Regular readers will recall my attempt to post for another position this past fall. I didn’t get the position. It came down to me and the red suit wearing individual.

Basically, I had the skill set for the job. I knew the five systems necessary to do the job ( I helped to roll out two of those systems here in Philly), I currently am the person that sets the guidelines for that department as far as what business they can put in the hotel and at what rates, I know the sales teams’ strengths and weaknesses and I am familiar with all of the key players on the Exec team that supports that department. In addition, I have sold in this market for 8 years and brought in well over $5 million in booked roomnights per year.

The other candidate? She was a Regional Sales Leader for the select service hotels we have in PA under 200 rooms. My current role is Director of Group Strategy for five downtown full-service hotels all over 400 rooms (the largest is 1400 rooms).

Basically, we had a panel interview. The panel consisted of three GM’s from her hotels and two from mine. The two from my hotels voted for me, the three from her hotels voted for her. The reason they chose her was….she has more “Leadership” experience and I have more practical experience. Ahem.

Fast forward…..this individual has been in the job a few months now and guess what? She doesn’t know what she’s doing. She has no knowledge of *gasp* the systems. She is not connecting with the stakeholders. She is managing a team that doesn’t respect her because they know more than she does.

Now take a wild guess who she is turning to for help? Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Yup. She is emailing me and asking me for help. She is floundering and doesn’t even know BASIC sales stuff. I wouldn’t have hired her as a regular sales manager let alone a Director.

So I copied my boss on her latest email asking me to help “prepare” her reports for our weekly meeting. Background: The Regional VP will be attending our weekly meeting tomorrow. A meeting that I typically run. She has come to this meeting only once despite the team requesting her presence on a weekly basis to report out on her team’s progress. Of course, she has no idea what to present and she doesn’t want to show her ignorance in front of the Regional VP.

Her email today is asking me to help her prepare her reports for tomorrow’s meeting. My boss sent me a note saying “Tell her that you are busy preparing for the meeting as well. Heck, it’s YOUR meeting. You don’t have time for that. Let her use all of that LEADERSHIP knowledge she has and figure it out.”

LMAO! I love my boss.