Katherine McQuade

I would say that perhaps the biggest success there is two things. One is an advocate, so somebody there on your side at the higher level that can support you, and possibly even the second one would be a mentor. So, somebody who can help you navigate through those channels. When you stumble a little bit and help support you, and guide you, and help to understand. I had a wonderful boss, a senior VP level. And he was really good about coaching me.

Best piece of advice. There's been a couple, I'd say, but perhaps one of the ones that sticks with me a lot. You need to find somebody who can give you true feedback. Somebody once told me, and this always stuck with me, they said, when you stop paying attention to what somebody's telling you, it shows all over your face. Give somebody the decency and respect to listen, truly listen to what it is they're trying to tell you. Another really good piece of advice that somebody gave me, is your do-so needs to be as high as your say-so. If you're going to say you're gonna do something, then you have to do it. And that's where the trust comes.

I think my biggest thing, many, many years, I would be the only woman traveling all over the world. I think the biggest thing is just be yourself. I mean, don't try too hard to be one way or the other, like, I'm not a guy, I don't want to be a guy. I'm happy in my skin, you know? So I'm not going to try to be like one of them. But I'm also not going to go overboard to show them that I'm not one of them. I'm just going to be myself, and I think that's the most important thing, and if they're not gonna take you as you are, then you're probably in the wrong spot. Because there are others out there that will take you just like you are.

I think it's gonna be the generational differences. You end up having to work with, for, and lead people of all different generations. There's a lot of different ones slotted in there, and I think as people are living longer and working longer, that puts in another generation. And I think there, if you go back a little bit and think about respect and understanding that not everybody is like you. And that's okay, right? So, understanding and having the capability to respect the differences and learn from them. The biggest opportunity is people are still eager to learn. There's a huge opportunity there to try to embrace technology and help it work in that field. AI, of course, is a huge thing.

I think at the top is respect. I have a little bit of a pet peeve if I feel like somebody's disrespectful, whether it's of me or of our planet. And trust is pretty high there, too. Trustworthiness. Commitment is another one I'm pretty passionate about things and am committed to getting something done. Perseverance, my husband would say, is I just won't let things go until I've finished, completed, seen it through. So those are probably my top ones.