PETER MACK Founder and CEO Collective Retreats PANEL: Future Per fect: Catching up with Boutique Design's Hoteliers of the Year What have you learned about leadership during 2020? If there's anything I've learned through Collective Retreats [and my experience] it's just how unique every individual and their needs and desires are. But all those desires and needs can really be rolled up into common things that make us all very similar. We take a strong approach of empowerment. Some of the big brands I've worked for do a brilliant job of standardization and leadership that protects the brand and the guest. Empowerment has been a big part of what we've focused on in the last few years, and it's a tricky thing. If you lean too hard on empowerment, things can feel disorganized and a leader can feel like they don't have all the resources when they need them. Sometimes you do just want standard operating procedures to help you get to the next day. We can't take traditional hotel [standard operating procedures] and just copy them. What I've learned from COVID is that we've all become so confi ned in so many ways. It has woken us up to a lot of things that we've become complacent around over the last decade, two decades, generation, two generations. It's shown us how important it is having things in our lives that relate to freedom or the ability to connect with others. What's so important for team [members]-whether a housekeeper, front office manager, general manager, corporate- is giving them space to have those things in their life. It's more important than ever because otherwise we end up crammed into the world we're in right now. We all hope that COVID's going to get better soon. It's been challenging on all of us in terms of mental health. But creating space and empowerment is super important right now. 8 WINTER 2020 T H E I N T E R I O R O F A N O U T L O O K S H E LT E R AT C O L L E C T I V E G O V E R N O R S I S L A N D P H OTO S : C O U R T E S Y C O L L E C T I V E R E T R E AT S T H E O U T L O O K S H E LT E R AT C O L L E C T I V E G O V E R N O R S I S L A N D I N N E W YO R K