

So true. So many of us thinks it's important that we be present at work and we don't think about recharging ourselves. And you're right, when you come back from vacation, you feel refreshed and reinvigorated. You're actually far more effective. Now, Lindsay, I've listened to you speak, you're always so thoughtful, insightful, and so engaging. Love listening to you. And I know you're a very good public speaker as well. What advice can you offer the audience on how one can improve their communication skills?

Lindsey Ueberroth 21:49

I don't know about being a great public speaker. I'm still one of those people that gets a lot of anxiety about getting up on, on stage. But, I have so many people that I've admired and looked up to that are great communicators and you look at their style. And so I'm a big fan of, just emulating people that you respect. I do believe a lot of it just comes back to what I've said a lot, which is just good listening skills. When it comes to public speaking, I have definitely learned that practice and recording yourself. As much as I hate it. I do not like watching myself, but it does teach you your, the little tics and nuances that you can have and realizes maybe where you might be stumbling over something. So you'd say, okay, that's clearly not coming off my tongue in the right way. I need to regroup. I've learned that I don't do well with a bunch of slides. I'm better without slides. So you learn these little things over time that work for you. I think that's important. I think the gift of storytelling. We've seen a lot of people speak the ability to have a personal story that can connect with people can get that message across 10 times faster than than a bunch of bullet points on a powerpoint. To me, it's been a constant evolution of Trial and error learning what I'm most authentic with so I don't do all this overly scripted things. And I really need to make sure that it's who I am that I can be authentic and I'm not trying to be somebody else. I do have a lot of respect for people that I've watched over the years and say wow they do it with energy and passion that storytelling ability that just delivers the message. That's from a public speaking. From a personal speaking, I think it's being able to listen and absorb and be authentic.

David Kong 23:26

I think being authentic is the key word, in both trying to engage with other people as well as in public speaking. When you speak from the heart, your speech is going to be wonderful. You're so right in not trying to copy somebody else and not being too scripted. Otherwise, you come across as being contrived and stiff and not natural. And you're also right that when people talk to you, they like to be heard. So when you are practicing active listening skills, you're showing not only the respect, but that you get it. And you avoid a lot of arguments as a result. It's a great way to engage with people and connect with people. Thanks for sharing those tips. You've been a very successful CEO for a long time now. I was wondering, given all that you've learned and experienced, what advice would you give to your younger self as if you were just starting?

Lindsey Ueberroth 24:23

I think the first one, which I said, which is you don't have to have all the answers. Be the person that's willing to raise your hand and get involved in something. I think I did this, but I wish I had done even more of it earlier on in my career, which is to say, I'm really interested in doing this. How can I get involved? So putting yourself in the position to be somebody that people go to when they're looking at new projects. Definitely practicing better self care earlier on in my career. I'm now a much healthier person. How incredibly important it is to really take care of yourself, think physically, mentally, emotionally, creating that space. I wish I'd done that earlier in my career. I think just be kind to yourself. As I said, we can be our biggest critics. I wake up every day. I have two words I like to say, which is joy and gratitude. I want to live with my life with joy and gratitude. With that comes being grateful for the gift I've been given of being able to lead and the life that I get to have and the people I get to work with, but also just to have joy and to be joyful. You also have to be kind to yourself and kind to others., I think just living your days with those two, whatever your, whatever it is, but just keeping it simple, I think. It helps you keep those priorities front in mind personally and professionally.

David Kong 25:34

Yeah, you're so right. In fact, I was asked the same question, and I said almost the same thing. Being kind to ourselves.

Lindsey Ueberroth 25:43

Yeah. And

David Kong 25:44

feeling that sense of We're all tough

Lindsey Ueberroth 25:46

enough.

David Kong 25:48

And being grateful and content, to bring joy to those around you also. That's so important. Thanks for sharing those tips. Sure. Now we're coming to the end of our time. So I want to ask you one last question. This show is about self empowerment. Can you share your parting advice on self empowerment?

Lindsey Ueberroth 26:10

I heard a great quote, how do you move your intention to action? We all often say, this is my intention, but how do you actually go from that to making it reality? I'm definitely a big believer and you have to set goals, right? You have to set goals that are realistic and that you can monitor. Part of that is creating routines around that. Because my routine used to be having no routine and that was an exercise in futility. Having a routine that works for you, I think is really important. Practicing self care so that you have the space to do those things. Never stop being curious and I think the other one is being responsible for your actions. At the end of the day, Um, I do believe you have to walk the walk, right? And so being responsible for doing that taking responsibility for your actions, I think leads to that reality of making what your intention is a reality. That would be my advice.

David Kong 26:58

I love that. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your wisdom with us. Your insightful comments are so motivational and inspirational. Thank you again for being on our show, Lindsay. It was

Lindsey Ueberroth 27:11

a pleasure. Always good to see you.

David Kong 27:13

Yeah, same here. And for our audience, if you enjoyed this show, we hope you would join us on our website, DEIAdvisors. org. We hope to see you there. Thanks again, Lindsay.

Lindsey Ueberroth 27:25

All right. Take care.

David Kong 27:26

Thank you.