Authentic leadership — morning and nights — hotel exec with Jessica Cain

Authentic leadership — morning and nights — hotel exec with Jessica Cain

From From the Corner Office by Mark Gordon

May 21, 2026 · 24 min · Episode 154

About this episode

Jessica Cain discusses her journey in hospitality and her approach to authentic leadership.

Jessica is the general manager of the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay. She has more than 20 years of experience in full-service hospitality, including sales, events and hotel operations. She’s been with the Hyatt brand since 2008. On this episode, Business Observer Managing Editor Mark Gordon and Jessica talked about her start in hospitality — it includes answering a pay phone in her family’s upstate New York restaurant — and what motivates her to be a better leader. Jessica also talked about what’s influenced her leadership style, including things she aims to not do in building high-performing teams. 3 Takeaways: (07:40) Hospitality is about making people feel like they belong (10:50) Good leadership is creating an environment where people are valued (19:20) Sometimes you have to fake it until you make it, have composure Timestamps: (00:00) Introducing Jessica Cain, general manager, Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay (05:50) What motivates you, winning or not losing? (06:55) Jessica’s hospitality career started from the beginning (09:15) About Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay (10:45) What is good leadership to you? (12:30) Developing better leaders from within (15:10) Leadership influences (17:00) Hard to hear…

People in this episode

Host: Mark Gordon

Guest: Jessica Cain

Topics covered

  • authentic leadership
  • hospitality
  • team building
  • leadership style
  • career development

Keywords

  • leadership
  • hospitality
  • Grand Hyatt
  • team performance
  • career

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay

Places: upstate New York

More episodes of From the Corner Office

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the From the Corner Office podcast page.