We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephanie Coradin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stephanie below.

Stephanie, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

I am in the hospitality industry and while we treat our guests (for the most part) like royalty we tend to lack in treating our employees as the valuable people that they are.

There is a lack of empowerment, lack of training, lack of empathy and mental wellness awareness.

Stephanie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have always been the “go to” person when friends and family wanted to talk/vent I remember as far back as being 11 and my friends would come to me with their issues. I remember always being the one to help find solutions and not dwell on the thing that didn’t go as we expected. I remember telling friends and cousins “okay let’s figure out how to fix this”. During High School my very first job was as a Server at a hybrid sports bar/family restaurant. I quickly got promoted to bartender. I went to school for business administration and went from restaurants to hotels during my hotel ladder climb, at one point I got burnt out and decided I’d go back to listening so I got my Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling after I did that I realized that I now loved merging my experience as a counselor and my experience as a seasoned hotel operations expert to help hotel and restaurant leaders and team members.

Fast Forward to today, I’ve built an agency, Dembo Inc, where my training programs are designed to help leaders support the mental wellness of their staff. I create training programs that help to build workplace culture that is supportive and empathetic. I empower employees with knowledge and skill sets to ask for what they need and take care of themselves. I provide one to one coaching, workshops and consulting to make sure the entire culture of the company is transformed into a place where team members feel empowered, happy and safe.

I am extremely proud of the company I’ve built.

Any advice for managing a team?

The secret sauce to managing a team and maintaining high morale is to make sure you set a foundation for yourself as a leader. Self awareness is key to life lol

Knowing who you are, understanding how you work, the type of leader you are makes all the difference in managing a team. Here are few points I like to ask my clients to work on:

1. What’s your leadership style? If you know how you lead than you’ll be able to understand the people you want to attract and hire to be on your team. If your leadership style doesn’t match how your team member wants/needs to be lead you’ll have continuous issues with that person.

2. How do you like to communicate? some people need just a small amount of communication and they can read between the lines, others like to make sure they say everything. If you understand your communication style you’ll be able to tell your team what to expect in communicating with you.

3. Delegation? Are you a nervous delegator, does it take time for you to trust people with the work you will assign to them? Knowing this will help you course correct so that you aren’t over/under whelming your team.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I think most of us in the hospitality industry have had to pivot during the pandemic.

Before COVID I was pretty comfortable in getting clients referred to me. I was in the industry for over 18 years so I know a good amount of people who steadily referred other hotel leaders to us. When COVID hit I had to jump in the social media world and be more consistent in posting and getting to know people online.

I had to establish myself in an entire new pool and do virtual trainings so that I was able to keep business afloat.

I’m grateful for the lessons because now I just have extra ways to bring in and work with clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.demboinc.com
• Instagram: www.instragram.com/stephanie_zcoradin
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephaniezcoradin
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/demboinc