This approach is something she claims she carried with her while putting together the pre-opening and post-launch team for the hotel she now heads up. “I feel that when I built this team, I mostly built it on their attitude. Based on the fact that whether they fit into that [hotel] culture. Whether they will be able to have the vision that I have and I think right now. My style right now is very collaborative and I totally understand that every head of department will all have their own strong points that they will bring to the table. And as a result, as a team we all work with the strengths that we all have,” she adds.
But for Chowdhury, who holds an MBA from SBS Swiss Business School, climbing the hospitality career ladder was never really in the books. However, a nudge from her hotelier husband, she says, made her switch tracks completely.
“Actually, hospitality is not what I studied, I was going to be an accountant. However, my husband was in the hospitality industry, and I thought I’ll be working there for a little bit till I graduate. But at the end of the day, I got some great mentors — it was the GM in the hotel where I worked in sales as a sales manager — that’s where I first started,” reveals Chowdhury, referring her to her first job at DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Washington D.C. – Crystal City.
Chowdhury affectionately credits Blaine Wilkinson, the hotel’s former general manager, for mentoring her and pushing her to reach beyond her comfort zone and opt for a career in managing hotels. “I moved up to revenue management with sales and then when he heard I was going to be an accountant, he said that’s not where I see you in the future. ‘You’re such a people person’ — he said hotels are where I need to be instead of ‘something as boring as an accountant’,” laughs Chowdhury.
“I think it was very inspirational. At the point that he thought that I could be a GM was not where I was in my mind-set. But what I learned from that mentorship is that you need to push your limits sometimes. You don’t know something until you try to find out whether you can be successful at that,” asserts Chowdhury.
As far as being a female GM in the GCC region, Chowdhury admits that the hospitality industry here is inextricably male-dominated and the dearth of female leaders is noticeable — but she asserts that things are changing everywhere and Hilton is doing its part to pave the way.
“A lot of times women have these barriers because there is sometimes a confidence gap. I think women in leadership positions, such as a GM, also face a lot of subconscious bias. I think this has traditionally been very male-dominated role in the industry. However, I am pleased to see the progress now,” she says adding, “We are trying to recruit and retain women from the get go and see what they need — it would be more supportive for them. This is flexibility sometimes in their roles.”
The support, Chowdhury notes, also resonates through Hilton’s leave policies. Hilton provides all its female employees, hourly and salaried, who give birth a full 10-week paid maternity leave. For fathers and adoptive parents, the hotel company provides two weeks of paid leave.
The style of mentoring that Wilkinson bequeathed to her is also something Chowdhury is implementing in her current role as a way of paying it forward.
Currently, Chowdhury tells Hotelier Middle East that she is mentoring two women at Hilton who are mid-managers looking to move up to leadership roles.
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