I recently read a post about the value of hands-on experience in the hospitality industry, and it struck a chord.

I couldn’t agree more. My first nine years in hospitality were spent doing exactly that: stewarding in kitchens, carrying luggage, cooking, receiving deliveries, managing stock, checking in guests, and waiting tables.

This experience taught me two things:

Yes, you must earn your stripes on the floor.
To lead in hospitality, or in any industry for that matter, you need firsthand experience and the knowledge of critical technical skills. You have to know what you’re talking about. That means learning to serve your customers with passion, understanding the work, respecting the people doing it, and empathising with the daily challenges they face.

But hands-on experience isn’t enough.

What often goes unspoken is that once you’ve worked your way up, your job changes. Now, you need to inspire, coach, make tough calls, develop others, build strategy, and communicate with clarity.

Many managers get promoted for their technical skill, but few are fully equipped for leadership. That’s why continuous learning matters.

If you’re in your early or mid-career, now is the time to complement your experience with theory. Read the books. Study the frameworks. Learn what great leadership looks like across industries and eras and apply it when you supervise and manage others, so you can embed these behavioural skills.

Experience builds your competence. However, it’s reflection, learning and development that help you build that leadership capability.

Having worked with leaders who’ve come up through the ranks, my experience in leadership assessment and development tells me this: the best leaders take time out of the operation to learn those core leadership skills.

Hands-on experience? Essential.

But for aspiring leaders, that’s just the beginning of the journey.

Even the greatest generals didn’t just fight; they studied strategy, leadership, and warfare in depth to become great.

In the hospitality industry, it’s the same concept.

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