Women in Hospitality – Featuring Neha Chhabra

In the times where women are taking over as trailblazers, groundbreakers, and trendsetters in varied businesses and professions, we have spoken to one of the fierce, and fabulous women of the hospitality industry. Making a mark with her leadership, Neha Chhabra, General Manager, Courtyard by Marriott, Hebbal, speaks of her remarkable journey, and commendable achievements –

Q. Take us through your jourey in the hospitality industry

For me hotel management was not a choice but happened by chance. I had always wanted to do economics and I ended up in hotel school to see what it was all about as a trial basis. The trial never ended and from there went out to be a management trainee with OCLD (Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development) and then worked with the Oberoi group for 12 years. I chose to be in food and beverage which wasn’t the choice of many women at our times. I joined Marriott International in 2016 as Director of Operations and in 2020 I took up my first General Manager role.

Q.What is the best decision that you have made in this illustrious journey of your career? 

My best decision was to come back to work post having my son. The urge and guilt feeling of leaving a 6 month old is a lot for any woman to handle but the support that I got from my husband, my family and Marriott was unparalleled. With the focus and commitment of Marriott International to support and groom women leaders is exemplary and makes this phase more rewarding than daunting.

Q: As a female leader, what leadership lessons have you learnt over the course of your career?  

There is no perfect balance and no perfect way of choosing your career. At every step we need to make a difficult decision and whenever we succeed in one area you are pretty much failing in the other.

Q: If you could have one superpower, what would you like it to be? 

I would really want to be THE WONDER WOMAN ….. as the quote goes in the movie  ‘ you are stronger than you believe. You have greater powers than you know’.

My job as a leader demands that I be strong, confident, articulate, and poised at all times and having a magic wand to sort of solve all problems sometimes does overwhelm me if I’m doing the right thing. We are like the captain of the ship which we can never let it sink!

Q: As a female leader, what are the biases and assumptions you’ve experienced from others?  

Being a woman in a leadership role comes with its own set of assumptions.  The first question always asked is how do you manage? Don’t you have a house or children? How will you take out time etc etc…. I for certain know this is not the first question a male leader is asked! Having said that, yes there is lot of balancing act required and weighing out what task is more important than the other – is it to be with your child or be at work!

Q. Your mantra of Success.

There was a quote I read – ‘Stop following a path that isn’t yours. No whatever what your timeline looks like it’s the right one for you’  and has stayed with me for a long time now…..

We should never compare our success to others because this is the best path for me!

Women today are unstoppable, and their power and influence is rising.#GrowWithMarriott and create a more inclusive and equitable world for all.