Balancing two young kids, self-care, travelling and a high-ranking job is no easy feat but this supermum gets it done with ease and grace
How I’m Making It is a weekly series in which Tatler speaks to influential individuals about their unique journeys and what keeps them going.
Many will agree that being a working mother is one of the hardest roles some women have to play. However, when you add regular travelling and a high-ranking position in the pressure-cooker hospitality industry to the equation, it just kicks everything up a notch—and Rivero Delgado, the Area Vice President for Marriott International, certainly knows that.
Gritty, passionate and effective, Delgado began her career as an intern at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and is now a seasoned leader who has been in the luxury hospitality industry for more than 20 years.
Armed with a degree in hospitality from the Universitat de Barcelona and, later, an MBA in IESE Business School, the mother-of-two joined The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company (which is part of Marriott International) as a pool attendant at Hotel Arts Barcelona.
“I set up the pool, laid out the towels and made sure that the guests were having a good time at the pool, which, in a resort, is the most important area of a hotel,” Delgado says of her first job. “I learned the basics of hotel business—how it is important that guests have a wonderful stay and I loved that I was doing my best and exceeding guest expectations at the same time.”
As a young woman, Delgado knew that she had a great passion for the hospitality industry and that she found immense joy in it; so it didn’t take her long to begin climbing the ladder at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.
She quickly moved from her role to become line staff at the food and beverage side of things and then later became a front office manager.
As someone who believes that experience in all sectors is necessary in order to be a good leader, Delgado happily joined the housekeeping team at The Ritz-Carlton Qatar at one point before moving back to Hotel Arts Barcelona where she worked in the rooms division team.
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“Internal switches to different departments are crucial as it helps one to understand the different personalities, capabilities, and the overall importance of each unit,” Delgado shares. “Travelling and moving around to different countries is also very important in adopting a global mindset which helps greatly in having different perspectives to a problem.”
She believes that effective leaders are made and not born and that this comes from experiences and self-development. “We all possess qualities that could make us a good leader and we all learn and better ourselves from trial and error as well as experience.”