First ever Room to Grow Week round-up

 

Career enrichment is always an important focus for the team here at IHG. This year, we wanted to take things to the next level by dedicating a whole week to help our people grow – both professionally and personally.

Our first ever Room to Grow Week has proved to be a huge success. Over seven days our teams from around the globe came together for series of enriching global roundtables, workshops and discussions focused on personal and career progression.

Hundreds of colleagues were also lucky enough to enjoy the opportunity to tap into the expert knowledge of revered organisational psychologist, CEO of CoachAdvisor, Senior Visiting Fellow at London School of Economics, author and regular contributor to Forbes and Harvard Business Review – Dr Rebecca Newton.

 

Going further to grow together 

To kick off Room to Grow Week IHG Manager of Global Leadership Development, Stefan Nemecek, hosted a session encouraging hundreds of IHG colleagues from around the world to take some time out and reflect on their career progress under the guidance of Dr Newton. Introducing techniques to better understanding our unique strengths, build strategies to tackle career gremlins and some practical advice around creating proactive and authentic conversations.

In a special Next Talk series panel discussion, Chief HR Officer Wayne Hoare, went on to explore the unique growth journeys, experiences and insight of our international panel – including Sopan Shah (VP & Chief Procurement Officer), Karen Gilbride (VP Avid Hotels & Atwell Suites) Joanna Kurowska (MD, UK and Ireland) and Jerome Qiu (Chief Operating Officer, China).

Finally, Kirsty Hart (VP HR, Europe) and Bathobile Gule (VP Human Resources), welcomed back Dr Newton for two specialist sessions with our HR and People leaders around the globe.  Including a special panel discussion with Chief Executive Officer of the Americas, Elie Maalouf.

 

Taking a deep-dive into the kinds of empowering coaching conversations they can have with their teams to become truly transformational people managers – the sessions covered everything from effective reflection and the power of prospection to help shape the kind of leaders our attendees want to be, to effective tools and frameworks designed to help them build connection and set up conversations for success as ‘sponsors’ of their team.

By directly engaging hundreds of colleagues from across the business at a time, Room to Grow Week has the potential to positively influence the progression of thousands more. A proposition that really excites Chief HR Officer, Wayne Hoare:

“Enriching our colleagues’ careers by giving them the Room to Grow is a founding pillar in everything we do here at IHG. I’m incredibly proud that we have been able to foster a culture where there is a genuine appetite for career and personal progression that runs all the way from front desk to boardroom table. Seeing more that 1,000 colleagues from around the world come together for our all company and people leader calls is testament to that. I can’t wait to see where we can take Room to Grow Week in 2023.” 

To discover a career in hospitality that enable, enriches and empowers you with Room to Belong, Grow and Make a Difference – why not take a closer look at our latest opportunities?

Let’s #GoFurtherTogether