[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_136":-5,"_137":-5,"_138":139,"_140":141,"_142":143},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/1852/leadership-is-about-preparation","id",1852,"title","Leadership is about preparation","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.640\nmy head right now.\n\n2\n00:00:01.640 --> 00:00:04.080\nI think you need to be prepared to be a leader.\n\n3\n00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:06.000\nAnd that means that you need to have\n\n4\n00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:08.840\nyour interpersonal skills honed.\n\n5\n00:00:08.840 --> 00:00:12.120\nYou have to be ready when that opportunity presents itself.\n\n6\n00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:14.160\nYou don't know when you're gonna get that chance\n\n7\n00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:16.280\nto step up and be an operator,\n\n8\n00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:18.820\nif that's what you wanna be, or to be a CEO.\n\n9\n00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:20.240\nIf you have that in you,\n\n10\n00:00:20.240 --> 00:00:22.680\nif that's something that you wanna do,\n\n11\n00:00:22.680 --> 00:00:25.000\nyou need to be prepared to take advantage\n\n12\n00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:27.160\nof the opportunity when it presents itself.\n\n13\n00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:30.120\nAnd it may not be a fully thought-through opportunity.\n\n14\n00:00:30.120 --> 00:00:32.160\nIt may not be somebody coming to you saying,\n\n15\n00:00:32.160 --> 00:00:35.520\n\"Hey, David, I'd like for you to manage this business for me.\"\n\n16\n00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:37.600\nAnd maybe somebody coming to you and asking,\n\n17\n00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:39.520\n\"So what do you think about that business?\n\n18\n00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:42.480\nIs there something we could be doing better for that business?\"\n\n19\n00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:43.800\nWell, they're testing you.\n\n20\n00:00:43.800 --> 00:00:45.160\nThey're trying to determine,\n\n21\n00:00:45.160 --> 00:00:46.760\ndo you have the thought process\n\n22\n00:00:46.760 --> 00:00:49.040\nto be able to possibly manage that business?\n\n23\n00:00:49.040 --> 00:00:51.040\nSo as a financial person,\n\n24\n00:00:51.040 --> 00:00:53.080\nyou always have to have handle on your numbers.\n\n25\n00:00:53.080 --> 00:00:54.600\nThat goes without saying.\n\n26\n00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:56.760\nBut understand more about the businesses\n\n27\n00:00:56.760 --> 00:00:57.960\nthat you're involved with,\n\n28\n00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.680\nso that when somebody comes and asks you a question about,\n\n29\n00:01:00.680 --> 00:01:02.480\nwhat can we do better for that business,\n\n30\n00:01:02.480 --> 00:01:03.320\nyou can answer it.\n\n31\n00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:05.320\nAnd that may open the door for you\n\n32\n00:01:05.320 --> 00:01:07.760\nto become more of a leader in that business.\n\n33\n00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:09.280\nOn the operation side,\n\n34\n00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:11.240\nas the CEO, whatever it might be.\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",909439,"end_time",978879,"keywords","development, promotion, advancement, interpersonal skills, opportunity, management","slug","leadership-is-about-preparation","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","hEzaRDDTH84mjzwxqXXlJZUNSbi2TyBqHjmRlb9r5VI","mux_asset_id","tpC3blpAE165RQAx8Jxw4UGTi00BnzkrVQ3XHERjpZdM","leader_id",30,"episode_id",177,"updated_at","2025-02-26T19:52:17.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/1852/leadership-is-about-preparation","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_100":101,"_102":103,"_104":105,"_25":106,"_107":108,"_61":109,"_58":109,"_110":111,"_68":112,"_39":113,"_114":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_115":116,"_88":117,"_44":118,"_119":120,"_121":122,"_46":-5,"_123":124,"_125":126,"_92":127,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":-5,"_54":55,"_18":56,"_20":57,"_58":59,"_60":-5,"_61":59,"_62":-5,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":-5,"_68":-5,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":-5,"_35":36,"_39":74,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_75":76,"_77":78,"_79":80,"_81":82,"_83":-5,"_84":-5,"_85":86,"_87":-5,"_88":-5,"_46":-5,"_89":90,"_91":-5,"_92":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Be consistent with core values","be-consistent-with-core-values","summary","

Today’s guest is Steve Holmes, the Non-Executive Chairman of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Travel + Leisure Co. When I think about Steve’s career, the word that comes to mind for me is consistency.

With Steve, you know what you’re going to get. He has a set of core values that he brings to any role. He has lived by them in every company he’s ever worked at, whether he’s crunching numbers in finance as the CFO or growing Wyndham as its Chief Executive Officer.

Steve reminds me that the truly great leaders I know aren’t just great for a while, or in one place, or only in good times. They consistently deliver excellence no matter what circumstances they’re in, and they do so in a way that’s consistent with the values they have. If you want to bring that same stability to your leadership, keep listening. Steve will show you how to be more consistent by defining your core values and then living them out.

So here is my conversation with my good friend – and soon to be yours – Steve Holmes.

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The How Leaders Lead App: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go

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","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.710\nWelcome to How Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I\n\n2\n00:00:07.710 --> 00:00:08.560\ninterview some\n\n3\n00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:10.800\nof the very best leaders in the world.\n\n4\n00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:14.520\nI break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have\n\n5\n00:00:14.520 --> 00:00:15.080\nsomething\n\n6\n00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:18.960\nsimple you can apply as you develop into a better leader.\n\n7\n00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:21.400\nThat's what this podcast is all about.\n\n8\n00:00:21.400 --> 00:00:25.850\nToday's guest is Steve Holmes, the non-executive chairman of Windham Worldwide\n\n9\n00:00:25.850 --> 00:00:28.040\nand Windham Destinations.\n\n10\n00:00:28.040 --> 00:00:32.520\nWhen I think about Steve's career, the word that comes to mind for me is\n\n11\n00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:33.680\nconsistency.\n\n12\n00:00:33.680 --> 00:00:36.520\nWith Steve, you know what you're going to get.\n\n13\n00:00:36.520 --> 00:00:40.560\nHe has a set of core values that he brings to any role.\n\n14\n00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:44.280\nHe's lived by them in every company he's ever worked at, whether he's crunching\n\n15\n00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:44.760\nnumbers\n\n16\n00:00:44.760 --> 00:00:50.720\nand finances the CFO or growing windham as his chief executive officer.\n\n17\n00:00:50.720 --> 00:00:56.190\nSteve reminds me the truly great leaders I know aren't just great for a while\n\n18\n00:00:56.190 --> 00:00:56.440\nor in\n\n19\n00:00:56.440 --> 00:00:59.760\none place or only in good times.\n\n20\n00:00:59.760 --> 00:01:05.440\nThey consistently deliver excellence no matter what circumstances they're in.\n\n21\n00:01:05.440 --> 00:01:09.920\nThey do it in a way that's consistent with the values they have.\n\n22\n00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:14.960\nIf you want to bring that same consistency to your leadership, keep listening.\n\n23\n00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:19.550\nSteve will show you how to be more consistent by defining your core values and\n\n24\n00:01:19.550 --> 00:01:20.340\nthen living\n\n25\n00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:21.340\nthem out.\n\n26\n00:01:21.340 --> 00:01:30.640\nSo here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Steve\n\n27\n00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:32.140\nHolmes.\n\n28\n00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:35.180\nThe business environment is extremely tough right now.\n\n29\n00:01:35.180 --> 00:01:39.140\nYou know, we've got inflation, we've got a recession looming.\n\n30\n00:01:39.140 --> 00:01:41.700\nYou know, what are you doing for fun these days, Steve?\n\n31\n00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:46.220\nWell, fun for me is getting away and doing things with my family.\n\n32\n00:01:46.220 --> 00:01:48.780\nI've got now, I'm up to seven grandkids.\n\n33\n00:01:48.780 --> 00:01:51.140\nLast time I talked to you, I think I had one.\n\n34\n00:01:51.140 --> 00:01:52.940\nSo they keep me busy and keep me running.\n\n35\n00:01:52.940 --> 00:01:57.250\nAnd then my passion is, you know, is golf and I don't play it well, but I play\n\n36\n00:01:57.250 --> 00:01:57.500\nit as\n\n37\n00:01:57.500 --> 00:01:58.500\noften as I can.\n\n38\n00:01:58.500 --> 00:02:01.660\nSo that's something else I ain't do to relax and get away from it all.\n\n39\n00:02:01.660 --> 00:02:05.800\nBut you can't get away from the fact that I believe we probably are already in\n\n40\n00:02:05.800 --> 00:02:06.740\na recession.\n\n41\n00:02:06.740 --> 00:02:08.940\nWe just haven't counted it all up yet.\n\n42\n00:02:08.940 --> 00:02:13.550\nThe good news is that it seems to be one that has a shorter duration to it and\n\n43\n00:02:13.550 --> 00:02:13.940\nthat\n\n44\n00:02:13.940 --> 00:02:17.140\nthere's a lot of momentum still going with the economy.\n\n45\n00:02:17.140 --> 00:02:18.940\nWell, I hope you're right about that.\n\n46\n00:02:18.940 --> 00:02:23.460\nYou know, as CEO Steve, you're one of the leaders I admire most.\n\n47\n00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:27.850\nYou lead the right way and you built Windom into the largest hotel franchising\n\n48\n00:02:27.850 --> 00:02:28.420\ncompany\n\n49\n00:02:28.420 --> 00:02:32.260\nin the world, 9,000 hotels, 95 countries.\n\n50\n00:02:32.260 --> 00:02:33.780\nYou built a travel business.\n\n51\n00:02:33.780 --> 00:02:35.940\nI mean, unbelievable what you did.\n\n52\n00:02:35.940 --> 00:02:41.500\nYet in 2017, you made this strategic decision to spin off your hotel and your\n\n53\n00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:42.260\ntimeshare\n\n54\n00:02:42.260 --> 00:02:46.220\nbusiness into two separate independent companies.\n\n55\n00:02:46.220 --> 00:02:50.700\nWhat was the moment when you said to yourself, you know, we need to do this?\n\n56\n00:02:50.700 --> 00:02:54.420\nI don't know if there was a lightning moment where that happened.\n\n57\n00:02:54.420 --> 00:02:58.800\nI think it was a building frustration over the fact that our shareholders weren\n\n58\n00:02:58.800 --> 00:02:59.340\n't given\n\n59\n00:02:59.340 --> 00:03:03.180\nthe value that they should receive for the companies they owned.\n\n60\n00:03:03.180 --> 00:03:06.540\nWe were kind of being viewed as a conglomerate that if we broke it apart, we'd\n\n61\n00:03:06.540 --> 00:03:07.020\nbe able to\n\n62\n00:03:07.020 --> 00:03:09.660\nget greater value in the pieces.\n\n63\n00:03:09.660 --> 00:03:13.960\nAnd that all worked until the pandemic hit and the market turned sideways on it\n\n64\n00:03:13.960 --> 00:03:14.220\n.\n\n65\n00:03:14.220 --> 00:03:18.220\nWe were building good momentum, but that was really the reason.\n\n66\n00:03:18.220 --> 00:03:22.280\nAnd the other thing that was a driving force was I'm a big believer in building\n\n67\n00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:23.380\nbench strength\n\n68\n00:03:23.380 --> 00:03:26.380\nand building new leaders in the organization.\n\n69\n00:03:26.380 --> 00:03:31.330\nAnd I had two great leaders of Windom Hotels Resort and what became travel and\n\n70\n00:03:31.330 --> 00:03:32.140\nleisure,\n\n71\n00:03:32.140 --> 00:03:33.700\nthe second company.\n\n72\n00:03:33.700 --> 00:03:37.420\nAnd so I felt confident that they were in a position to be able to really take\n\n73\n00:03:37.420 --> 00:03:38.220\nthe companies\n\n74\n00:03:38.220 --> 00:03:39.740\nto the next level.\n\n75\n00:03:39.740 --> 00:03:41.940\nYou know, you had a very successful spin off.\n\n76\n00:03:41.940 --> 00:03:45.640\nThe stock was moving and you had the COVID, but you've got two businesses that\n\n77\n00:03:45.640 --> 00:03:46.100\ncan stand\n\n78\n00:03:46.100 --> 00:03:47.100\non their own.\n\n79\n00:03:47.100 --> 00:03:52.020\nYou know, I was part of a spin off at PepsiCo when PepsiCo decided to spin off\n\n80\n00:03:52.020 --> 00:03:52.700\npizza Taco\n\n81\n00:03:52.700 --> 00:03:56.420\nBell and KFC and ultimately what became young brands.\n\n82\n00:03:56.420 --> 00:04:00.540\nWhat do you see, Steve, as the biggest leadership challenge in executing a\n\n83\n00:04:00.540 --> 00:04:02.460\nsuccessful spin off?\n\n84\n00:04:02.460 --> 00:04:05.970\nProbably the biggest challenge in the spin off is the same as the biggest\n\n85\n00:04:05.970 --> 00:04:06.700\nchallenge in\n\n86\n00:04:06.700 --> 00:04:11.260\na lot of difficult situations and that is communication.\n\n87\n00:04:11.260 --> 00:04:14.690\nYou have to keep your communication going with your team, with all your\n\n88\n00:04:14.690 --> 00:04:15.820\nstakeholders, your\n\n89\n00:04:15.820 --> 00:04:18.020\nshareholders, your board.\n\n90\n00:04:18.020 --> 00:04:19.820\nEverybody's got to know what's going on.\n\n91\n00:04:19.820 --> 00:04:23.980\nIf you don't, then a black hole creates uncertainty and uncertainty creates\n\n92\n00:04:23.980 --> 00:04:25.220\npoor performance.\n\n93\n00:04:25.220 --> 00:04:29.150\nI'm proud to say that since we did the spin off of both companies, the\n\n94\n00:04:29.150 --> 00:04:29.980\ncompanies have\n\n95\n00:04:29.980 --> 00:04:32.580\noutperformed how they were doing before.\n\n96\n00:04:32.580 --> 00:04:35.860\nAnd even with the pandemic, they've done extraordinarily well.\n\n97\n00:04:35.860 --> 00:04:39.200\nThey're not getting the love that the market should show them, but I think as\n\n98\n00:04:39.200 --> 00:04:39.700\ntime will\n\n99\n00:04:39.700 --> 00:04:43.690\ntell, their performance will show how strong the companies are and how great\n\n100\n00:04:43.690 --> 00:04:44.700\nthese management\n\n101\n00:04:44.700 --> 00:04:45.700\nteams are.\n\n102\n00:04:45.700 --> 00:04:49.900\nNow, Steve, you became non-executive chairman of both companies.\n\n103\n00:04:49.900 --> 00:04:54.420\nI don't know many people who've been chairman of two major companies.\n\n104\n00:04:54.420 --> 00:04:55.740\nDescribe what that's like.\n\n105\n00:04:55.740 --> 00:04:58.820\nWell, first of all, it's non-executive chairman.\n\n106\n00:04:58.820 --> 00:05:01.650\nIntentionally, I didn't want to be executive chairman because I didn't want to\n\n107\n00:05:01.650 --> 00:05:02.140\nbe looking\n\n108\n00:05:02.140 --> 00:05:05.740\nover the shoulder of the guys who are running the business now.\n\n109\n00:05:05.740 --> 00:05:10.730\nBut really, for me, it's evolved over the last five years since we did the spin\n\n110\n00:05:10.730 --> 00:05:11.260\noff.\n\n111\n00:05:11.260 --> 00:05:15.130\nI was probably more involved right after the spin off than I am now, but I\n\n112\n00:05:15.130 --> 00:05:16.260\nstill am involved.\n\n113\n00:05:16.260 --> 00:05:22.030\nI'm always available by phone any time, any day, night or day, and I stay\n\n114\n00:05:22.030 --> 00:05:23.180\nengaged with\n\n115\n00:05:23.180 --> 00:05:24.580\nthe team.\n\n116\n00:05:24.580 --> 00:05:28.650\nThat means that if they're looking at something that happens to fall into an\n\n117\n00:05:28.650 --> 00:05:29.460\narea that I have\n\n118\n00:05:29.460 --> 00:05:33.640\na lot of experience in, like M&A, I can help them think through the\n\n119\n00:05:33.640 --> 00:05:34.940\nopportunities.\n\n120\n00:05:34.940 --> 00:05:38.980\nI can help them think through the businesses because I was involved intimately\n\n121\n00:05:38.980 --> 00:05:39.380\nin both\n\n122\n00:05:39.380 --> 00:05:41.220\nof these businesses.\n\n123\n00:05:41.220 --> 00:05:45.300\nIt's really being a sounding board for the management and sharing the board.\n\n124\n00:05:45.300 --> 00:05:48.740\nI've got phenomenal boards at both companies.\n\n125\n00:05:48.740 --> 00:05:54.780\nThey are super engaged and they are challenging and I love them.\n\n126\n00:05:54.780 --> 00:05:59.130\nPart of it is just making sure that the boards are giving everything back to\n\n127\n00:05:59.130 --> 00:06:00.060\nthe company that\n\n128\n00:06:00.060 --> 00:06:04.540\nthey can and give all the help to the CEOs that they can.\n\n129\n00:06:04.540 --> 00:06:07.980\nYou're not an executive chairman of both these companies.\n\n130\n00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:11.260\nYou gave up the CEO seat when you did that.\n\n131\n00:06:11.260 --> 00:06:14.990\nWhat was the most difficult thing, Steve, about that transition for you\n\n132\n00:06:14.990 --> 00:06:15.860\npersonally?\n\n133\n00:06:15.860 --> 00:06:18.180\nHonestly, there wasn't a lot difficult about it.\n\n134\n00:06:18.180 --> 00:06:22.590\nPeople told me before I stepped out of the chair that you're not going to like\n\n135\n00:06:22.590 --> 00:06:23.180\nthis.\n\n136\n00:06:23.180 --> 00:06:25.660\nIt's going to feel like you don't have enough to do.\n\n137\n00:06:25.660 --> 00:06:27.180\nYou're not engaged enough.\n\n138\n00:06:27.180 --> 00:06:32.060\nI had done enough preparation in advance that really I didn't miss a beat.\n\n139\n00:06:32.060 --> 00:06:33.380\nI've enjoyed myself.\n\n140\n00:06:33.380 --> 00:06:36.580\nI've enjoyed being an advisor more than an executor.\n\n141\n00:06:36.580 --> 00:06:39.940\nHonestly, David, you and I are about the same vintage.\n\n142\n00:06:39.940 --> 00:06:43.660\nI would have had a hard time managing a company through Zoom.\n\n143\n00:06:43.660 --> 00:06:44.940\nThat's what these guys had to do.\n\n144\n00:06:44.940 --> 00:06:48.840\nThey had to manage their company for two years without meeting the people that\n\n145\n00:06:48.840 --> 00:06:49.660\nthey're hiring\n\n146\n00:06:49.660 --> 00:06:51.140\nand that they're working with.\n\n147\n00:06:51.140 --> 00:06:52.140\nI'm a people person.\n\n148\n00:06:52.140 --> 00:06:54.500\nI would have had a really hard time doing that.\n\n149\n00:06:54.500 --> 00:06:55.940\nThey did a phenomenal job.\n\n150\n00:06:55.940 --> 00:07:00.600\nI felt blessed that I wasn't having to carry that water during that difficult\n\n151\n00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:01.100\ntime.\n\n152\n00:07:01.100 --> 00:07:05.140\nIs there anything about being CEO that you miss though?\n\n153\n00:07:05.140 --> 00:07:06.140\nNot really.\n\n154\n00:07:06.140 --> 00:07:08.300\nI missed my assistant for a long time.\n\n155\n00:07:08.300 --> 00:07:10.140\nThat was something that I really missed.\n\n156\n00:07:10.140 --> 00:07:12.180\nThen I replaced her and I'm okay now.\n\n157\n00:07:12.180 --> 00:07:15.980\nIt's little things that maybe made life easier before.\n\n158\n00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:19.460\nBut now I have more freedom to get involved in philanthropic things.\n\n159\n00:07:19.460 --> 00:07:23.420\nI felt relieved to be not the CEO anymore.\n\n160\n00:07:23.420 --> 00:07:28.220\nI'm not one of those that regrets walking away from the day to day that I was\n\n161\n00:07:28.220 --> 00:07:28.940\ninvolved\n\n162\n00:07:28.940 --> 00:07:30.100\nwith.\n\n163\n00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:32.900\nThat's a tough grind and it requires a lot of attention.\n\n164\n00:07:32.900 --> 00:07:34.540\nYou never are off.\n\n165\n00:07:34.540 --> 00:07:38.160\nI feel like I'm always there for my team but I'm not the one who's on all the\n\n166\n00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:39.300\ntime now.\n\n167\n00:07:39.300 --> 00:07:43.020\nYou mentioned the word grind which is interesting because you've described\n\n168\n00:07:43.020 --> 00:07:43.940\nyourself to be as\n\n169\n00:07:43.940 --> 00:07:45.740\na grinder.\n\n170\n00:07:45.740 --> 00:07:49.710\nTell us a story that would give our listeners a glimpse at that part of your\n\n171\n00:07:49.710 --> 00:07:50.500\npersonality\n\n172\n00:07:50.500 --> 00:07:51.980\nand your leadership.\n\n173\n00:07:51.980 --> 00:07:55.660\nWell, I view being a grinder as a compliment.\n\n174\n00:07:55.660 --> 00:07:58.540\nSome people think it's kind of, you don't want to be a grinder.\n\n175\n00:07:58.540 --> 00:08:02.270\nBut I think it's a compliment because it means that you focus on what your\n\n176\n00:08:02.270 --> 00:08:03.420\nobjective is\n\n177\n00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:06.220\nand you just keep working away at it.\n\n178\n00:08:06.220 --> 00:08:09.580\nI knew coming out of school, I didn't have an MBA.\n\n179\n00:08:09.580 --> 00:08:13.240\nAll the guys I've hired have Harvard MBAs and they're all incredibly well\n\n180\n00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:13.940\neducated.\n\n181\n00:08:13.940 --> 00:08:17.300\nMe, I'm just a guy with a bachelor's degree.\n\n182\n00:08:17.300 --> 00:08:21.660\nI always felt like I had to work harder than the people around me because I\n\n183\n00:08:21.660 --> 00:08:22.820\nfigured, I'm\n\n184\n00:08:22.820 --> 00:08:26.380\nnot the smartest guy in the world but I'm going to outwork everybody else.\n\n185\n00:08:26.380 --> 00:08:31.140\nI've always been a grinder and I think by being a grinder you learn a lot.\n\n186\n00:08:31.140 --> 00:08:32.980\nYou learn a lot about yourself.\n\n187\n00:08:32.980 --> 00:08:36.420\nYou learn intimate facts about the companies you're involved with.\n\n188\n00:08:36.420 --> 00:08:40.050\nWhen we were doing acquisitions, we were doing a lot of M&A, I was the guy who\n\n189\n00:08:40.050 --> 00:08:40.700\nwent out and\n\n190\n00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:43.820\nmet the management teams, got into their businesses.\n\n191\n00:08:43.820 --> 00:08:48.500\nWhen I got done, I knew more about their businesses than the CEO did because I\n\n192\n00:08:48.500 --> 00:08:48.860\nwas a\n\n193\n00:08:48.860 --> 00:08:49.860\ngrinder.\n\n194\n00:08:49.860 --> 00:08:53.780\nI ground into it and I hired a lot of grinders around me who helped me do that\n\n195\n00:08:53.780 --> 00:08:54.420\nas well.\n\n196\n00:08:54.420 --> 00:08:58.420\nI think being a grinder is a wonderful attribute to have.\n\n197\n00:08:58.420 --> 00:09:03.600\nI agree with you and I understand when you were running Avis, you had a theme\n\n198\n00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:04.140\nline that\n\n199\n00:09:04.140 --> 00:09:07.300\nbasically kind of characterizes who you are.\n\n200\n00:09:07.300 --> 00:09:09.500\nRemember that theme line?\n\n201\n00:09:09.500 --> 00:09:10.500\nSure.\n\n202\n00:09:10.500 --> 00:09:14.580\nWe're number two, we try harder.\n\n203\n00:09:14.580 --> 00:09:17.980\nThat underdog mentality that's really served you well.\n\n204\n00:09:17.980 --> 00:09:21.020\nWell, I didn't come up with that line to be honest.\n\n205\n00:09:21.020 --> 00:09:23.980\nThat was somebody else's brilliant line.\n\n206\n00:09:23.980 --> 00:09:27.960\nI was only at Avis for a short period, but that period was an absolute blast\n\n207\n00:09:27.960 --> 00:09:28.620\nbecause I\n\n208\n00:09:28.620 --> 00:09:32.500\ngot to learn something about a business I knew very little about and got to\n\n209\n00:09:32.500 --> 00:09:33.160\nthen bring\n\n210\n00:09:33.160 --> 00:09:36.860\non people who really knew how to drive that business forward.\n\n211\n00:09:36.860 --> 00:09:42.060\nIt's just life is all about learning and I'm a lifelong learner.\n\n212\n00:09:42.060 --> 00:09:45.660\nI love getting into things that I don't know much about and then becoming\n\n213\n00:09:45.660 --> 00:09:46.540\nproficient at\n\n214\n00:09:46.540 --> 00:09:47.540\nthem.\n\n215\n00:09:47.540 --> 00:09:50.840\nI still have become proficient at golf even though I do a lot of studying and a\n\n216\n00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:51.180\nlot of\n\n217\n00:09:51.180 --> 00:09:55.040\nanalysis, but I have a great time as you know, we've had a great time out on a\n\n218\n00:09:55.040 --> 00:09:56.340\ngolf course.\n\n219\n00:09:56.340 --> 00:10:01.070\nI think that the fact is if you're not a lifelong learner, you're losing a lot\n\n220\n00:10:01.070 --> 00:10:02.740\nof life because\n\n221\n00:10:02.740 --> 00:10:05.940\nyou're losing the opportunity to learn more about things that you don't know\n\n222\n00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:06.500\nabout right\n\n223\n00:10:06.500 --> 00:10:07.500\nnow.\n\n224\n00:10:07.500 --> 00:10:12.340\nYes, I believe that's an attribute I have and that I'm very proud of.\n\n225\n00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:15.420\nI want to shift gears a bit and take you way back.\n\n226\n00:10:15.420 --> 00:10:19.520\nWhat's a story from your childhood that shaped the kind of leader that you are\n\n227\n00:10:19.520 --> 00:10:20.100\ntoday?\n\n228\n00:10:20.100 --> 00:10:21.100\nI'm going to go way back.\n\n229\n00:10:21.100 --> 00:10:23.700\nI'm going to go back to my father.\n\n230\n00:10:23.700 --> 00:10:29.310\nMy father was a, as with most people, there's a central figure in your life,\n\n231\n00:10:29.310 --> 00:10:29.860\nbut he was\n\n232\n00:10:29.860 --> 00:10:35.510\na very focused individual, whether it was doing his work that he did at General\n\n233\n00:10:35.510 --> 00:10:36.100\nMotors\n\n234\n00:10:36.100 --> 00:10:38.620\nor being involved in the church that we were at.\n\n235\n00:10:38.620 --> 00:10:45.110\nHe was an engaged and focused leader and I saw that and I respected that and he\n\n236\n00:10:45.110 --> 00:10:45.620\nused\n\n237\n00:10:45.620 --> 00:10:50.980\nto have a saying that he said all the time, which is set your priorities.\n\n238\n00:10:50.980 --> 00:10:54.510\nHe used to say to me, set your priorities, \"Well, I'm a kid, mowing lawns,\n\n239\n00:10:54.510 --> 00:10:54.980\ntrying to\n\n240\n00:10:54.980 --> 00:10:56.380\nmake a few bucks.\"\n\n241\n00:10:56.380 --> 00:10:58.980\nHow do you set your priorities as a kid, mowing lawns?\n\n242\n00:10:58.980 --> 00:11:02.050\nWell, your priority is make sure you have enough gas in the morning so when you\n\n243\n00:11:02.050 --> 00:11:02.340\npush\n\n244\n00:11:02.340 --> 00:11:06.520\nthat lawnmower down the road to start mowing people's lawns, you got what you\n\n245\n00:11:06.520 --> 00:11:07.100\nneed to do\n\n246\n00:11:07.100 --> 00:11:09.100\nthe job.\n\n247\n00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:12.660\nSetting your priorities is important no matter what you do.\n\n248\n00:11:12.660 --> 00:11:16.120\nThat is probably, from my youth, that is probably the thing that had the\n\n249\n00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:17.420\nlargest influence on\n\n250\n00:11:17.420 --> 00:11:18.620\nme.\n\n251\n00:11:18.620 --> 00:11:22.370\nYou came up as an accountant and then you become a CFO and you eventually get\n\n252\n00:11:22.370 --> 00:11:23.780\nto CEO.\n\n253\n00:11:23.780 --> 00:11:28.060\nWhat skills did you have to develop to go from being a accountant, a so-called\n\n254\n00:11:28.060 --> 00:11:28.500\nnumber\n\n255\n00:11:28.500 --> 00:11:33.140\ncruncher to running a worldwide enterprise like Wyndham?\n\n256\n00:11:33.140 --> 00:11:36.500\nIt's all about leadership as you know better than most.\n\n257\n00:11:36.500 --> 00:11:40.420\nYou can be a leader and an accounting organization and if you're the person\n\n258\n00:11:40.420 --> 00:11:41.700\nthat people are looking\n\n259\n00:11:41.700 --> 00:11:45.900\nup to, you have to let people know what you believe in.\n\n260\n00:11:45.900 --> 00:11:49.450\nWhen I had a chance to do that as CEO, it was just taking what I had done\n\n261\n00:11:49.450 --> 00:11:50.140\nbefore and\n\n262\n00:11:50.140 --> 00:11:52.740\nputting it into a much larger scale.\n\n263\n00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:56.660\nWhat I learned early on was there are core values in your life.\n\n264\n00:11:56.660 --> 00:11:57.660\nYou have to respect people.\n\n265\n00:11:57.660 --> 00:12:01.280\nYou have to, I won't go through all the core values, but you have to have those\n\n266\n00:12:01.280 --> 00:12:01.700\nvalues\n\n267\n00:12:01.700 --> 00:12:05.220\nand then you apply them to wherever you are.\n\n268\n00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:08.910\nIn this case, I became the CEO of an organization and I went around and I\n\n269\n00:12:08.910 --> 00:12:10.260\nexplained to people,\n\n270\n00:12:10.260 --> 00:12:13.780\nthese are my values and this is how we're going to run the business.\n\n271\n00:12:13.780 --> 00:12:18.660\nThere was not a huge change in the way I managed going from one to the other.\n\n272\n00:12:18.660 --> 00:12:22.970\nIt's just being consistent, communicating well and letting people know what you\n\n273\n00:12:22.970 --> 00:12:23.540\nstand for\n\n274\n00:12:23.540 --> 00:12:28.280\nbecause they're looking to you to know how they should make their decisions and\n\n275\n00:12:28.280 --> 00:12:28.660\nyou want\n\n276\n00:12:28.660 --> 00:12:30.780\nto lead by example.\n\n277\n00:12:30.780 --> 00:12:34.670\nWhat's the most significant, let's call it a soft skill, Steve, that you had to\n\n278\n00:12:34.670 --> 00:12:35.260\ndevelop\n\n279\n00:12:35.260 --> 00:12:36.260\nas a leader.\n\n280\n00:12:36.260 --> 00:12:41.340\nIf you could, I'd love to hear a story behind this if one really stands out.\n\n281\n00:12:41.340 --> 00:12:44.820\nThe soft skill would be being a good listener I think.\n\n282\n00:12:44.820 --> 00:12:45.820\nThat's important.\n\n283\n00:12:45.820 --> 00:12:50.220\nYou can't just, and I see this all too often, and I've critiqued and coached\n\n284\n00:12:50.220 --> 00:12:51.020\npeople on this\n\n285\n00:12:51.020 --> 00:12:52.180\na lot.\n\n286\n00:12:52.180 --> 00:12:55.990\nYou may know the question that's coming next, but I can't answer it till you\n\n287\n00:12:55.990 --> 00:12:56.660\ndeliver the\n\n288\n00:12:56.660 --> 00:13:00.010\nquestion because you don't know where the final end of that question is going\n\n289\n00:13:00.010 --> 00:13:00.420\nto go.\n\n290\n00:13:00.420 --> 00:13:04.300\nI always wait for you to finish before I jump in and give an answer.\n\n291\n00:13:04.300 --> 00:13:09.420\nI think people tend to not be good listeners so that they don't really hear the\n\n292\n00:13:09.420 --> 00:13:10.100\nquestion\n\n293\n00:13:10.100 --> 00:13:12.100\nthat's being asked.\n\n294\n00:13:12.100 --> 00:13:15.470\nIf I'm an investor and I'm sitting in a room with a group of people, and this\n\n295\n00:13:15.470 --> 00:13:15.980\nhappened\n\n296\n00:13:15.980 --> 00:13:19.920\nmultiple times when I was meeting with investors, and somebody in my\n\n297\n00:13:19.920 --> 00:13:21.500\norganization who was there\n\n298\n00:13:21.500 --> 00:13:26.040\nwith me, whether it was a CFO, an investor relations person, they tried to jump\n\n299\n00:13:26.040 --> 00:13:26.420\nin and\n\n300\n00:13:26.420 --> 00:13:27.620\ngive an answer.\n\n301\n00:13:27.620 --> 00:13:30.940\nThey weren't answering the question that the person asked.\n\n302\n00:13:30.940 --> 00:13:32.220\nThat's not a criticism on them.\n\n303\n00:13:32.220 --> 00:13:34.840\nThey were just trying to be helpful because they thought they knew where the\n\n304\n00:13:34.840 --> 00:13:35.660\nquestion was\n\n305\n00:13:35.660 --> 00:13:36.660\ngoing.\n\n306\n00:13:36.660 --> 00:13:39.590\nBut unless you're a good listener and you listen to what people are saying, you\n\n307\n00:13:39.590 --> 00:13:40.500\ncan never be\n\n308\n00:13:40.500 --> 00:13:43.340\nsure that you're answering the question that they're interested in.\n\n309\n00:13:43.340 --> 00:13:52.780\nLet's face it, your life is just too important to delegate to someone else.\n\n310\n00:13:52.780 --> 00:13:55.420\nThat's why I'm so passionate about self-coaching.\n\n311\n00:13:55.420 --> 00:13:59.320\nIf you're new to this concept, I put together a free self-coaching guide that\n\n312\n00:13:59.320 --> 00:13:59.940\nwill walk you\n\n313\n00:13:59.940 --> 00:14:03.380\nthrough the principles of how to become a great self-coach to really find\n\n314\n00:14:03.380 --> 00:14:04.100\nfulfillment\n\n315\n00:14:04.100 --> 00:14:05.820\nin your life and career.\n\n316\n00:14:05.820 --> 00:14:09.740\nYou can get it at takechargeofyou.com/guide.\n\n317\n00:14:09.740 --> 00:14:13.870\nThis free guide will give you a simple plan you can follow to kickstart your\n\n318\n00:14:13.870 --> 00:14:14.780\nself-coaching\n\n319\n00:14:14.780 --> 00:14:15.780\njourney.\n\n320\n00:14:15.780 --> 00:14:19.710\nIt's a perfect time to invest your time into self-coaching as we near the end\n\n321\n00:14:19.710 --> 00:14:20.620\nof the year\n\n322\n00:14:20.620 --> 00:14:24.580\nand think about what's to come in 2023.\n\n323\n00:14:24.580 --> 00:14:28.740\nThis guide will help you become the very best you you can be.\n\n324\n00:14:28.740 --> 00:14:38.060\nGet it at takechargeofyou.com/guide.\n\n325\n00:14:38.060 --> 00:14:43.050\nYou come up with the organization and you grow as a financial expert starting\n\n326\n00:14:43.050 --> 00:14:43.540\nout in\n\n327\n00:14:43.540 --> 00:14:44.540\naccounting.\n\n328\n00:14:44.540 --> 00:14:48.780\nA lot of times your stereotype to that field is just being a numbers person.\n\n329\n00:14:48.780 --> 00:14:52.870\nWhat advice can you give to leaders who come up with that financial background\n\n330\n00:14:52.870 --> 00:14:53.340\nso that\n\n331\n00:14:53.340 --> 00:14:56.640\nthey really broaden themselves enough to where they can take on more\n\n332\n00:14:56.640 --> 00:14:57.860\nresponsibility and a\n\n333\n00:14:57.860 --> 00:14:58.860\ngeneral manager sense?\n\n334\n00:14:58.860 --> 00:15:01.380\nWell, go back to the Lion King.\n\n335\n00:15:01.380 --> 00:15:02.780\nBe prepared.\n\n336\n00:15:02.780 --> 00:15:06.690\nI think that was one of the songs in Lion King when my grandkids listened to it\n\n337\n00:15:06.690 --> 00:15:06.980\n.\n\n338\n00:15:06.980 --> 00:15:09.020\nI hear it's ringing in my head right now.\n\n339\n00:15:09.020 --> 00:15:13.380\nI think you need to be prepared to be a leader and that means that you need to\n\n340\n00:15:13.380 --> 00:15:14.460\nhave your\n\n341\n00:15:14.460 --> 00:15:16.780\ninterpersonal skills honed.\n\n342\n00:15:16.780 --> 00:15:20.080\nYou have to be ready when that opportunity presents itself.\n\n343\n00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:23.500\nYou don't know when you're going to get that chance to step up and be an\n\n344\n00:15:23.500 --> 00:15:24.380\noperator if that's\n\n345\n00:15:24.380 --> 00:15:26.820\nwhat you want to be or to be a CEO.\n\n346\n00:15:26.820 --> 00:15:31.040\nIf you have that in you, if that's something that you want to do, you need to\n\n347\n00:15:31.040 --> 00:15:31.860\nbe prepared\n\n348\n00:15:31.860 --> 00:15:35.180\nto take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself.\n\n349\n00:15:35.180 --> 00:15:38.020\nIt may not be a fully thought through opportunity.\n\n350\n00:15:38.020 --> 00:15:41.410\nIt may not be somebody coming to you saying, \"Hey David, I'd like for you to\n\n351\n00:15:41.410 --> 00:15:42.100\nmanage this\n\n352\n00:15:42.100 --> 00:15:43.500\nbusiness for me.\"\n\n353\n00:15:43.500 --> 00:15:46.790\nIt may be somebody coming to you and asking, \"So what do you think about that\n\n354\n00:15:46.790 --> 00:15:47.460\nbusiness?\n\n355\n00:15:47.460 --> 00:15:50.340\nIs there something we can be doing better for that business?\"\n\n356\n00:15:50.340 --> 00:15:51.740\nWell, they're testing you.\n\n357\n00:15:51.740 --> 00:15:55.050\nThey're trying to determine, \"Do you have the thought process to be able to\n\n358\n00:15:55.050 --> 00:15:55.540\npossibly\n\n359\n00:15:55.540 --> 00:15:57.020\nmanage that business?\"\n\n360\n00:15:57.020 --> 00:16:01.140\nSo as a financial person, you always have to have handle on your numbers.\n\n361\n00:16:01.140 --> 00:16:02.620\nThat goes without saying.\n\n362\n00:16:02.620 --> 00:16:06.140\nBut understand more about the businesses that you're involved with so that when\n\n363\n00:16:06.140 --> 00:16:06.620\nsomebody\n\n364\n00:16:06.620 --> 00:16:10.500\ncomes and asks you a question about, \"What can we do better for that business?\"\n\n365\n00:16:10.500 --> 00:16:14.490\nYou can answer it and that may open the door for you to become more of a leader\n\n366\n00:16:14.490 --> 00:16:14.900\nin that\n\n367\n00:16:14.900 --> 00:16:15.900\nbusiness.\n\n368\n00:16:15.900 --> 00:16:19.340\nOn the operation side, as the CEO, whatever it might be.\n\n369\n00:16:19.340 --> 00:16:23.300\nWhen did you get that breakthrough to become an operator, Steve?\n\n370\n00:16:23.300 --> 00:16:28.380\nIt came when I was at a company called HFS that we started.\n\n371\n00:16:28.380 --> 00:16:31.900\nI was the CFO there and we did more acquisitions.\n\n372\n00:16:31.900 --> 00:16:33.540\nYou mentioned the Avis transaction.\n\n373\n00:16:33.540 --> 00:16:34.540\nWe bought Avis.\n\n374\n00:16:34.540 --> 00:16:35.940\nWe bought Century 21.\n\n375\n00:16:35.940 --> 00:16:37.460\nWe bought Caldwell Banker.\n\n376\n00:16:37.460 --> 00:16:40.820\nWe got a lot of different industries and I was the CFO.\n\n377\n00:16:40.820 --> 00:16:45.750\nSo I was basically doing the M&A and managing the financial side of all those\n\n378\n00:16:45.750 --> 00:16:47.020\nacquisitions.\n\n379\n00:16:47.020 --> 00:16:52.710\nWe got towards the, I think it was the Avis acquisition and my mentor and CEO\n\n380\n00:16:52.710 --> 00:16:53.180\nat the\n\n381\n00:16:53.180 --> 00:16:57.900\ntime, Henry Silverman, came to me and said, \"Steve, financial people are a dime\n\n382\n00:16:57.900 --> 00:16:58.580\na dozen,\n\n383\n00:16:58.580 --> 00:17:00.180\nbut you can do a lot more than that.\n\n384\n00:17:00.180 --> 00:17:02.540\nSo I want you to go run this business for me.\"\n\n385\n00:17:02.540 --> 00:17:05.900\nSo he plucked me out of the financial role and put me in charge of all of the\n\n386\n00:17:05.900 --> 00:17:06.580\nhospitality\n\n387\n00:17:06.580 --> 00:17:09.100\nand travel related businesses.\n\n388\n00:17:09.100 --> 00:17:10.300\nThat was my first chance.\n\n389\n00:17:10.300 --> 00:17:14.780\nSo it wasn't like I came up and became the CEO of a small business that we were\n\n390\n00:17:14.780 --> 00:17:15.620\nrunning.\n\n391\n00:17:15.620 --> 00:17:19.300\nHe plopped me in front of all of them, but that was okay because I had been\n\n392\n00:17:19.300 --> 00:17:19.900\ninvolved\n\n393\n00:17:19.900 --> 00:17:22.700\nin the M&A, the acquisition of all those businesses.\n\n394\n00:17:22.700 --> 00:17:24.180\nI knew them all intimately.\n\n395\n00:17:24.180 --> 00:17:27.260\nSo it was very easy for me to say, \"Yeah, I know what RCI does.\n\n396\n00:17:27.260 --> 00:17:28.940\nI know what the Timeship Business does.\n\n397\n00:17:28.940 --> 00:17:30.540\nI know what Avis does.\n\n398\n00:17:30.540 --> 00:17:34.380\nI'm okay with taking management of those businesses.\"\n\n399\n00:17:34.380 --> 00:17:36.060\nSo that's when it happened.\n\n400\n00:17:36.060 --> 00:17:40.340\nI didn't have my hand up saying, \"Hey, Henry, I want to do this.\"\n\n401\n00:17:40.340 --> 00:17:42.420\nI was very happy being a CFO.\n\n402\n00:17:42.420 --> 00:17:44.820\nIt was a very challenging role.\n\n403\n00:17:44.820 --> 00:17:48.560\nBut it was even more of a challenge to take on something that I had never done\n\n404\n00:17:48.560 --> 00:17:49.140\nbefore,\n\n405\n00:17:49.140 --> 00:17:51.740\nwhich was being the CEO of a public company.\n\n406\n00:17:51.740 --> 00:17:55.220\nWell, Henry knew that you were more than a CFO.\n\n407\n00:17:55.220 --> 00:17:59.660\nAnd what was it that he saw on you that distinguished you in the sense that he\n\n408\n00:17:59.660 --> 00:18:00.700\ndid think you could\n\n409\n00:18:00.700 --> 00:18:03.820\nbe more than a CFO and you could run a huge business?\n\n410\n00:18:03.820 --> 00:18:05.940\nWell, I asked him that.\n\n411\n00:18:05.940 --> 00:18:09.060\nOf course I did because I'm saying, \"Henry, why are you doing this?\n\n412\n00:18:09.060 --> 00:18:10.060\nI'm a young kid.\n\n413\n00:18:10.060 --> 00:18:11.060\nWhat are you doing?\n\n414\n00:18:11.060 --> 00:18:12.060\nPut me in charge of this.\"\n\n415\n00:18:12.060 --> 00:18:15.960\nAnd he said, \"Steve, there's a couple of attributes you have which I really\n\n416\n00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:16.860\nappreciate.\n\n417\n00:18:16.860 --> 00:18:19.180\nOne is I can trust you.\n\n418\n00:18:19.180 --> 00:18:21.980\nSecondly, I like the way you think.\"\n\n419\n00:18:21.980 --> 00:18:26.050\nHe was a lawyer by training and never really worked much as a lawyer, worked\n\n420\n00:18:26.050 --> 00:18:26.620\nfor a firm\n\n421\n00:18:26.620 --> 00:18:27.900\nfor a while.\n\n422\n00:18:27.900 --> 00:18:32.700\nBut he always thought that thought process was more important than educational\n\n423\n00:18:32.700 --> 00:18:33.780\ncredentials.\n\n424\n00:18:33.780 --> 00:18:35.820\nSo how do you think is a person?\n\n425\n00:18:35.820 --> 00:18:37.500\nDo you think the same way I think?\n\n426\n00:18:37.500 --> 00:18:41.300\nWill you come to the same answer that I come to working through something?\n\n427\n00:18:41.300 --> 00:18:44.550\nIt's not critical that you come to the same answer, but do you think through it\n\n428\n00:18:44.550 --> 00:18:44.940\nthe same\n\n429\n00:18:44.940 --> 00:18:46.020\nway I would think through it?\n\n430\n00:18:46.020 --> 00:18:49.860\nI think Henry found that I always thought through it the same way that he did.\n\n431\n00:18:49.860 --> 00:18:53.820\nI sometimes came up with different answers and sometimes he liked him.\n\n432\n00:18:53.820 --> 00:18:54.820\nSometimes he did me.\n\n433\n00:18:54.820 --> 00:18:55.820\nHe was the boss.\n\n434\n00:18:55.820 --> 00:18:57.340\nSo he got to decide which was the right answer.\n\n435\n00:18:57.340 --> 00:19:00.940\nBut we always kind of worked through the process the same way.\n\n436\n00:19:00.940 --> 00:19:04.840\nKnowing the numbers, where's the cash flow, what's driving the business, who's\n\n437\n00:19:04.840 --> 00:19:05.300\ndriving\n\n438\n00:19:05.300 --> 00:19:08.180\nthe business, is the right person driving the business.\n\n439\n00:19:08.180 --> 00:19:12.700\nThose are questions that I always ask myself that Henry always asked himself.\n\n440\n00:19:12.700 --> 00:19:15.500\nThat's interesting because those are great traits to have.\n\n441\n00:19:15.500 --> 00:19:19.660\nBut knowing you as I do, you're an incredible people person.\n\n442\n00:19:19.660 --> 00:19:23.020\nI would have thought he said, \"Look, you're so good with people.\"\n\n443\n00:19:23.020 --> 00:19:27.380\nBut he really went after the thought process and how you think.\n\n444\n00:19:27.380 --> 00:19:31.460\nBut people that work with you, they'll go through walls for you.\n\n445\n00:19:31.460 --> 00:19:32.460\nIt's incredible.\n\n446\n00:19:32.460 --> 00:19:37.940\nHow do you show up as a leader to get that kind of buy-in, loyalty, and trust?\n\n447\n00:19:37.940 --> 00:19:42.180\nWell, I think you do it with honesty and you do it with good communication.\n\n448\n00:19:42.180 --> 00:19:44.540\nAnd I appreciate you saying that.\n\n449\n00:19:44.540 --> 00:19:48.340\nI have had great teams in my life that have followed me.\n\n450\n00:19:48.340 --> 00:19:51.750\nI always thought I just got lucky, but maybe it's because I was a pretty good\n\n451\n00:19:51.750 --> 00:19:52.340\nleader.\n\n452\n00:19:52.340 --> 00:19:55.700\nAnd I think that Henry was not a people person.\n\n453\n00:19:55.700 --> 00:19:57.780\nAnd I'm a massive introvert too, David.\n\n454\n00:19:57.780 --> 00:19:58.780\nYou just don't know that.\n\n455\n00:19:58.780 --> 00:20:00.380\nI hide it well at times.\n\n456\n00:20:00.380 --> 00:20:01.940\nI love all these extroverts.\n\n457\n00:20:01.940 --> 00:20:02.940\nThey call themselves introverts.\n\n458\n00:20:02.940 --> 00:20:03.940\nNo.\n\n459\n00:20:03.940 --> 00:20:04.940\nYou're an extrovert.\n\n460\n00:20:04.940 --> 00:20:05.940\nI'm an introvert.\n\n461\n00:20:05.940 --> 00:20:07.900\nSell it somewhere else, Steve.\n\n462\n00:20:07.900 --> 00:20:12.880\nI really think that being honest with people and respecting everyone is so\n\n463\n00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:13.860\nimportant to\n\n464\n00:20:13.860 --> 00:20:17.860\nbuilding that kind of culture of people feeling comfortable that they can do\n\n465\n00:20:17.860 --> 00:20:18.580\nwhat they need\n\n466\n00:20:18.580 --> 00:20:22.660\nto do to be successful because you're going to support them.\n\n467\n00:20:22.660 --> 00:20:24.380\nYou're going to empower them.\n\n468\n00:20:24.380 --> 00:20:27.300\nAnd so it's that trust and honesty.\n\n469\n00:20:27.300 --> 00:20:32.580\nAnd I never treated anybody different than I would want to be treated by them.\n\n470\n00:20:32.580 --> 00:20:36.890\nAnd that goes down to the mailroom guy, to the IT guy who's hooking up a\n\n471\n00:20:36.890 --> 00:20:37.660\nprinter in\n\n472\n00:20:37.660 --> 00:20:38.660\nmy office.\n\n473\n00:20:38.660 --> 00:20:40.580\nI always treated people with respect.\n\n474\n00:20:40.580 --> 00:20:45.340\nAnd I think that others see you do that and they start emulating that.\n\n475\n00:20:45.340 --> 00:20:46.340\nAnd it feels good.\n\n476\n00:20:46.340 --> 00:20:50.770\nIt really feels good to lead that way, to lead with respect and with trust and\n\n477\n00:20:50.770 --> 00:20:51.100\nwith\n\n478\n00:20:51.100 --> 00:20:53.780\nconfidence and with good communication.\n\n479\n00:20:53.780 --> 00:20:56.300\nYou know, you're a very confident person.\n\n480\n00:20:56.300 --> 00:21:01.140\nWas it always easy for you to really get comfortable in your decision-making\n\n481\n00:21:01.140 --> 00:21:01.940\nprocess?\n\n482\n00:21:01.940 --> 00:21:05.590\nWhen you look back, was there ever a time where you had to wrestle with that or\n\n483\n00:21:05.590 --> 00:21:05.940\nis that\n\n484\n00:21:05.940 --> 00:21:09.380\njust something you just naturally gravitated to?\n\n485\n00:21:09.380 --> 00:21:14.340\nWell, we went through a horrific fraud problem at HFS when we merged with a\n\n486\n00:21:14.340 --> 00:21:15.460\ncompany called\n\n487\n00:21:15.460 --> 00:21:17.980\nCUC to create Sendin.\n\n488\n00:21:17.980 --> 00:21:21.180\nAnd I was running a group of businesses at the time.\n\n489\n00:21:21.180 --> 00:21:23.460\nAnd it was a massive fraud.\n\n490\n00:21:23.460 --> 00:21:26.620\nI think a couple of the guys who are still in jail who were on the other side\n\n491\n00:21:26.620 --> 00:21:27.860\nof the transaction,\n\n492\n00:21:27.860 --> 00:21:31.140\nwe didn't do anything wrong, but they did a lot of things wrong.\n\n493\n00:21:31.140 --> 00:21:33.460\nThe fraud was on the financial side.\n\n494\n00:21:33.460 --> 00:21:34.900\nI'm a former CFL.\n\n495\n00:21:34.900 --> 00:21:36.660\nI'm a CPA.\n\n496\n00:21:36.660 --> 00:21:39.180\nThat to me cuts to my core.\n\n497\n00:21:39.180 --> 00:21:43.630\nSo I did start questioning, do I have the right chops to get our business\n\n498\n00:21:43.630 --> 00:21:44.540\nthrough this\n\n499\n00:21:44.540 --> 00:21:48.540\nwhen it kind of, the problem was in my core competency?\n\n500\n00:21:48.540 --> 00:21:50.500\nAnd the fact was I was never exposed to it.\n\n501\n00:21:50.500 --> 00:21:52.300\nI couldn't have uncovered it.\n\n502\n00:21:52.300 --> 00:21:55.540\nIt was not something I could have ever done anything about.\n\n503\n00:21:55.540 --> 00:21:58.420\nBut that did shake me a little bit to think, \"Hold it.\n\n504\n00:21:58.420 --> 00:21:59.580\nHow did this happen?\"\n\n505\n00:21:59.580 --> 00:22:03.140\nThis is a financial fraud, and I'm a financial person.\n\n506\n00:22:03.140 --> 00:22:04.580\nIt can't happen on my watch.\n\n507\n00:22:04.580 --> 00:22:05.980\nWell, it wasn't my watch.\n\n508\n00:22:05.980 --> 00:22:06.980\nIt wasn't our watch.\n\n509\n00:22:06.980 --> 00:22:09.940\nIt was the watch of the people that we merged with.\n\n510\n00:22:09.940 --> 00:22:12.340\nBut that did shake me for a while.\n\n511\n00:22:12.340 --> 00:22:16.310\nAnd I think it's interesting you say I have the confidence for it because I don\n\n512\n00:22:16.310 --> 00:22:16.660\n't know\n\n513\n00:22:16.660 --> 00:22:20.340\nthat I'm the most confident person in the world, but when I'm doing the right\n\n514\n00:22:20.340 --> 00:22:20.780\nthing\n\n515\n00:22:20.780 --> 00:22:25.420\nand I understand what I'm doing and I have an objective, I think I am confident\n\n516\n00:22:25.420 --> 00:22:25.940\nbecause\n\n517\n00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:29.100\nI knew the right things to do to get to the right answer.\n\n518\n00:22:29.100 --> 00:22:33.100\nBut there have been times like that incident with the bad fraudulent merger\n\n519\n00:22:33.100 --> 00:22:33.820\nthat did make\n\n520\n00:22:33.820 --> 00:22:35.580\nthe question myself.\n\n521\n00:22:35.580 --> 00:22:39.140\nYou built this incredible empire in a hotel business, and you made a ton of\n\n522\n00:22:39.140 --> 00:22:40.020\nacquisitions.\n\n523\n00:22:40.020 --> 00:22:43.420\nHow many acquisitions have you had in your career?\n\n524\n00:22:43.420 --> 00:22:44.980\n75.\n\n525\n00:22:44.980 --> 00:22:47.580\nAnd how many hotel chains did you acquire?\n\n526\n00:22:47.580 --> 00:22:49.100\nI think 16.\n\n527\n00:22:49.100 --> 00:22:54.070\nAnd you put all of these different hotels, a wind and a liqueint, et cetera,\n\n528\n00:22:54.070 --> 00:22:54.860\nall these\n\n529\n00:22:54.860 --> 00:22:56.140\ndifferent hotels that you bought.\n\n530\n00:22:56.140 --> 00:23:00.300\nYou put them all under one umbrella and made them one company.\n\n531\n00:23:00.300 --> 00:23:03.550\nAnd these are all companies and brands that could have viewed themselves as\n\n532\n00:23:03.550 --> 00:23:04.380\ncompetitors.\n\n533\n00:23:04.380 --> 00:23:05.980\nHow did you do that?\n\n534\n00:23:05.980 --> 00:23:07.940\nThey do consider themselves competitors.\n\n535\n00:23:07.940 --> 00:23:11.290\nAt a street corner, there could be, and we own all these brands, there could be\n\n536\n00:23:11.290 --> 00:23:11.660\na days\n\n537\n00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:16.180\nin a Ramada, a Windham, and a Super 8, all in the same street corner.\n\n538\n00:23:16.180 --> 00:23:20.700\nAnd they're all competing for the traveler who's staying in town that night.\n\n539\n00:23:20.700 --> 00:23:25.050\nSo how do we get them to feel that they're part of a family, that they're not\n\n540\n00:23:25.050 --> 00:23:26.100\njust competitors?\n\n541\n00:23:26.100 --> 00:23:29.820\nWe build infrastructure to support them.\n\n542\n00:23:29.820 --> 00:23:33.820\nAnd part of that infrastructure is a great loyalty program.\n\n543\n00:23:33.820 --> 00:23:38.210\nThe Windham Rewards program is recognized as the number one loyalty program in\n\n544\n00:23:38.210 --> 00:23:39.420\nthe industry\n\n545\n00:23:39.420 --> 00:23:45.420\nby travelers and provides great, great support for the hotels that are in our\n\n546\n00:23:45.420 --> 00:23:46.420\nnetwork.\n\n547\n00:23:46.420 --> 00:23:49.780\nSo yes, each hotel has its own personality.\n\n548\n00:23:49.780 --> 00:23:52.930\nAnd when we merge these businesses together, there were times when the\n\n549\n00:23:52.930 --> 00:23:53.820\nleadership, the\n\n550\n00:23:53.820 --> 00:23:58.800\nfranchise leadership of a particular brand would say, \"Well, we don't want\n\n551\n00:23:58.800 --> 00:23:59.180\nanything\n\n552\n00:23:59.180 --> 00:24:01.180\nto do with those other brands.\n\n553\n00:24:01.180 --> 00:24:02.180\nWe're days in.\n\n554\n00:24:02.180 --> 00:24:04.420\nWe don't want anything to do with Super 8.\"\n\n555\n00:24:04.420 --> 00:24:08.820\nBut the fact is they can benefit by being part of a larger organization.\n\n556\n00:24:08.820 --> 00:24:12.740\nAnd they have, and they've done very well during difficult times.\n\n557\n00:24:12.740 --> 00:24:16.520\nBut it takes a lot of work to talk them through and make sure they understand,\n\n558\n00:24:16.520 --> 00:24:17.180\nand then prove\n\n559\n00:24:17.180 --> 00:24:21.790\nto them by delivering results that they can get better results by being part of\n\n560\n00:24:21.790 --> 00:24:22.540\nsomething\n\n561\n00:24:22.540 --> 00:24:26.830\nthat's a cohesive group, and they can, by being an individual out there all on\n\n562\n00:24:26.830 --> 00:24:27.980\nyour own,\n\n563\n00:24:27.980 --> 00:24:32.900\nor all with just a brand that is unilateral brand versus a brand that's part of\n\n564\n00:24:32.900 --> 00:24:33.540\nsomething\n\n565\n00:24:33.540 --> 00:24:34.540\nbigger.\n\n566\n00:24:34.540 --> 00:24:36.740\nSo it all worked over time.\n\n567\n00:24:36.740 --> 00:24:40.740\nSo you got people to work together, and your rewards program was one of the key\n\n568\n00:24:40.740 --> 00:24:41.300\nways you\n\n569\n00:24:41.300 --> 00:24:42.300\ndid it.\n\n570\n00:24:42.300 --> 00:24:44.940\nSo if you stayed the days in, that would get you points.\n\n571\n00:24:44.940 --> 00:24:47.220\nYou stayed the-- Laquinta, that would get you points.\n\n572\n00:24:47.220 --> 00:24:48.700\nSo it brought everybody together.\n\n573\n00:24:48.700 --> 00:24:50.660\nAnd you made that a competitive advantage.\n\n574\n00:24:50.660 --> 00:24:52.300\nYou know, I could never do that.\n\n575\n00:24:52.300 --> 00:24:56.410\nAnd I wanted to, with Pizza at Taco Bell and KFC, which is basically franchise\n\n576\n00:24:56.410 --> 00:24:57.020\ndriven,\n\n577\n00:24:57.020 --> 00:24:59.260\nthey viewed each other as like competitors.\n\n578\n00:24:59.260 --> 00:25:02.860\nWe bought things together, and we'll every start scales in some ways.\n\n579\n00:25:02.860 --> 00:25:05.300\nBut it was tough to share your customer.\n\n580\n00:25:05.300 --> 00:25:06.300\nThat's really challenging.\n\n581\n00:25:06.300 --> 00:25:10.850\nI mean, tell us how you really got people to understand that this really would\n\n582\n00:25:10.850 --> 00:25:11.980\nbe a benefit.\n\n583\n00:25:11.980 --> 00:25:14.380\nWell, it's kind of a before and after.\n\n584\n00:25:14.380 --> 00:25:18.260\nYou know how you're doing before you join a larger group, and you know how you\n\n585\n00:25:18.260 --> 00:25:18.860\n're doing\n\n586\n00:25:18.860 --> 00:25:20.100\nafter you join the group.\n\n587\n00:25:20.100 --> 00:25:23.860\nYou can see the relative benefit of that engagement.\n\n588\n00:25:23.860 --> 00:25:30.990\nBecause it's all about building a cohesive platform that allows people to get a\n\n589\n00:25:30.990 --> 00:25:31.700\nbenefit\n\n590\n00:25:31.700 --> 00:25:32.940\nfor what they're doing.\n\n591\n00:25:32.940 --> 00:25:37.320\nI mean, people didn't think that a window, which is days in Super 8, Romada,\n\n592\n00:25:37.320 --> 00:25:38.660\nHoward Johnson,\n\n593\n00:25:38.660 --> 00:25:43.140\na lot of economy, mid-scale brands, could compete with a Marietta or Hilton\n\n594\n00:25:43.140 --> 00:25:43.780\nthat have\n\n595\n00:25:43.780 --> 00:25:48.900\nall these upscale brands that are much larger and business travel that might\n\n596\n00:25:48.900 --> 00:25:49.780\nappreciate\n\n597\n00:25:49.780 --> 00:25:51.140\nloyalty programs more.\n\n598\n00:25:51.140 --> 00:25:56.420\nWell, if that's the case, why are we constantly rated by USA Today as the most\n\n599\n00:25:56.420 --> 00:25:57.460\npopular loyalty\n\n600\n00:25:57.460 --> 00:25:58.460\nprogram?\n\n601\n00:25:58.460 --> 00:26:02.020\nIt's because our program delivers for the consumer.\n\n602\n00:26:02.020 --> 00:26:05.580\nJoe consumer driving down the street, when he pulls into a day's end and he\n\n603\n00:26:05.580 --> 00:26:06.340\nflashes with\n\n604\n00:26:06.340 --> 00:26:10.280\na win or reward card, he's going to get points that will then let him go on a\n\n605\n00:26:10.280 --> 00:26:11.060\nvacation into\n\n606\n00:26:11.060 --> 00:26:15.830\na Wyndham grand property in Orlando and take his family down there and stay in\n\n607\n00:26:15.830 --> 00:26:16.780\nthis gorgeous\n\n608\n00:26:16.780 --> 00:26:22.240\nproperty with swimming pools and lazy rivers because he's stayed at Super 8s\n\n609\n00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:22.900\nand days\n\n610\n00:26:22.900 --> 00:26:26.580\nand is enough to earn points to be able to go on that big trip.\n\n611\n00:26:26.580 --> 00:26:30.660\nIt's all in the vision you build and on the delivery of your platform.\n\n612\n00:26:30.660 --> 00:26:36.150\nSo I think if people bought a bunch of Taco Bell, Tacos and Pizza Hut Pizza and\n\n613\n00:26:36.150 --> 00:26:36.860\nthey could\n\n614\n00:26:36.860 --> 00:26:41.360\nearn some sort of points and your profit margin, your point, your cost\n\n615\n00:26:41.360 --> 00:26:42.540\ndifferentially, it's\n\n616\n00:26:42.540 --> 00:26:43.540\ndifferent.\n\n617\n00:26:43.540 --> 00:26:45.300\nSo it would have to be built differently.\n\n618\n00:26:45.300 --> 00:26:48.740\nAnd you could build something that people would gladly carry around in their\n\n619\n00:26:48.740 --> 00:26:49.660\npocket that young\n\n620\n00:26:49.660 --> 00:26:52.580\nbrands card and you know what they get when they win?\n\n621\n00:26:52.580 --> 00:26:54.700\nThey get to go to the Kentucky Derby.\n\n622\n00:26:54.700 --> 00:26:55.700\nHow's that?\n\n623\n00:26:55.700 --> 00:26:56.700\nThat's good.\n\n624\n00:26:56.700 --> 00:27:01.380\nYou know, the other thing, Steve, is you're an incredible believer in people.\n\n625\n00:27:01.380 --> 00:27:03.620\nEveryone counts no matter what level.\n\n626\n00:27:03.620 --> 00:27:08.190\nHow did you really focus on the frontline employees so that they would really\n\n627\n00:27:08.190 --> 00:27:09.620\nfeel valued and\n\n628\n00:27:09.620 --> 00:27:12.540\ngive the customer the experience that they should be getting?\n\n629\n00:27:12.540 --> 00:27:16.170\nI didn't have to think about it a whole lot, David, because it's kind of how I\n\n630\n00:27:16.170 --> 00:27:16.940\n'm wired.\n\n631\n00:27:16.940 --> 00:27:19.940\nI'm wired to believe that everybody has value.\n\n632\n00:27:19.940 --> 00:27:20.940\nEverybody should be respected.\n\n633\n00:27:20.940 --> 00:27:24.450\nAnd all you have to do is spend some time in one of your businesses and you did\n\n634\n00:27:24.450 --> 00:27:24.740\na lot\n\n635\n00:27:24.740 --> 00:27:29.620\nof this and you see who impacts the experience of the consumer.\n\n636\n00:27:29.620 --> 00:27:34.180\nWhen you're in a Taco Bell, you know that that person taking the order and\n\n637\n00:27:34.180 --> 00:27:34.820\ndelivering\n\n638\n00:27:34.820 --> 00:27:39.780\nthe food is the most important person to that customer at that moment in time.\n\n639\n00:27:39.780 --> 00:27:42.760\nIt's not somebody who's running the marketing program and who's running the\n\n640\n00:27:42.760 --> 00:27:43.340\nbusiness.\n\n641\n00:27:43.340 --> 00:27:46.180\nIt's that person right at that counter.\n\n642\n00:27:46.180 --> 00:27:47.540\nAnd it's the same thing in a hotel.\n\n643\n00:27:47.540 --> 00:27:52.300\nI mean, whenever I go visit hotels, I always ask for a tour.\n\n644\n00:27:52.300 --> 00:27:57.630\nAnd then after that, I let the general manager go away and then I go behind the\n\n645\n00:27:57.630 --> 00:27:58.500\nfront desk\n\n646\n00:27:58.500 --> 00:27:59.900\nand walk behind.\n\n647\n00:27:59.900 --> 00:28:02.140\nIf they've seen you walking with the GM, they'll let you do it.\n\n648\n00:28:02.140 --> 00:28:04.420\nThey won't let somebody walk it off the street.\n\n649\n00:28:04.420 --> 00:28:07.740\nBut then I get to go in the back and I get to see what's really going on.\n\n650\n00:28:07.740 --> 00:28:11.440\nAnd you can tell a lot by going to the back office and see how people, how do\n\n651\n00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:12.180\nthey maintain\n\n652\n00:28:12.180 --> 00:28:13.340\ntheir desks?\n\n653\n00:28:13.340 --> 00:28:16.300\nWhat do things look like if you can get back into the mechanical room?\n\n654\n00:28:16.300 --> 00:28:17.860\nYou know, how well kept is it?\n\n655\n00:28:17.860 --> 00:28:19.300\nSo you can learn a lot.\n\n656\n00:28:19.300 --> 00:28:23.070\nAnd when people see you do that, they know it matters to you and they know you\n\n657\n00:28:23.070 --> 00:28:23.580\ncare.\n\n658\n00:28:23.580 --> 00:28:28.440\nAnd so I think that that has a lot to do with how you connect and interact with\n\n659\n00:28:28.440 --> 00:28:29.660\nthe people\n\n660\n00:28:29.660 --> 00:28:34.100\naround you and the people who are at whatever level they may be at.\n\n661\n00:28:34.100 --> 00:28:38.600\nYou know, I care if somebody's happy who's cleaning the floor as well as the\n\n662\n00:28:38.600 --> 00:28:39.980\nperson who's\n\n663\n00:28:39.980 --> 00:28:40.980\nrunning the hotel.\n\n664\n00:28:40.980 --> 00:28:42.980\nYou know, they both need to be happy.\n\n665\n00:28:42.980 --> 00:28:46.220\nThey both need to be respected.\n\n666\n00:28:46.220 --> 00:28:52.810\nWe'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Steve Holmes in just a\n\n667\n00:28:52.810 --> 00:28:53.860\nmoment.\n\n668\n00:28:53.860 --> 00:28:57.430\nYou know, Steve is walking proof that when you do the right thing, the right\n\n669\n00:28:57.430 --> 00:28:58.860\nthings happen.\n\n670\n00:28:58.860 --> 00:29:04.260\nIt reminds me of a conversation I had with Ajay Banga when he was the CEO of\n\n671\n00:29:04.260 --> 00:29:05.180\nMasterCard.\n\n672\n00:29:05.180 --> 00:29:10.340\nFor him, it's not enough to have a high IQ or a high EQ.\n\n673\n00:29:10.340 --> 00:29:15.370\nLeaders also need decency to treat others with fairness and support and respect\n\n674\n00:29:15.370 --> 00:29:15.660\n.\n\n675\n00:29:15.660 --> 00:29:20.630\nAjay calls it the decency quotient and it has a surprising impact on your\n\n676\n00:29:20.630 --> 00:29:21.820\nbottom line.\n\n677\n00:29:21.820 --> 00:29:26.400\nWhat's really important is that you bring your innate human decency, your sense\n\n678\n00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:27.580\nof fairness,\n\n679\n00:29:27.580 --> 00:29:31.980\nyour sense of a level playing field to the party and you tell people who work\n\n680\n00:29:31.980 --> 00:29:32.780\nfor you,\n\n681\n00:29:32.780 --> 00:29:33.780\nyou know what?\n\n682\n00:29:33.780 --> 00:29:38.220\nMy hand is always going to be on your back and never in your face.\n\n683\n00:29:38.220 --> 00:29:42.330\nAnd that doesn't mean that I won't give you strong feedback when you deserve it\n\n684\n00:29:42.330 --> 00:29:42.540\n.\n\n685\n00:29:42.540 --> 00:29:46.970\nBut you will know where I'm coming from and you will know I will be shared and\n\n686\n00:29:46.970 --> 00:29:48.100\ntransparent,\n\n687\n00:29:48.100 --> 00:29:49.580\nnot just nice to you.\n\n688\n00:29:49.580 --> 00:29:54.640\nIt's a way of behaving in a way of conducting yourself with your people, with\n\n689\n00:29:54.640 --> 00:29:55.220\nthe values\n\n690\n00:29:55.220 --> 00:29:59.780\nof your company, with your behavior and society, with everything you do.\n\n691\n00:29:59.780 --> 00:30:04.030\nIf you want to unlock the power of decency in your organization, go back and\n\n692\n00:30:04.030 --> 00:30:04.460\nlisten to\n\n693\n00:30:04.460 --> 00:30:07.060\nmy conversation with Ajay.\n\n694\n00:30:07.060 --> 00:30:16.300\nEpisode 7 here on How Leaders Lead.\n\n695\n00:30:16.300 --> 00:30:21.550\nYou know, one of the things I know you're known for is the incredible job you\n\n696\n00:30:21.550 --> 00:30:22.500\ndid leading\n\n697\n00:30:22.500 --> 00:30:25.420\nthe Count on Me service culture.\n\n698\n00:30:25.420 --> 00:30:30.020\nTalk about how that came about and how you made it come alive as a leader.\n\n699\n00:30:30.020 --> 00:30:36.380\nIt's a story of theft and intrigue because I stole that name from one of the\n\n700\n00:30:36.380 --> 00:30:37.180\nguys who\n\n701\n00:30:37.180 --> 00:30:41.700\nworks in Australia who is running our timeshare business at the time.\n\n702\n00:30:41.700 --> 00:30:45.100\nHe told us about this Count on Me thing.\n\n703\n00:30:45.100 --> 00:30:50.160\nAnd the great thing that he said about Count on Me was he described what it\n\n704\n00:30:50.160 --> 00:30:50.980\nmeans to be\n\n705\n00:30:50.980 --> 00:30:55.620\nrespectful, to be responsive and to deliver a great experience.\n\n706\n00:30:55.620 --> 00:31:00.150\nThree things that I embrace and I believe in wholeheartedly, and they're so\n\n707\n00:31:00.150 --> 00:31:00.980\nmemorable,\n\n708\n00:31:00.980 --> 00:31:03.140\nthey just roll off your tongue.\n\n709\n00:31:03.140 --> 00:31:08.780\nSo it's not some complicated methodology for creating a culture.\n\n710\n00:31:08.780 --> 00:31:12.420\nIt's something that's embedded in us and it's easy to remember.\n\n711\n00:31:12.420 --> 00:31:18.370\nSo the Count on Me culture was really built around that philosophy that Barry\n\n712\n00:31:18.370 --> 00:31:19.100\nhad down\n\n713\n00:31:19.100 --> 00:31:24.590\nin Australia that I unceremonially ripped out of his hands and said, \"I love\n\n714\n00:31:24.590 --> 00:31:25.060\nthis.\n\n715\n00:31:25.060 --> 00:31:26.460\nI'm going to use it.\"\n\n716\n00:31:26.460 --> 00:31:30.310\nAnd then I went to our head of HR and I said, \"Okay, Mary, we're going to make\n\n717\n00:31:30.310 --> 00:31:30.900\nthis the\n\n718\n00:31:30.900 --> 00:31:34.260\nculture for our company and it didn't take me more.\n\n719\n00:31:34.260 --> 00:31:38.280\nI didn't even get that full sentence out before she was running with it hard\n\n720\n00:31:38.280 --> 00:31:38.420\nbecause\n\n721\n00:31:38.420 --> 00:31:39.420\nshe was a believer.\n\n722\n00:31:39.420 --> 00:31:42.460\nAnd then we got the other senior leaders to buy into it.\n\n723\n00:31:42.460 --> 00:31:45.100\nAnd pretty soon we're wearing Count on Me pins.\n\n724\n00:31:45.100 --> 00:31:48.820\nWe're giving out Count on Me awards and everybody's buying into it.\n\n725\n00:31:48.820 --> 00:31:51.540\nWe've done this so many times, David, so successfully.\n\n726\n00:31:51.540 --> 00:31:52.740\nYou know what it is?\n\n727\n00:31:52.740 --> 00:31:57.670\nWhen you feel it engaged and you feel the organization latch onto it, you then\n\n728\n00:31:57.670 --> 00:31:58.740\nsay, \"Yeah, this is\n\n729\n00:31:58.740 --> 00:31:59.740\ngoing to work.\n\n730\n00:31:59.740 --> 00:32:00.740\nThis is going to work.\"\n\n731\n00:32:00.740 --> 00:32:01.740\nAnd that's the way it felt.\n\n732\n00:32:01.740 --> 00:32:06.110\nAnd so when I went to Shanghai and I see Count on Me signs up in Shanghai, I'm\n\n733\n00:32:06.110 --> 00:32:06.540\nsaying,\n\n734\n00:32:06.540 --> 00:32:09.060\n\"Wow, this thing really is working.\"\n\n735\n00:32:09.060 --> 00:32:10.580\nEverybody's bought into it.\n\n736\n00:32:10.580 --> 00:32:14.160\nSo that's the story behind Count on Me, which I stole and I feel badly about it\n\n737\n00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:14.820\n, but you\n\n738\n00:32:14.820 --> 00:32:16.380\ngot to take what you see that's good.\n\n739\n00:32:16.380 --> 00:32:19.440\nYeah, I don't think you feel that badly about it because it's such a great idea\n\n740\n00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:19.740\n.\n\n741\n00:32:19.740 --> 00:32:24.080\nAnd it was so much fun to go into Shanghai and see it there and go to Malaysia\n\n742\n00:32:24.080 --> 00:32:24.620\nand see\n\n743\n00:32:24.620 --> 00:32:25.620\nit there.\n\n744\n00:32:25.620 --> 00:32:30.030\nYou know, I think as a CEO, seeing things get cascaded that are powerful,\n\n745\n00:32:30.030 --> 00:32:30.740\nhappen all\n\n746\n00:32:30.740 --> 00:32:33.020\naround the world, that's really amazing.\n\n747\n00:32:33.020 --> 00:32:39.160\nAnd I understand that you're a big-time cheerleader and you would often lead\n\n748\n00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:40.220\nparades.\n\n749\n00:32:40.220 --> 00:32:42.220\nTell me how that got started.\n\n750\n00:32:42.220 --> 00:32:46.340\nWe were presenting Count on Me awards at employee meetings.\n\n751\n00:32:46.340 --> 00:32:51.420\nSo you get, you know, 600 people in a meeting, we'd have somebody come up on\n\n752\n00:32:51.420 --> 00:32:52.300\nthe stage, we\n\n753\n00:32:52.300 --> 00:32:54.100\ngive them a Count on Me award.\n\n754\n00:32:54.100 --> 00:32:58.730\nAnd it might be something as simple as something they put in their cubicle and\n\n755\n00:32:58.730 --> 00:32:59.660\nmaybe an American\n\n756\n00:32:59.660 --> 00:33:01.020\nExpress gift certificate.\n\n757\n00:33:01.020 --> 00:33:02.020\nIt's something simple.\n\n758\n00:33:02.020 --> 00:33:04.620\nThese were not elaborate gifts.\n\n759\n00:33:04.620 --> 00:33:09.740\nBut I felt like after doing that for several years, it kind of got stale.\n\n760\n00:33:09.740 --> 00:33:14.010\nLike people in the audience were kind of yawning when somebody walked up on the\n\n761\n00:33:14.010 --> 00:33:14.500\nstage.\n\n762\n00:33:14.500 --> 00:33:18.420\nAnd then I thought, well, what's really important to the person we're bringing\n\n763\n00:33:18.420 --> 00:33:19.540\nup on the stage?\n\n764\n00:33:19.540 --> 00:33:23.250\nAnd I'm thinking it's really being recognized by the peers, by the people you\n\n765\n00:33:23.250 --> 00:33:23.820\nwork with\n\n766\n00:33:23.820 --> 00:33:25.340\nwho are around you.\n\n767\n00:33:25.340 --> 00:33:29.340\nSo if it's a paralegal who's getting a Count on Me award, they care about what\n\n768\n00:33:29.340 --> 00:33:30.060\nthe people\n\n769\n00:33:30.060 --> 00:33:32.180\nin the legal department think.\n\n770\n00:33:32.180 --> 00:33:35.600\nAnd the same thing for the accountants and the marketing people, HR people,\n\n771\n00:33:35.600 --> 00:33:36.140\nwhoever they\n\n772\n00:33:36.140 --> 00:33:37.340\nmight be.\n\n773\n00:33:37.340 --> 00:33:42.820\nSo I said, let's create this as something that brings the award to the person.\n\n774\n00:33:42.820 --> 00:33:47.620\nSo I got our HR people and we got a bunch of helium balloons and we got our\n\n775\n00:33:47.620 --> 00:33:48.660\ncertificate\n\n776\n00:33:48.660 --> 00:33:52.340\nand we got some gazoos and some noise makers.\n\n777\n00:33:52.340 --> 00:33:56.980\nAnd we'd march down the hall, make an oracle to find the person in their cub\n\n778\n00:33:56.980 --> 00:33:57.740\nicle who's\n\n779\n00:33:57.740 --> 00:33:58.740\ngetting the award.\n\n780\n00:33:58.740 --> 00:34:02.050\nAnd we had a little coordination in advance so we knew that their supervisor\n\n781\n00:34:02.050 --> 00:34:03.140\nwould be there\n\n782\n00:34:03.140 --> 00:34:06.460\nin the person who should give them their award was going to be there.\n\n783\n00:34:06.460 --> 00:34:10.940\nAnd we created so much noise that the people started following us.\n\n784\n00:34:10.940 --> 00:34:12.140\nWhat are they doing?\n\n785\n00:34:12.140 --> 00:34:13.140\nWhere are they going?\n\n786\n00:34:13.140 --> 00:34:15.020\nAnd we'd march into somebody's cubicle.\n\n787\n00:34:15.020 --> 00:34:19.600\nWe'd talk about what the person did, what they did to deserve the Count on Me\n\n788\n00:34:19.600 --> 00:34:20.300\naward.\n\n789\n00:34:20.300 --> 00:34:22.380\nAnd then we would celebrate them.\n\n790\n00:34:22.380 --> 00:34:25.250\nAnd we'd get right in their face and we'd celebrate them and give them their\n\n791\n00:34:25.250 --> 00:34:25.660\nballoons\n\n792\n00:34:25.660 --> 00:34:27.220\nand thank them.\n\n793\n00:34:27.220 --> 00:34:28.220\nAnd it was just wonderful.\n\n794\n00:34:28.220 --> 00:34:31.300\nAnd the organization just loved it.\n\n795\n00:34:31.300 --> 00:34:34.620\nWell, you know, so many leaders phoned in recognition.\n\n796\n00:34:34.620 --> 00:34:37.770\nYou know, they just saw, okay, here it is or whatever, you know, but that's an\n\n797\n00:34:37.770 --> 00:34:38.180\nexperience\n\n798\n00:34:38.180 --> 00:34:42.420\nthat you created for these people that were being recognized that they'll never\n\n799\n00:34:42.420 --> 00:34:43.420\never forget.\n\n800\n00:34:43.420 --> 00:34:44.420\nI don't think so.\n\n801\n00:34:44.420 --> 00:34:46.910\nI think they'll remember it and they value it and they put that Count on Me\n\n802\n00:34:46.910 --> 00:34:49.020\naward certificate\n\n803\n00:34:49.020 --> 00:34:53.180\nand their cubicle and they would point to people and say, do you know when I\n\n804\n00:34:53.180 --> 00:34:54.020\ngot that?\n\n805\n00:34:54.020 --> 00:34:55.020\nAnd so yes, you're right.\n\n806\n00:34:55.020 --> 00:34:56.020\nThey did remember.\n\n807\n00:34:56.020 --> 00:35:01.330\nYou know, the other thing that I know you are just a huge believer in is growth\n\n808\n00:35:01.330 --> 00:35:01.340\n.\n\n809\n00:35:01.340 --> 00:35:05.890\nYou know, you say, I remember you telling me this, a company that doesn't grow\n\n810\n00:35:05.890 --> 00:35:06.300\nhas no\n\n811\n00:35:06.300 --> 00:35:07.300\nvalue.\n\n812\n00:35:07.300 --> 00:35:11.540\nHow did you constantly keep raising the bar at your company?\n\n813\n00:35:11.540 --> 00:35:15.680\nBecause you saw growth, I know for 12 years, well over a decade of growth year\n\n814\n00:35:15.680 --> 00:35:16.300\nafter year\n\n815\n00:35:16.300 --> 00:35:20.940\nwhere you hit your numbers every quarter, you build trust with investors.\n\n816\n00:35:20.940 --> 00:35:23.340\nHow did you make that happen with your team?\n\n817\n00:35:23.340 --> 00:35:25.340\nI don't know that you can make it happen.\n\n818\n00:35:25.340 --> 00:35:27.300\nWhat you can do is you can encourage it.\n\n819\n00:35:27.300 --> 00:35:31.830\nAnd if you're running a business and you're encouraged to grow that business,\n\n820\n00:35:31.830 --> 00:35:32.460\nthat what\n\n821\n00:35:32.460 --> 00:35:33.740\nwe want to see is growth.\n\n822\n00:35:33.740 --> 00:35:36.460\nWe don't want to see just a steady top line.\n\n823\n00:35:36.460 --> 00:35:38.060\nWe want to see growth.\n\n824\n00:35:38.060 --> 00:35:40.460\nAnd I think it starts with the growth of the people.\n\n825\n00:35:40.460 --> 00:35:42.780\nSo you invest in your people.\n\n826\n00:35:42.780 --> 00:35:47.480\nWe do a lot of work in leadership training so that we get people who are really\n\n827\n00:35:47.480 --> 00:35:48.140\nprepared\n\n828\n00:35:48.140 --> 00:35:49.740\nand ready to lead.\n\n829\n00:35:49.740 --> 00:35:52.300\nAnd then you tell them what you want to accomplish.\n\n830\n00:35:52.300 --> 00:35:53.980\nWe want to get growth.\n\n831\n00:35:53.980 --> 00:35:57.440\nAnd so I used to stand up in front of the franchise sales organization who\n\n832\n00:35:57.440 --> 00:35:58.100\nwould sell\n\n833\n00:35:58.100 --> 00:36:01.300\nhotel franchises for our hotel group.\n\n834\n00:36:01.300 --> 00:36:03.540\nAnd I would say, what do I want for Christmas?\n\n835\n00:36:03.540 --> 00:36:08.580\nRooms, rooms, rooms, rooms, because that's what they're focused on.\n\n836\n00:36:08.580 --> 00:36:10.500\nAnd that became their mantra.\n\n837\n00:36:10.500 --> 00:36:12.980\nThey wanted to deliver more rooms for me.\n\n838\n00:36:12.980 --> 00:36:14.580\nAnd so they'd go out and get more rooms.\n\n839\n00:36:14.580 --> 00:36:18.940\nSo you get people to buy into it and then they're the ones who do it.\n\n840\n00:36:18.940 --> 00:36:20.420\nYou can't force it.\n\n841\n00:36:20.420 --> 00:36:23.360\nThey've got to believe that there's the opportunity there that the market's\n\n842\n00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:24.500\nright for them and\n\n843\n00:36:24.500 --> 00:36:27.340\nthat they can jump on it and create growth.\n\n844\n00:36:27.340 --> 00:36:31.770\nAnd when you distill it down to the level of the doers, that's when things\n\n845\n00:36:31.770 --> 00:36:32.660\nhappen because\n\n846\n00:36:32.660 --> 00:36:36.140\nthey're the ones who will find the way to make it happen.\n\n847\n00:36:36.140 --> 00:36:40.200\nWe just made a change in one of our organizations and we put a guy in charge of\n\n848\n00:36:40.200 --> 00:36:40.860\na part of the\n\n849\n00:36:40.860 --> 00:36:41.860\nbusiness.\n\n850\n00:36:41.860 --> 00:36:48.180\nI've known this guy for 15 years and he is going to be an exceptional leader.\n\n851\n00:36:48.180 --> 00:36:52.350\nWhy music cares about people and he's going to drive the business for further\n\n852\n00:36:52.350 --> 00:36:53.020\ngrowth.\n\n853\n00:36:53.020 --> 00:36:58.570\nSo it's about the people and it's about giving them the authority and the\n\n854\n00:36:58.570 --> 00:36:59.700\ndirective that we\n\n855\n00:36:59.700 --> 00:37:00.700\nwant growth.\n\n856\n00:37:00.700 --> 00:37:04.320\nYou know, you're so much into giving your people opportunity and creating\n\n857\n00:37:04.320 --> 00:37:05.300\nopportunities and\n\n858\n00:37:05.300 --> 00:37:09.140\npossibilities for others and you're a big believer in education.\n\n859\n00:37:09.140 --> 00:37:13.930\nDo you have a story where that mindset really paid off and just still touches\n\n860\n00:37:13.930 --> 00:37:14.940\nyour heart?\n\n861\n00:37:14.940 --> 00:37:17.740\nWell, there's so many of them, David.\n\n862\n00:37:17.740 --> 00:37:20.690\nI don't know where to start, but let me give you the one that pops into my mind\n\n863\n00:37:20.690 --> 00:37:21.140\nbecause\n\n864\n00:37:21.140 --> 00:37:23.780\nit's a fairly recent development.\n\n865\n00:37:23.780 --> 00:37:30.380\nWe created an enhanced version of an internship program where we have interns\n\n866\n00:37:30.380 --> 00:37:31.460\ncome in from\n\n867\n00:37:31.460 --> 00:37:35.740\nsome great schools who are between their sophomore and junior, junior and\n\n868\n00:37:35.740 --> 00:37:36.500\nsenior year\n\n869\n00:37:36.500 --> 00:37:38.580\nand they interned with us.\n\n870\n00:37:38.580 --> 00:37:43.260\nAnd when my daughter did an internship, she made copies at a copy machine.\n\n871\n00:37:43.260 --> 00:37:46.460\nSo I would see her and I'd be going, \"Oh my God, what a waste.\n\n872\n00:37:46.460 --> 00:37:47.460\nWhat a waste.\"\n\n873\n00:37:47.460 --> 00:37:51.450\nSo when I had a chance to influence it and I became the CEO, we built an\n\n874\n00:37:51.450 --> 00:37:52.820\ninternship program\n\n875\n00:37:52.820 --> 00:37:55.340\nthat is top notch.\n\n876\n00:37:55.340 --> 00:37:58.620\nYou are engaged in the business when you're an intern.\n\n877\n00:37:58.620 --> 00:38:02.380\nAnd so you get a chance to actually work on real life problems.\n\n878\n00:38:02.380 --> 00:38:05.900\nIt takes a little more work for the people at the company to create that\n\n879\n00:38:05.900 --> 00:38:06.700\nopportunity.\n\n880\n00:38:06.700 --> 00:38:12.860\nBut when you do that, you see the bright, bright light shine in kids' eyes.\n\n881\n00:38:12.860 --> 00:38:16.260\nAnd I shouldn't say kids, because these are young adults, but they're kids.\n\n882\n00:38:16.260 --> 00:38:18.300\nAnd you see them light up.\n\n883\n00:38:18.300 --> 00:38:23.220\nAnd from that, you pick out who do you want to have in your organization going\n\n884\n00:38:23.220 --> 00:38:24.060\nforward.\n\n885\n00:38:24.060 --> 00:38:27.940\nAnd I just recently was talking to somebody who promoted a person.\n\n886\n00:38:27.940 --> 00:38:31.500\nThe way he described her was, \"Well, you remember her.\n\n887\n00:38:31.500 --> 00:38:34.660\nShe was interned back in 2008.\"\n\n888\n00:38:34.660 --> 00:38:36.060\nThat intern came in.\n\n889\n00:38:36.060 --> 00:38:37.300\nShe was a bright light.\n\n890\n00:38:37.300 --> 00:38:38.620\nWe gave her the opportunity.\n\n891\n00:38:38.620 --> 00:38:39.620\nShe's still there.\n\n892\n00:38:39.620 --> 00:38:40.620\nShe's grown.\n\n893\n00:38:40.620 --> 00:38:41.620\nShe got another promotion.\n\n894\n00:38:41.620 --> 00:38:44.300\nShe continues to have an impact on the organization.\n\n895\n00:38:44.300 --> 00:38:45.300\nI love that.\n\n896\n00:38:45.300 --> 00:38:48.360\nI just absolutely love that because that means that you're providing\n\n897\n00:38:48.360 --> 00:38:49.700\nopportunities for people\n\n898\n00:38:49.700 --> 00:38:53.140\nand they're grasping the opportunities and doing something with it.\n\n899\n00:38:53.140 --> 00:38:55.760\nYou know, Steve, this has been so much fun and I want to have some more with a\n\n900\n00:38:55.760 --> 00:38:56.220\nlightning\n\n901\n00:38:56.220 --> 00:38:57.620\nround of questions.\n\n902\n00:38:57.620 --> 00:38:59.020\nSo are you ready for this big guy?\n\n903\n00:38:59.020 --> 00:39:00.020\nOh my God.\n\n904\n00:39:00.020 --> 00:39:02.420\nI got to put my thinking cap on now.\n\n905\n00:39:02.420 --> 00:39:03.500\nAll right.\n\n906\n00:39:03.500 --> 00:39:07.100\nWhat are three words others would use to describe you?\n\n907\n00:39:07.100 --> 00:39:10.620\nThoughtful, caring and engaged.\n\n908\n00:39:10.620 --> 00:39:15.060\nIf you could be one person for a day beside yourself, who would it be and why?\n\n909\n00:39:15.060 --> 00:39:17.580\nBobby Long.\n\n910\n00:39:17.580 --> 00:39:22.100\nOur friend who does more for people than anybody, anybody knows.\n\n911\n00:39:22.100 --> 00:39:25.060\nSo he's just one of those impactful people.\n\n912\n00:39:25.060 --> 00:39:26.980\nWhat's your biggest pet peeve?\n\n913\n00:39:26.980 --> 00:39:27.980\nIndifference.\n\n914\n00:39:27.980 --> 00:39:31.830\nYou know, if somebody's indifferent, they just don't engage, that's a problem\n\n915\n00:39:31.830 --> 00:39:32.220\nfor me.\n\n916\n00:39:32.220 --> 00:39:34.740\nWhat's your favorite travel destination?\n\n917\n00:39:34.740 --> 00:39:35.740\nMy next one.\n\n918\n00:39:35.740 --> 00:39:37.860\nIt's your peak.\n\n919\n00:39:37.860 --> 00:39:41.660\nHow many nights a year were you staying in one of your hotels?\n\n920\n00:39:41.660 --> 00:39:43.700\n150 nights.\n\n921\n00:39:43.700 --> 00:39:47.220\nWhat's one thing about travel you love the most?\n\n922\n00:39:47.220 --> 00:39:48.940\nNew experiences.\n\n923\n00:39:48.940 --> 00:39:52.820\nIf I got in your car and turned on the radio, what would I hear?\n\n924\n00:39:52.820 --> 00:39:57.340\nEither the highway or Howard Stern.\n\n925\n00:39:57.340 --> 00:40:00.020\nWhat's something about you that few people would know?\n\n926\n00:40:00.020 --> 00:40:01.740\nThat I'm an introvert.\n\n927\n00:40:01.740 --> 00:40:02.740\nAnd I really am, David.\n\n928\n00:40:02.740 --> 00:40:04.660\nI know you don't believe it.\n\n929\n00:40:04.660 --> 00:40:05.660\nI am.\n\n930\n00:40:05.660 --> 00:40:06.660\nI need the time by myself.\n\n931\n00:40:06.660 --> 00:40:10.020\nWell, that's the end of the lightning round there.\n\n932\n00:40:10.020 --> 00:40:14.180\nAnd what I think has come through loud and clear is you're just a passionate\n\n933\n00:40:14.180 --> 00:40:14.660\nguy.\n\n934\n00:40:14.660 --> 00:40:16.260\nI mean, you are engaged.\n\n935\n00:40:16.260 --> 00:40:21.100\nAnd as you think about your career and what's ahead, what's your unfinished\n\n936\n00:40:21.100 --> 00:40:22.020\nbusiness?\n\n937\n00:40:22.020 --> 00:40:24.860\nPositively impacting more people.\n\n938\n00:40:24.860 --> 00:40:29.070\nYou know, I think that I've had the opportunity as a leader to impact a lot of\n\n939\n00:40:29.070 --> 00:40:29.820\npeople.\n\n940\n00:40:29.820 --> 00:40:33.660\nAnd I do through our philanthropy, I think, impact a lot of people.\n\n941\n00:40:33.660 --> 00:40:36.300\nBut I think I can impact a lot more people.\n\n942\n00:40:36.300 --> 00:40:38.820\nAnd I just need to devote the time to it.\n\n943\n00:40:38.820 --> 00:40:40.580\nI need to follow your example.\n\n944\n00:40:40.580 --> 00:40:44.130\nYou've dug in deep on a number of charities that you've been involved with,\n\n945\n00:40:44.130 --> 00:40:44.820\nsome of which\n\n946\n00:40:44.820 --> 00:40:46.180\nyou've introduced me to.\n\n947\n00:40:46.180 --> 00:40:49.180\nAnd I probably haven't been as engaged as I should have been.\n\n948\n00:40:49.180 --> 00:40:51.660\nAnd there's several that I'm trying to work with now.\n\n949\n00:40:51.660 --> 00:40:55.660\nAnd I probably need to, this may be the wake up call to get more engaged.\n\n950\n00:40:55.660 --> 00:40:59.420\nWhat's one piece of advice you'd give to aspiring leaders?\n\n951\n00:40:59.420 --> 00:41:01.180\nBe authentic.\n\n952\n00:41:01.180 --> 00:41:03.020\nYou asked before white people follow me.\n\n953\n00:41:03.020 --> 00:41:05.820\nAnd I think they view me as an authentic leader.\n\n954\n00:41:05.820 --> 00:41:07.020\nI am what I am.\n\n955\n00:41:07.020 --> 00:41:10.780\nI'm in the boardroom the same as I am when I'm walking down the hall.\n\n956\n00:41:10.780 --> 00:41:12.540\nSo be authentic.\n\n957\n00:41:12.540 --> 00:41:16.700\nDon't try to be something that you think you should be to be a leader.\n\n958\n00:41:16.700 --> 00:41:20.100\nLearn who you are as a leader and then be authentic.\n\n959\n00:41:20.100 --> 00:41:24.050\nAnd that authenticity will drive people to believe you and to follow you and to\n\n960\n00:41:24.050 --> 00:41:24.540\nwant to\n\n961\n00:41:24.540 --> 00:41:26.220\nbe part of your team.\n\n962\n00:41:26.220 --> 00:41:27.420\nThat's great advice, Steve.\n\n963\n00:41:27.420 --> 00:41:31.160\nI want you to know how much I really appreciate our friendship, how much I\n\n964\n00:41:31.160 --> 00:41:32.100\nappreciate you taking\n\n965\n00:41:32.100 --> 00:41:34.580\nthe time to do this conversation.\n\n966\n00:41:34.580 --> 00:41:39.420\nAnd I also want you to know that you are the most extroverted introvert I have\n\n967\n00:41:39.420 --> 00:41:40.080\never met\n\n968\n00:41:40.080 --> 00:41:42.820\nin my life.\n\n969\n00:41:42.820 --> 00:41:44.020\nThanks for being on the show.\n\n970\n00:41:44.020 --> 00:41:45.420\nDavid, thank you very much.\n\n971\n00:41:45.420 --> 00:41:46.860\nAlways a pleasure.\n\n972\n00:41:46.860 --> 00:41:59.220\nWell, even in this conversation, you can hear it, can't you?\n\n973\n00:41:59.220 --> 00:42:03.460\nSteve's core values come through loud and clear.\n\n974\n00:42:03.460 --> 00:42:06.950\nThroughout his career, he has always tried to show respect to team members at\n\n975\n00:42:06.950 --> 00:42:08.020\nevery level,\n\n976\n00:42:08.020 --> 00:42:12.820\nto communicate openly, to invest in the growth of up and coming leaders, and to\n\n977\n00:42:12.820 --> 00:42:13.660\ntruly engage\n\n978\n00:42:13.660 --> 00:42:16.220\nand think deeply about his company.\n\n979\n00:42:16.220 --> 00:42:20.140\nAnd boy, that consistency really matters when you're a leader.\n\n980\n00:42:20.140 --> 00:42:24.940\nSee, it's hard to trust a leader who's erratic and inconsistent.\n\n981\n00:42:24.940 --> 00:42:29.610\nBut when you live and lead by a consistent set of values, people are drawn to\n\n982\n00:42:29.610 --> 00:42:30.100\nthat.\n\n983\n00:42:30.100 --> 00:42:35.700\nThat kind of clarity and stability builds trust and it gets your team firing on\n\n984\n00:42:35.700 --> 00:42:37.220\nall cylinders.\n\n985\n00:42:37.220 --> 00:42:41.980\nWith that in mind, let me offer you a bit of coaching for your week ahead.\n\n986\n00:42:41.980 --> 00:42:46.890\nHave you ever sat down and defined a clear set of core values for yourself as a\n\n987\n00:42:46.890 --> 00:42:47.380\nleader?\n\n988\n00:42:47.380 --> 00:42:50.900\nWhat characteristics do you want to consistently display?\n\n989\n00:42:50.900 --> 00:42:55.240\nBelieve me, even if you're not in a leadership role yet, now's the time to\n\n990\n00:42:55.240 --> 00:42:56.220\nstart defining\n\n991\n00:42:56.220 --> 00:42:59.740\nthose core values for yourself and living by them.\n\n992\n00:42:59.740 --> 00:43:03.380\nBecause I guarantee you, people are watching you and this is a huge way for you\n\n993\n00:43:03.380 --> 00:43:03.780\nto take\n\n994\n00:43:03.780 --> 00:43:06.060\nthat next big step.\n\n995\n00:43:06.060 --> 00:43:08.340\nSo do you want to know how leaders lead?\n\n996\n00:43:08.340 --> 00:43:13.380\nWhat we learned today is that great leaders are consistent with core values.\n\n997\n00:43:13.380 --> 00:43:19.120\nComing up next on How leaders lead is Lindsey Chepkema, co-founder and CEO of C\n\n998\n00:43:19.120 --> 00:43:20.020\nASTID.\n\n999\n00:43:20.020 --> 00:43:22.220\nAs humans, we are hardwired for connection, right?\n\n1000\n00:43:22.220 --> 00:43:23.220\nIt's a basic human need.\n\n1001\n00:43:23.220 --> 00:43:25.820\nAnd for businesses, that makes it a basic business need.\n\n1002\n00:43:25.820 --> 00:43:28.830\nIf we can connect on a human level, the brands that do so and do so\n\n1003\n00:43:28.830 --> 00:43:29.980\nsuccessfully are more\n\n1004\n00:43:29.980 --> 00:43:30.980\nlikely to thrive.\n\n1005\n00:43:30.980 --> 00:43:36.130\nAnd that's why podcasts are so strong as an entertainment format and also as a\n\n1006\n00:43:36.130 --> 00:43:36.780\ncontent\n\n1007\n00:43:36.780 --> 00:43:37.780\nmarketing channel.\n\n1008\n00:43:37.780 --> 00:43:42.060\nSo be sure to come back next week to hear our entire conversation.\n\n1009\n00:43:42.060 --> 00:43:46.140\nThanks again for tuning in to another episode of How leaders lead, where every\n\n1010\n00:43:46.140 --> 00:43:46.740\nThursday\n\n1011\n00:43:46.740 --> 00:43:50.940\nyou get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the\n\n1012\n00:43:50.940 --> 00:43:51.580\nworld.\n\n1013\n00:43:51.580 --> 00:43:55.460\nI make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can\n\n1014\n00:43:55.460 --> 00:43:56.260\napply to your\n\n1015\n00:43:56.260 --> 00:43:59.900\nbusiness so that you will become the best leader you can be.\n\n1016\n00:43:59.900 --> 00:44:09.900\n[BLANK_AUDIO]\n\n1017\n00:44:09.900 --> 00:44:19.900\n[BLANK_AUDIO]","

David Novak 0:04

Welcome to How leaders lead where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world, I break down the key learnings so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Today's guests is Steve Holmes, the non executive chairman of Wyndham worldwide and Wyndham destinations. When I think about Steve's career, the word that comes to mind for me is consistency. With Steve, you know what you're going to get, he has a set of core values that he brings to any role. He's lived by them, and every company he's ever worked at, whether he's crunching numbers and finances the CFO or growing Windham as his chief executive officer, Steve reminds me, the truly great leaders I know, aren't just great for a while or in one place are only in good times. They consistently deliver excellence no matter what circumstances they're in, and they do it in a way that's consistent with the values they have. Now, if you want to bring that same consistency to your leadership, keep listening. Steve will show you how to be more consistent by defining your core values and then living them out. So here's my conversation with my good friend Han soon to be yours, Steve Holmes

the business environment is extremely tough right now. You know, we've got inflation, we got a recession looming. You know, what are you doing for fun these days?

Steve Holmes 1:41

Well, fun fun for me is getting away and doing things with my family. I've got now I'm up to seven grandkids. Last time I talked to you, I think I had one. So they keep me busy and keep me running. And then my passion is, you know, is golf and I don't play it well, but I play it as often as I can. So that's something else I do to relax and get away from it all. But you you can't get away from the fact that I believe we probably are already in a recession. We just haven't counted it all up yet. The good news is that it seems to be one that has a shorter duration to it, and that there's a lot of momentum still going with the economy.

David Novak 2:17

Now, I hope you're right about that. You know, as CEO, Steve, you're one of the leaders I admire most, you lead the right way. And you built Wyndham into the largest hotel franchising company in the world. 9000 hotels, 95 countries, you built the travel business, I mean, unbelievable what you did yet, in 2017, you made this strategic decision to spin off your your hotel and your timeshare business into two separate independent companies. What was the moment when you said to yourself, you know, we need to do this.

Steve Holmes 2:50

I don't know if there was a lightning moment where that happened. I think it was a building frustration over the fact that our shareholders weren't given the value that they should receive. For the companies they owned, we were kind of being viewed as a conglomerate that if we broke it apart, we'd be able to get greater value in the pieces. And that all worked until the pandemic hit and in the market turned sideways on it, we were building good momentum. But that was really the reason. And the other thing that was the driving force was I'm a big believer in building bench strength and building new leaders in the organization. And I had two great leaders of Wyndham hotels resort, and what became Travel and Leisure the second company. And so I felt confident that they were in a position to be able to really take the companies to the next level.

David Novak 3:39

You know, you had a very successful spin off the stock was moving then you have the COVID. But you've got two businesses that can stand on their own. You know, I was part of a spin off at PepsiCo when PepsiCo decided to spin off pizza at Taco Bell and KFC and ultimately what became yum brands. What do you see, Steve is the biggest leadership challenge in executing a successful spin off,

Steve Holmes 4:01

probably the biggest challenge and in the spin off is the same as the biggest challenge and a lot of difficult situations. And that is communication. You have to keep your communication going with your team with your all your stakeholders, your shareholders, your board, everybody's got to know what's going on. If you don't, then a black hole creates uncertainty and certainly creates poor performance. I'm proud to say that since we did the spin off of both companies, the companies have outperformed how they were doing before. And even with a pandemic. They've done extraordinarily well. They're not getting the love that the market should show them. But I think as time will tell, their performance will show how strong the companies are and how great these management teams are.

David Novak 4:45

As Steve, you became non executive chairman of both companies, I don't know many people who've been chairman of two major companies describe what that's like.

Steve Holmes 4:55

Well, first of all, it's non executive chairman intentionally I didn't want to be Executive Chairman because I didn't want to be looking over the shoulder of the guys who are running the business now. But really, for me, it's evolved over the last five years since we did the spin off, I was probably more involved right after the spin off than I am now. But I still am involved. I'm always available by phone anytime, any day, night or day, and I stay engaged with the team. That means that if they're looking at something that happens to fall into an area that I have a lot of experience in like m&a, you know, I can help them think through the opportunities, I can help them think through the businesses because I was involved intimately in both of these businesses. So it's really being a sounding board for the management and chairing the board, I've got phenomenal board set both companies, and they are super engaged, and they are challenging, and I love them. So part of it is just making sure that the board's are, are giving everything back to the company that they can and give all the help to the CEOs that they can,

David Novak 6:03

you know, you're not executive chairman of both these companies. And so you gave up the CEO seat when you did that. What was the most difficult thing, Steve about that transition for you personally,

Steve Holmes 6:15

and honestly, there wasn't a lot difficult about it. People told me, before I stepped out of the chair that you just you're not going to like this, it's going to, you're going to feel like you don't have enough to do you're not engaged enough. I had done enough preparation in advance that really, I didn't miss a beat. I've enjoyed myself, I've enjoyed being an advisor more than an executor. Honestly, David, you and I are about the same vintage, I would have had a hard time managing a company through zoom. And that's what these guys had to do. They had to manage their company for two years, without meeting the people that they're hiring and that they're working with. I'm a people person, I would have had a really hard time doing that. They did a phenomenal job. So I felt blessed that I wasn't having to carry that water during that difficult time.

David Novak 7:00

Is there anything about being CEO that you miss, though?

Steve Holmes 7:04

Not really. I mean, I missed my assistant for a long time. That was that was something that I really missed that I replaced her and I'm okay now. But it's little things that maybe made life easier before. But now I have more freedom to get involved in philanthropic things. And I just, I felt relieved to be not the CEO anymore. So no, I'm not one of those that regrets walking away from the day to day that I was involved with. That's a tough grind. And it requires a lot of attention. You never are off. I feel like I'm always there for my team. But I'm not the one who's on all the time. Now.

David Novak 7:39

You mentioned the word grind, which is interesting, because you've described yourself to be as a grinder, you know, tell us a story that would give our listeners a glimpse at that part of your personality and your leadership.

Steve Holmes 7:52

Well, I've you've been a grinder as a compliment. So some people think it's kind of you don't want to be a grinder. But But I think it's a compliment because it means that you focus on what your objective is. And you just keep working away at it. And I knew coming out of school, I didn't have an MBA, all the guys I've hired have Harvard MBAs and they're all incredibly well educated me, I'm just a guy with a bachelor's degree. And I always felt like I had to work harder than the people around me because I figured, hey, you know, I'm not the smartest guy in the world. But I'm gonna outwork everybody else. So I've always been a grinder. And and I think by being a grinder, you learn a lot, you learn a lot about yourself, you learn intimate facts about the companies you're involved with. When we were doing acquisitions, we were doing a lot of m&a. I was the guy who went out and met the management teams got into their businesses. When I got done, I knew more about their businesses than the CEO did. Because I was a grinder I grounded to it. And I hired a lot of grinders around me, who helped me do that as well. So I don't think I think being a grinder is a wonderful attribute to have.

David Novak 8:57

I agree with you. And I understand when you were running. Amos, you had a theme line that basically kind of characterizes who you are. Remember that theme line?

Steve Holmes 9:10

We're number two, we try harder.

David Novak 9:13

You know, that underdog mentality that's really served you well?

Steve Holmes 9:17

Well, I didn't come up with that line. To be honest, that was somebody else's brilliant line. And I was only at Avis for a short period. But that period was an absolute blast because I got to learn something about a business I knew very little about and God to then bring on people who really knew how to drive their business forward. So I you know, it just is life is all about learning. And I'm a lifelong learner. I love getting into things that I don't know much about and then becoming proficient at them. I still haven't become proficient at golf, even though I do a lot of studying and a lot of analysis. But I have a great time. As you know, we've had a great time out on the golf course. So yeah, I think that the fact is, if you're not a lifelong learner Are you losing a lot of life? Because you're losing the opportunity to learn more about things that you don't know about right now? And so yes, I believe that's an attribute I have, that I'm very proud of.

David Novak 10:12

I want to shift gears a bit and take you way back. What's a story from your childhood that shaped the kind of leader that you are today,

Steve Holmes 10:19

I'm going to go way back this, I'm going to go back to my father, my father was a, as with most people, they're a central figure in your life. But he was a very focused individual, whether it was doing his work that he did at General Motors, or being involved in the church that we were at. He was an engaged and focused leader. And I saw that and I respected that. And he used to have a saying that he said all the time, which is set your priorities, and he is to say to me set your priorities Well, I'm a kid mowing lawns trying to make a few bucks. How do you set your priorities as a kid mow a lawn? Well, your priority is make sure you have enough gas in the morning. So when you push that lawnmower, down the road to Sir mowing people's lawns, you got what you need to do the job. And so setting your priorities is important no matter what you do. And so that is probably from my youth, that is probably the thing that had the largest influence on me,

David Novak 11:17

you know, you came up as an accountant, and then you become a CFO, and you eventually get to CEO, what skills did you have to develop to go from being an accountant, so called number cruncher to running a worldwide enterprise like Wyndham,

Steve Holmes 11:32

it's all about leadership, as you know better than most, you can be a leader in an accounting organization. And if you're the person that people are looking up to, you have to let people know what you believe in. And when I had a chance to do that, as CEO, it was just taking what I had done before, and putting it into a much larger scale. What I learned early on was, there are core values in your life, you have to respect people, you have to I won't go through all the core values, but you have to, you have to have those values. And then you apply them to wherever you are. And in this case, I became the CEO of an organization. And I went around and I explained to people, these are my values. And this is how we're going to run the business, there was not a huge change in the way I managed going from one to the other. It's just being consistent, communicating well, and letting people know what you stand for, because they're looking to you to know how they should make their decisions. And you want to lead by example, what's the

David Novak 12:30

most significant, let's call the soft skill, Steve, that you had to develop as a leader? If you could, I'd love to hear a story behind this, if one really stands out.

Steve Holmes 12:40

A soft skill would be being a good listener, I think that's important. You can't just and I see this all too often. And I've critiqued and coached people on this a lot. You may know the question that's coming next, but I can't answer it till you deliver the question. Because you don't know where the final end of that question is gonna go. I always wait for you to finish before I jump in and give an answer. And I think people tend to not be good listeners so that they don't really hear the question that's being asked. And if I'm an investor, and I'm sitting in a room with a group of people, and this happened multiple times when I was meeting with investors, and somebody in my organization who was there with me, whether it's a CFO and investor relations person, they tried to jump in and give an answer. They weren't answering the question that the person asked. And that's not a criticism on them. They were just trying to be helpful because they thought they knew where the question was going. But unless you're a good listener, and you listen to what people are saying, you can never be sure that you're answering the question that they're interested in.

David Novak 13:48

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So you you come up with the organization and you grow as a financial expert starting out in accounting. And a lot of times you're stereotyped in that field as just being a numbers person. What advice can you give to leaders who come up with that financial background so that they really broaden themselves enough to where they can take on more responsibility in a general manager sense.

Steve Holmes 14:59

Well, I'll go back To The Lion King, be prepared. I think that was one of the songs of Lion King, when my grandkids listen to it, I hear it's ringing in my head right now, I think you need to be prepared to be a leader. And that means that you need to have your interpersonal skills honed, you have to be ready when that opportunity presents itself, you don't know when you're gonna get that chance to step up and be an operator, if that's what you want to be or to be a CEO. If you have that in you, if that's something that you want to do, you need to be prepared to take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself. And it may not be a fully thought through opportunity, and may not be somebody coming to us saying, Hey, David, I'd like for you to manage this business. For me. It may be somebody coming to you and asking. So what do you think about that business? Is there something we could be doing better for that business? Well, they're testing you. They're trying to determine, do you have the thought process to be able to possibly manage that business? So as a financial person, you always have to have a handle on your numbers. And that goes without saying, but understand more about the businesses that you're involved with. So that when somebody comes in ask you a question about, what can we do better for that business? You can answer it and that may open the door for you to become more of a leader in that business on the operation side, as the CEO, whatever it might be.

David Novak 16:19

When did you get that breakthrough to become an operator? Steve?

Steve Holmes 16:23

It came when I was when I was at a company called HFS that we started. I was the CFO there. And we did more acquisitions. You mentioned the Avis transaction. We bought Avis, we bought century 21. We bought Coldwell Banker, we got a lot of different industries. And I was the CFO. So I was basically doing the m&a and managing the financial side of all those acquisitions. Well, we got towards the I think it was the Avis acquisition. And my mentor and CEO at the time, Henry Silverman came to me and said, Steve, financial people are a dime a dozen, but you can do a lot more than that. So I want you to go run this business for me. So he plucked me out of the financial role and put me in charge of all of the hospitality and travel related businesses. And that was my first chance. So it wasn't like I came up and became the CEO of a small business that we were running. He kind of plopped me in front of all of them. But that was okay. Because I had been involved in the m&a the acquisition of all those businesses. I knew them all intimately. So it was very easy for me to say, Yeah, I know what RCI does I know what the timeshare business? I know what Avis does. I'm okay with taking management of those businesses. So that's when it happened. It happened. I wasn't, I didn't have my hand up saying, hey, Henry, I want to do this. I was very happy. Being a CFO, is very challenging role. But it was even more of a challenge to take on something that I had never done before, which was being the CEO of a public company.

David Novak 17:51

Well, Henry knew that you were more than a CFO. And what was it that he saw on you, that distinguished you in the sense that he did think you could be more than a CFO and you could run a huge business?

Steve Holmes 18:03

Well, I asked him that? Of course I did. Because I'm saying, Henry, why are you doing this? I'm a young kid, what are you doing, put me in charge of this? And he said, Steve, there's a couple of attributes you have, which I really appreciate. One is I can trust you. Secondly, I liked the way you think, you know, he was a lawyer by training and never really worked much as lawyer worked for a firm for a while. But he always thought that thought process was more important than educational credentials. So how do you think as a person? Do you think the same way I think Will you come to the same answer that I come to working through something? It's not critical that you come to the same answer, but do you think through it the same way? I would think through it, I think Henry found that. I always thought through the same way that he did, I sometimes came up with different answers. And sometimes he liked him. Sometimes he did. And he was the boss. So he got to decide which was the right answer. But we always kind of worked through the process the same way, knowing the numbers, where's the cash flow? What's driving the business? Who's driving the business? Is the right person driving the business? Those are questions that I always ask myself that Henry always asked himself,

David Novak 19:12

you know, that's interesting, you know, because those are great traits to have. But knowing you as I do, you're an incredible people person, I would have thought he said, Look, you're so good with people and you know, but he really went after the thought process and how you how you think, but people that work with you, they'll go through walls for you, you know, it's incredible, you know, how do you show up as a leader to get that kind of buy in royalty and trust?

Steve Holmes 19:38

Well, I think you do it with honesty, and you do it with good communication. And I appreciate you saying that I did have I have had great teams in my life that have followed me. I always thought I just got lucky but maybe it's because I was a pretty good leader. And I think that Henry was Henry was not a people person. And I'm a massive introvert to David, you just don't know that I hide it well at times So I love

David Novak 20:00

all these extroverts, they call themselves introverts. extrovert, I'm gonna sell it somewhere else, Steve,

Steve Holmes 20:08

I really think that being honest with people, and respecting everyone is so important to building that kind of culture of people feeling comfortable that they can do what they need to do to be successful, because you're going to support them, you're going to empower them. And so it's that trust and honesty, and I never treated anybody different than I would want to be treated by them. And that goes down to the mailroom guy to the IT guy who's hooking up a printer in my office, I always treated people with respect. And I think that, that others see you do that. And they then they start emulating that, and it feels good. It really feels good to lead that way to lead with respect and with with trust and with confidence and with good communication.

David Novak 20:53

You know, you're very confident person was always easy for you to really get comfortable in your decision making process. And when you look back, was there ever a time where you you had to wrestle with that? Or is that just something you just naturally gravitated to?

Steve Holmes 21:09

Well, we went through a horrific fraud problem at HFS when we merged with a company called CUC to create senden, and I was running a group of businesses at the time, and it was a massive fraud. I think a couple of guys are still in jail who were on the other side of the transaction. We didn't do anything wrong, but they did a lot of things wrong. The fraud was on the financial side. I'm a former CFL, I'm a CPA, that to me cuts to my core. So I did start questioning, do I have the right chops to get our business through this, when it kind of the problem was in my core competency? And the fact was, I was never exposed to it, I couldn't have uncovered it I, you know, it was not something I could have ever done anything about. But that did shake me a little bit to think, holy. How did this happen? This a financial fraud, and I'm a financial person, it can happen on my watch. Well, it wasn't my watch. It wasn't our watch. It was the watch of the of the people that we merged with. But that didn't shake me for a while. And I think it's interesting, you say I have the confidence for it. Because I don't know that I'm the most confident person in the world. But when I'm doing the right thing, and I understand what I'm doing, and I have an objective, I think I am confident because I know the right things to do to get to the right answer. But there have been times like that incident with the bad fraudulent merger that did make me question myself.

David Novak 22:35

You built this incredible empire in a hotel business, and you made a ton acquisitions, how many acquisitions that you

Steve Holmes 22:40

had in your career? 75?

David Novak 22:44

And how many hotel chains did you acquire? I think 16 And you put all of these different hotels, you know, a Wyndham Cainta, et cetera, you know, all these different hotels that you bought, you put them all under one umbrella, and made him one company? And these are all companies and brands that could have viewed themselves as competitors. Yeah, how'd you do that?

Steve Holmes 23:05

They do consider themselves competitors at a street corner. There could be and we own all these brands. There could be a days in a Ramada, a Wyndham, and a Super Eight, all in the same street corner. And they're all competing for the traveler who's staying in town that night. So how do we get them to feel that they're, they're part of a family that they're not just competitors, we build infrastructure to support them. And part of that infrastructure is a great loyalty program. The Wyndham rewards program is recognized as the number one loyalty program in the industry by travellers and provides great, great support for the hotels that are in our network. So yes, each hotel has its own personality. And when we merged these business together, there were times when the leadership, the franchise leadership for those of a particular brand, would say, well, we don't want to have anything to do with those other brands. You know, we're days and we don't have anything, what anything do is Super Eight. But the fact is, they can benefit by being part of a larger organization. And they have and they've done very well during difficult times. But it takes a lot of work to talk them through to make sure they understand and then prove to them by delivering results, that they can get better results by being part of something that's a cohesive group than they can by being an individual out there on your own or all with just a brand that is that is unilateral brand versus a brand that's part of something bigger. So it all all worked overtime.

David Novak 24:36

So you got people to work together and your rewards program was one of the key ways you did it. So if you stated the days in that would get you points the stated alakina that would get you points so it brought everybody together and you made that a competitive advantage. You know, I could never do that. And I wanted to with pizza at Taco Bell and KFC which is basically franchise driven. They viewed each other as like competitors. We bought things together and we'll ever start scales in some ways, but it was tough to share your customer that's really challenging. I mean, tell us how you really got people to understand that this really wouldn't be a benefit.

Steve Holmes 25:12

Well, it's kind of a before and after, you know, you know how you're doing before you join a larger group than you know how you're doing after you join the group, you can see the relative benefit of that engagement, because it's all about building a, a cohesive platform that allows people to get a benefit for what they're doing. I mean, people didn't think that a Wyndham which is days in Super a Ramada Howard Johnson, a lot of economy midscale brands could compete with a Marriott or Hilton that have all these upscale brands that are much larger and business travel that might appreciate loyalty programs more. Well, if that's the case. Why are we constantly rated by USA Today is the most popular loyalty program. It's because our program delivers for the consumer, Joe consumer driving down the street, when he pulls into a daze in and he flashes Windham reward card, he's gonna get points that will then let him go on a vacation into a Wyndham grand property in Orlando, and take his family down there and stay in this gorgeous property with swimming pools and lazy rivers, because He's stayed at Super eights and days isn't enough to earn points to be able to go on that big trip. It's all in the vision you build, and on the delivery of your platform. So I think if people bought a bunch of Taco Bell tacos, and pizza and pizza, and they could earn some sort of points and your your profit margin, your point, your cost differential, it's different. So it would have to be built differently. But you could build something that people would gladly carry around in their pocket, that yum brands card, and you know what they get when they when they get to go to the Kentucky Derby.

David Novak 26:56

And that's good. You know, the other thing, Steve is You're an incredible believer in people, everyone counts, no matter what level added you really focus on the frontline employees so that they would really feel valued, and give give the customer the experience that they should be getting,

Steve Holmes 27:12

I didn't have to think about it a whole lot, David, because it's kind of how I'm wired. I'm wired to believe that everybody has value, everybody should be respected. And all you have to do is spend some time in one of your businesses, and you did a lot of this. And you see who impacts the experience of the consumer. When you're in a, when you're at a Taco Bell, you know that that person taking the order, and delivering the food is the most important person to that customer at that moment in time. It's not somebody who's running the marketing program, but who's running the business. It's that person right at that counter. And it's the same thing in a hotel. I mean, whenever I go visit hotels, I always ask for a tour. And then after that, I let the I let the General Manager Go away. And then I go behind the front desk and walk behind. If they've seen you walk in with the GM, they'll let you do it. They won't let somebody walk in off the street. But then I get to go in the back and I get to see what's really going on. And you can tell a lot by go into the back office and see how people, how do they maintain their desks? What did things look like if you can get back into the mechanical room? Yeah, how well kept is it so you could learn a lot. And when people see you do that they know what matters to you. And they know you care. And so I think that that has a lot to do with how you connect and interact with the people around you. And the people who are at whatever level they may be. You know, I care if somebody's happy, who's cleaning the floor, as well as the person who's running the hotel. You know, they both need to be happy. They both need to be respected.

David Novak 28:49

We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Steve Holmes just a moment. You know, Steve is walking proof that when you do the right thing, the right things happen. It reminds me of a conversation I had with RJ Bonga when he was the CEO of MasterCard. For him, it's not enough to have a high IQ or a high EQ. Leaders also need decency to treat others with fairness and support and respect. RJ calls it the decency question. And it has a surprising impact on your bottom line.

Ajay Banga 29:21

What's really important is that you bring your innate human decency, their sense of fairness, your sense of a level playing field, to the party, and you tell people who work for you. You know what, my hand is always going to be on your back and never in your face. And that doesn't mean that I won't give you strong feedback when you deserve it. But you will know where I'm coming from. And you will know I will be fair and transparent. Not just nice to you. But it's a way of behaving in a way of conducting yourself with your people with the values for your company, with your behavior in society with everything you do.

David Novak 29:59

If you Want to unlock the power of decency in your organization? Go back and listen to my conversation with RJ episode seven here on how leaders lead.

You know, one of the things I know you're known for, is the incredible job you did leading the count on me service culture, talk about how that came about and how you made it come alive as a leader.

Steve Holmes 30:29

It's a story of theft and intrigue. Because I stole that name from one of the guys who works in Australia, who was running our timeshare business at the time. He told us about this count on me thing. And the great thing that he said about count on me was, he described what it means to be respectful, to be responsive, and to deliver a great experience. Three things that I embrace that I believe in wholeheartedly, and there's some memorable, they just roll off your tongue. So it's not some complicated methodology for creating a culture. It's something that's embedded in us. And it's easy to remember. So the count on Beasts culture was really built around that philosophy that Barry had down in Australia, that I that I unceremoniously ripped out of his hands and said, I love this, I'm going to use it. And then I went to our head of HR, and I said, Okay, Mary, we're going to make this the culture for our company. And it didn't take me more, I didn't even get that full sentence out before she was running with it hard, because she was a believer. And then we got the other senior leaders to buy into it. And pretty soon we're wearing count on the pins, we're giving our academy awards, and everybody's buying into it, you've done this so many times, David's so successful, you know what it is, when you feel it engaged, and you feel the organization latch onto it, you then say, Yeah, this is gonna work, this is gonna work. And that's the way it felt. And so when I went to Shanghai, and I see count on me, signs up in Shanghai, I'm saying, Wow, this thing really is working. Everybody, everybody's bought into it. So that's the story by and count on me, which I stole, and I feel badly about it. But you got to take what you see, that's good.

David Novak 32:16

And it'll make you feel that badly about it. Because it's such a great idea. And it was so much fun to go into Shanghai and see it there and go to Malaysia and see it there. You know, I think as a CEO, seeing things get cascaded that are powerful happen all around the world. That's really amazing. And I understand that you're a big time cheerleader, and you would often lead parades. Tell me how that got started.

Steve Holmes 32:42

We were presenting Konami awards at employee meetings. So you get, you know, 600 people in a meeting, we'd have somebody come up on the stage, we can count on me award. And it might be something as simple as something, they put it in their in their cubicle, and maybe an American Express gift certificate. It's something simple. It wasn't these were not elaborate gifts. But I felt like after doing that, for several years, it kind of got stale, like people in the audience were kind of yawning when somebody walked up on the stage. And then I thought, well, what's really important to the person we're bringing up on the stage. And I'm thinking it's really being recognized by the peers by the people, you work with who around you. So if it's a paralegal who's getting Academy Award, they care about what the people in the legal department think. And the same thing for the talents and the marketing people of HR people, whoever they might be. So I said, let's create this as something that brings the award to the person. So I got our HR people, and we got a bunch of helium balloons, and we got our certificate. And we got some kazoos and some noisemakers, and we'd marched down the hall, making a racket to find the person in their cubicle, who's getting the award. And we had a little coordination in advance. So we knew that their supervisor would be there in the person who should give them their award was going to be there. And we created so much noise that that people started following us. So they were what's, what are they doing where they go, and then we'd marched into somebody's cubicle, we talked about what the person did, what they what they did to deserve the karamea reward. And then we would celebrate them, and we'd get right in their face, and we'd celebrate them and give them their balloons and thank them and, and it was just wonderful. And the organization just loved it.

David Novak 34:31

Well, you know, so many leaders phone in recognition, you know, they just saw who got here it is or whatever, you know, but that's an experience that you created for these people that were being recognized that they'll never ever forget. I don't

Steve Holmes 34:43

think so. I think they'll remember it and they value it. And they put that count on mute certificate in their cubicle. And they would point to people and say, do you know when I got that, and so yes, you're right. They did remember.

David Novak 34:56

You know, the other thing that I know you're just a huge believer In his growth, you say, I remember you telling me this a company that doesn't grow, it has no value. How did you constantly keep raising the bar at your company because you saw growth, I know for 12 years well over a decade of growth year after year, where you hit your, your numbers, every quarter, you build trust with investors, how did you make that happen with your team,

Steve Holmes 35:23

I don't know that you can make it happen, what you can do is you can encourage it. And if you're running a business, and you're encouraged to grow that business, that that, well, we want to see his growth, we don't want to see just a steady top line, we want to see growth. And I think it starts with the growth of the people. So you invest in your people, we do a lot of work in leadership training, so that we get people who are really prepared and ready to lead. And then you tell them what you want to accomplish, we want to get growth. And so I used to stand up in front of the franchise sales organization who would sell hotel franchises for our hotel group. And I would say what do I want for Christmas rooms, rooms, rooms, rooms, because that's what they're focused on. And that became their Montra, they wanted to deliver more rooms for me. And so they'd go out and give more room. So you get people to buy into it. And then they're the ones who do it, you can't force it, they've got to believe that there's the opportunity there that the market is right for them, and that they can jump on it and create growth. And when you distill it down to the level of the doers, that's when things happen. Because they're the ones who will find the way to make it happen. We just made a change in one of our organizations, and we put a guy in charge of a part of the business. I've known this guy for 15 years, and he is going to be an exceptional leader. Why? Because he cares about people. And he's going to drive the business for further growth. So it's about the people. And it's about giving them the the authority and the directive that we want growth.

David Novak 37:00

You know, you're so much into giving your people opportunity and creating opportunities and possibilities for others. And you're a big believer and in education, do you have a story where that mindset really paid off and just still touches your heart?

Steve Holmes 37:14

Well, there's so many of them, David, I don't know where to start. But let me let me give you the one that pops into my mind. Because it's a fairly recent development, we created an enhanced version of an internship program, where we have interns come in from some grade schools, who are between their sophomore in junior junior and senior year, and they intern with us. And when my daughter did an internship, she made copies that a copy machine. So I would see her and I'd be going oh my god, what a waste. What a waste. So when when I had a chance to influence it, I became the CEO, we built an internship program that is top notch, a you are engaged in the business when you're an intern. And so you get a chance to actually work on real life problems, takes a little more work for the people at the company to create that opportunity. But when you do that, you see the bright, bright light shine in kids eyes. And I shouldn't say kids, because these are young adults, but their kids, and you see them light up. And from that you pick out who do you want to have in your organization going forward. And I just recently was talking to somebody who promoted a person the way he described her was, well, you remember her, she was in turn back in 2008. That intern came in, she was a bright light, we gave her the opportunity. She's still there, she's grown, she got another promotion, she continues to have an impact on the organization. I love that. I just absolutely love that. Because that means that you're providing opportunities for people, and they're grasping the opportunities and doing something with it.

David Novak 38:52

You know, Steve has been so much fun, and I want to have some more with a lightning round of questions. So are you ready for this big guy?

Steve Holmes 38:59

Oh my god, I gotta put my thinking cap on now.

David Novak 39:02

All right. What are three words others would use to describe you?

Steve Holmes 39:06

thoughtful, caring, and engaged.

David Novak 39:10

If you could be one person for a day besides yourself, who would it be and why?

Steve Holmes 39:14

Bobby long? Our friend who does more for people than anybody anybody knows. So he's just one of those impactful people.

David Novak 39:24

What's your biggest pet peeve?

Steve Holmes 39:26

indifference. Yeah, if somebody's indifferent, they just don't engage. That's that's a problem for me.

David Novak 39:31

What's your favorite travel destination?

Steve Holmes 39:34

My next one.

David Novak 39:36

at your peak? How many nights a year were you staying in one of your hotels?

Steve Holmes 39:41

150 Nights.

David Novak 39:43

What's one thing about travel? You'd love the most new experiences? If I got in your car and turned on the radio, what would I hear?

Steve Holmes 39:53

Is a highway or Howard Stern.

David Novak 39:57

What's something about you that few people would know?

Steve Holmes 40:00

But I'm an introvert. But I really am David, I know you don't believe the time by myself.

David Novak 40:07

Oh, that's the end of the lightning round there. And one of the things has come through loud and clear, is you're just a passionate guy you are engaged in as you think about your career, and what's ahead. What's your unfinished business,

Steve Holmes 40:21

positively impacting more people? You know, I think that I've had the opportunity as a leader to impact a lot of people. And I do through our philanthropy, I think impact a lot of people. But I think I can impact a lot more people. And I just need to devote the time to it, I need to follow your example, you've dug in deep on a number of charities that you've been involved with, some of which you've introduced me to, and I probably haven't been as engaged as I should have been. And there are several that I'm trying to work with now. And I probably need to this may be the wake up call to get more engaged.

David Novak 40:55

What's one piece of advice you give to aspiring leaders,

Steve Holmes 40:59

be authentic us before white people follow me. And I think they view me as an authentic leader, I am what I am, I'm in the boardroom, the same as I am when I'm walking down the hall. So be authentic. Don't try to be something that you think you should be to be a leader, learn who you are as a leader, and then be authentic. And that authenticity will drive people to believe you and to follow you and to want to be part of your team.

David Novak 41:25

That's great advice, Steve. And I want you to know how much I really appreciate our friendship, how much I appreciate you taking the time to do this conversation. And I also want you to know that you are the most extroverted introvert I've ever met in my life. Thanks for being on the show.

Steve Holmes 41:44

Thank you very much, always a pleasure.

David Novak 41:55

Well, even in this conversation, you can hear it, can't you, Steve's core values come through loud and clear. Throughout his career, he has always tried to show respect to team members at every level, to communicate openly, to invest in the growth of up and coming leaders and to truly engage and think deeply about his company. And, boy, that consistency really matters when you're a leader. See, it's hard to trust a leader who's erratic and inconsistent. But when you live and lead by a consistent set of values, people are drawn to that. That kind of clarity and stability builds trust, and it gets your team firing on all cylinders. With that in mind, let me offer you a bit of coaching for your week ahead. Have you ever sat down and defined a clear set of core values for yourself as a leader? What characteristics do you want to consistently display? Believe me, even if you're not in a leadership role, yet, now's the time to start defining those core values for yourself and living by them. Because I guarantee it, people are watching you, and this is a huge way for you to take that next big step. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is the great leaders are consistent with core values. Coming up next on how leaders lead is Lindsey chap Gima, co founder and CEO of casted.

Lindsay Tjepkema 1 43:19

As humans, we are hardwired for connection right to basic human need. And for businesses that makes it a basic business need. If we can connect on a human level, the brands that do so and do so successfully are more likely to thrive. And that's why podcasts are so strong as an entertainment format and also as a content marketing channel.

David Novak 43:37

So be sure to come back next week to hear our entire conversation. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be

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