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Creating a Culture of Resilience and Inclusion in Hospitality Leadership

By Kelly Meerbott Executive Leadership Coach, YOU Loud & Clear, Inc. | November 2025

Diversity numbers can tell you who is in the room. Culture determines who speaks, who is heard, and who stays. In hospitality, the stakes are high. Hotels and restaurants still report persistent staffing gaps even after significant rehiring.

Early in 2025, a national survey from the American Hotel & Lodging Association found that nearly two thirds of hotels were still experiencing labor shortages (AHLA, 2025). At the same time, voluntary quits in accommodation and food services remained among the highest of any sector, with a June 2025 quits rate of 4.9 percent according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, 2025).

If leaders want to retain talent, deliver consistent guest experiences, and adapt through economic uncertainty, they must move beyond representation toward cultures that are psychologically safe, reflective, and resilient.

Why Inclusion Must Start With Psychological Safety

Psychological safety is the shared belief that people can ask questions, surface risks, and offer dissent without fear of embarrassment or punishment. It is not about being nice. It is about candor that improves decisions and service. Google’s multi-year Project Aristotle concluded that psychological safety was the single most important factor for team effectiveness (Google Re:Work, Project Aristotle, 2016). In hospitality, where service failures are visible and rapid recovery matters, this condition is essential. When employees feel safe to speak up, near misses get reported, guest problems are escalated faster, and teams learn in real time.

Inclusion also drives performance. A large-scale 2023 analysis by McKinsey & Company found that companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity in leadership were 39 percent more likely to financially outperform peers, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 26 percent more likely to outperform. The same report documented widening gaps between top and bottom quartiles, which means laggards are falling further behind (McKinsey, Diversity Matters Even More, 2023). The implication for hospitality leaders is clear. Inclusion is not a corporate talking point. It is a competitiveness strategy that shows up at the front desk, in the kitchen, and on the P&L.

Engagement Links Inclusion to Business Outcomes

Engagement is the lived expression of inclusion and safety. Gallup’s 2020 meta-analysis of more than 183,000 business units across 53 industries found that teams in the top quartile of engagement achieve 23 percent higher profitability than those in the bottom quartile, along with lower turnover and fewer safety incidents (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace, 2020). In a labor-constrained industry, that retention effect alone can be decisive. Cornell research has long shown that the cost of turnover for hotel front desk roles averages about 30 percent of salary, roughly $5,900, before counting the ripple effect on co-workers and service quality (Hinkin & Tracey, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 2000). Every avoidable departure is a real financial hit and a guest experience risk.

Reflection Is the Multiplier

Diverse teams outperform when they make time to reflect. Team reflexivity refers to deliberate pauses to examine goals, processes, and outcomes, then adjust. A 2024 meta-analysis published in Group & Organization Management concluded that reflexivity improves team performance and that psychological safety helps leaders spark that learning cycle (Konradt et al., 2024). In hospitality operations, brief structured debriefs after a dinner rush or a sell-out night do more than swap stories. They surface bottlenecks, distribute tacit know-how, and normalize continuous improvement.

Resilience Is a Team Capability, Not a Personality Trait

Resilience in hospitality cannot rely on individual grit. It is a system property created by processes, leadership behaviors, and shared norms. Research in service organizations shows that building an error management culture enhances learning and service recovery performance, which are core to resilient operations. In multi-study work spanning hotels and restaurants, employees who learned to frame and discuss errors showed higher self-efficacy and stronger service recovery outcomes (Van Dyck et al., Journal of Applied Psychology, 2005). Resilient cultures expect mistakes, harvest insight fast, and return to service with credibility intact.

A Practical Playbook for Leaders

Set the tone at the top. Open every shift or stand-up with two prompts: “What risks or guest pain points do we see today?” and “What support do you need from me?” Model curiosity, not blame. Track how often concerns are raised and closed, then share those closure rates with the team to reinforce that speaking up leads to action (Google Project Aristotle, 2016).

Install small but frequent reflection loops. Use ten-minute after-action reviews at the end of peak periods. Ask what was supposed to happen, what actually happened, what worked, and what we will try tomorrow. Rotate facilitation so every voice is heard and capture two micro-changes per shift. Over time, these loops compound into better flow, fewer errors, and faster onboarding (Konradt et al., 2024).

Treat service failures as teachable moments. Create a service recovery ladder that pairs quick autonomy with clear escalation. Rehearse it the way culinary teams run a line check. Publish anonymized weekly learning notes that highlight one recovery that protected loyalty and one prevention that removed a root cause. Research shows that normalizing error discussion and training for recovery builds confidence and improves outcomes (Van Dyck et al., 2005).

Design inclusion into meetings and schedules. Use silent idea generation before discussion so introverts and new hires contribute on equal footing. Rotate who runs huddles, who speaks to guests during VIP arrivals, and who debriefs with vendors. Audit rosters and tip pools for equity and adjust where needed. Inclusion is not only headcount. It is who gets influence, learning, and reward.

Invest in managers as culture carriers. Middle managers create or erode safety in the five minutes before and after a rush. Train them to use appreciative check-ins, clear expectations, and fair scheduling. Give them simple tools, such as Gallup’s Q12, to hold regular pulse conversations. The profitability and retention lift associated with engagement is well documented and worth the focus (Gallup, 2020).

Measure What Matters

Move beyond one-time climate surveys. Use a few leading indicators that link directly to safety, inclusion, and resilience:

  • A speak-up index that tracks near-miss reports, process suggestions, and service recovery escalations each week.
  • A psychological safety pulse using a short validated set of items, run quarterly and cut by location, shift, and role (Google Project Aristotle, 2016).
  • Representation by level and promotion velocity for underrepresented groups, paired with participation in high-learning assignments such as opening a new outlet.
  • Retention and internal mobility rates for groups you seek to include more fully, connected to engagement results (Gallup, 2020).
  • Service recovery time and cost per incident. Cultures that treat errors as learning opportunities reduce stress and turnover intention among staff (Van Dyck et al., 2005).

Technology as a Lever for Inclusion and Resilience

Digital tools are increasingly shaping how hospitality teams coordinate, learn, and serve guests. But technology can either reinforce inequities or expand inclusion, depending on how leaders deploy it. Scheduling platforms that allow staff to state availability and swap shifts without stigma reduce the hidden penalties often borne by caregivers or international employees balancing multiple jobs. Mobile apps that translate instructions or menu details in real time can help multilingual teams collaborate without errors or embarrassment. Even guest-facing tech, like self-service kiosks, can be a chance to free up staff for higher-value interactions rather than a wedge that alienates certain employees. The point is not to automate people out of the picture but to automate drudgery so teams can bring more of themselves to work.

Training for Inclusive Service Recovery

Hospitality thrives on moments of truth: when something goes wrong and staff have a chance to make it right. Inclusive leaders treat these as training opportunities for everyone, not just seasoned staff. Pairing a newer employee with a mentor in a recovery situation accelerates learning while signaling trust. Role-play scenarios that explicitly incorporate diverse guest identities—families with children, LGBTQ+ couples, guests with disabilities—equip teams to respond with empathy and confidence. This is not just compliance; it is capability-building that strengthens resilience across the board.

The Leadership Mindset Shift

Ultimately, cultures of resilience and inclusion require a shift in how leaders define their role. It is not only about directing tasks but also about shaping the conditions for collaboration, candor, and continuous learning. Leaders who ask better questions, who recognize contributions in the moment, and who model fallibility without losing authority send a powerful signal: everyone belongs, and everyone can grow here. In an industry defined by turnover, this mindset is the difference between scrambling to fill roles and building a reputation as the place where people stay, thrive, and serve with pride.

What This Looks Like on the Floor

Picture a full hotel on a rain-soaked holiday weekend with short staffing in housekeeping and a line at the front desk. In a traditional culture, supervisors hunker down, complaints pile up, and people burn out. In a resilient and inclusive culture, a front desk agent flags a bottleneck early. A manager quickly reassigns one team member to triage late check-ins and empowers staff to offer a small credit without approval. Housekeeping shares a two-step workaround to speed room turns. The shift ends with a five-minute debrief that captures what worked and what to change tomorrow. Guests feel cared for. Staff feel heard. The team ends the night smarter than it began. Over weeks and months, these practices reduce quits, which still run high in the sector (BLS, 2025), and protect margins.

The opportunity in front of hospitality leaders

The industry will keep evolving as travel patterns shift, tariffs or policy changes ripple through demand, and new technology reshapes both guest experience and back-of-house work. You cannot predict every shock. You can build teams that absorb shocks and get better because of them. The data is clear. Inclusive, engaged, psychologically safe teams perform better and stay longer (Google Project Aristotle, 2016; Gallup, 2020; McKinsey, 2023). The leaders who win the next decade will be the ones who treat culture as an operating system, not a side project. Start small, measure honestly, learn in public, and do it again tomorrow.

Ms. Meerbott

Kelly Meerbott is an acclaimed TEDx and keynote speaker, author, podcast host, and award-winning certified leadership expert. Growing up, Ms. Meerbott had a first-hand view of coaching excellence through her father, a professional golfer on the PGA Tour with 80 Top 10 finishes in his career. Watching him, she saw the power of coaching in action - how the right guidance could elevate performance, foster resilience, and drive lasting success. From these early experiences, she embraced the belief that agility, resilience, and strength are core ingredients for excellence. She holds multiple coaching certifications in Human & Organizational Transformation, Unconscious Bias, Leadership, cognitive therapy, and communications. With a unique trauma-informed approach and PTSD training, Ms. Meerbott has transformed the leadership landscape for hundreds of C-suite and senior executives, and more than 400 high-ranking military officers.

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You hereby authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to charge your credit card to pay for your membership to HotelExecutive. You further authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to charge your credit card for any and all purchases of products, services in association with HotelExecutive. You agree to be personally liable for all charges incurred by you in association with your access or other use of any content provided by HotelExecutive or any third party in association with HotelExecutive. You acknowledge and agree that your liability for all such charges shall continue after termination of your access or any type of membership arrangement with HotelExecutive.

In the event that you have chosen to have your membership automatically rebilled, unless and until you notify HotelExecutive that you wish to cancel or terminate your membership to HotelExecutive, you hereby agree and authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to automatically renew your membership to HotelExecutive on a continuing basis and to charge your credit card (or other payment means you have selected) to pay for the ongoing cost of your membership. You hereby further authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to charge your credit card (or other approved payment means you have selected) for any and all purchases of products, services and entertainment provided to in, at, through or in association with HotelExecutive.

13. PRIVACY POLICY

The following is the Privacy Policy for HotelExecutive

We can be reached via telephone, email, or online at our contact page. When you visit our site we do not log any information regarding your domain or email address. Information Sharing: We do not share user information with any third parties other than via press release distribution as described below.

Hotel Newswire is a newswire service that distributes press releases on behalf of our users. If you decide to submit a press release for distribution through our system we will transmit your entire press release including any personal information therein contained to our media contacts and online distribution points including search engines. This is the only redistribution of your information that we engage in. Your submission of press releases through our system indicates consent with this policy. The information we collect during your registration process is used to notify users about updates to our service and inform users of any special events hosted by Hotel Newswire. This information is not shared with other organizations for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Cookies: Our system requires the use of cookies to enable the user to log back into our website to access information from the newswire, without having to log in each time using the required username and password.

If you do not want to receive email from us in the future, please let us know by following instructions included in our communication with you. Users who supply us with telephone numbers online may receive telephone contact from us regarding their account, or informing them of new products and services available on the HotelExecutive website. If you do not wish to receive such telephone calls, please edit your account and remove your phone number from your account profile. This can be done from your user account menu.

Ad Servers: We do not partner with or have any relationship with any ad server companies. From time to time, we may use customer information for new uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at any time, we will post the policy changes to our website to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our website periodically.

Upon request we provide site visitors with access to all information (including proprietary information) that we maintain about them. Users can access this information by logging in to their account.

Security: We always use industry-standard encryption technologies while transferring and receiving user data exchanged with our site. We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that we have collected from you on our site. We do not store credit card information in our systems.

If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us.

Toby Manulak
David Wiborg
Samantha Markiewicz
Rohith Kori
Jeeyeon Jeannie Hahm
Mike Shaff
Cara Silletto
Angela Spangler
Bruce Baerwalde
Steve Turk
Lawrence Adams
Adam Mogelonsky
Richard Oakes
Coming up in March 1970...