Leading From The C-Suite: Jason Gamel of ARDA On Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Suite Executive

Know your strengths and how to use them. It takes time and effort for a leader to fully understand their strengths, and to practice using those strengths to effectively lead an organization. Whether you do this through a formal process (using one of the many developmental tools out there) or you learn through trial and error, once you fully understand them you can understand the world around you.

As part of our series called “Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Suite Executive,” we had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Gamel.

Jason Gamel is President and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA). Drawing on more than 25 years in leadership roles in the hospitality and timeshare industries, Gamel oversees all operations of ARDA, helping to shape its legislative and regulatory agendas and its public relations and communications strategies, as well as introducing industry research and thought leadership on matters related to timeshare, shared ownership of vacation real estate, and emerging travel trends to help educate a new generation of travelers on all that vacation ownership has to offer. Gamel also leads the association’s Board of Directors as well as those of the ARDA International Foundation and the ARDA-Resort Owners Coalition.

A “vacation ownership enthusiast” if ever there was one, Gamel initially joined ARDA in 2004 as Vice President of State Government Affairs based in Orlando, Florida, where he managed and directed local, state, and regional legislative and lobbying activities in the U.S. and Caribbean. After nearly nine years, he departed in 2013 to join Wyndham Destinations (now Travel + Leisure) in Orlando, Florida, serving as Senior Vice President Legal until returning to ARDA and assuming his current role in 2019.

Gamel also spent six years as an Associate with Baker & Hostetler LLP, first in Orlando, then in Los Angeles, supporting the firm’s timeshare and resort development practice and counseling clients in matters relating to timeshare and resort projects in the U.S. and Mexico.

Born and raised in Lansing, Michigan, Gamel earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and human resource management from the University of Michigan, and a Juris Doctor from Fredric G. Levin College of Law at the University of Florida. He currently has bar licenses in Arizona, California, and Florida.

A resident of Northern Virginia, Gamel enjoys getting away from it all as time and demands of the day allow, as well as spending downtime playing golf, exercising, and savoring life with his wife, Lydia, and daughters Morgan and Kennedy (plus his two dogs!)

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

Like so many other leaders, my career path includes part luck, part hard work, and having good timing. But one thing is for sure-my career did not take the path I thought it would. After not going to Business School as I had anticipated, I attended law school and quickly found myself with a job in the hospitality arena. And after having the chance to practice on both the east and West Coast, I found a job with an industry trade association (now that I am the CEO of) which gave me the chance to see the business in a different light. After a stint as in-house counsel for a major hospitality organization, I found myself prepared to lead the industry having a unique set of experiences and skills which made me qualified for the job. Now, after five years as CEO, I couldn’t be happier.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

I’m not sure if this would be the most interesting story, but I think it’s the most important one for learning a lesson in the workplace. I was fortunate enough to land an amazing job directly out of law school with one of the nation’s best law firms. After about a year, my mentors and strongest advocates left the firm, and I was put in a position to learn to work with others without the same mentoring and leadership at the helm. As a young attorney, I didn’t work the way my new leaders wanted me to, but instead, did it the way I wanted to. This led to both the biggest disappointment of my career, but also the best opportunity.

I was asked to move from the east coast to a west coast office location, to help the team there. Call it “corporate rehab.” It turned out to be one of the best decisions of my career, as I was able to gain the necessary experience and perspective that allowed me to grow in my career. And it gave me the edge I needed to get the CEO job that I have today.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

“Every person we encounter is there to teach us a lesson, whether we realize it or not.”

For me, it has been a work in progress to understand the power of learning from others vs. trying to impart knowledge on the people I meet. However, when I do get that right, I have found myself in a position to truly learn from very unexpected sources.

I find myself on the road quite a bit, and we all know that airplanes can act as social experiments, as you ask yourself the all-important question — to talk or not to talk. Well, earlier this year on a work-related flight, I decided to start up a conversation with a gentleman standing in line in front of me who looked approachable. Honestly, it was his nicely polished dress shoes that turned out to be the topic of conversation (I do have a passion for shining my shoes, which I learned from my dad at an early age). Turns out that we were headed to the same event, and we lived about 10 minutes away from each other. Well, not only were we going to the same event, but he was the headliner.

When we got back home and we actually followed through with the “let’s get together sometime” promise, and he let me know he was taking this opportunity, at the encouragement of a loved one, to expand his horizons and make new friends.

Sometimes you just never know what others are thinking, or their motivations, but when you listen and take a few minutes to hear their story, you never know where things might lead.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on your leadership style? Can you share a story or an example of that?

The Celestine Prophecy — while it isn’t going to be on any B-school list of required reading, it helped me understand two very important things. One, the effect I have on others by having a positive attitude, and two, the power of making meaningful connections with people inside and out of the organization.

I am a positive person, but once I realized the amazing power of positivity when exhibited by a leader and how it affected others, it was a game changer. Conversely, understanding those who exhibited negative energy affect a group or an organization, is essential to assembling great teams and productive groups. I make it a point to try to energize others with my attitude and realize my positive energy can help to create confidence in my team as well as create an environment that leads to better retention and a better overall working environment.

Second, I do not believe in coincidences. I do believe that everyone we meet in life has the potential of delivering a message or information to us that can be helpful in our personal or professional lives. With this belief, I treat every interaction with people I have as a chance to learn and receive information.

These lessons have helped to shape my personal philosophy on life as well as business (in addition to the many tactical and strategic business books I have read, but this one has probably helped me the most).

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

I think our culture is really special. Not only do we have a lot of tenured professionals, but everyone in the organization is aligned and focused on our goals. Our processes and procedures are such that people are working together and collaborating daily, which fosters a strong sense of community that makes people what to stay long-term for each other and for the industry we represent (which is in the vacation sector, so it’s easy to enjoy!)

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Be open and approachable — I have worked in organizations where team members did not feel their leaders were approachable, which led to communication breakdowns and team members not wanting to share innovative ideas or their concerns. To combat that feeling at ARDA, I hold regular meetings with people throughout our organization and create specific processes that encourage conversations with my leaders (and others), which also gives me time to show ARDA team members that I am open to conversations and their ideas.

Consistently look to evolve — While it sounds like a cliche, people say this for a reason. You can’t stop pressing yourself and your organization to find ways to improve. For me, this means taking time every single week to look at all that we do as an organization, not only to ask what we can do more of or do better, but also to ask what we can stop doing to make room for things that matter the most. This can be challenging for a trade association with hundreds of members. In fact, when I started at ARDA in 2019, we were doing so many things for our members in the name of good customer service. However, when we asked our members what truly mattered to them and looked at things that kept us from accomplishing our core goals, we realized we needed to make changes. So, we trimmed those services in the name of efficiency and goal alignment, and we have since been able to focus on our key priorities.

Take Risks — Taking calculated risks goes hand in hand with positive change. It can be tempting to think there is no reason to change, especially if things are going well. That is precisely when it is best to experiment and use the goodwill or political capital you have built up over time. As an industry trade association, we look for risks that will pay off for our members. For example, ARDA is currently looking to find ways to tackle the cost of property insurance by forming an industry-backed insurance captive. While other companies have done this, it has taken considerable resources to get off the ground, but the potential to help our members and generate additional revenue makes the costs worthwhile

Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?

The most difficult decision I had to make was during the pandemic, when we unfortunately had to downsize. As a small organization, we get to know one another really well, so it was a tough time to navigate through. Fortunately, our industry has rebounded, and our team is fully staffed again and able to meet the needs of our members, but we still think about all the folks who were with the organization for years and appreciate all their efforts and are able to honor them regularly.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a C-Suite executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what a C-Level executive does that is different from the responsibilities of other leaders?

As the “Communicator in Chief,” C-level executives are responsible for communicating the organization’s priorities and assuring the rest of the organization that they believe in and support the articulated goals. Having said that, C-suite leaders are part-time cheerleaders, psychologists, lobbyists, and dispute-resolution specialists. If they are not playing all those roles, they are not doing their jobs!

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a C-Suite executive? Can you explain what you mean?

One of the biggest myths I have encountered is that C-Suite executives have all of the answers to the organization’s issues. One of the key traits of a good leader is that they are smart enough to know what they know and know when they need to have good people in place with great instincts to help them navigate difficult situations. It is only at that point in time, that a leader can fully rely upon their team to help run and organization successfully.

Furthermore, just because you make it to the C-Suite doesn’t mean your learning has stopped. When you get the chance to be in a position of leadership, your learning as a leader has only begun. Keeping an open mind and being aware of your shortcomings is essential to effective leadership.

What are the most common leadership mistakes you have seen C-Suite leaders make when they start leading a new team? What can be done to avoid those errors?

One of the biggest mistakes a new C-Suite leader can make is to do too much too soon when they start leading a new team. I think this stems from the premise that new leaders are hired to make changes and feel they need to do so from day one. I advise any new leader to take time to learn about your team and how it fits into the organization’s overall mission. Try not to make any significant changes for 60–90 days while you listen and learn from your team members. It is tough to recover from making a rash decision that loses the trust and respect of your team because you didn’t take the time to listen and learn before making bold decisions.

What are your “Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Suite Executive”?

1 . Know your strengths and how to use them. It takes time and effort for a leader to fully understand their strengths, and to practice using those strengths to effectively lead an organization. Whether you do this through a formal process (using one of the many developmental tools out there) or you learn through trial and error, once you fully understand them you can understand the world around you.

I was fortunate enough to have many opportunities to work with leadership development teams during my career to help me understand my leadership style, as well the tendencies that could lead to less than optimal performance. These lessons have helped me understand my past and truly provided me with insights that I have used to guide my team and to hire the best people around me to compliment what positives I bring to the table.

2 . Create processes that lead to the right outcomes. I used to hear that phrase a lot from leaders in prior organizations, but I don’t think I truly appreciated how important good processes were until I saw them in action. This was the case when I saw organizational conflict from the onset when I began leading my current organization. When two of my most valuable team members, heading up two different departments that represented the greatest member benefit our trade association offers, were not on the same page, we created a process and organizational structure whereby the two were forced to work together on a regular basis. This created goal clarification so they both understood my expectations, and then their compensation plan was aligned to reflect this reality accordingly. The result was that these two employees and their teams began working together in a better and more efficient way. You could almost see the conflict evaporate when they were working towards a common goal, with a clearly defined process and expectations from their leader.

3 . Hire for talent, not just for a position. I try to talk to as many of my peers as I can about this subject in particular, as I find it fascinating how people build their teams and overall organizations. Some have more specialized needs (i.e. employees who need very specific skill sets to perform a job) where others can take time to develop talent and look how to cross-utilize them in various organizations. In my case, where I lead a small organization that values flexibility and well-rounded skill sets, I will look to hire smart, hardworking employees that are motivated to learn. From there, they can be taught skills that will allow them to grow and aid in overall employee retention. Currently, I have several employees who have been able to assume additional roles and responsibilities that were completely outside of their original job descriptions. This has helped to keep them happy, save the organization money, and show other employees what they can accomplish if they continue to work hard and have an interest in career growth.

4 . Make the main thing the main thing. I have had some great leaders in the past show me the value of not only being focused on your goals and mission, but also the ability to give yourself and your employees the option to say “no.” Too often, I have seen organizations get bogged down in “scope and mission creep,” which happens in an effort to either be accommodating to others in an organization, or because they believe there are better revenue opportunities available if they only try something new. While you never want to stifle the entrepreneurial spirit, or dissuade risk taking, I have found when we keep our focus on what we know our constituents believe is our core mission, we have the greatest opportunity for success.

For my organization, we empower our leaders to look at each thing we do and ask, “Is this essential to accomplishing our goals?” If it’s not, we stop doing it. I also challenge our employees to make decisions that would ultimately lead to the organization become essential for our members. If something doesn’t align, we find a way to phase it out.

5 . Take the time to make yourself a better leader. I struggled with this concept my first two or three years as a C-Suite leader. I was so busy paying attention to the organization and my employees that I forgot about my own professional development. So, I came up with a plan to make myself a better leader, and person, so I could be a better asset for my employees and the entire organization. This included reading books and articles, analyzing my working style, as well as my leaders, through personality assessment tests, and then seeking out a professional coach to help me work through issues and identify ways to get better.

In your opinion, what are a few ways that executives can help to create a fantastic work culture? Can you share a story or an example?

In my experience, the best way to create a fantastic work culture is to lead by example and stay positive even in the most adverse situations. One of our organization’s primary functions is helping our members navigate legislation that could negatively impact their business or customer base. It’s easy to get bogged down by the potential outcomes of this portion of the business, especially because it is highly visible and very important work. However, I look for the lesson in every challenge and encourage my team to always find the silver lining that can make us better in the future.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would bring back a mutual desire to understand one another to our political system. After working in the political arena for the past 20+ years, bridging the gap between our political leaders at every level has the overall potential of bring the most good (long lasting good, that is) to people across the globe.

How can our readers further follow you online?

I often share industry updates and the latest news from ARDA on my LinkedIn page. You can follow me there for more: Jason Gamel | LinkedIn. I’m always happy to connect with anyone who is interested in learning more about the vacation ownership industry!

Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

About the Interviewer: Dina Aletras boasts over 20 years of expertise in the corporate media industry. She possesses an in-depth understanding of growth, strategy, and leadership, having held significant roles at some of the UK’s largest media organizations. At Reach PLC, the UK’s largest tabloid publisher, she served in various director capacities. Additionally, she held leadership roles at The Independent Magazine Group and DMGT. Her extensive knowledge spans editorial, digital, revenue, sales, and advertising.

Upon relocating to Switzerland, Dina took on the responsibility of managing and promoting the international section of Corriere del Ticino — CdT.ch pioneering the English page “onthespot.” She also was the Co-Editor of Southern Switzerland’s first official Italian and English bilingual magazine.