Gina Kilchenman is vice president of sales at Highgate, a hospitality investment, management, technology and development firm with a diverse portfolio of hotels across North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe. She’s also a Women Leading Travel & Hospitality member! In this member spotlight, we asked Gina a series of questions so you can get to know her better.

  1. What’s the best book you’ve read recently?
    I LOVE reading about women in other cultures and recently devoured “Valkyrie: Women of the Viking World” by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir.
  2. What’s a tip you have for productively leading a remote or hybrid team?
    Everyone learns and absorbs information differently, and it’s important to me to deliver any message in different mediums. If I’m sending out an important deadline, I will email my team, create a post in TEAMS, schedule a video call to discuss details verbally, and offer to schedule one-on-one time with anyone who wants to complete a task together. My priority has to be the success of my people, and creating an almost cult-like culture of learning, support, growth and opportunity is at the top in my toolbox!
  3. What’s a mistake you made early on in your career?
    I made far too many personal sacrifices early on, all in the name of climbing the ladder and making a name for myself. Balancing your professional and personal state of being is a lifelong journey, and I wish I didn’t look at the path to professional success through such a black and white lens in my 20s.
  4. What’s the toughest part of being in charge?
    Much like leading a team with vastly different learning styles, I have team members in every time zone at incredibly different stages in their professional lives, selling 16 different hotel brands in urban, suburban, rural and every other market in between. Having to constantly be a chameleon to make sure I’m effectively reaching all of my people is an exhaustive everyday process, but the results on the other end are more than worth the effort!
  5. What’s the best way you motivate team members?
    A question I always ask myself when making a decision for or on behalf of my team is “Will this task or ask benefit their leadership/professional journey and will they see the value in what’s being communicated?” How someone feels valued is different for everyone, and the best way for me to provide individual and team motivation is just to be approachable and available. As a leader, I’m very cognizant of tone — words matter (in fact, I’ve been called a “walking thesaurus” more than once), and those words can be the difference between getting buy-in or not. I also ask my team a lot of questions and do a lot of listening, followed up by putting their feedback into action.
  6. What woman inspires you right now and why?
    Working mothers, women who are the breadwinners in their households, all of the women with large platforms who are currently using their voices to be champions of change, and every single woman who wakes up the next day and tells themselves they CAN. Ladies, YOU are incredible.
  7. What are you looking forward to the most for the industry?
    The hospitality industry was decimated in March 2020, and we still have a ways to go, but have proved to be more resilient than I could have hoped. That being said, many amazing hotel leaders have left or were forced out of the industry over the last few years. While it’s also a bit scary, I look forward to being on the front lines of “raising” the next generation of hospitality leaders. We have so much to be excited about and I look forward to rebuilding.
  8. What’s one thing you look for when interviewing a job candidate?
    Because I’m typically looking for hotel sellers, I always take notice of their presentation style. Are they a captive storyteller looking to build rapport with me or are they simply telling me what they think I want to hear? The final interview question I always ask any candidate is, “If you weren’t working in hospitality, regardless of current skill set or knowledge level, what would your absolute dream job be?” The candidates who immediately light up and passionately give me a glimpse into what makes them truly happy are usually top contenders for the open position.
  9. What’s something that you learned about yourself in the past year?
    I finally learned that it IS possible to take a vacation and disconnect from work.
  10. What’s your favorite podcast?
    How to Be a Better Human
  11. What values are most important to you as a leader?
    Integrity, integrity, integrity. And a sense of humor.
  12. What’s the most important thing people should know about you?
    I may be in sales, but I’m actually an introvert. It’s my now-not-so-secret weapon.
  13. What’s one habit you adopted while working from home that you kept/would like to keep with you as you return to the office?
    Drinking enough water has always been a struggle, but I consistently drink about half of my body weight in water every day now!
  14. How would you describe yourself in a single sentence?
    I am a goal-oriented, fierce champion of people, and am a true Taurus the Bull when it comes to loyalty and protection of those closest to me.
  15. What’s your favorite app?
    Spotify. Music is such an important part of my everyday!
  16. What do you do to recharge?
    Speaking of music, playing the piano is incredibly relaxing for me and I LOVE putting playlists together, especially if it’s a playlist that coincides with planning a trip somewhere new!
  17. What’s your biggest accomplishment?
    For me it’s every time I get to promote someone on my team. Potentially changing someone’s life could not resonate more as a top tier accomplishment.
  18. What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?
    Don’t feel like you have to sacrifice starting a family or fear taking time off to take that bucket list trip as you work towards shattering the glass ceiling. Seeing the world will make you more empathetic to co-workers, peers and associates, and allowing yourself to be a partner, a mom, a best friend, a sister, will make you the best version of yourself. Balance is a journey, but it’s not one or the other. Don’t be afraid to color outside of the lines.
  19. What gets you up in the morning?
    When it’s not one or both of my pups ready to tell me how excited they are that it’s a new day, what gets me up in the morning is knowing that I have an opportunity to pay it forward and help make even the smallest impact in someone’s life professionally or personally!
  20. What do you like most about being a member of Women Leading Travel & Hospitality?
    I’m always looking for inspiration, and at my first WLT&H event in Dallas, Cheryl Richards spoke about her personal Board of Directors — mentors and the individuals she goes to when genuinely seeking advice or is in need of a different perspective. More impactfully, she noted that the members of that Board of Directors will change with time and personal growth. I cannot stop thinking about what she said, and while she probably didn’t think that would be a main takeaway, THAT is the kind of inspiration I’ve been looking for and was the moment I knew I had found a great organization to join.

If you would like to become a Women Leading Travel & Hospitality member or need additional information about our organization, click here.