Trinity Investments President and CEO Sean Hehir said his strategy for getting through the COVID-19 pandemic simple but powerful: A combination of optimism, empathy and honesty, which he now says is at the core of how he leads and hopes his company operates.
Speaking with Hotel News Now for its ongoing Pandemic Reflections series, Hehir said the past few years have raised his optimistic for his company, the industry and humanity in general.
"I actually feel, not that I was not an optimistic person, but I feel a lot more optimistic now in the ability of our team to navigate extremely difficult situations," he said.
Hehir said trust and honesty are more important parts of getting deals done in the industry now due to the difficulties of the past year. Given it's a relationship-driven business, he said, the success of those relationships more often than not comes down to the level of trust.
"I don't mind if you're tough and hard-nosed and all that, but if you're a good person that you can trust, you're going to work through it," he said.
Hehir said that trust within his company and of the people close to him was a big part of navigating the pandemic in his home state of Hawaii. He said the culture of the state made it almost impossible to keep people separated, but instead they all decided to take responsibility for each others' health and safety.
"At Trinity, we had nurses come twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday into the office and tested everybody," he said. "It was voluntary. The results were confidential and anonymous. But everybody partook in that and welcomed it because it was [confidential] and none of us got COVID during the first couple of years."
For our full conversation with Trinity's Sean Hehir, listen to the audio below.