The Leadership Reset: Why Women in Hospitality Are Done With Endurance as a Career Strategy

Luxury hospitality is booming. Demand is strong. Expectations are high. Performance is impressive.

And yet, after hundreds of conversations I’ve had with women leaders across the industry, I’ve been sensing something else beneath the headline numbers: fatigue, complexity, and a quiet question about sustainability.

That tension became the backdrop for The Leadership Reset: A New Blueprint for Power, Progress, and Possibility for Women in Hospitality, a new research partnership between hertelier and Forbes Travel Guide, released at The Summit in Monaco.

“Hospitality is a people-driven industry, and leadership models have to evolve in sync with changing expectations,” said Amanda Frasier, President, Standards & Ratings at Forbes Travel Guide.

The big idea is simple: women are advancing. But too much of that advancement is powered by personal endurance rather than intentional systems.

What the Study Found: Personal Drive, Structural Barriers

We surveyed 99 female leaders across Forbes Travel Guide’s global partner hotels to understand three things: how women advance, what structural challenges persist, and what leadership needs to become next.

The contrast in the data was hard to ignore.

Women currently lead 19% of Forbes Travel Guide’s global partner hotels. Nearly 80% of respondents cited mindset and resilience as the primary drivers of their success. 65% pointed to ambition and determination.

When asked about barriers, however, the answers shifted. 40% cited gendered leadership expectations. 34% cited limited flexibility. 30% cited bias in promotion and hiring.

Advancement is deeply personal. The obstacles are not.

Women are not short on ambition. They are navigating friction that is often built into the system itself.

From Endurance to Intention

When we asked leaders to look ahead, the priorities changed.

Strategic thinking ranked as the most essential trait for the next generation, followed by emotional intelligence, authentic communication, and empathy.

That signals something important. The future of leadership in hospitality is not about who can endure the longest. It is about who can think strategically, lead humans well, and build systems that last.

The report frames the next era around three principles: Strategic. Human. Sustainable.

If resilience is still doing most of the heavy lifting, the architecture needs attention.

The Panel: Where the Data Got Real

To bring the findings off the page and into lived experience, I was joined on stage by Silvia Nauta, Vice President of ATELIER CX; Marlene Poynder; Managing Director, The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel; Franck Sibille, Vice President at Hyatt Hotels & Resorts; and Charlotte Weatherall, General Manager of Corinthia London.

Five themes emerged, not as theory, but as lived reality.

L to R: Emily Goldfischer, hertelier; Franck Sibille, Hyatt; Marlene Poynder, The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel; Silvia Nauta, ATELIER CX; and Charlotte Weatherall, Corinthia London.

1) The “GM Track” Is Not One Track

Hospitality still tends to reward a narrow progression model, often elevating certain operational pathways as more legitimate than others. Silvia challenged that directly, “You can be a general manager if you come through finance, revenue management, sales and marketing, human resources,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be this very structured track.”

If we say we want more women GMs but define readiness in a way that privileges one profile, the pipeline will not widen on its own.

Marlene reinforced the point from her own trajectory. Having crossed into hospitality from another career and gone on to run several iconic hotels, her advice was direct: “Never give up a P&L.”

In an investor-driven environment, financial ownership is currency. Leaders without it are often evaluated differently, whether we acknowledge that or not.

2) “Sacrifice” Is a Story We Keep Repeating

The conversation shifted into more personal territory when Charlotte described the advice she received before stepping into her general manager role. She recalled being told, “You are going to have to sacrifice elements of family life if you are successful getting this job.”

Senior roles in hospitality are demanding. No one disputed that. But the language matters. When leadership is framed as personal forfeiture, particularly for women with young families, hesitation is not weakness. It is a rational response to the framing.

Charlotte’s reaction was immediate, “I thought, like hell, I am going to do this job in a way where I am not sacrificing.” And so far, several months into her general manager role, she has not.

Silvia offered a practical counterpoint drawn from day-to-day operations. Not every expectation is immovable.

“Go home,” she told a team member scheduled late on Halloween. “That’s a special moment with your children.”

Sometimes what we describe as structural is simply cultural habit.

3) Flexibility Is How You Keep Talent

Flexibility surfaced as more than a benefit. It is a competitive decision. Marlene shared that Rosewood has introduced 16 weeks of fully paid maternity or paternity leave globally, covered by the company. That kind of move signals that talent sustainability is a leadership priority, not a side initiative.

Charlotte widened the lens. Flexibility should not only apply to parents. “It doesn’t always have to be a 40-hour contract and five days,” she said. “Can we rethink what that looks like?”

If flexibility remains case-by-case, it will continue to feel discretionary. Infrastructure changes behavior. Accommodation does not.

4) Mentorship Has to Move Beyond Politeness

Support was another area where the panel moved from theory to candor. “Rip the band aid off and stop having vanilla conversations,” Marlene said.

If feedback is softened to avoid discomfort, growth slows. Coaching has to be specific, direct, and early.

She also reflected on something more personal. Earlier in her career, when confronted by strong personalities or sharp criticism, she found herself taking it personally. She described how easy it was to assume that tension or pushback meant she was not good enough or did not belong.

The shift came during a leadership course her company sent her to, where she began to reframe those moments. Often, the problem was not her. It was the situation.

That realization changed how she led. Instead of internalizing conflict, she focused on solving the problem in front of her. It is advice she now gives to younger women directly: do not take everything personally.

Silvia reinforced the importance of frequent check-ins that address trajectory, not just KPIs. When advancement criteria are unclear, people fill in the gaps themselves and often assume the worst.

Transparency matters just as much as encouragement.

5) Gen Z and the Question of Pace

Franck widened the conversation beyond gender. He acknowledged that progress is visible. More women are reaching senior roles than in previous decades. But he suggested that the next structural shift may center on the younger generation.

“We have a problem with Gen Z getting to top jobs if we don’t relax,” he said.

Earlier in the discussion, he spoke about his own career in more personal terms. At one point, he deliberately slowed his trajectory. He limited travel, set boundaries around how often he would be away, and prioritized being home with his children. He described it as a choice about timing rather than sacrifice.

His larger point was about pace. Growth does not always have to be linear. Leadership does not have to move at one constant speed.

If hospitality wants to attract and retain younger leaders, it may need to rethink how roles are structured and how quickly they are expected to move.

Meritocracy with Structure

The Q&A sharpened the conversation.

One audience member raised the issue of competition among women. Marlene reflected candidly on an earlier era when leadership seats were scarce and some women felt they had to guard their position. Her takeaway was clear: build coalitions, identify advocates, and do not normalize undermining behavior.

Another exchange centered on hiring and meritocracy. A senior leader in the audience described encouraging Charlotte to apply for her role and emphasized the importance of due process, not as optics, but as principle.

The subtext was straightforward. Meritocracy only works when criteria are visible and consistently applied.

The women in this study are not asking for the bar to move. They are asking to see it.

What does “ready” actually mean? How are promotions decided? Who gets sponsored, and why? How does flexibility really work?

Those answers should not be mysterious.

Endurance has carried many women to the top. It should not be the entry requirement.

You can download the full report: The Leadership Reset: A New Blueprint for Power, Progress, and Possibility for Women in Hospitality.