Stephanie Sonnabend, CEO and president of Sonesta Hotels, Resorts, & Nile Cruises, may have been born with a desirable last name but she hasn't rested on this fact. Her key to success has been putting in extra effort.

In today's world, it is highly unusual for a family to transcend three generations in one business with one brand. For more than 60 years, her family has owned, managed, designed, and marketed hotels throughout the world. Sonnabend's grandfather, a successful Boston realtor and financier, merged his burgeoning hotel acquisitions with the newly acquired Childs Restaurant chain and named it Hotel Corporation of America. Thus began one of the most successful hotel operations in the United States and the evolution into what is today Sonesta International Hotels Corporation.

As a child growing up in a family that owned a hospitality company, Sonnabend traveled a great deal. "I have always been very comfortable staying in hotels," she said.  "I guess you can say I started from birth. I learned the business from osmosis."

Make that osmosis and patient dedication to the field. She attended Harvard University, graduating in 1975. She then got her feet wet in the business working in conference services and purchasing. She went back to school, earning her MBA in 1979 at one of the world's leading business schools, the MIT Sloan School of Management.

She rejoined Sonesta, the first of the third generation of Sonnabends to get into the family business, and has been at it ever since. From the computer center, to the front desk, to purchasing, her rise to the top has been a very gradual process. "I wanted to learn as many different aspects of the business as possible," she explained. "I wanted to get a real handle on the bigger picture."

Her titles have included vice president of sales, vice president of marketing, executive vice president, president, and then finally president and CEO. Today, 52-year-old Sonnabend is one of the few women CEOs in the industry.

"I was taking on additional responsibilities along the way," she said. This wasn't done haphazardly. She had a strategic plan in place for herself, something she highly recommends.

A Personal Approach to Leading

She calls herself a natural-born leader. From a very early age she was not only leading her younger sister but her older one as well. "I've always had an innate interest in being a leader," she said, and has fine-tuned her leadership skills over the years. "The most important attribute a leader must have is a clear vision and the ability to communicate that vision. I give a clear message and clear direction and I communicate it frequently," she said. "A leader must also understand how different people require different styles of management and how to motivate them appropriately."

She makes it a point to relate to her people on a personal level, not just on a business one. "This is accomplished by listening and observing," she said. "I try to find out about who each employee is as an individual. I have found that commitment is increased when one feels they have a personal relationship with their leader."

In her world, relating to her people is quite an involved undertaking as she manages 3,500 employees worldwide, more than 1,000 of whom are in Egypt; the others scattered all over the world. "In the hotel business, one must understand cultural differences. I've always been comfortable knowing people from different countries."

She makes it a point to acknowledge each and every employee and to give awards along the way when milestones are reached. "I award and applaud the milestone and then give them another milestone to reach," she explained. "That's how to keep employees constantly challenged," she said.

"As I've developed as a leader I've learned the qualities people like about me and have used this to improve. One of the most important things is that I'm accessible and make myself available to my people," explained Sonnabend.

Focused on Professionalism 

Sonesta provides extensive training programs for its employees as well as excellent benefits, feedback systems, state-of-the-art technology, and a culture that encourages empowerment, personal interaction, relationship building, and good old-fashioned fun, she said. Its corporate training program, "Training By Design," has created award-winning programs geared to deliver long-lasting professional skills. Its "Star Track" program encourages the professional development of its hotel teams, with the goal of converting the best of its staff members into managers.     

If our employees enjoy what they do, this translates directly to their providing great service to our guests, said Sonnabend.

She makes it a point to learn what each employee's strengths and weaknesses are. "Not everyone is a decision maker. There are many who don't want to make decisions who are still valuable parts of the company. Not everyone needs to be a leader. Some are best at following. It?s important to find a place that applauds your strengths."

Being in a leadership role isn't without its challenges. Sonnabend had to make some of the toughest decisions of her career after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "There was a dramatic downturn in business and we had to make some cuts. That's the hardest thing to do. You?re talking about people's livelihoods, a big part of one's life."

Once a Man's Domain

The road to becoming a good leader is difficult to navigate when there isn't someone to emulate. For Sonnabend it was uncharted territory as there was no female role model to take her cues from. At the same time, as granddaughter of the founder of Sonesta, there was the added pressure to prove herself as a valuable asset to the company and not just someone with the right bloodline.

"I didn't have many women role models as a child," explained Sonnabend. "Business was reserved for men then. But I was ambitious and knew I wanted to do something meaningful."

The feeling became more urgent when, at 17, she watched her parents divorce and her mother then struggle to become a breadwinner. "What a dramatic change that was for my mother who had never worked before. She began a career then, after her children were grown."

Sonnabend made a pact with herself: to be able to support herself, to not have to depend on anyone. Today, her father, sister, brother, four cousins, and two uncles help run the company. "Being surrounded by family at work can be both fabulous and challenging at the same time. The best part is you know they have a long-term commitment to the company, that they really care."

Her biggest goal is to continue to operate unique hotels that reflect their locale and provide a high level of personal, genuine, and friendly service. A creative food and beverage experience is also a priority as the company recently implemented a new program called, "Food is Art." The company also plans to expand slowly, adding two hotels a year at the most. "We don't have any ambition to get really large," she said. "Forty hotels would be ideal."

Family First 

Her family has always been as important to Sonnabend as her career. "My motto is that it is possible to do it all, just not all at the same time," said Sonnabend. "When my children were young, I focused on my family. After work, I didn't participate in any extracurricular activities."

Dinnertime was a special time, the chance to gather with her husband of 20 years, Greg Ciccolo, a musician and producer, in their suburban Boston home and their children. If she had to, she went back to work after dinner. 

"I'm a big believer in balance and a strong proponent of vacations ... especially vacations that take place in hotels, preferably Sonesta hotels," she said with a chuckle.

Practicing what she preaches, she's brought her children all over the world and has shown them what she does. Call it a case of mixing or rather, teaching  business with pleasure. "There is no better way for a family to bond than on a vacation," she adds

A love of the hotel industry has rubbed off on the fourth generation of the Sonnabend family. Her daughter Antonia is a freshman at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. It wouldn't surprise her if her son Nicholas, a sophomore in high school, follows in these footsteps as well, she said.

Now that her children are older, she devotes some of her time to volunteering and serving on corporate boards, including the Board of Directors of Century Bancorp and Century Bank and Trust, and the Board of Trustees of New England Conservatory. Boards are places in the business world where you find far too few women, she said. It's clear that Sonnabend, who has found her place in the business world, is blazing a path for other women to follow.

Andrea Doyle is Convene's senior writer.