Erin Kelly

I attribute my success to communication and relationship building above all else. I think anything we do, other than specialized roles, can be taught with the right people, but communication skills and relationship building are really the key to success in a corporate environment. People need to be able to have that comfort level and trust you, but you also need to individually bring to the table what they need. It won't matter how well you communicate if you don't have the skills to back it up. I've been very fortunate to have great mentors and leaders throughout my career, and I think mentorship is a tremendous asset. I fully support the company I work for and genuinely think they're a great company. They support employees and really look for people internally where they can help them build a career and grow within our company. I try to do the same with my staff. When I post jobs, I post internal first and look for opportunity to give people a chance before going outside. I've been very lucky and been able to bring in some folks that have been functioning in other capacities that, when given the structure and the opportunity, really have shined.

I would say the best career advice I've received is to be true to yourself and honest. Everyone makes mistakes, and it's not about the mistake, it's about how you avoid making them in the future. I tell my staff that all the time. I think it's a key component to being successful. The other two pieces I would add are listening first. You may have an idea in mind or a path forward, but hearing other people's perspectives and viewpoints is probably one of the best things you can do. That was one of the things I learned early in management: don't talk as much, and listen a lot more. Listen to what people say, the folks on the ground, people at all levels. Really listen and understand the root cause of the issue or what is driving the problem, and look to see what you can do. The last thing I always learned was targeting my audience. I know it sounds pretty basic, but when you start to really target who your audience is and manage up and understand who you're presenting to, it sets a nice tone for everything you're going to do going forward. I always tell my staff to write everything as if the CEO is going to pick it up. Make sure the average person can understand things that are going out. Go with your gut - when you think something's off, it probably is, and do that follow-up. Understand that mistakes happen, and don't beat yourself up too much. It's really about what you can do in the future to avoid that happening again.

I would tell them to really work hard and don't let being female stop you from anything. You're just as good as anybody else going for the role. I think in the current environments with a lot of discourse, whether it's politically or not, that does carry over into a lot of corporate environments. I think you should pave the path that you want, work and try to get the best mentors you can to help you do that, but don't give up. It's possible. I'm living proof, and I've done that. I've actually given some speeches in our Women for Women network about moving into leadership and what got me there. I couldn't have done it alone - you do need that support of good leaders and mentors that recognize what you bring to the table. But you never give up, and you always have to fight for yourself. One of the things I've learned in my career is you're your own strongest voice. You can't wait for someone to tap you on the shoulder, you can't wait for somebody to say here's a raise or here's this. You really have to go after what it is you want and find out what steps you need to take to go to that next platform or whatever level you're trying to get to. Continue to pave that path for yourself while getting as much support as you can from those that recognize the effort you're putting in. Being a female qualifies you just as much as anyone else.

The biggest challenge I would say right now is making sure that we are up on current technology and utilizing all of the ever-changing products and applications and various tools that can help us do our job better. Not only that, but understanding how they integrate into our day-to-day business and help deliver that to the forefront to hopefully drive revenue and gain efficiency. It changes so fast. I find that to be probably the biggest challenge. We're introducing AI into our model as a company, and we're working through understanding how that has implications not only to job structure change, but to roles moving forward. How do we become adaptable and flexible to understanding what that means to what we've been used to doing for quite some time? How do we integrate that into our daily life? We're also in the middle of globalizing into Europe and the UK, which is constantly in the background. I work for the CEO and I'm part of the senior leadership executive team, so we absolutely need to consider that, and the leadership will remain likely here for those teams, so going back to global, which I really enjoyed.

My values that I find important are, frankly, just general work ethic. I know that's not quite a value, but I was raised a certain way, and I take a lot of pride in my work. No matter whether I'm having a really bad day or a good day, I still always want to put out my best product and put my best foot forward. I think that's carried me through the good and bad times. I always take the same approach, no matter what. Second to that is honesty. I think you see a lot of passing the buck in environments like this, especially the corporate world, with people always trying to get ahead. I think being honest and open and not being afraid to speak your mind when it's a value-add comment or information that you want to share is important. Make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you do so, but really be your own voice and toot your own horn. The third value is confidence. It's funny because I'm a lot more confident professionally than I was personally for a long time in my life. I genuinely think it really just has to come with believing in yourself. Believe in what you know is right, and that's how I treat not only my professional life but my personal life now. I wanted to feel like I was adding value and that I was a productive member of a team. I didn't want to just punch a computer and go home at 5. I wanted to give something back and feel that I had a sense of accomplishment in my job.