Leadership And Management Challenges During A Pandemic

What influenced you to study Hotel Management? 
After graduating from high school in Scotland, I knew right away that I wanted to work in an international surrounding and in a very customer-centric business with a dynamic environment – so naturally, the idea of hospitality popped into my head. I decided to go for the 3-year apprenticeship program at Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin. It was an amazing experience, very hands-on and taught me beyond what I could have ever imagined. Still, I had the feeling that I was missing a deeper insight into the strategic, economic side of the business, which led me to search for Hotel Management courses worldwide.

Why did you choose to study at HIM? 
When doing my research, I came across many different options and alternatives around the globe, though nobody could come close to the Swiss’ renowned reputation when it came to the level of excellence in hospitality. 

 

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HIM offered a great mix within their curriculum which covered all the topics I wanted to be an expert in. I noticed right away how HIM had a very impressive and professional, yet humble approach compared to other schools in the area, which really spoke to me.

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On top of that, HIM recognized my previous hospitality degree, which meant I could focus on missing credits and subjects and was able to complete my BBA within 1.5 years.
 

What skills do you think can be gained from studying a Hospitality degree? 

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I always like to say that studying hospitality gives you a ‘360° view’ on how a business runs and processes are structured

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By combining practical and theoretical studies, you will know how every department, job and task works and interlinks because you literally have been, ‘In everybody’s shoes’ and have looked at it from every angle. This still helps me a lot in both my private and work life.



What are your daily tasks at a typical day at work in your position?
I am working for Mindspace, a boutique coworking provider, as the Senior Community Manager for 2 of their 3 Berlin locations. That basically means that I am the woman in charge of 1300 members and together with my office manager, I am leading a team of about 20 employees. Each day starts with a team meeting to sync, before we all go about our busy days. My job is a mix of team management, sales, revenue management, customer service, and operations. 

What do you enjoy most about your current position? 
I love that every day is different, there is a lot of trouble shooting and situations where you are put on the spot and have to use your intuition. 
I really enjoy the team management aspect, which was kind of new to me when starting this job 2 years ago. My team is great and hard-working, with an average age of around 30, and while we take our job very serious, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, so there is a lot of laughter.

What are the challenges in working in your current position?
I manage two locations and therefore two teams. We all work closely together, but it can be challenging to split my time equally. While I don’t like to micro-manage, I am keen to understand exactly what is going on in each building, with about 80 companies and 1300 members – impossible. But, I have learned to just accept that and I trust my team 100%. 

What do you hope to achieve in your career next? 
I am fortunate enough to say that I have enjoyed every step and job that I have done in the past 10 years of my career. Each step has developed into the next and I have trusted the process of building my network and staying open to new opportunities. There is potential for me to grow at my current employer, which would hopefully result into a city/market lead at some point. Since I like how versatile my current job is, I would like to keep that aspect when taking the next step.

How is your work affected by the current situation and do you have any advice for how to manage a community during a pandemic? 
Since the coworking business model is based on using office space in the most efficient way possible, social distancing and the pandemic have a huge impact on the industry. 
But as cheesy as it may sound, we have learned to look at the glass half full.

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While a number of customers may be affected and forced to downsize or leave our spaces, we have become creative in our sales strategies and understood that this may open the door to a completely different target audience

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One thing is for sure, customer service has proven to be paramount at the moment and goes a huge way, especially in times like these.