Aamna Manzoor

I think it is a combo of things. I get my drive from my father, who really worked hard. I was extremely passionate about the work that I did. I truly loved it. I am passionate about what I do, and what I did years ago, too. I love what I do, and truly that makes all the difference in the world. It is so important that exists for me as an individual, because if I was just working to work and get a paycheck, I would not be fulfilled, or be a great director of sales, or a great revenue leader, or an on-property support for the operations team. It is truly because I love it, and that comes from just my upbringing. We were a hospitable family. We really showed just being hospitable, and that comes from my mom. My mom was always the first person to help others. I remember, as young girl probably six or seven, we were riding our bikes to the park, and there was a major intersection, and a car didn't stop in time for another person on a bike in front of us, and he got hit. The first thing my mom did, I mean, she made sure that all the kids were with Dad, and she ran over to that guy to make sure that he was okay. She helped him immediately, not even with a blink of an eye. That upbringing is what I saw on a daily basis from her. I truly believe that comes from the passion of wanting to help others, to serve others. My household was very much so like that, and so my background, truly, is what helped me have a passion for what I do, because I saw it on a daily basis.

I would say, probably, go where you are growing, not just where you are comfortable. I think that, yes, there is this stability piece, but a lot of people often are comfortable, they get stagnant, or there is not real growth, they have to advance themselves. This was when I was younger, probably my first time as Assistant Director of Rooms, and I really wanted to become a GM, but I really wanted a family, too. I was still really young, I still had a lot of life to live and a lot of career choices to make. It was from my Director of Operations that said, you know, to truly go where you can grow. Whether that is with a company that had potential growth for someone, for somewhere where I wanted to be, whether that was a GM path, at the time, that was what I wanted to do, or if I decided to pivot and go into sales, because at this point, I wasn't 100% sure yet. I knew that I needed the sales experience to become a GM. But the advice was, make sure you are always willing to grow, and sometimes that means to step back and take a breath, and make sure that you are not taking things too personal, because that can sometimes impede on your growth. But also that you want to be somewhere where you can advance yourself, and you can utilize your skills with a company that can go either direction, whether it is in operations or sales. Eventually I came to the realization after my last operations job that I really wanted to be in sales, and I really took my time to understand what that looked like. I knew at that point that being a general manager wasn't something that I necessarily wanted to do anymore. It was more so because I wanted to become a GM because I loved people. I loved being able to see people get to the next point in their career, and I really wanted to be able to do that from a GM capacity, but then I realized that there is so much more to a GM role than that. It hardly ever happens like that. That was probably one of the best advices I have probably received so far.

You know, I truly believe that our superpower is truly our empathy, but it can also be our destruction at the same time. Empathy is so wonderful, and I think that empathy drives me. There are certain people who have certain things going on in their lives. Whether they are a client, or they are a coworker, or they are a boss, or they are another department head, they have a lot of things outside of work. Life is happening. There are going to be times, no matter what, where potentially our empathy can be seen as, or we can see it as, being taken for granted, or being too nice. I would advise the younger generation of girls to not take things personally, and to continue being who they are. At their core, empathy is so important in today's world. Empathy is lacking in today's world. We are better together, and truly, how we drive that is by understanding one another, and having that empathy, having compassion, having our true, innate moral compass and our characteristics that are truly God-given. It is a superpower. But if we take things too personal, or we can't differentiate work from work and us taking things personal, then it will truly defeat us. In this world, and the way that society is going, hold on to your empathy, but don't let it discourage you either. It is all in how you can use your empathy for the better, because your empathy can win a lot of situations.

You know, I think the biggest opportunities is that there is always going to be another hotel. There is always going to be, you know, in my field, there is always going to be another relationship that a hotel has with a client. The opportunity is that, though it can be viewed as maybe a challenge, really, the mindset that I have grown to appreciate is that they can also be your ally. It is so important to make sure that you are staying well connected with all your other potential competitors, as one would say. There is always going to be something else, and so instead of using that as a way to deter you, or intimidate you, use it to your advantage, because someone is always going to either be sold out, or they are going to need a lending hand, whether it is, hey, I have a group and I am almost sold out, can you take them? Using those opportunities to your advantage is so important. I have learned that over my career that we all just have to be better at knowing that it is not always a competition, and that we can, we are stronger together, truly. We are. And COVID taught us that.

I think honesty, integrity, and direction in life are most important to me. That is both in work and also personal. In work, you also have to be growth-minded, not staying stagnant. Being able to learn new things, evolving, not necessarily your identity, but being able to adjust and knowing that our world is ever-changing, especially with AI coming out and all these tech, new releases of what is ever-present, and it is probably going to continue to change, so you have to be able to evolve with that change, too. From a personal standpoint, I think stability is important, but that also goes hand-in-hand with work, right? There are always changes in government, and you never know when, unfortunately, health hazards are going to happen, or whatever it may be. I think thoughtfulness is important, self-respect.