Hospitality
LeadershipCornell

Certificate Program

As a service-based business, the hospitality industry experiences unique challenges that require agile, people-centered, and authentic leadership. Organizations that can adapt to ever-shifting customer demands will be the ones that thrive. This requires leaders to have both the skillset and mindset to create flexible, team-focused cultures, ones that celebrate experimentation and the continuous learning of its team members. In this course, you will develop the skills needed to enable your enterprise to not only navigate the shifting landscape of the services industry but to actually thrive from it.

As a student in this course, you will first explore the strategic purpose of asking framing questions to build the critical thinking skills of your team. This will enable you to frame opportunities to innovate with your team members. You will then determine how to set priorities that align with your purpose and focus on the right goals at the right time. You will also discover techniques to engage your team to own and implement your strategic priorities. Finally, you will identify your own unique strengths as a leader and understand the components and impact of an agile leadership style. By the end of the course, you will be able to better understand and apply your authentic leadership approach to create an inspired and innovative enterprise, one that is ready to capitalize on the opportunities before you.

A firm's agility depends as much on its teams as it does on its leaders. By focusing on how you can strengthen the collaborative skills, future thinking, and sense of belonging in your team, you will develop essential skills for creating an agile enterprise ready to meet the challenges of today's hospitality industry.

In this course, you will discover critical strategies to help you maximize the value of working in different formats, increase your team's skillful collaboration and self-organization, develop the ability to anticipate and address future risk, and inspire a culture of ongoing learning. You will do so by exploring ways to leverage innovative ways of working and evaluating team structures and processes to increase your firm's capacity to improvise and respond to change. You will also develop your scanning and monitoring skills to help you and your team prepare for potential future environments. To gain a broader perspective, you will define your firm's higher purpose and how the work your team does fits into it.

Finally, you will investigate how to inspire the ongoing learning of your team to help them strengthen their self-organizing skills. By the end of the course, you will be able to apply your enhanced collaboration and facilitation skills to create an agile team that is capable of anticipating future changes to the business environment and inspired to continue growing with your firm.

Advancing to a more senior leadership role requires a specific set of skills. Senior leaders must shift away from tactical oversight into a more strategic and visionary role. This transition does not occur naturally and is often not a part of standard professional training, development, or onboarding. The ability to adapt to this mindset is crucial and can lead to the success or failure of an individual and/or their team.

In this course, current and potential leaders will be guided through this transition by Kate Walsh, Professor and Dean of the School of Hotel Administration, as she shares her professional expertise and research. Learners will create a personal leadership strategy and build a professional network within their organization to prepare and further their roles in the organization.

With emerging technologies and expanding global marketplaces, it is imperative that organizations become highly proficient in driving their change agenda. Whether diversifying, downsizing, merging, reorienting business, or developing new management structures, organizations must be able to effectively carry out change initiatives to remain productive and competitive.

In this course, you will discover how to assess organizational readiness and your own ability to facilitate change. Working with a comprehensive organizational change management simulation, this experiential exercise provides an opportunity for you to learn by doing. By selecting and implementing strategies, you will see the rewards and consequences of your choices. You will also examine why the majority of change efforts fail, study change strategies, and determine how to fit them effectively to the stages of change. Finally, you will build an action plan for introducing a change initiative in your organization. In effect, this course enables you to begin building the skills and habits that you need to help make strategic or substantial change happen.

Symposium sessions feature three days of live, highly interactive virtual Zoom sessions that will explore today’s most pressing topics. The Leadership Symposium offers you a unique opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond. Using the context of your own experiences, you will take part in reflections and small-group discussions to build on the skills and knowledge you have gained from your courses.

Join us for the next Symposium in which we’ll discuss the ways that leaders across industries have continued engaging their teams over the past two years while pivoting in strategic ways. You will support your coursework by applying your knowledge and experiences to relevant topics for leaders. Throughout this Symposium, you will examine different areas of leadership, including innovation, strategy, and engagement. By participating in relevant and engaging discussions, you will discover a variety of perspectives and build connections with your fellow participants from various industries.

Upcoming Symposium: February 11, 12 and 13, 2025 from 11am – 1pm ET

• Tuesday, February 11, 2025 11am – 1pm ET
• Wednesday, February 12, 2025 11am – 1pm ET
• Thursday, February 13, 2025 11am – 1pm ET

All sessions are held on Zoom.

Future dates are subject to change. You may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete any certificate program. Once enrolled in your courses, you will receive information about upcoming events. Accessibility accommodations will be available upon request.

Symposium sessions feature two days of live, highly interactive virtual Zoom sessions that will explore today’s most pressing topics. The Hospitality Symposium offers you a unique opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond. Using the context of your own experiences, you will take part in reflections and small-group discussions to build on the skills and knowledge you have gained from your courses.

Join us for the next Symposium, in which we’ll discuss how both day-to-day operations and strategic goal setting in the hospitality sector have rapidly evolved over the past two years, opening up new space for real-time conversations about the future of the industry. You will support your coursework by applying your knowledge and experiences to various areas of the industry, examining the innovations and accommodations you have all had to make throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and strategizing on future directions. By participating in relevant and engaging discussions, you will discover a variety of perspectives and build connections with your fellow participants from across the industry.

Upcoming Symposium: April 1 and 2, 2025

• Tuesday, April 1, 2025 11:00AM ET – 1:00PM ET
  • Session title pending
• Wednesday, April 2, 2025 11:00AM ET – 1:00PM ET
  • Session title pending

All sessions are held on Zoom.

Future dates are subject to change. You may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete any certificate program. Once enrolled in your courses, you will receive information about upcoming events. Accessibility accommodations will be available upon request.