Like the plan our government leaders have proposed for the country and our industry leaders are preparing for destinations and hotels, I am suggesting a four-phase plan for you to ‘reopen’ your career within the hospitality industry.

We realize the tremendous impact this health and economic crisis is having on all of us given the hotel closures, meeting and convention cancellations, postponements, and an uncertain future of travel, meetings, and events. The good news for all of us, we are still in control of our own situation. While others are letting these times overwhelm them, we need to stay positive and focus on moving forward. The following are the four phases we need to work our way through to reopen our career in the hospitality industry:

1. Phase One – assess where we are today. Take the time to know your goal and do an honest assessment of your current situation. What is the gap?
2. Phase Two – preparing to launch. How do you close the gap? This is the time to establish your personal game plan. Prepare everything needed (i.e. resume, personal and professional network, expertise you bring to the table), so you are ready to launch when the time is right.
3. Phase Three – launch. You are off and running to re-build your personal career. It is time to act and implement the game plan designed in phases one and two.
4. Phase Four –building a plan that lasts. We need to build a career going forward that can withstand future crisis. It also needs to enable living, working, and achieving success in the new normal.

As with the plans for our country getting back to business, your plan will need the following to ensure success:

• Testing – we need to evaluate our current state.
• Tracing – we will need to constantly track the trail of what is working (so you do more of it) and what is not working (to make sure you no longer do it). The testing and tracing will enable us to make the necessary adjustments to achieve success.
• Remedy (Vaccine) – Our remedy is what we bring to the table. What experience and expertise do you have? Who is in your personal and professional network? These are the assets (your secret sauce) that you bring to your next role in the hospitality industry.

Even with all the challenges being faced, we are seeing a tremendous number of positive stories of people helping each other and new beginnings happening. I challenge you to remain positive and use this time to create your personal plan with the phases to bring you to a better place than you are today…it is possible!

How do I know this? I have the good fortune of leading and mentoring a team of 35 successful independent meeting professionals. For 2019, we were recognized as the ‘Team of the Year’ for ConferenceDirect. Our goal for 2020 is to implement these phases so we can again achieve success even during unique circumstances.

If there is anything that I can do to help you, please reach out to me.

Doug Baarman

doug.baarman@conferencedirect.com

301-605-7011