How to Secure and Inspire Talent — Space for Greatness
During my career, one of most challenging and enlightening positions I held was leading real estate development for a destination resort and spa; Canyon Ranch Resorts. When the customer has no contractual commitment to you beyond a night, operationally a hotel must deliver at the highest level every day or guests vote with their feet to a competitor and tell five people that the experience was subpar. Canyon Ranch, like most resorts, sought to please people every moment of every day. Our customers commonly arrived tired, stressed with a relatively low emotional capacity for uncertainty or missed expectations.
Our resort had a remarkable reputation for personal transformation. People arrived with the anticipation that their lives would be forever changed, and we delivered 90% of the time. I led the organization’s expansion and was responsible for transferring the brand’s promise into new projects. I spent time with nearly every practitioner on property, namely the 25 doctors and PhDs, to feel their passion for healing and learn about their craft always with deep curiosity. This experience highlighted the power of having a vision and purpose (i.e. for success) then seeing the change in our guests in just a few days. My tenure creating environments at the resort taught me that spaces can motivate people, energize, inspire and heal them, just as much as…
