Great leaders are made, not born. Effective leadership requires a mix of knowledge, expertise, foresight, people skills, and organization. Leaders must be able to define a strategy, set goals, and then manage themselves and their teams. In doing so, they strive to balance the workload among staff without overloading anyone, including themselves, while responding to the often unpredictable events and situations that arise daily at a mountain resort. This can be a tall order, though, especially if one’s path to a leadership role didn’t include the needed training, mentorship, or experience to be set up for success.

To provide access to leadership wisdom stored in the great minds across the industry, SAM launched the Summit Series six years ago. The Summit Series offers something many resorts are unable to provide on their own: a forum for up-and-coming managers to meet and learn from established resort executives outside their own companies. 

We chose this year’s group of 10 early-career managers from a pool of applicants and invited 10 industry leaders to serve as mentors. We also asked leadership expert and executive coach Paul Thallner of High Peaks Group to contribute his perspective and advice during the program.  This past fall, the group met for four weeks and talked through the challenges leaders face and strategies successful leaders can enact to meet them. 

On the first call, moderated by Thallner, our mentees spoke with four of the mentors about how the best leaders manage their time and themselves.

In addition, with the benefit of time to review the following highlights from that first meeting, we asked Thallner to provide some more helpful insights, presented here as “Paul’s Perspective.” 

Challenges Emerging Leaders Face

The mentees identified several challenges of their growing roles, starting with how to manage themselves. Time management is a common issue. Many are unfamiliar with how to delegate tasks, get out of the trenches, and prioritize. Some suffered from Imposter Syndrome, the sense that one is not yet ready for the job. Communication—how to set expectations, knowing what tools to use, working across departments—can be daunting.

Managing other people can also baffle some leaders. It may be hard to deal with conflict and learn to say “no.” Being efficient and fair with your direct reports requires attention. How can you run meetings that result in actionable steps for your staff? How can you deploy your staff most effectively?

And finally, how does a leader achieve a level of work-life balance, for oneself as well as one’s staff, that helps keep everyone motivated and resilient?

Here are some of the challenges, in the mentees’ words:

“Continuously balancing ‘opposite’ needs. Doing this with that, rather than one or the other: strength with kindness, patience with productivity, confidence with humility. Delegation—I have a hard time handing out tasks for others to do; I will commit to doing it all myself, then get over-extended.”

“How to effectively communicate—important updates, changes in SOPs, basic information—as each generation prefers to communicate differently: WhatsApp vs. email vs. a morning meeting. With seasonal positions, it’s difficult for employees to feel pride in their work. How does one create an environment that builds/rewards this attribute? It’s hard to keep individuals motivated.”

“As a younger team member with only a few working years in the industry, a big struggle for me is showing confidence and asserting confidence with co-workers. I wind up having a lot of self-doubt when it comes to making decisions or expressing thoughts about the business.”

“I have always found it is easier and faster to do what needs to be done myself. It takes so much time to explain a task and then answer the associated questions. The challenge is more than just doling out responsibilities to other people. The ability to communicate expectations and directions is crucial to achieving an outcome that meets with the vision I have formed in my head for a project.”

Paul’s Perspective: Leaders are given their jobs because they’ve demonstrated capability, and they typically jump in to prove their bosses made a good decision. Over time, a lot of leaders spend their energy on the pressing issues they’re there to solve, but spend very little energy renewing themselves or recharging their batteries. They end up stressed and depleted. Since we can’t change the work, leaders must regularly engage in cycles of renewal to restore their energy, focus, and commitment. It’s the best path to effective and sustainable leadership.

What emerging Leaders Want to Learn

The mentees had several aspects of leadership they wished to address. They wanted to become comfortable in their roles, i.e., feel confident they knew what they were doing so they would no longer feel guilty when asking someone to take on a task and would feel less stressed by responsibility. At the same time, they wanted to know how to best support their teams, how to hire the best candidates, and how experienced managers handle sticky situations.

A few of the items on which the mentees wanted a mentor’s perspective:

“I am hoping to hear how the mentors support emerging leaders in their lives, or how they were supported as emerging leaders. This can be inspiration for what to ask of my resort’s senior leaders, or for what I can do myself to support emerging leaders. I [also] hope to learn how to maximize my impact at my resort and in my community by learning how the mentors have done that in their lives.”

“Tools to build mid-management development strategies—how to keep star players engaged, challenged, and fulfilled, and how to encourage interdepartmental collaboration where currently there are silos.”

“I’m most curious about how the mentors schedule their day. Every leader seems to have a knack for how to get multiple things done quickly and efficiently. Do they have a set plan? Do they use a new-age technique for time management? How much time do they 

spend planning how to use their time?”

So, what makes the best leaders so great? 

Paul’s Perspective: What mentees are worried about reflects the broader concerns of CEOs and executives around the world. In global research organization DDI’s 2023 Global Leadership Forecast, the top three concerns among CEOs are all people related. They worry about a) finding and retaining top talent; b) developing the next generation of leaders; and c) maintaining an engaged workforce. While there may be comfort in sharing this challenge, it won’t be solved with one-and-done approaches. People challenges require a long-term commitment to positive change, and lots of practice. 

Thriving in an Expanded Role

According to Thallner, new leaders often struggle with the transition into their new role. The change from front line to people manager invites lots of questions: How am I doing as a leader? Am I responding in ways that are helpful? Are there things I’m not seeing or things I’m missing?

One key question: Am I delegating tasks in an effective way? Leaders need to delegate, Thallner reminded mentees on the call, noting that several had said they were overextending themselves frequently. 

Another common question: Am I the right leader for this role? It’s not unusual for new leaders to feel the Imposter Syndrome, and to wonder, do people see me as a fraud? 

“We play these mental games with ourselves all the time in leadership roles,” said Thallner. “Spoiler alert, this fear never completely goes away for a lot of people, so get comfortable with it. It’s reassuring to know that the mentors on this call also feel the same thing. None of us are perfect; we’re all on a journey to get as close to it as we can.” 

The biggest challenges are typically people challenges, added Thallner.

The answers to people challenges are often less tangible than the more operational stuff, where what works or doesn’t work tends to be clearer. 

“We all want to make sure that the resorts we’re running are places where people want to come work every day, and where they’re able to do their best work and deliver for the business,” said Thallner. 

“So, a major part of leadership is learning how to effectively manage and lead people who, as individuals, are unique and almost always different than you are. Being a leader is a bit like playing 3D chess.”

Paul’s Perspective: Leaders need to think of leadership as an ongoing and evolutionary journey that only gets stronger with time and repetition. So, I often coach leaders to settle into the idea of “yet.” That is, they may not have all they need to address a challenge…”yet.” But they have the capacity and responsibility to learn. Sometimes the learning is intentional, planned, and strategic. However, a lot of leadership learning is in-the-moment, trial-and-error, and fail-and-fix. The best leaders have strong emotional intelligence to understand the difference.

How Do the Mentors Play the Game?

Tom Chasse, Schweitzer, Idaho: I try to work both ends of the day to get my work done. I come in early in the morning to establish my timeline for the day. I’m a list keeper, so I’ve got a list of tasks I want to get done, and try to get as much done early in the morning.

Once the operation starts, I try to spend as much time in the operation with the team as I can, and a fair amount of time in a coaching mode. I get to know most of the staff personally, beyond just what’s related to work.

Jason Perl, Boyne, Mich.: The more you can know the skillset of your team, the more you know who to delegate to and who has the bandwidth to help you achieve those dreams that might only be dreams otherwise. 

Certainly, I still realize at times, “I should have passed this off a while ago. Now I’m the one holding things up.”

Ellen Galbraith, Stevens Pass, Wash.: My entire day is blocked in my calendar, including personal tasks. If it’s not scheduled, it doesn’t happen. And so that means scheduling time to go to morning meetings, scheduling time to be on the hill, and just making sure other things don’t take that time.

You [also] have to make a transition from “doing” to “leading.” If you don’t put the shovel down and put the time and energy into planning what is three and six months ahead for your team, it will break you. So, observe leaders who are identified or promoted because of their individual skills and capabilities, and see how they teach those abilities to their staff. They in effect replicate themselves.

If I was out there trying to do every job of every person on my team, that wouldn’t be in the best service of my team. Of course, you still get to do some of it sometime, but that’s not what your boss wants you to do. Your boss is thinking, “Hey, I need 10 of you. I need you to go build 10 of yourself.” Take that approach.

Tim Smith, Waterville Valley, N.H.: A big help for me to get to where I’m at was learning to manage up and down. That is, learning to manage the expectations of the people above me, learning to support the people to my sides, and then [learning] to lead my staff. Learning to manage up and down was a big turning point in my career.

Advice to Your Younger Self

Hindsight being 20/20, we asked our mentors what advice or insights they would share with their younger selves.

A couple of thoughts to lead by:

Jason Perl: There is no clear career trajectory. Be open to opportunities and the different paths you might take. Boyne and Vail Resorts are great at this. 

You could be in food and beverage one day, director of mountain ops the next. There is no straight shot. Evaluate your opportunities and keep an open mind, and you will learn a lot.

Tim Smith: I found the best way to communicate with an older staff member was to use them for their greatest benefit—everyone’s got their own talents and their own abilities. When they teach you something, you can teach them something. It’s always an exchange. It’ll open their eyes to your thought process, too, and earn their respect.

Final Thoughts: How to Create Followers

“You’re not a leader unless there are followers,” Thallner advised mentees. “It’s really important to understand the relationship between leaders and followers, and what you can do to create the kind of followership that gets the results you’re hoping for as a leader.”

Among the keys to success: 

Learn how to articulate your vision or direction. It brings followers together behind you.

Create momentum. “Your leadership, energy, and drive create a sense of inevitability about where we’re going and reinforce the belief that it can happen,” said Thallner. “You’re the catalyst.”

Lead your followers. Don’t try to fix them. “A lot of leaders fall into the trap of thinking they must fix everybody, but that’s not really a leader’s role. Your job is to get results, through and with people,” said Thallner.

Lastly, an important quality for leaders is a positive attitude and a positive belief in the potential of the people they lead. If leaders believe in their people, their people will believe in themselves, too. And that belief can take a leader and their organization a long way.

Paul’s Perspective: Leaders also need to have a good handle on the resort’s people and talent strategy. It’s necessary to have a departmental or organizational operations strategy and action plan, but without a people strategy to ensure the right people are executing on the plan, leaders are adding unnecessary risk. The best organizations have a talent strategy that seeks not only technically skilled individuals, but also those with strong culture, values, and behavioral alignment to the resort and the role.