Words of Wisdom: Best Western’s David Kong Shares Leadership Advice
GRAPEVINE, TX—This year’s Best Western North American Convention and
Conference, held here, featured the first-ever “Today’s Women in
Leadership Forum,” which fostered an atmosphere where women and men
could gather to discuss challenges and successes, learn and network. In
keeping with the spirit of inclusivity, in addition to a number of
successful female leaders, the day also featured a discussion with Best
Western Hotels & Resorts President/CEO David Kong, who shared
leadership advice he’s learned along the way—as well as his thoughts on
gender in the workplace.
Attitude is everything. “I came to this country as a teenager in the 1970s,” Kong said. “I’ve met my fair share of difficulties and disappointments, but I learned early on that attitude was everything. If you don’t have the right attitude, you won’t be successful. Who will want to work with you?”
When faced with difficulties, the worst thing you can do is have a chip on your shoulder, Kong said. “You need to do the reverse—let it go to prove that person wrong,” he added, recalling his early days as an F&B director for a large Hyatt hotel.
“I was doing a good job, but this regional VP was being unreasonably difficult on me,” he said. “He promoted two other people and I felt hurt and frustrated. I asked myself, ‘What can I do about the situation?’ I rallied the team and said, ‘Let’s prove him wrong. Let’s have the best results this hotel has ever seen.’
The team was successful, achieving the best guest satisfaction results, best employee engagement scores, one of the highest profits and the best revenue growth the food and beverage department had ever seen in that hotel. “Despite all that, I still didn’t get my opportunity,” Kong said, noting that he and his wife decided to set a timeframe for moving on. “You hit the glass ceiling, you can’t break through, what do you do? We put our house on the market, sold it on the first day.”
However, the president of the company was visiting the hotel. “I thought it was a good opportunity, so I told the limo driver I’d pick him up. I picked him up and had a chance to talk to him one on one, and explained all the things we’d been able to achieve, and lo and behold, one month later, I was promoted,” Kong said. “The lesson here is when you’re angry and frustrated, find a way to channel that energy and use it constructively to prove a point. From that point on, if I get mad at something, I set a goal to prove that person wrong.”
Working hard often isn’t enough. Kong said that he used to question why others sometimes moved up faster than him even though they didn’t work as hard. “What dawned on me is working hard is just the price of entry,” he said. “You’ve got to ask what else differentiates you.”
He recalled a time he worked as a general manager, but the hotel had hit a plateau. “This was back in the early 1980s; I came up with a satisfaction guarantee—this was way before Hampton or anyone talked about it,” he said. “I used that not as a marketing ploy, but to change the culture of the hotel. I asked the staff if we were good enough to offer it; they all got motivated with that.
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Attitude is everything. “I came to this country as a teenager in the 1970s,” Kong said. “I’ve met my fair share of difficulties and disappointments, but I learned early on that attitude was everything. If you don’t have the right attitude, you won’t be successful. Who will want to work with you?”
When faced with difficulties, the worst thing you can do is have a chip on your shoulder, Kong said. “You need to do the reverse—let it go to prove that person wrong,” he added, recalling his early days as an F&B director for a large Hyatt hotel.
“I was doing a good job, but this regional VP was being unreasonably difficult on me,” he said. “He promoted two other people and I felt hurt and frustrated. I asked myself, ‘What can I do about the situation?’ I rallied the team and said, ‘Let’s prove him wrong. Let’s have the best results this hotel has ever seen.’
The team was successful, achieving the best guest satisfaction results, best employee engagement scores, one of the highest profits and the best revenue growth the food and beverage department had ever seen in that hotel. “Despite all that, I still didn’t get my opportunity,” Kong said, noting that he and his wife decided to set a timeframe for moving on. “You hit the glass ceiling, you can’t break through, what do you do? We put our house on the market, sold it on the first day.”
However, the president of the company was visiting the hotel. “I thought it was a good opportunity, so I told the limo driver I’d pick him up. I picked him up and had a chance to talk to him one on one, and explained all the things we’d been able to achieve, and lo and behold, one month later, I was promoted,” Kong said. “The lesson here is when you’re angry and frustrated, find a way to channel that energy and use it constructively to prove a point. From that point on, if I get mad at something, I set a goal to prove that person wrong.”
Working hard often isn’t enough. Kong said that he used to question why others sometimes moved up faster than him even though they didn’t work as hard. “What dawned on me is working hard is just the price of entry,” he said. “You’ve got to ask what else differentiates you.”
He recalled a time he worked as a general manager, but the hotel had hit a plateau. “This was back in the early 1980s; I came up with a satisfaction guarantee—this was way before Hampton or anyone talked about it,” he said. “I used that not as a marketing ploy, but to change the culture of the hotel. I asked the staff if we were good enough to offer it; they all got motivated with that.
“They wanted to be the best, and I used that to change
the culture of the organization, resulting in unbelievable results,”
Kong said. “The corporation saw that, and they moved me to corporate and
asked me to head up the business process reengineering efforts to help
redesign how to work at the hotel. I wouldn’t have gotten that job if I
didn’t start thinking out of the box. We all know hard work is important
but alone, it’s not enough. There are a lot of people who work hard.”