What I've Learned About Leading with Tenacity in Hospitality - Terri Haack, Lowe

Josiah: Terri, I've been really looking forward to this. And one, in speaking with Rachel Humphrey and speaking with Ralph at Terranea, speaking with Tom Luersen, and speaking with many people that have known your work, your role as a leader, what you've established, how you've influenced people, leadership just comes up again and again and again. And I'm getting so many questions about what does leadership look like? I would love to hear your advice, but maybe I'll start by asking you, was there any piece of advice that you recall receiving during your career that served you especially well in your capacity as a leader.

Terri: I think that the best advice that I received early, early on is that you have to be true to yourself. You are in charge of your destiny. And if you make sure to understand that responsibility is forecasting to so many people that you interact with. So you have to do it correctly. And early on, I really thought it was about me. I thought it was about me climbing the ladder, me being successful. And I learned very early on, it is not about me. It is about everyone else that you're trying to help. It is about how to make them successful. How can you pull out of them that essence that they didn't even know was there? And it has not about the leader at all.

Josiah: Do you recall a moment or an experience early that shaped that view where it's not about us as leaders, it's about the people we're serving?

Terri: I think it's observing people, leaders above me, that I decided right then I will never be that person. I will never make another person feel as that person just made me feel. And it was very early in my career and that resonates with me is that I will not do that. So it's not really a mentor as much as it is, I am not going to be like that person. And I've strived not to be that person my whole career.

Josiah: Sometimes we can learn a lot from negative examples, right? I would love to get your perspective on how you balance these two things that might seem in tension, but maybe are very connected in knowing ourselves and also showing up with this sort of servant leader mentality. What's the role of knowing yourself in this form of leadership?

Terri: You have to have, at least for a woman in business early on, because I was one of one early on, and you had to have personal courage. You had to give yourself that pep talk that said, I can do this. I can do it with grace. I can be kind and still be very effective. I can still be very competitive, but I don't have to be a jerk. And so, as I look at how I maneuvered through my career, I realize that it really was about making sure that I had the courage to do what was in front of me when so many had the comments that she can never do it, she will never do it, she doesn't have what it takes. So that gave me a competitive sense of, oh, yes, I do.

Josiah: How did you push through that? Because I imagine that was very hard to hear some of those things.

Terri: It was. In my early career, I was in a management company. We had 168 properties, and I was the only woman general manager. And of course, they give me the crappiest property, the most desolate, but they gave me a property. So I pushed through, I think because of my upbringing. I grew up with seven brothers, so don't mess with me. and a baby sister that came along way later. Same mom, same dad. But I could figure out, did I need to play second base with my brothers or did I need to help my mother? And I was equally fine either way. And so I learned that there's a place at the table if you knew the game. If I knew how to play with my brothers, I was successful. If I knew how to be helpful to my mother, I was successful. You just needed to understand the scorecard and how they were scoring, and then you'd be successful.

Josiah: What did you find useful in doing that? I love that notion, you have to know the game. How did you learn the game?

Terri: I've been a lifelong learner my entire life. I strive to understand how people are thinking and I would make sure that I understood all the stakeholders and what skin they had in the game. Was it an emotional attachment to a property? Was it a financial attachment? Was it a lifelong legacy of a family? To try to understand how I could speak to their success because success was very different from very many people. And I think that served me well because I understood how to help the staff get to the outcomes that were all very different for different stakeholders.

Josiah: That's great advice. I wonder, is there anything else that comes to mind for those who are listening who want to become better leaders? They want to enable this culture of not only high performance, but people thriving and doing their best in serving their colleagues and guests in a hotel environment.

Terri: Yes, I think most importantly, help them be more than they think they can be. There are so many people that don't realize that they're wildly successful or they have a skill that you could bring out in them. that they didn't see in themselves. Often hourly staff members in our industry are there because they don't have another pathway. So let them be okay with that and say, this is your pathway and let me help you. And again, not about me, it is about them. How can they move forward or How can they be very comfortable if that's all they want to do? Maybe they just want to work three days a week because that meets their family needs. Okay, don't push them to four. Don't push them to five. Let them be so happy with their three days. Or a gentleman trying to make ends meet for his family. Of course, allow him to work overtime if that will help he and his family and it's a service to the resort.

Josiah: I appreciate that feedback, or that advice, because you have an incredible array of accolades from the organizations you've led that show that this isn't just the results and the accolades back it up. You opened and built the Terranea Resort. It was named a great place to work. It was named one of LA's top places to work. And so it seems really operating with that mindset is what it takes to deliver that.

Terri: It is, Terranea was a great joy. It clearly was career-defining for me, and our company had spent some 12 to 14 years garnering all of the entitlements in order to build. So I was on site two years before we opened and I'm like puffing my chest and this is so cool and I'm so happy to be the leader and then We opened in June of 09. And if you could just imagine the worst economic downturn of hopefully our lifetimes. And it was so very difficult. My owners came down to the property in March and said, Terri, oh, by the way, we're opening with no working capital. And I said, excuse me, and I think I said a bad word in between. And I said, Oh my God. And so from that moment, I told all of the staff members, just take care of the guest. Take care of each other. Do not read the paper. Do not listen to the radio. We're gonna be okay. I'll figure it out." And there are often times that I would drive home at night sobbing, like, I can't do this. I had final checks on my desk and there's all these great people who were there wanting to do the best. So, I feel like I was given a gift to be in the leadership role at that moment. And the staff members did it all. All I did was move things around. They did it all. And I'm grateful to them. And many of them are still there today.

Josiah: It's an incredible culture and I had a chance to experience it recently. And cultures like that are not built overnight. It's the legacy of a lot of work over time. And that was very evident. I'm curious, though, in those moments of crisis, what have you learned about what to tune into and what to tune out of?

Terri: I was trying to be strategic and not emotional. So how could I put the best strategy in place to basically save the resort? And I didn't do it by myself. I had a cast of thousands helping me. Management company, ownership, everyone wanted us to survive. And I think the other thing is not to let people, it sounds so funny, but don't let them see you sweat. It's just like, I can do this. And I remained calm. I remained gracious. I invited the community to come and experience what we were experiencing. We sadly had to put ourselves on sale to open and that was just devastating because of course we had a pathway of what we thought our ADR would be to open and we put ourselves on sale and sold a million dollars of pre-sale before we opened. And so it was absolutely not the guest that we had intended, but we were gracious and delivered on our promise that they were selecting a brand new hotel. And it was hard to do. It was hard to do.

Josiah: I can only imagine, given all that you did in the years leading up to that, and as you were planning that, you described this role, Terri, as a career-defining role. I'm curious if, in your experience, are there these opportunities where career progression isn't linear and there are these sort of step function changes where it's a whole kind of another level of operating? And if so, how did you prepare yourself for that or how did that come to be?

Terri: Actually, I'm not sure I was prepared. I had been operating another property for our company, and I was selected to do this opening. Early on, my colleagues were not very happy. than I was picked. They were, you know, they were concerned that, you know, why was, why'd they pick you, not me, and I've been doing X, Y, Z, and X, Y, Z. And then once our lending bank went belly up and the economy has gone south, all of my colleagues were delighted that they didn't have this opportunity. And I think I wasn't the most skilled to be in the position, but I believe that I was the most tenacious when it came to, we are going to save this property and we are going to Come out on the other side and we're going to find our place in history as a beautiful Wonderful hotel and we're going to do it right and we're going to give back to the community and we're going to embrace What we've been given and I think I was suited for that because I just I grew up having that very competitive nature of You can get this done

Josiah: Well, in hearing that story, there's tenacity, there's agility, because what you had to go through was obviously not planned. And in hearing some that were close to the project in the very early days, I was really impressed by how unique this property was. You mentioned giving back to the community. It seems that was a through line from the very, very start. And going there recently, decades later, you can see how much the community loves the property. I wonder if you could take us back to the moment when this project was in the very early phases? And how did you think about building this resort? Because it's one of a kind.

Terri: Yes, thank you. I'm very blessed. Our company absolutely wanted this piece of land, and it was the site of marine land of the Pacific. And so it had been left unattended for 20 years. Many developers tried to develop the site. So our company spent 12 years, got all the entitlements, And then there were about 635 coastal commission conditions of compliance, and there were about 235 city conditions of compliance. And that could be daunting if you thought about it. But as we looked at it, they all made sense. They were all very environmentally appropriate. So we decided that that should be our story. That if we're going to put huge filtration systems underneath the land and filter the water before it gets to the Pacific Ocean, that had to be part of our story. If we were going to, if we saved all of the mature trees from marine land and boxed them, many properties do that today, and we only lost one tree. But I was kind of like an expected mother. I'm going out there every single couple of weeks and looking at them and then we planted them back. We were very thoughtful about how we looked at the physical plant and The company was remarkable at the consultants that they brought in, the colorist, the natural habitat arborist, everyone involved really cared about that project.

Josiah: and they still do today. And that's very clear. It's one of the biggest hospitality development projects in recent history in California. Incredibly complex, but it's obviously just one of a whole string of properties and organizations you've led. You've focused a big part of your career on operations. Of course, in hospitality, you can do so much. You could work in investment, you can work in marketing, you can work in revenue management, all these different functions. You've really focused a lot of time on operations. I wonder if you could speak a little bit to, in your view, what's unique and special about working in operations in hospitality.

Terri: Yes, you get instant gratification or instant dink on the head. You know exactly what you're accomplishing day in, day out. And in operations, I think I can make a difference in people's lives, both associates, our employees, and our guests, if I can Make sure that I've aligned all of the operations to do what's right. Sequencing of service, making sure that if the staff cares about each other, they will care about the guest. And that's where I really focus. And I have great joy in being in operations. Clearly, it's not for everyone. It's long, long hours. And when everyone's on holiday, you're working because everyone's on holiday. And you mesh that in with your family, so your family gets it. They get that I leave on Thanksgiving morning and go to the resort, not that I need to, but I want to, to say thank you to everyone. And then I come home and we have Thanksgiving. But it's your family understanding that this is your chosen pathway. When my son was young, I made sure that he understood that I wanted to do this job. I loved doing this job. And not that I had to, I wanted to. And so he got it.

Josiah: I think what's really cool to hear in just having kind of seen over your career is the career you built in operations. But that isn't the only thing that you've done. You also made a bit of a transition. And I imagine many of our listeners either have gone through this or maybe even are thinking of this now as the work I'm doing right now, the best fit for me. I'm curious how you thought about the transition into the work you're doing today. How did you approach that?

Terri: Actually kicking and screaming! I had been at Terranea for 15 years, two years before opening and 13 years. It was time and it was very difficult for me because I could have stayed there forever. That's not the best and highest use of my skill or for the property. They have a remarkable leader. in Ralph Gripple. He will do things that I would never have done. He will lead them to five diamond, five star. And I'm excited to see the progression, continued progression of the resort. So I look at the future and I think that you have to successfully navigate the future. You have to figure out, I guess I say this often, don't read your own press. It really doesn't matter what you've done. What matters is what are you going to do? And oftentimes I see people in mid-career or late career and they say, oh, in XYZ company we did this and we did that and I've done this and it sort of doesn't matter. It really doesn't. What matters is how are you going to lead for the outcomes that are necessary right now today and make sure that you're relevant in today's marketplace, that your thinking is relevant, that you can transfer your skills, be a lifelong learner. But it's scary because operations is really by saying. And I think that I want to look back and say I'm proud, but I'm not proud of what I accomplished. I'm not proud about the properties. I'm proud about how I helped the communities that the properties were in, how I gave back to the industry, how did I serve others that were important to the facility, but did I serve them and was I kind? And will people look back and say, you helped me be better.

Josiah: Well, you're also doing some incredible work today. I'm curious for you, what excites you most about the work you're doing today?

Terri: It's completely different. I have to understand my lane. I have to understand how I can provide maximum value. Right now I'm helping at a property in Charleston, Wild Dunes Resort, helping them with some community and governmental issues. And I've had to really step up my game, like holy smokes, I used to do this all day long and now I must do it at a much different level, a much more competitive level than before. So it's exciting to sort of reinvent what I'm doing and at the same time I'm still free to give back to the industry. The AHLA are an incredible organization and give back to Castillo College and Forward Thinking and all of those organizations that were really important to my livelihood growing up.

Josiah: Well, people would understand if you sort of rested on your laurels and said, hey, I've done all these things over my career. I think it's very inspiring to hear how you keep pushing forward. You keep innovating, keep giving back. You invest not only so much in your business, but with the industry at large. I think you mentioned one thing I would love to follow up on if I could. You said something to the effect of how do I stay relevant in today's market? I'm curious across all the ways you're involved in the industry. What skills do you believe are most important to be relevant today as a hospitality professional?

Terri: I think the very first thing is that you must be humble. It cannot be about you. You have to be humble. You have to be open to others and their thinking. Learn from their thinking. And spend time in other industries. Spend time with people who are not of your likeness. And they cause you to think differently. And you learn from them differently. And make sure that you've mixed it up, both men, women, people's backgrounds, their how they grew up. formulates their thinking, and I learn a lot from that. And I'm an avid reader, I read a lot, but I read with the intent of how can I help others with what I'm reading, not how can I help myself.

Josiah: It's always that others focus. I love it. Terri, you mentioned one thing you wanted to touch on was what it felt like to be the first woman in some of these environments. You spoke a little bit to that. I'm curious, because you have this incredible perspective over the industry, you mentioned earlier in your career being in this environment that was so lopsided in terms of there's just no gender equality. Do you feel like the industry's made progress in that sense?

Terri: Oh yes, so much progress. And people such as Rachel and her group and David Kahn, they're doing remarkable work in this area. And I do think that women are finding their place. I don't know that they're finding their place at the CEO, COO level. And that's really, there's work to be done. But I'd like to say that being a fierce competitor and being kind at the same time has led to some doors opening for other women who aspire to be in operations to climb the ladder of organizations. So I do think there's been a lot of work. And gosh, in the hospitality programs at the universities, there are 75% women right now. So it will be a different landscape in a few years.

Josiah: Interesting. One of the things I appreciate about what Rachel is doing is she's very much an advocate for something as specific as events, having those be more representative on stages. And it's just one of the areas that she's focused. I'm curious, where do you feel the biggest changes need to take place? You mentioned some progress, but across the industry, any opportunities for more quality, more opportunity for women?

Terri: Yes, I think that there's a barrier between a high-level director, vice president, to are you an EVP, are you a COO, are you a CEO? There's the barrier. It's like still male-dominant now. And so for women to continue to be on boards beyond podiums so that their voices can be heard, making sure that when you pick someone for a podium that they have it together. They've done their homework, that they're representing so many other women in the industry. Rachel does that like incredibly well. She's really a remarkable

Josiah: person. She is. She is. As are you. And I appreciate you taking time to run through all that or anything else that you're thinking about these days, excited by.

Terri: I think an interesting you ask early on, do I have a different view of something in hospitality? And I thought about that for a moment. And I do think I think this is particularly hard for the young adult coming up. who doesn't want to be necessarily all in. They want nights and weekends off. They're not willing to sacrifice, if you will, their quality of life for this industry. But I think the most important difference is pace. Do you have the pace to stay up on our industry. You can make a difference if you have a strong pace. And every single day you get up and think about our industry, think about the people in our industry, think about our customers, think about our communities. And it's hard to always be the pace setter. But I think that will be the difference in the hospitality industry.

Josiah: What gives you that energy? Because it sounds like it's all about the people. Is it fair to say it's that constantly connecting with the people that you're working with that gives you that energy to set the pace?

Terri: Yes, I have great joy in what I do. Every single day I'm grateful that I chose this industry, or it chose me, or however you want to say it, and that people are lovely and kind. And if you could just pull out that side of it, it gives you this energy that says, I want to keep going. I want to do this. I want to be of good heart. I want to make a difference. I want the ownership and stakeholders to say, holy smokes, they delivered. And it's never she delivered. It's they. It is all of us.

Josiah: Incredible. Terri, thank you so much for taking some time to chat. I am inspired. And I really appreciate you taking the time to not only record, but but really, you know, be thoughtful and share so much with me and with all of our listeners. It really means a lot.

Terri: Well, thank you so much. And as I said, when we started, you're a remarkable leader. And we're really grateful that you are in our industry and helping us get our stories out. So thank you so much.