MONTEGO BAY, St James —  Harvard University’s Business Solutions studies indicate that the kind of leadership style needed to drive our current post-knowledge era forward is that of implementer and empathiser, and in this context, Dezreen Reid-Stewart is truly a leader of our time.

Reid-Stewart is Club Sandals Manager at Sandals Royal Caribbean. She copped the resort’s 2014 Manager of the Year award.

Like many of the industry’s most successful, her hospitality career was built from the ground up.

“My first taste of the hospitality and travel industry was while working at Apple Vacations, where I booked vacations with travel agents,” she says.

That job gave provided valuable insight into the effort involved in getting a guest into a resort, the intricate process of selling dreams, and the real investments made for a piece of paradise.

“I think that’s where I learned to never take anything for granted,” she continues. “This is a fickle business and so, to this day, I endeavour to treasure every customer and try my best to create positive memories for them, and that’s the same attitude I aim to instill in my team.”

While at Apple Vacations, Reid-Stewart was also exposed to many resort brands. “Touring the resorts really piqued my interest and I was soon convinced that I was too far away from the industry’s core to have a real impact on visitors to the island,” she says.

So she left and went to work at the [then] newly established Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall in 2000. Her first job there was as a customer service agent in the golf shop at the White Witch Golf Course.

“I knew nothing about the golf industry and had never worked directly with such a large variety of customers,” Reid-Stewart admits. “I wasn’t deterred however; it was an exciting new challenge and my aim was to take the time to understand my role, the operation and become the very best customer service agent at the White Witch.”

Over the 13 years that ensued, her unbridled tenacity and unrelenting passion for the industry led her up through the ranks from customer service agent at the golf shop to front desk agent at the resort, lobby concierge, and then supervisor in the Guest Relations Department, a role she fulfilled from 2008 to 2013 when the Ritz-Carlton closed its doors.

When she applied to Sandals Resorts soon thereafter, she was found to be “an excellent fit” for the luxury included brand and was tasked with overseeing the implementation of Sandals’ redefined Club Sandals concept.

Today, Dezreen leads a team of 11 staff members who are responsible for the vacation experience of over 100 guests at full capacity. If the positive guest feedback and commendations they receive daily is anything to go by, the team is fulfilling its mission of seamlessly catering to guests, while meeting revenue projections, operating within budget and finding real solutions whenever things don’t go according to plan.

That, by any measure, means that the 2014 Manager of the Year has been performing well. What makes her truly stand out, however, is her genuine interest in people and their growth and development.

“As I’ve grown within this industry, one thing has always remained constant, and that is the guidance and profound advice of my mentors that has consistently propelled me forward.”

“The best managers don’t micro-manage every situation but rather maintain both razor sharp vision and a bird’s eye view of their operation while empowering their team to make decisions and think strategically,” Reid-Steawrt continues. “Neither are true leaders threatened by ambitious and determined team members under their guidance. In fact, my greatest hope is that each of my team members will garner more knowledge, master their roles and use my advice to propel them towards becoming future leaders, even to fulfill my role and surpass it, this is my new measure of success.”