What His Employees Have Learned From Him Many of Tharaldson's employees have been with him a long time. We talked to two of them to see what lessons they've learned from him.
Aimee Fyke
Joe Blagg
"Gary has a brilliant business mind and a true spirit of supporting his team to be successful. He is very generous with not only his money, but his time. I have never known anyone who will drop whatever they are doing to take time to chat with someone who needs feedback/answers like Gary Tharaldson. He epitomizes humility and kindness, not only in business, but in his personal life, as well. When I left Tharaldson Lodging in 2008, I went to work for a publicly traded company that had investments in the hospitality space. After three years with that firm, I asked Gary for an opportunity to come back to work with him. After my experience away, my new mantra was 'I prefer to work for Main Street vs. Wall Street.'"
"I’ve learned a ton from him on just how this business works and how he operates things maybe a little bit different than most other hotel operators to gain in efficiency.
Chief Operating Officer Worked with Gary for 27 years
Lessons learned working for Gary: 1. Never forget to have a solid work/life balance. Quality family time is critical to success. 2. Always reward strong performance. We are a performance driven company. 3. Strong leaders lead strong teams. Always strive to be the “one to beat.” 4. Run your hotels like you are the CEO. Lead by example.
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NOVEMBER 2018
Development and Finance Manager Worked with Gary for almost 12 years
“Big picture wise, I think the two biggest lessons I’ve learned from him are, he always says to keep things simple. I think he tries to uphold that. Nothing is really simple in our business, especially on the development side, but I think his ability to focus on the big picture and the big goals and not get caught up in some of the details. There’s plenty of people to work on the details. He keeps his eye on the big picture. “I would say the other thing I’ve learned the most from him is risk tolerance. That’s one of the key attributes that separate him from a lot of other people. Keeping your formula kind of the same for choosing a location for a new hotel but, at the same time, not getting bogged down with potential negatives and keeping his eye on the big picture and being able to tolerate a lot of risk along the way. “People who don’t play poker look at poker players, but good poker players will tell you that they aren’t gamblers. They understand the probabilities and understand the math. I think Gary is a little bit the same way with hotels. He doesn’t look at it as a large amount of risk because he knows it so well. A lot of people from the outside would say he’s taking a bigger risk than Gary says he is. Just because he’s done it so many times and he knows it and believes in his people and team that they’re going to make every property successful."