Chamed has amazing values which resonate with me strongly as a person, as a leader, I do believe that it's one of the top products in the hospitality and in the all inclusive world.

Thanks to Plamed, I was able to grow professionally through training, through mentoring.

They had faith in me, they gave me the necessary tools and of course training in order to develop myself and to always go further and further.

One of our value is kindness.

People are kind and it's so important for me in my life and as a person, as a mom, to always be kind and you have a sense of belonging.

This is what club is about.

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Welcome back to Lead the Team with number one bestselling author and in demand corporate trainer, Ben Fanning.

On this podcast, the world's most innovative senior leaders share their top success strategies to motivate your direct reports, cultivate your top leaders and accelerate your career.

Let's get started.

Here's Ben.

Hey there and welcome back to Lead the Team.

Today we're diving into the world of sun, mountains, sand and seriously impressive leadership with a woman who's at the helm of a true vacation icon.

Caroline Dwight Yon is the president and CEO of Club Med North America and the Caribbean.

Imagine having over 3, 500 employees, 7 stunning resorts and 4 regional offices all reporting to you.

Talk about a dream job, but y'all, it's not all sunshine and cocktails.

Carolyn navigated the turbulent waters of a global tourism crisis, steered the ship back to smooth sailing, and even spearheaded the launch of Club Med's first ever Canadian resort, Club Med Quebec Charlevoix.

With over 25 years of experience in the travel industry, Carolyn's a pro at delivering exceptional results, boosting profitability and fostering top tier talent.

Even being honored in 2024 as a top woman in travel and hospitality.

And today, you'll discover the incredible story of a pivotal moment that shaped her career and get insights from her leadership journey at the Club Medicine.

The world of Club Med actually started back in 1950 and they are about to celebrate 75 years.

Wow, what a run.

Carolyn, welcome to lead the team.

Hi, Ben.

Thank you for having me.

Very excited to be here with you today.

Man, I'm so pumped.

I mean, it's what a brand and what a leadership story.

So let's dive in.

What's the time that you made a bold decision that went against the grain, and what did you learn and how did it influence your leadership?

Okay, so I think before I answer this question, I need to give you a little bit of backstory.

So just so you know, I'm Canadian, French Canadian.

And I moved my family from Montreal to Miami in August 2019.

So no need to tell you, was a big change for us.

And so on, took on a greater role with an amazing executive committee.

And five months into the role, pandemic happened.

So not only I was new in my role, I was new with colleagues also.

And the pandemic happened.

So this moment was extremely pivotal in my.

In my leadership, in my career, and so on.

So just imagine, okay, we were 20 hours a day on the phone trying to charter planes to get our guests home, and also our team.

And during that, this immense struggle, I was asking myself, am I capable of doing this?

Am I doing this right?

Because we had no experience in this type of crisis, right?

So I decided to treat this crisis like if it was my personal crisis, and I would deal with it on my own.

Okay?

So I started to think, and when you're talking about bold decision, you'll see where I'm going with this is that we close all of our 70 resorts worldwide.

So no revenue, but all the costs, still having the cost.

So it never happened in the history of Clement.

Never, never, never.

So I said to myself, okay, if it was my company, my business, what should I do?

I said, we need to reopen as fast as we can to start to have revenue.

So go back in March 2020, Florida was the center, the epicenter of the COVID We had at that time a property, a resort in Florida.

So I told the team, without having data, without anything to lean on, we need to reopen that Floridian resort as fast as we can, because people will start to travel and they will be driving.

They will not fly.

So it took a little bit of conven convincing, obviously, for our management to say, let's try it.

Are you sure you want to do this?

I said, yes.

Mobilize the team.

Got new way of operating, which we call we at that time, we call safe together at all the necessary measures.

And finally, in June 2020, we open the first resort in the pandemic on this side of the globe and we open it successfully.

At that moment, that bold decision not only was very courageous from us as a business unit, we were also leading the way in terms of new normality, how to operate, resort and so on.

So following that moment, that decision, I knew that I could do this job.

But it took me some time in order to wrap my head around it because unfortunately, it happens so quickly after my appointment.

So I would say that this is very precise moment that, that decision that shaped the leader that I am today, actually.

Yes.

So powerful.

And it reminds me of the.

The biggest challenges that we face ultimately shape who we become.

And it's hard, it's so hard in the moment to be thankful for the challenges should be so stressful.

But knowing that, it sounds like that gave you a lot of confidence after you tackled that first opening that, hey, I got this job because I don't think there's going to be another global pandemic, at least not immediately.

We sure hope not.

I'm curious, what, what did you rely upon in those early days to help you get through that big challenge?

Because I can imagine, I'm just imagining the scene of.

There weren't a lot of resorts open.

And there was also a little bit of media backlash at Florida for opening because I can, I can remember, I live in South Carolina.

I can remember everyone, like the, like the media was sort of showing pictures of people partying in Florida while the rest of the country was shut down.

And there was just.

People were upset about it.

And some people were thankful, like, hey, at least somebody's making an effort here.

So you had both sides.

So what, what helped you in those moments to stay motivated, deal with the stress and not just stop, stop.

The team, actually, don't forget that the team is the essence.

It's our most important asset.

The people that we have and we needed to continue the company.

Enter Comet, enter the pandemic in a very strong financial situation.

So financially, for sometimes we were solid.

But after that, if you go down to resorts, we own the Caribbean and so on, people need to work and we need to take care of our people.

It's our responsibilities.

So we decide with the management that we will take care of our people in the resorts, of course, but also in the office, because we need to train and we need to invest into our people, despite the fact that there's no revenue coming in or very little, because we know that this time is short time.

You need to live young in order to live Old, but financially we were okay for a while.

But we needed to retain our talents and continue to.

To invest in them.

So having a plan, a clear plan, helped me stay focused, helped me feel in control.

This pack so many factors that we weren't in control, but what I could control, I control.

And obviously I didn't control it alone.

I did it with an amazing team next to me, and it resulted as, like I told you, opening a resort.

But we kept the capacity.

We did it smartly with distancing, with having mask, with having gloves and the gel everywhere.

So it was really well done.

And we knew that if we were to open, it's not to close again.

So for me, that was not an option.

So all these small, if you want the plan, the small victories to bring people together on a common goal was what kept me focused.

And it's a calm through all this and this turmoil.

What was the scoop on you emerging stronger as a leader and as an organization?

Because I'm looking, I'm thinking about today versus then.

I mean, we lost a lot of.

A lot of vacation areas, I think did not reopen.

And of course, now it seems like the industry is just exploding with growth.

But what was the end result of those, you know, getting you from the pandemic, surviving it, and then to the other side?

So we reopened as a company.

We became much stronger than before the pandemic.

We had record results and so on.

So that was wonderful.

But like any business, sometimes you can plan as much as you can, but sometimes things happen.

And going through Covid actually prepare me for something else very big that happened was that we have in North America, in the Dominican Republic Club, which is the biggest resort in the world.

I was in Brazil doing our strat plan with my executive team, and I received a call in the middle of the night to say, caroline, Punta Cana center is burning.

And no need to tell you that when you have, let's say, palapa roof and so on, it spread quickly.

Okay.

Yeah.

So finally, is highly flammable.

Yes.

We had great pipes and things to extinguish, but it goes really fast and sometimes there's wind and so on.

So no need to tell you that middle of the night, over 5,000 miles away from the crisis.

So I told the person who called me, I said, are you safe?

Are you?

And they say, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I said, the guests, are they safe?

They say, yes, yes.

I said, okay, if everyone is safe, go somewhere.

I'm going to gather the team and I'm going to call you back in 10 minutes.

But I need you to go into a safe place.

So I call all of my executive team that was on site in Rio, in Brazil, and we went down and we started a crisis sale, of course.

And the thing that you need to know is at that moment when you have your central of the resort burning, that means that your reception is burning.

That means that all your data in terms of your clients, who you have in the resort, and so on being worldwide, we had 21 different nationalities in the resorts at that time.

Wow.

So we had to headcount one by one and consolidate all the bookings from all over the world to make sure that we have everyone.

Thankfully, there was no casualty.

None, except during the evacuation, a beautiful lady of over 90 years old who got a little bit stressed during the evacuation and broke her arm.

But that was it.

The team did a fantastic job in leading this really stressful situation, which could have been much worse.

We were extremely lucky despite this situation.

But all that to say that if I didn't go through Covid before, my way of reacting to this news of having a fire would most likely be very different.

Now I'm capable, and thanks to Covid, let's say it, to take a step back and I know what's expected from me.

I need to stay calm, I need to give direction, I need to calm my people around, and I need to come up with a plan.

And I learned this.

We all have it, but when you go through adversity, it's coming out even more so, and especially when you don't have enough data and the time is against you.

So all these Covid experience and challenges helped me to go through this crisis very calmly with the team.

And by that same day, when the center burned, everybody was safe, everybody was out of the resort, everybody, and so on.

So it was a very smooth process.

But I'm not sure, no, I'm sure that I will have not been reacting this way if I didn't go to Covid before.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

So much wisdom in that.

And it makes you look at Covid differently.

And I think leaders, we forget this.

And I think holding what you're holding in our minds, this idea of, hey, this is a big challenge I'm facing now, but this is going to strengthen us as a team.

It's going to strengthen me.

And then as leaders, having that in mind to share with your team, because you might lose them during a crisis, they might break, they might quit and say, no, no, this is your crisis.

We are all going to have these, and this is yours to get through.

And when you get to the other side of this mountain, you're going to be stronger as a leader.

And what a great illustration.

And I think it can give a lot of hope to people that themselves in a crisis.

What was the end result like looking back, okay, everybody's safe, but now you've got.

You're one of your top performing resorts that had caught on fire.

What.

What was the end result?

Well, the end result was once everybody, like you said, were safe, there was no casualties and so on.

It was to.

To get moving in order to reopen as fast as we can, but with a very good product to offer to our guests, which the team have done tremendous good work because less than two months, we were ready to open with a new reception that has been built for the reopening because the resort center is unfortunately not finished yet.

But we were able to build a new reception.

We had two restaurants, we expanded one, and so on.

So we were within two months able to welcome our guests again.

Wow.

So.

But when it's like that, indeed, you need to try to say, when can I open?

And what makes sense in order to offer the Club Med product Integrating.

Despite not having the center of the resort, which we have done in November, and it's going super, super well, we have great reviews and the guests are very pleased.

And we actually were able to open through all this an aquatic park.

So like a big aquatic park.

So it gives also a novelty effect.

So it's like a new Punta Cana having some ongoing renovation.

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So you ultimately strengthen the resort, strengthen your team, strengthen the resort through the tragedy that you all suffered.

Really amazing.

Thinking back, some people might be saying, I cannot believe, Ben, you're having this top executive from Club Med.

What is it like being CEO at Club Med?

Just in general, walking around, walking down the street?

Everyone knows Club Med.

What's it like?

Well, it's.

What's it like?

You never know until you do it right.

So the perception is, oh, you're always on vacation.

Yes.

Sunscreen, mountain time.

I wish with what people do not realize is that first you're working with a lot of time zone.

So that means that on the general board, so I have colleagues in Singapore, I have colleagues in China, so 14 hours time difference and so on.

So that means I have meeting very, very early in the morning and sometimes very, very late at night in order to accommodate the different time zones.

So that's the first thing.

The second thing is you need, when you have operations, so you need to travel quite a bit.

But when you travel quite a bit, it's to this beautiful destination.

But it's not to go on vacation, it's actually to go there to support the team, to see how is the experience, to bring something to the team in order to help do their day to day better.

So it's mainly as a support and help and resource that I go there.

But it's very demanding.

Obviously these are big properties, so you have to walk a lot, you spend your start early, finish late at night and so on.

So it's, it's not as glamorous as it might sound.

There's a lot of, of work to do.

And after you said it at the beginning, there's a lot of people, so there's a lot of leadership role to inspire your people to retain your talents, to also sometimes try to help with potential conflict and so on.

So I would say that's mostly it.

So where do you go on vacation?

You going to your resorts?

Can't.

I mean, probably not a vacation, right?

Because you can't probably hard to turn off the CEO eyes.

What can we improve?

And I was thinking like a month ago, my family and I were on a vacation.

We went into a resort and it was gorgeous.

But I asked people, the reception desk, I'm like, when you look out and you see all that, to me that is paradise.

I'm like, but you look at it every day and they're like, yeah, we're just focused on our customers and we never notice it now.

And I'm like, man, that must be a bummer.

So how do people that live in the world of Club Med making, making it work and having a bigger leadership vision, how do you find your peace of mind and vacation?

Well, I am a mom of a son, Sam, which is just turned 14 actually, and what we call a baby club because it's been going to club all his life.

And Ahmed is the leader of the family vacation.

So when you have children and you want to make sure that they have a good vacation, hence you will have a good vacation if they Have a good vacation club is a very good option.

So we do go to club and in the summer we go.

We try to go to the mountain so in the Alps to get them fresh air and so on.

And in the summer, in the winter we go to the Caribbean and we indeed go to some resorts that are under my leadership.

But the team is extremely respectful.

They know if I'm on vacation with my family it's vacation but I have to tell you I don't turn off.

So I.

And of course I talk to the team before I leave and so on.

But knowing that my.

My son is doing trapeze is making friends from all over the world is so many things that he wouldn't not do anywhere else that I.

It's worth it to.

To.

To live this but sometimes staycation in Florida and I just don't go very far.

I don't want to take an airplane.

I just want to drive, get some rest.

Let's go.

I think it's a good.

I think it's a good behind the scenes.

So for the listeners.

Yeah, she does vacation at Club Bed.

She has other things too but, but.

But it's very interesting.

I have a 13 year old and we've done different vacations and it's really cool.

She's has sometimes they like to be with their own peer groups on vacation and obviously that's.

That's something that Club Med that you can do because that's.

They don't always want to be with the parents the whole time when they're starting at this teen years especially.

And as parents you want to make sure that they are well taken care of even though they are starting to be.

They want to have the boundaries but you want to make sure someone is looking out for them.

This is what Clement does really really well from every from babies to teenagers.

So yeah love that the parents get a little vacation, the kids get a little vacation and then you can vacation together too.

It's nice to be able to have both because they really want as team vacationers they start to want their own exploration experience versus versus just having the parents kind of hawking over them the whole time.

So it's nice to have that combination.

The common resorts because of the load there's a lot of places in order to do and we realize that teenage teenager especially they like to have their own place a little bit away from the parents, from the young kids and so on.

And the size of our resort allow us to do this.

Yeah, I love that they need exploring isn't always Having their own person overseeing them, they can actually get out and explore areas themselves.

And if you got that low density and you've got.

Whether it's ocean or woods or forest, they can get out and explore on their own.

That's huge.

And unfortunately, the world doesn't always provide that, even in their own neighborhoods or their own community, you know, and it's nice that that's.

That that exists there.

Now.

We've.

We've.

I've got to ask about the Alchemist, y'all.

So my.

One of my favorite books that I've read to my daughter every year since she was.

She's 13 now, so probably like 6, 7 is the alchemist.

And Carolyn, I understand it's one of your favorite books too, based on.

It is.

It is.

You know, it's a Brazilian altar.

Right.

And yes.

Paul Coelhoela, if I'm saying that right.

Yeah, exactly.

And why do I like this book so much?

It's more of a self, I think, self development for me book than more.

It help us, I find, to grow.

It help us to give perspective and about finding our own destiny.

And when you throw it in the universe and that everything's coming together in order to align themselves to help you find your own destiny or your dream.

It speaks a lot to me.

So, yes, it's a book that I have read and sometimes when I feel like I'm need a little reminder, I go back and read it again.

I think it's.

It's very.

It's a great tool for.

For everyone, I believe.

Is there a.

Do you remember the moment that you read it for the first time or a moment that specifically it helped you get through?

Well, actually I was in Clement on vacation and there was a lady that used to work with me in Canada for Clement, and she came and she says, have you read that book?

And I said no.

She says, I think you would enjoy it.

And it was not that in my life or I was talking something.

But she said, I think the way you are, the way your spirituality and so on.

I said, really?

So I read it.

Actually it's not a big book.

Right.

So you can read it quite quickly.

So I read it in less than two days.

I'm like, this is amazing.

And this is how I discovered it was actually a recommendation from one of my colleagues.

Wow.

It's.

And for the readers who are like, what?

Or the listeners, if they're like, if you're listening to this and you're like, what is the Alchemist?

Check this book out.

It is It's.

It's a story about a shepherd boy in Spain, Santiago, who's on a mission to find his personal legend.

And if you're rolling your eyes right now, don't roll your eyes, listeners.

He's chasing his dream.

It's real and it's magical.

And the ending will completely blow your mind.

Yeah.

And I got a chill just saying that.

And when I read it in preparation for this, I got another chill because I'm like, you know what?

I need to read this again.

And it's such a special book.

It is a special book.

Yeah.

Wow.

And it's cool that the executive, top executive at North America, the Caribbean Club Med, is reading this.

And it's.

It's like a.

It's.

It's kind of cool because, like a vacation book and it's a lifebook and it's a Club Med.

You know, there's something there.

There's something for sure.

Do you.

And I'm just curious, do you have this level of dialogue about the personal mission and journeys, like with your team and when you're thinking about them and their development, it's a little bit more of a personal development book versus professional.

But I don't know.

To me, it seems like it.

It kind of goes across all planes.

But how do you think about this book and your team?

No, but I think that we all have dreams and a destiny, and sometimes it took us a long way to find what.

Where we should have been.

I don't want to.

So I always tell my team, my first dream, dream.

Big sky's the limit.

We can do it.

And I'm super extra positive.

And I always say that sometimes we might have to go this way in order to realize that perhaps we should go in the other.

And there's not just one way that would lead to the end result, you know, So I have this type of conversation with them.

Indeed.

But often it's very much more like trust your belief in yourself, of course.

And don't be afraid of taking risk and make mistakes, because this were mistakes that we.

And that we realize that are resilient.

We are.

And making mistakes is part of life and it's also part of.

Of your professional journey.

So when did you know that Club Med was going to be a place that you could stay for a long time because you've been there a long time and there's a lot of hospitality, there's a lot of job hopping, jumping around, and you seem like you committed early and you stuck with it.

Yes.

Yes.

When did I find it first comed as amazing values which resonate with me strongly as a person, as a leader, I have five strong values.

After I do believe that it's one of the top product in the hospitality and in the all inclusive world.

And for me, in order to commit to an organization, I need to believe, to believe in the product, to believe in the brand, to believe in the vision and also in the strategy.

And very early on I was really appealed with the strategy and where Clamed was heading and so on.

And after, thanks to Clement, I was able to grow professionally through training, through mentoring and to take on greater roles as I went.

Early on they had faith in me, they gave me the necessary tools and of course training in order to develop myself and to always go further and further.

So it's been quite a journey.

And again, it's everything from Clamed as an organization as value, as strategy really connects with the person that I am, the professional that I am and so on.

And after, of course, the people, people that work for Club, one of our value is kindness.

People are kind and it's so important for me in my life and as a person, as a mom, to always be kind.

And it's, it's a special place.

It's a special place for our guests when they come on vacation because that we are making, we're giving them an experience, but they make memories.

But when you work for this company and you see what we do every day, you, you have a lot of pride and you have a sense of belonging and it's all, this is what club is about.

So you said the word kindness and I love it.

However, in your business, people aren't always kind to the people working in the hotels and it seems like I've seen a lot of that.

And I'm wondering, what do you do when you talk about kindness to your staff, to your thousands of team members, when they may not receive the same kindness back from the people that they're being kind to?

Well, already we need to know that at the end of the day, it's a service industry.

So we are there to serve the service industry, hospitality service industry.

So we are there to provide the best experience to our guests.

So this is part of our mission, this is who we are after.

If there are some people that are not so nice or not so kind towards us, the first thing is don't take it personal.

They are not after you as a person, but they are probably unhappy about a situation.

So that situation, you have to take yourself already out of the equation because if you start to feel to, to, to take it personal, it change completely the way you're going to react to the unhappy person, let's say in front of you.

So that's the first thing I say.

And after we try not to say no, we try to find sometimes there's things that we cannot do, unfortunately.

But we always try not to say no and to find something to please our guests and to fix the challenges.

But no is not an answer so.

Because it ends the conversation.

Right?

Exactly.

So we have to find, you know.

Yeah.

Immediately I thought of, I enjoy doing improv on the stage here.

And yes.

And is always their response.

Someone's on stage, like I don't want to join that scene.

I don't know what that person's doing.

But in our world it's, you can't say no, I'm not doing that.

You have to say yes and, and you build on it and it allows for so much more creativity.

Yeah.

And I imagine around a big problem that's happening at a resort, it's all about creativity and also empathy then also.

Empathy because you know, until we put in, in the guest shoes or the person who is not kind, let's say, it's hard for us to really.

So I think that being empathic is one of the most important traits.

When you know you're in front of someone who's not so kind.

Such good insight and so universal.

No one likes hearing.

No.

And if you do that yes.

There's something about having a boundary there when you need to say no.

But recognize it's not creative, it's not a problem solving direction.

Exactly.

I really, really like those three steps.

So starting to wind this up and I've got a lot more questions but we don't have a lot more time.

So I'm going to open it up to you.

What are a few success strategies that you believe all employees and leaders need to understand?

Oh well, for me, few success strategies.

The first one is anticipation.

Anticipate what you can anticipate.

We are in an ever changing world where we are unfortunately the environment, it's very fast paced and so on.

What we can control or what we can anticipate has to be anticipated and has to be flawless because this we can control.

Okay.

So for me it's the first thing because this allow us afterwards to take decision because there's nothing worse than to be not moving and regarding a situation happen and not do anything, you know.

So if you have anticipation, if you prepare, you have a sense that you're kind of in control of something then it helps you take decision.

I told you earlier but trust you got it's so important.

Again, it's the world is changing so fast that it's not the time we don't have unfortunately the time Sometimes to have all the data and have everything to take a decision you have to trust your gut.

You know what?

Great if it was right and if it was not right for next time and you will readjust and don't be afraid to make mistakes and to fail.

It's part of the process.

If you fail, fail fast.

But and don't do the same mistake.

Please don't repeat the same mistake.

Do not repeat the same mistake.

But you're allowed to make mistakes.

Yeah.

So, so good.

Carolyn, thank you for coming on and we probably you, you probably just single handedly increase Paul Coelo's book sales of the Alchemist.

But it's a leadership book too.

Oh, thanks for coming on the show today.

Thank you so much, Ben, for having me.

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