Tammy Cyrus: From the Ground Up

Tammy Cyrus’ rise to her position as General Manager of the Home2 Suites Greenville Downtown demonstrates how friendly the industry is towards female leadership and how much opportunity for career advancement is available to passionate team members without advanced degrees.?

Her late father always told her, “The same water that hardens the egg softens the potato,” and his words ring true for so many people choosing whether or not to pursue higher education.?

While society often stresses the importance of going to college in conjunction with how having a degree might impact one’s ability to earn a comfortable wage at a fulfilling job, Tammy’s trajectory beautifully showcases an alternative path to success.?

Work Ethic and Grit

Tammy grew up in Fort Gay, West Virginia, an Appalachian town, with her two siblings in a single-parent home. Her dad provided for them through his blue-collar job. Tammy always knew that she had the drive it’d take to change her situation and inspire others to do the same.

She believes her upbringing contributed the “grit” and “work ethic” she would need to go far in life. Breaking the mold set by many women in her family, Tammy chose not to marry and have children in her teenage years. Instead, she made the choice to emancipate herself at 16 years-old, leaving public school and working three jobs at once to support herself.?

She finished high school as a homeschooler, bought a car that she slept in for a brief time, and forged her way despite food insecurity, housing insecurity, and other financial challenges. Never too proud to accept a job that others might consider beneath them, Tammy was eventually able to support herself and provide financial help for her family.

Empathetic Leadership

These experiences largely shaped Tammy’s leadership style which she describes as “empathetic but direct.” She’s all about “empowering staff to make decisions.” She explains that when she hire’s employees, she’s making a choice to trust their intuition, so she avoids micromanaging them on the job.?

Her philosophy is that there is never a mistake so big that it can’t be fixed, and she can’t expect her team to grow and develop their skills without giving them the chance to make what she calls “uncomfortable decisions.”?

One of the biggest changes she sees in herself since her first hotel job is that she’s no longer embarrassed to ask questions for fear of looking foolish. She says, “If I don’t ask, I won’t know.” It’s a simple but impactful mindset she tries to share with people working under her leadership and reflects on how instrumental of a role relationships have played in her career.

?An Encouraging Industry?

After working for four years as the Business Development Director for car dealerships with offices in Kentucky and Ohio, it was a social connection that led Tammy into Hospitality.?

By pure chance, Tammy met a woman while out with friends one night, and the two hit it off. They kept in touch on Facebook, and when this new friend accepted a job as the Director of Sales for West Virginia’s only Doubletree, Tammy immediately came to mind as an ideal candidate for the property’s Sales and Marketing Manager position.?

Since then, Tammy has served as the Area Director of Sales and Marketing for hotels in Kentucky and is making her transition into management after consistently supporting Operations teams at those locations.?

She attributes much of her growth to the diverse group of coworkers and mentors she’s learned from over the years, explaining that her growth would be best measured in small shifts in her thinking made by incredible people.?

Women in Hospitality

One such influence is Sycamore Investment Group’s own Corporate Director of Sales and Marketing Jacqui Rose who credits the Hospitality Industry with being one that is progressively gender-blind and friendly to women.?

In fact, according to an article by Les Roches titled “Leadership in Hospitality” and a 2022 ZIPPIA study,?“Hospitality is one of the industries with the highest rates of women leadership where 33% of senior leadership positions are held by women.”?

Perhaps women are so easily embraced because years of social conditioning has taught women to cultivate strong problem solving, caretaking, empathetic listening, and time management skills, all of which are invaluable in this industry. Regardless, it seems caring deeply about people is all that’s needed to begin a promising career in Hospitality.?

Bypassing Higher Education

Before the popularization of higher education, people built careers through apprenticeships, and while university studies are certainly valuable, going to college does not equate to landing a fulfilling job. An effective education program imparts vital skills and knowledge to its participants, but there is more than one valid way to learn.?

For example, in 1984, Neil Fleming proposed a theory that outlined four learning styles: auditory, visual, reading/ writing, and kinesthetic. Similarly, Dr. Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences posits that not there are eight areas in which students may be disproportionately interested or gifted: linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, naturalistic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence.?

Together these shifts in Education have suggested that not only might a person learn better through experiential, hands-on activities than through traditional instruction but also that classroom settings and rigid curricula may actually hold some people back from reaching their full potential and pursuing their true passions.?

Tammy confirms she thinks this might have been the case for her and hypothesizes that she might have likely found higher education to be boring and overwhelming. Instead, she feels that it was better for her to have started gaining experience in management roles as a teen, experience she now believes gives her a leg up against candidates who spent that time earning their degrees.?

When she made the decision to enter the workforce, some of Tammy’s friends insisted she wouldn’t be able to get where she wanted to without one, but she’s happy to have bet on herself, avoid student loan debt, and let the quality of her work speak for itself.?

New Goals

Now that Tammy has settled in after moving to Greenville, she has new goals in mind for herself and the Home2 Suites Greenville Downtown.?

She plans to make sure the property is efficient and profitable, so Sycamore Investment Group is able to invest resources into her guests and employees. She intends to focus on guest experiences, so everyone who stays at her hotel feels at home and valued, and she hopes to continuously improve morale among all staff.

Developing clear communications skills will be at the forefront of her efforts to mentor team members into future leadership positions, but she also seeks out employees who show a willingness to learn and who demonstrate kindness. According to Tammy, “People need to be believed in,” and she’s absolutely right.???

A Bright Future

Although Tammy may not be the singer/ songwriter she thought she’d be as a child, we are so glad to see her dedication to her work as GM. We also believe in her when she confidently declares, “I’ve still not peaked. I know there are many more things I’m going to accomplish.”?

Jacqui describes Tammy as “tenacious” and a bright woman who “leads with kindness,” and we wholeheartedly agree. Please join us in congratulating her on her success in a career she truly enjoys and waiting to see what she does next!

By Courtney Madeira