The Ongoing Journey: Continuing Your Transformation as a Leader

There's a seductive myth in leadership and life: Once I get through this challenge, things will get easier. Once I reach this milestone, I can finally relax.

I fell for this when I first moved into management. I thought, "Once I master these skills, once my team is functioning well, once we hit our targets—then the discomfort will end."

But that's not how growth works.

Every new level of success is an invitation to a new level of challenge. The revenue targets get higher. The problems get more complex. The stakes increase. And this isn't a flaw in the system—it's the point.

The moment you think you've arrived is precisely when you're most at risk of stagnation.

Remember the movie Jurassic Park? Dr. Alan Grant starts the story actively disliking children. They're noisy, they're messy, they ask too many questions. But by the end of his harrowing journey protecting two kids through a dinosaur-infested island, he's transformed.

The children didn't change—he did. He started out disliking kids. Now he’s dear friends with two of them. These kids are just as noisy and messy, but his challenge led him to a point of inner transformation. And this level of change can’t be found in a book.

This is an essential pattern of transformation. The obstacles we face aren't merely inconveniences to overcome; they're invitations to become something more than we were before.

The hospitality leaders I most admire understand this intuitively. They don't just endure difficult seasons; they ask, "What is this challenge trying to teach me? How might I be different on the other side of this?"

Perhaps the hardest part of any hero's journey isn't facing the T-Rex—it's returning home afterward.

When you've been through something transformative—whether it's opening a new property, navigating a crisis, or simply growing into a new level of leadership—you can't just compartmentalize that growth. The real work is integration.

How do you bring your new insights, your hard-won wisdom, back to your team, your organization, your daily operations?

This is where many leaders struggle. They have profound experiences at conferences, in executive education, or through personal challenges—but fail to translate those experiences into meaningful change for their teams.

Integration requires vulnerability. It means saying, "Here's what I've learned. Here's how I'm trying to grow. Here's what might be different going forward."

It also requires patience. Your team hasn't been on your journey. They need time to understand and adapt to your evolution.

As a hospitality leader, you exist in a fascinating dual state: guide and hero simultaneously. You're helping others navigate their challenges while continuing to face your own.

This dual citizenship is demanding. It's why leadership can feel lonely at times.

But please remember that your ongoing transformation isn't selfish—it's essential. The depth of guidance you can offer others is directly proportional to the depth of your own journey.

There's a liberating truth in accepting that challenges never end: you can stop waiting for the mythical "easier time" and instead embrace the journey itself.

When you know that discomfort is not a sign something's wrong but rather an invitation to growth, you can approach challenges differently. Not with dread, but with curiosity. Not with resistance, but with a willingness to be changed.

This shift doesn't make the T-Rex any smaller. But it does help you be more ready to face them.

What T-Rex are you currently facing in your leadership journey?

If you were to view this challenge as an invitation to transform, what might you discover about yourself?

And how might confronting this challenge ultimately benefit both you and your team?

Reply and let me know. I'd love to hear your perspective.

Take care,

Josh​​