Sima Patel, CEO, Ridgemont Hospitality interviewed by Rachel Humphrey

Sima shares how the hospitality industry chose her, how her board service has propelled her career, and the biggest leadership lessons she's learned along the way. She talks about how she unwinds and how she overcomes self doubt through leaning in on her own experiences. She discusses how she has learned the most through "doing" but has also developed and relied upon a deep support system of advisors and why championing others is important to her.

Transcript

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Good afternoon. I am Rachel Humphrey with DEI Advisors. We are a non profit organization dedicated to empowering personal success in the hospitality industry, and I am really excited to be joining Hospitality. Seema, welcome to the program. Thank you for inviting me. I'm a huge fan of Hospitality. I'm glad to be here, but I have your insights before. I'm really excited to share that with our audience. But 1 of the reasons I love the hospitality industry so much is that there can be so many different Pass to leadership. We don't all have to chart the same way. Tell us a little bit about your background, how you got to where you are and if there were any pivotal moments during that process that you really think changed the course for you. Sure. So I did not choose hospitality. Hospitality chose me. When I was 17, I got married and came to California and my husband's family owned a small inn. So literally next day, my father in law was teaching me how to accept the credit cards. And if you remember it back in the day, they were, you had to swipe the machine, call American express, get the authorization. So I was full on in training mode the very first day. And I loved it. I just wanted to learn more, assimilate into the new country. It. That I came into and I started working at the front desk. And then my husband in 1992 opened our first Holiday Inn Express franchise in Northern California. And he after building set, how do you feel about, coming into operations and I had to jump in. It was a small community. Very difficult to find general managers. So I stepped in as a GM without having any background, and I learned everything on the job, the computer system hiring my first employee. Room inspections, my QA I remember my first QF from IAG. I was running around like chicken without my head because I didn't know what to expect. But the most uncomfortable thing I had to do was make sales calls in this rural Northern California area where, there was lack of diversity and it was very uncomfortable walking into business and doing sales calls. So I stayed in. I was just like, learning everything every day new in the business. Someone took a notice and nominated me on the board of California Lodging Industry Association. And initially, I said, no, oh, I can't. I'm an Indian woman. I just can't. Follow my husband and I do whatever I'm required to do and please take him. And they said, no, but we want you because there are thousands of other Indian women that are like you that are in the business and doing the work you are doing, but they are not in the forefront and we need somebody to be out there. So I said no the first year they published my name in the magazine and everything and I still didn't say yes. The following year they came back to me and they said, how about now? Are you ready? Do you want to come on the board? So I joined CLIA and I think that was the pivotal moment for me to step into leadership role. I learned so much from my colleagues on the CLIA board. I soon was on the executive board and then eventually the chair of California Lodging Industry Association. Association. And so that was a pivotal moment from there. It was just my leadership journey continued as each or somebody would take notice and recommend that I go move on to the next four. For example, for CLIA we had to do legislative calls to the legislators, explain to them what tourism is, what tourism can bring, and our then Governor Gray Davis had removed all funding for tourism from that year's budget in the state. So I was lobbying at the state level. And that's how I ended up on the Visit California board because Visit California was then called California Travel and Tourism Commission. So my board leadership continued while simultaneously our business grew. I got I fell in love with Hospitality and I just wanted to grow the company. We bought our next location, the Holiday Inn Express at the Oakland airport. And then we continued developing hotels from there. Hampton Inn is home to Independent. I love this industry. I fell in love with it and one of our motto is love what you do what you love at Richmond Hospitality because we are so passionate about the business. That's my journey and I'm Now, 40 years later, here I am. What an incredible journey it has been. And so appreciative of your sharing both how you ended up in hospitality, but also some of the times that you said no, leading to times that you said, it really be what opens the door for us. Along the way I have friends who love to say that women need their own personal board of directors. their own support systems industry or branching out doing these other things. building the types of peo needed on your personal b I wouldn't have achieved what I have without those colleagues of mine that I could call upon as you said, my personal board of directors every board that I attended, I made lifelong French friends, and these colleagues in their own company, and I still call upon them. Some of them have retired and actually one of my colleagues retired and is helping me part time from florida because she's bored. So she's helping us at Richmond, but these are the kind of relationships I built upon. Even now, I think the board that the boards that I've served, I met some incredible leaders and I. Tap into their expertise time to time. Besides that, I also joined CEO Peer Group a particular one, A WPO, which is women Presidents. Because it's not just hospitality, but all businesses. And, we tend to sometimes just narrow down into hospitality. And we are in a day to day in the trenches. And what WP offers me is a I meet women, amazing leaders that have built their own companies from, all over the country at at our three meetings a year, and I can talk to them about my problems and they provide such insight, learn, and I learn from their businesses as they learn from mine. So having that peer group has been very helpful and. I definitely have my personal board of directors, a Rolodex that I call upon. I think there's two really great lessons in there. One is certainly the relationships you've built through your board service and other ways of community involvement that then have become trusted resources, but also how important it can be to have people who are outside of our industry in your support system and the ways that you're able to really both give and take assistance and advice and guidance. there. So I appreciate your sharing that. Seema, one of the things we hear a lot is this the idea of how much self doubt or imposter syndrome, especially rising female leaders or even very experienced female leaders can have. Do you experience self doubt along the way? And if so, you have strategies that you use when you find That negative thought creeping into your head that you're able to use to overcome that. I think all of us go through that some sometime or the other in our lives. Fortunately for me, I got the leadership position in my early thirties, and it builds such confidence in me that I had less and less as I grew. However, I'll give you one example. When I was asked to serve as a CFO for Visit California, and then we had a budget of 118 million a year, and I became a CFO, and I had the, I had am I capable of doing this? Am I equipped? I have the skills. Of course, the doubts go through your head and The way I deal with it is, I look at my role, what my responsibilities are, have I done that before, look at my record, what I've done in the past, am I giving my 100 percent to the role, learning everything I can about that role, and somehow that helps me diminish that feeling of not being deserving of that role or not being up to the responsibility. So I hope that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a great way of doing it too, is relying on your own experiences and your own successes and expertise in overcoming some of your own. Negative doubt. So I like that you are. You then look inside yourself for that advice. You mentioned becoming the CFO of the a visit California and how that meant that you needed to learn new things. That happens for a lot of us, whether we're changing Jobs, whether we're getting promoted within a job or even in a volunteer association that sometimes we're going to encounter skills that we didn't realize were going to be so important for us in those roles. And we have to develop them. How do you set out when you come across a skill, whether it's as you. grew through your GM role and now into your CEO role around those other boards. Where do you go to help you develop those new skills? So one of the things about being in a family business is people are tied up with these different responsibilities and sometimes you have to step up to take on a new role. So for example, when we built our Hampton Inn, my husband's father was in the hospital. So he was really busy with his dad and I had to step in for the entitlement of the property and actually closing the deal, working with agents and working with the lenders, the attorneys on the property, for the entitlement. And I learned everything from A to Z, but that was that meant that I had to be patient with myself. I had to ask a lot of questions and I had to rely on, again, support of colleagues, I needed a certain vendor, a surveyor or an engineer. I would call on my network and say, Hey, do you know any surveyors or do you, can you recommend and structural engineer? I think the network really comes in handy when you're doing something new. And I enjoyed the process. I wasn't. know I wasn't feeling like I'm a failure. I could I got through that project. And from then on every project now I'm involved in the entitlement, which I love doing. So I gain new skills just through that. And I read a lot. Rachel, I research a lot. I'm a lifelong learner. I love to learn, and I think that helps me develop new skills as well. You With each project, there's something new that I learned. For example, our hotel is right next to the runway at the Oakland airport, and I had to study everything about soundproofing in that project. So I was in Atlanta. There's a hotel at the Atlanta airport. I visited the airport manager. I made an appointment with him. I talked to other hotels that were near the airport. I went and stayed there. I love learning. And then I have to develop a new skill. I just go full in and, educate myself as much as possible. I love hearing about being a lifelong learner. You hear this curiosity or this desire to keep learning, but also just jumping in and doing it, knowing full well that you're going to learn as you go and reaching out to people and relying on resources that you have for continuing to learn and develop those new skills. So that's a great Piece of advice. And as we pivot here a little bit, you actually say that you got into hospitality because you married into it. Now you are raising a family and it as well. You are a mom and a wife and a ceo and very active in the industry in a lot of different ways. But I also like to disconnect a little bit here and there. So talk some about how you, I like to say, manage the demands of both. Being part of a family, having hobbies, having other things you want to be doing with your career and maybe how that's changed over the years, if at all. Sure. I think we all struggle with work life, management, balance, whatever word you want to use. For me, the two things that I love are my family and my business, and I had to juggle between both. And I go on a day to day, see what the priority of the day is. If I have a family member that needs me that day, being self employed, that gives me that flexibility. But if there's a meeting that I absolutely need to attend, then I would do that. So I Try to navigate that. And Rachel, I had to navigate that from very early because our kids grew up in the business. So my son played golf for school. And I remember one time he was he won and he was getting a trophy and he said, mom, where are you? You're not here. I'm getting a trophy. And I was actually managing one of the properties. So we all have those, Guilt in us, but we try our best. I don't think we can all achieve 100 percent Work life balance or what I love is on weekends. I dedicate to cooking for my family I love hiking love yoga so I do take care of myself on the weekend do what I love and then weekdays are for business but also now as I Grow into the role of ceo. I try to balance where certain days are for meetings Certain days are for property visits and I schedule it schedule my week to provide that flexibility to me. I love to doing what you love, both as a career and in your family really allows you to figure out how to best use that time in each of those circumstances. I want to turn a little bit to focusing specifically on elevating women for one minute. Not that lots of people don't struggle with this, but in terms of advocating for ourselves, one of the common themes we hear is a hesitancy to either say what we want, seek a promotion that we want, look for a new opportunity or new role that we're in. What advice would you give to rising leaders who maybe are having a harder time really putting themselves out there in a way that will help advance their career? Sure. So this is something I'm still struggling with. It may not, based on hearing my story, it may not look like that, but I think we all struggle with that. We men have hard time tooting their own horn. So I don't I, you feel like you're bragging. So you don't want to tell everything you've done. So I feel like you have to inform people. It's a balance without coming off as bragging. And what I do is, with the numerous wars that I've served on, I have colleagues that are pretty objective. They can tell me what I've done right and what I'm, what I need to work on and getting their feedback of how I'm doing. I gain my confidence from there. And then I'm able to speak up in a business, professional manner, rather than coming off as bragging. We have to advocate for ourselves. One time, one of my friends said, you are an understated leader because no one can People don't know how much you've accomplished because I hated being in the newspaper. I didn't want to be in the magazine. I was avoiding all that when I first joined the boards. Another thing is noticing what your colleagues are doing. For example, in our company, we are intentionally trying to develop Young leaders, the men who joined the company, make sure that they reach the management level within so many years and try to work with them to get them to management level. I think we have to help them and advocate for them who can speak for themselves. Also pointing out when they're doing something right. If I'm in a meeting and a woman has accomplished something, I want to point out if she's not tooting her horn, it's my responsibility to speak up and shed light on her accomplishment. So I think by helping others, I help myself advocate for myself, but you're right. It's hard for women to be out there. And one of my main advice is say yes. To everything, all the opportunities that are presented to, you have some really great themes in there. I want to start with feedback for a minute because you were really focused on being receptive to feedback. You knew what your strengths were and also what your areas for. And feedback is such a critical part of the process. I also, you know what you said about being a champion for others who maybe aren't doing a great job, maybe initially advocating for themselves, because when people see that someone else is championing for them, they may be more inclined to then stand up and champion for themselves. I really liked what you said about Bragging, if you will, isn't the right word, but tooting your own horn, I think you said. And that's one of the reasons I always love to share with our audience why I have asked somebody to join as a guest. And I mentioned to you earlier, I was so enthusiastic that you had said yes, but I really admire and respect so much your commitment to the industry in such an understated way. You have had leading roles in some of the most impactful organizations in the industry. You advocate on behalf of hoteliers in California, which in and of itself is no easy task on a day to day when I have called you and asked you to speak or do other things. You always say yes, because of how important you think that it is, but you mentioned the 1st chair. I want to get it right. I believe it was of what is now visit California, but that was that was the 1st Indian female chair, I believe. But also, when you became the 1st chair of clear, if I remember correctly, that's the 1st female chair. Any state lodging association around the country, and that's a big deal. And so I think that while you're not tuning in, you are letting these incredible accomplishments speak for themselves, but to continue your hotel business, which then gives opportunity as an employer and as Leader within the hotels and everything. So I'm incredibly appreciative for all that you do in those additional roles to the hotel ownership and operations that you've undertaken. Thank you. Thanks for the kind words. I will toot your horn. How about that? You also mentioned yoga a minute ago. I know that you like the beach as well, and one of the things we hear a lot now of focus coming out of the pandemic is this renewed focus on self care and wellness. You mentioned hiking. Is that something that throughout your career has always been a commitment for you? Or do you think that is something else that has evolved as your leadership and hospitality journey has evolved? I've always been a fond of yoga exercise. I have a trainer. I work out regularly. I just have a healthy lifestyle. I think it helps a lot to perform better in my day to day responsibility. I love hiking because I just love to be in nature. My dream is to visit as many national parks as possible. I just went to Glacier National Park two weeks ago, and I love being out in nature and very fortunate to be in the Oakland Hills in Northern California. We have so many trails around us. So I'm able to go for those beautiful hikes. Self care, I think, is very important, especially for women, because we are juggling so many roles. A mother, we have a wife, daughter in law in our Indian community, we have a big family. bigger responsibilities sometimes with joint families and so I think to take care of yourself is very important as they say when you sit in the flight they say put that oxygen mask first on your on yourself then on your child because if your cup is not full you can't give it to others. So I truly believe in that and I, I try to do as much as I can to get away and take a break. From work to recenter myself. I love those words to live by on self care and wellness. I like to say that an empty lantern burns no fuel, burns no light. So you have to have fuel in it. I love that. As we turn to talking about your leadership style and its evolution, I'm wondering what some of the big leadership lessons maybe you have learned over the course of the years and how you turned those lessons into really your current leadership style. Sure, and I've had many lessons being on different boards and working with different personalities and my earlier experience with the Oakland Convention Bureau, our CEO unfortunately passed away of breast cancer, and I had to step in to run the organization for six months myself to work with the staff, and then the board was quite contentious. We had contentious board meeting to sit in a board meeting where, there are this fraction, it was very challenging. And what I learned is you have to put your ego. outside the door when you enter that board meeting, you have to keep the organization at the forefront and work in its interest. So when we had to hire a new CEO, I made sure that I reached out to the people that were actually more critical of me or more contentious, invited them to be on a search committee. So bring people together. And I think that's, That was my big lesson. Then with Visit California just elevating others, when I became the first board elected chair before even the vote could call the vote, 30 commissioners stood up and said yes. Oh wow. Some commissioner commissioners had tears in their eyes, and I saw what it means to be elevated. And my lesson has been to make sure that I pass that send the elevator down again, make sure that I reciprocate that I elevate other human leaders around me. So important to be when you are a leader to elevate others and, bring them Up as well. What are the lessons? I have so many lessons, but those are the two that come to mind right now to me. Also in my organization. I think the empathic leadership when I walk into my hotels, I always ask how they're doing. I will walk to the houseman. I'll walk to the housekeeper that's mopping the floor. I'll walk the hallway and take a minute to ask how is their family? How are they doing? It's so important because as you grow in your role, It's very easy to get detached from line level workers. And I think when you are CEO of the company, that speaks volume. If you're able to go and speak to the line level employees and take just few minutes of your time to find out how they're doing. And they appreciate it so much. I've seen in there's some employees will run and give me a hug when I walk into a hotel. So I know how important that is. So empathetic leadership, I think is very important. Collaborative leadership to collaborate with others to speak last when you're on the table that others speak first, get their opinion and then speak. I think that's very important as well. So many life lessons and many leadership lessons I've learned. I think that showing the impact of the empathetic leadership on your hotel staff is really an incredible way for you to see how important that really is to them. I like the discussion too, when you talked earlier about the board of picking people who didn't agree with you or who were your biggest non advocates, if you will, to really make sure that you had different voices represented to find consensus, to be collaborative, such an important situation there as well. And then, of course, elevating others when you see how impactful for you it was when others elevated you, then paying that forward. Such a really powerful message for everybody. My fans at the end of the day. It was wonderful. I love that. I know that I could talk with you all day. You have such a wonderful story, like I said, to tell, and it's so inspiring to hear it. But we are going to run out of time. So I really want to wrap up thinking about two things here. One is advice to our younger selves. I love this question so much because I believe that we are all works in progress and part of really growing our leadership, growing who we are as people is reflecting. on who we were, where we've come from. As you think back to 21 year old Seema today, what would you tell that young girl either about how things turned out for you or about something maybe you wish you had known then? Yeah. Having no formal training, not speaking the language fluently when I came to this pad and coming out of kin, being at the level that I am, I would tell my younger self that be confident, it will all work out at the end. We are all hunting, and we are learning as we go. Believe in yourself. And be confident. It will all work out at the end. We all face challenges. Of course, there'll be challenges and you'll come over them. As we wrap up thinking about the motto of D. E. I. advisors to empower personal success. Is there any final advice? She'd like to share with our listeners. I just have a one line motto is dream big and say, yes. Excellent. And that's what I preach. Dream big and say yes. That is perfect. So much on behalf of myself, as I mentioned, you are a huge inspiration for me on behalf of an industry that you are. With our audiences today, forgive me the opportunity to share each of I've really enjoyed our talk today and to our list of DEI advisors that were here from nearly 200 hospitality industry leaders who have also shared their journey with us. Thank you so much for sharing.