The unglamorous leadership strategy behind Hilton, the world’s best workplace

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Good morning. On one level, the best leadership strategies can sound obvious. “There’s nothing proprietary about it,” says Chris Nassetta, president and CEO of Hilton Worldwide. “It’s about grinding it out, investing in people, having the top-down purpose-driven north star, getting everyone unified, and doing the ground-up granular work. It’s about doing it and doing it and doing it and doing it. And then, when you-know-what hits the fan, it’s about continuing to live the values of the company.”

In a world of shorter cycles, faster innovation and an increased urgency to transform and adapt, Nassetta preaches the power of playing the long game. He became CEO of Hilton in 2007 and told me that transforming a fragmented hotel company into a cohesive high-performing culture took years. It has paid off as Hilton was just named the No. 1 World’s Best Workplace by Fortune and Great Place To Work for the third time and second consecutive year. Leadership, or the lack thereof, is top of mind. Running a founder-led tech company like Nvidia is obviously different from managing a people-centric global hospitality company like Hilton.

We’re paying a lot of attention this week to the perils of tech titans who make it all about themselves. Let’s also look at the playbook of a very different style of leader. We don’t just pick who gets on the Best Workplace list. It’s determined by data like employee engagement, where Hilton scored 93% in a company of more than 500,000 workers across 9,600 properties. And 93% of the leaders across those properties got their start in frontline jobs. They get training, perks, and opportunities to rotate in different roles.

What matters most is who’s in charge. Nassetta thinks a lot about the art and science and execution of leadership. He talks about the need for humility, agility and communicating a “vision in unique and different ways so that people feel part of something bigger than themselves.”

And of course he thinks about AI.

Is he replaceable?

And…

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