How do you lead a team based across the world?
There is a fundamental baseline for what makes all of them tick. They all love customers and they love sales. When you put those things together, it doesn't matter if you are speaking Mandarin or if you're speaking Russian or speaking English. The bottom line is you're trying to get the client to move from an "I don't know" to a "yes." That's part of what makes these people tick. They want to create that value for Starwood. All I do is create four to five key strategic initiatives each year.

At the end of the day, the only way any of this gets done is due to the fact that my team is so strong and dedicated. I am very fortunate to be surrounded by really good people who want the company to succeed and the industry to be robust, innovative, and interesting. We have a group of people who are based around the world with a significant force in North America and in growing emerging markets. Our concentration is in emerging markets - China, India, Russia, and areas in the Eastern Bloc. I travel almost every week, and internationally five to six times a year.

Have you found any hesitation overseas to a woman being in charge?
The person who runs our Asia Pacific sales group is a woman, so there is a kindred spirit there. That's very helpful. She helps me with the basics, what I call the stupid stuff. How should I dress, is there a certain way I should act? Although I always do my research, it is really helpful to be able to talk to her, someone who is there. She is based in Singapore and travels all over Asia regularly. There have been so many countries that have pleasantly surprised me - India, for instance. I was a bit concerned that there would be a gender slant but there was not. That was a nice surprise.

When I visit these different countries I am there to do business. If our business is better done with me taking a back seat rather than a front seat then that's where I sit. It can't be about ego. It's got to be about what you need to do to get the job done. We have a gentleman who runs our Tokyo global sales office. He is the person our clients relate to. In that case, my job is to walk behind him or beside him, but I never try to walk in front of him.

Why aren't there more women in the hotel industry?
I do believe there is a glass ceiling and it is an area that does concern me. I'm not a person who is going to spend my career criticizing where I've been or where I am, because we don't have enough women. I don't think any of the big hospitality companies have enough women in key positions. At Starwood, we have three senior vice presidents of operations in North America alone who are female. We have a woman who is senior vice president of our Westin brand and a woman who heads up our franchise and owner relations group. I think we do okay but I think we can do better. The scariest part is we often use excuses. We say women don't want to move around, women are focused on having kids. I'm sorry but I don't agree. I think you can have a family and have a great job recognizing that it's hard and that everybody gives up something. You don't ever get everything. That's just life in the real world. Unless the industry makes this a priority, it's never going to change. It hasn't changed since I started. We all have a responsibility to do what we can to change this. I mentor women but I feel I have equal responsibility to mentor men. I don't think you mentor somebody just because of their gender. I certainly speak my mind about what I call the "girl thing" but I really believe that it's about capability.

Did you have a mentor?
Cody Plott, whom I worked with at Hyatt and is now president of Pebble Beach Company, was someone who pushed me in every direction to grow and be better. He made anyone who worked for him work hard for what they got, which I really respect and admire him for.

How did you get started in the hotel industry?
I fell into it, like most people my age. I didn't go to college to be a hotel person. I had just gotten divorced and needed to pay some bills. A secretarial job opened up in the Hyatt New Orleans, where I was living and I jumped at it because I had a fantasy in my head that hotel sales was a very glamorous, interesting profession. Within a week, I knew I had found my niche. I was 30 years old and the city was gearing up to host the Super Bowl in January. My boss was very involved with the NFL and gave me the opportunity to work with customers, which I loved. Six months later, I was in sales and never looked back. It's what I love to do. I love the challenge. I love the customers. This is an industry that gets in your blood.

What advice can you give others just starting out in the hospitality industry?
Be as flexible as you can. Understand you are in business, not just the hospitality business. Know what's going on around you in the world. If you're willing to be open- minded geographically, your career will go further faster. Most of all, understand this is an industry that gets in your blood. If you don't have passion for it, don't do it.

What does the future hold for you?
I have my dream job. I consider myself really lucky. A lot of people never find their dream job. My goal is to keep it, and to have it make great sense for me personally, our company, and for the people I work with because we all work hard.

What do meetings and conventions mean to Starwood?
Group business is about 40 percent of our overall business. It means a great deal. At some hotels, meetings and conventions constitute 80 percent of their business, at others it is 10 percent.

Meetings and conventions are a critical piece. It's where we put our energy; where we have the most human resources deployed.

What challenges keep you up at night?
How to find talent is No. 1. It's harder and harder to find great people. I worry a lot about customer service. I think it has really gone downhill in our country. I'm hopeful from a North American perspective we can take a page out of the book from Asia, from other parts of the world, and really make customer service a priority. Another thing that keeps me up at night is if I'm making enough of a contribution - not so much at the company level but at the people level.

What attributes have you developed that have helped you?
I've learned that there is more than one way to do something. Learning that there is gray in the world has been very helpful - that there are different points of view and strengths.

I'm highly competitive. I think that's a necessary quality. I think that while I'm tough, I'm pretty fair. I also believe I have a pretty good sense of humor and that's a really important thing not to lose sight of. I always say you have to take your job seriously but you can't take yourself seriously.

A fundamental thing I learned when I moved to Starwood is to concentrate on the outside business world, not just the hospitality industry. How do you define success? For me, it's really easy. Am I happy? Did we win - meaning did we do what we set out to do? Did we do it better? Did we make a difference?

Editor's Note: Christie Hicks is the 2008 chair of the PCMA Education Foundation Board.

Andrea Doyle is Convene's senior writer.