Overview: The Success of Embassy Suites 'The Circle of Leadership'
By Darci Riesenhuber, Director of Brand Culture & Internal Communications, Embassy Suites Hotels
Retaining high quality leadership is critical to the success of any business, particularly hospitality. It is surprisingly difficult, even today, to find quality front-line staff, but even worse to lose them. The best way to attract and retain quality staff at the bottom, however, is by developing great leadership at the top. The General Manager is the lynchpin to a healthy culture at any given property. They set the tone and influence the quality of life for everyone else at the hotel.
The Circle of Leadership (CoL) is Embassy Suites’ way of recognizing and investing in our top talent. It is about taking our best, most effective and successful leaders and making them even better. Why? Because we believe that if we do not pay attention, we will lose those who are most valuable. By focusing on our top performers, we raise the bar, and ultimately the performance, of our entire brand. This article provides insight into our leadership development program that both gives and gets back from our best and our brightest. In 2008, the Embassy Suites brand partnered with The Bixler Consulting Group, an Atlanta-based leadership development and executive coaching firm, to design and facilitate a program that specifically meets the unique needs of Embassy Suites GMs. The Circle of Leadership™ is the result of this collaboration. At the onset, a strict set of hotel performance criteria were established to help select the six to eight General Managers invited to participate in the program each year. To be nominated is both an honor and a privilege. Over a 12-month period, participants complete a variety of self-assessments, participate in workshops and interactive webinars, complete a host of real-world activities and receive one-on-one phone coaching as well as peer-to-peer mentoring.
Each personal development journey begins with a 360° evaluation followed by an individual feedback session. In some instances, this is the first time these managers have actively solicited and opened themselves up to very direct and honest feedback from their bosses, peers or team members. Next, they complete the Hogan Challenge Report© to gain insights into their strengths, potential barriers, or success derailers, values and personal motivation and are asked to share their results with others for additional, more specific feedback. The result is heightened personal awareness and a level of vulnerability that allows each individual to grow beyond where they currently are, both personally and professionally.

Each monthly webinar focuses on one or more key competencies including Service, Leadership, Change Management, Building Talent, Innovation, Professionalism, Character and Execution. While maintaining the confidentiality of individual assessments, results are incorporated into the webinars, thus ensuring the program is highly targeted to participant’s individual needs. In addition to these formal learning opportunities, the CoL provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity to interact and build relationships with other members of the program, including CoL alumni, and allows participants to expand their career opportunities, learn best practices and, ultimately, provide better leadership and coaching to their staff.
At the conclusion of the year-long program, members are invited to a special Day of Recognition at Hilton Worldwide’s corporate headquarters. As part of this event, graduates are asked to deliver a brief presentation on how they applied the concepts from the program and how it made a difference in their lives or in others’. In some instances, their stories are inspiring and emotional. Presentations have been known to bring a tear to the audiences’ eyes, which is a tough act to follow. However, the program does not necessarily end here.
Following the one-year program and approximately 60 hours of total invested time, graduates are further engaged in ongoing development opportunities. Unlike during the first phase of the program where individuals are encouraged to focus on their own skill development, this phase is about CoL members giving back. CoL graduates, or alumni, are invited to meet with brand executives at Hilton Worldwide’s corporate headquarters to participate in focus groups and brainstorming sessions to provide input during the planning and testing phases of new brand concepts and initiatives. Alumni play a key role as brand advisors for future innovations and practices that keep our guest experience relevant and fresh. It is a win-win for CoL alumni and the brand. The brand gets the opportunity to test, fine-tune or abandon concepts with input from the field before rolling them out to the entire portfolio, often saving the company a lot of unnecessary time or money. We are also able to gain buy-in and commitment early on from those who are ultimately responsible for the adoption and implementation of these ideas at the hotel level. At the same time, these GMs are incredibly appreciative of the opportunity to provide their input and to have direct access to key decision-makers during the ideation process. The trust and respect gained through this process of ongoing and open dialogue between the brand and these GMs goes a long way in building long-term partnerships, engagement and band advocacy at the highest and most influential level.
Interestingly, what I have discovered during this process of interacting with these individuals is that even those who appear to be at the top of their game need to be actively engaged and reinvigorated at times. This is particularly true within the Embassy Suites brand where we, fortunately, tend to keep GMs at hotels for an extended period of time. This element of permanency at the leadership level is an advantage in terms of maintaining cultural traditions and values, consistency, and brand integrity over the long-term. There is a strong commitment from the brand to continue to support and engage these individuals to make sure they continue to live up to their position as role models for the brand. GMs set the tone of the work environment for their staff. Engagement has a trickle-down effect.
The group is further strengthened through a series of ongoing recognition touch points. To start, we honor each individual at our annual brand conference. Additionally, as part of our ongoing effort to involve and give voice to these select GMs, we regularly spotlight them in our brand e-newsletter, blogs and quarterly print publications. We have an online community where CoL members can share best practices with other members of the brand. We also reach out to trade and local media to spotlight their achievements and position them as community leaders.
To maintain exclusivity, there is a limit on program participation. Limited capacity ensures it is viewed as a privilege for a select few that qualify and as an incentive for others who aspire to be part of “the club”. It is important to rotate members in and out of the program periodically to give other talented GMs the opportunity to participate and to foster new, fresh ideas and perspectives. In its current format, the program is designed as a one-year formal learning program followed by periodic, less formal interaction with brand leaders. The goal is to further define and formalize a multi-year program so that alumni status does not go in to effect until year three or four.
With this in mind, we are embarking on the development of a formal mentoring program as part of the CoL program. After completing their first year of professional development, members will be asked to work with and help develop someone else. The six or eight individuals in their second year of the CoL program will be paired with a high-performing executive committee team member who is looking to be groomed for a GM position, a GM who is new to the Hilton Worldwide enterprise and/or brand and may need additional coaching and support to learn the Hilton/Embassy Suites culture and way of doing things or a GM who is at a struggling hotel. With a year’s worth of skill development behind them, and the knowledge of CoL personality assessments and work experiences, we will be able to pair those who will likely benefit most from the mentoring relationship.
As a talent development program focused on high performing General Managers, CoL achieves a multitude of objectives. First, it helps Embassy Suites Hotels retain our most valuable leaders at a time in their career when they may otherwise look externally for further development opportunities. It continues to stretch, challenge and engage those who may have been in their current role for an extended period of time. The program also increases the awareness and influence of those General Managers who perform well for our brand. Finally, CoL members serve as a valuable resource to the corporate team, keeping executives closely in touch with what is happening in the field so that we can continue to add value and grow the brand overall. In the spirit of hospitality, it is a program designed around getting and giving back both personally and professionally.
Darci Riesenhuber joined Hilton Worldwide in August, 2011, assuming the role of director, brand culture and communication, for the Embassy Suites Hotels brand. In this capacity, she ensures that all components of the Embassy Suites brand’s hotel-level training and communications effectively deliver and instill the brand’s key philosophies, values and the Embassy Make A Difference culture. She leads development and implementation of all brand communication to hotels, reward & recognition efforts and manages all brand conferences. Ms. Riesenhuber’s current focus is on developing an interactive, online community for hotel-level employees to share ideas and best practices. She is also working on a new team member orientation training program and developing a leadership mentoring program. Ms. Riesenhuber can be contacted at 703-883-5490 or darci.riesenhuber@hilton.com Extended Bio...
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