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W&D Webcast: RLJ’s Leslie Hale on Leading a Team from the Foxholes
When you’re in a leadership position, “you have to let your team know you’re in the foxhole with them,” RLJ Lodging Trust’s Leslie Hale said in the latest Walker & Dunlop webcast. Although running a hotel company during a pandemic that has largely shut down travel would seem to represent the epitome of battlefield conditions, Hale said she adapted her everyday management style to the current crisis, rather than devising an entirely new playbook.
The first African-American woman to be named president and CEO of a REIT, Hale had a great deal to say about navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy. She also addressed the opportunities for increasing diversity in commercial real estate, an industry that, as Walker & Dunlop CEO Willy Walker pointed out, is comprised primarily of white males.
As the pandemic moved across the U.S., RLJ temporarily closed 57 of its properties, Hale said. It has reopened about 20, to steadily increasing occupancy. She said the company and its portfolio are well-positioned for recovery, in particular because many of the guest rooms are suites, a layout that lends itself to social distancing.
As RLJ and its peers gradually reopen their properties, guests will see a number of operational changes in place, from an increased focus on cleaning to the suspension of valet parking. The question is, said Hale, “Which of these changes are going to be temporary and will be permanent?”
Walker began his conversation with Hale by focusing on the path that brought her from Howard University and Harvard Business School to Goldman Sachs, GE Capital and, eventually, RLJ. He noted that the workforces at GE and Goldman were likely more diverse than the CRE industry generally, but Hale said, “The fact that I was headed into an industry that didn’t have a lot of people who look like me didn’t stop me.”
From the standpoint of creating more diversity, Hale said there were plenty of opportunities within an organization. Yet she emphasized the importance of starting by diversifying a company’s leadership. Mentorship and sponsorship are also important, and Hale noted that it’s not always necessary for one’s mentors to look like him or her.
Replays of the hour-long June 24 conversation between Walker and Hale are available by clicking here.
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- ◦Economy
