Leveraging Inexperience to be a Better Leader & Coach

I spent a large part of my career in the Hospitality Space, but it wasn’t until my last role that I realized the gift that inexperience could bring to empowering others. After several years in a multi-hotel cluster and then 3 more in a Regional Role, the idea of going back on property left me feeling a bit insecure about my lack of “experience.”

It had been at least 7 or 8 years since I had worked on a property level, which meant I had lost of touch with the minute nuts and bolts of the process, including the systems!

This was not only a humbling experience, but a Leadership changing one too! I wasn’t about to try to prove myself, rather, I had to put full trust and faith in the expertise and experience of my team. My role as Leader was not about proving myself to them, or bringing technical expertise.

I was given the chance to experiment with adopting a Coaching Style of Leadership and focusing on empowering my team. Listening for and clearing real and perceived obstacles and helping them see they were more than capable of creating their own actions and solutions and success. 

Had I gone in with a pile of technical expertise, it would have been difficult to stop myself from trying to give them the answers, and basically never finding any really new or innovative ideas.  

Innovation comes when curiosity has a place at the table. Curiosity is fuelled by not feeling the need to know all the answers but to find or create new possibilities.

As a Coach, being removed from a client’s specific situation equips me to better serve my clients with a sense of curiosity instead of know how.

When does inexperience get in your way? It is a real or perceived obstacle? What might become possible for you because of inexperience? 

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