ATLANTA—The events of 2020 tested everyone professionally and personally, and top-level hotel executives faced a unique set of challenges that prompted many to examine and clarify their own approaches to leadership amid turmoil.

In a conversation held as part of the 2021 Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, hotel company CEOs spoke about how the issues that kept them up at night reinforced their commitment to transparency, communication and the value of human relationships.

“Abraham Lincoln said the toughest conversations we have as leaders are with ourselves,” said Leslie Hale, president and CEO of real estate investment trust RLJ Lodging Trust. “It was during those late-night conversations with myself when I realized the enormity of the sense of responsibility I had, and how the decisions I made would affect other people’s lives and livelihoods. Having a tremendous sense of doing the right thing and keeping the team together as much as possible allowed me to stay calm.

“I did all my worrying at night,” she said. “When I came into the office in the morning, I had to project what the team needed.”

Calling on strong leadership skills to guide teams was a critical first step to dealing with the rapid unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hyatt Hotels Corp. President and CEO Mark Hoplamazian said the concept that helped him guide his company was purpose.

“We’ve been a purpose-led organization since our founding, but the modern expression of our purpose is to care for people so they can be their best,” he said. “In a year in which we had to do so many furloughs and layoffs, how do you care for someone if you’re putting them out of a job?”

Hoplamazian said he knew he could establish resources for employees to maintain connectivity to Hyatt so they would have advance notice when jobs returned, financial assistance and even mental-health assistance.

He spoke frankly about the 2020 suicide of a Hyatt general manager, which he said underscored the attention the company and society at large must pay to mental health. The company offers a mental health resource to employees, and he said more than 10,000 employees now use it.

“People talk about a mental health pandemic that will follow the coronavirus pandemic, and I follow this,” he said. “Getting people back into work, getting kids back into school and resetting your pace of life — these are not trivial things. Paying attention to holistic well-being is critical.”

Hale agreed, citing a moment in spring 2020 when RLJ had to shift its focus from opening hotels to closing them. She called that pivot “mental gymnastics.”

“That mental shift to move from opening hotels to shutting them down was difficult. You’re asking colleagues to keep going to work in the middle of all that, and being able to navigate the personal and business sides was so challenging,” she said. “As leaders, we have to elevate our check-in points on the human capital side now more than ever.”

Hale spoke about the importance of communication with all stakeholders in an organization, from employees to lenders and owners.

For her team, she said calm transparency was a must, as was confidence.

“I had to give people confidence that we could move through this. I also needed to outline a plan — even if the plan would evolve — so people could contribute and be part of what we needed to do to move forward.”

That level of transparent communication extended to other relationships as well, said Jon Stanner, president and CEO of real estate investment trust Summit Hotel Properties.

When his company started having conversations with its lenders at the beginning of the pandemic, Stanner said solid communication helped remind him of the power of the relationships his company had.

“You have to walk the fine line of showing a path and being optimistic, but also being transparent, honest and realistic,” he said. “We leaned heavily on having a good track record and showing we can be good stewards of assets. It was most important that we were clear and honest with the banks we work with.”

He said he knew early on that the company’s relationships would lend much-needed support.

“There are always a lot of competing industries — we’re never perfectly aligned with our management companies, on the brand side or with our lenders, but it felt like there was a sense that everyone is in this together, and we’re united around survival,” he said. “It was a fragile time for the industry, but we were all on the same team.”

Greg Friedman, managing principal and CEO of Peachtree Hotel Group, said that for his company, which manages and develops hotels as well as serves as a lender, strong communication didn’t mean simple consensus among his corporate team.

“As we were making hard decisions, the team was willing to challenge everything, and we could all sit down and talk about it and walk through it,” he said. “Their ability to have healthy debates allowed us to come out with the best solution when we had to make hard decisions. That’s what gives me hope for the future.”

As the U.S. hotel industry reopens, the CEOs said they learned many lessons managing through a pandemic — some tactical and some more personal.

Hoplamazian said Hyatt learned that historic views around demand needed to change as the pandemic forced demand pattern shifts, and that new ways of thinking would benefit the company in the long run.

“We needed to learn where demand is, what demand is and how to go after it,” he said. “it was a great reminder that having a learner’s mindset and growth mindset are really powerful attributes.”

Friedman said one of the biggest lessons he learned was about sharing the load.

“We need to empower others to make decisions,” he said. “At least for us, I realized everyone needs a fair amount of leeway and that ability to make decisions. We must be more flexible and adaptable because these work environments may change more moving forward and being nimble will allow us to react quickly.”

Actively working to create and support better diversity across the industry is a priority across the board, the CEOs said.

Hale spoke about RLJ’s commitment to diversity “from top to bottom” in the organization, and called for action from other companies.

“When people are looking for diverse candidates for positions, they often look at their normal pool and say they can’t find anybody,” she said. “If they expand how they’re looking at it and who they’re looking for, there are people out there. There are opportunities to look at a wider lens to bring people into our space.

“The lodging industry — all of the real estate industries — are ones with all of the ingredients to improve diversity,” she said. “You have the population. You have opportunity. The case has already been made for why diversity is important. Now you need the execution.”