Katherine Smigelski

I attribute my success to the importance of building my network. Delta has a huge culture of getting to know people and having coffee chats, but I think that goes beyond just Delta. For me, it's about how you continue throughout your career as you go into different positions and different companies, continuing to foster those relationships so that you can continue to explore, stay in touch with those people, and gain knowledge around those spaces. But it's also about having that network and support system to go to if you need something. I've definitely had mentors throughout my career. In my first role, I had a really strong mentor in my boss at the time, who was a really strong female role that really pushed me and brought me along in the journey, and then supported me throughout my career, even when I decided to make a transition. The woman I had as my boss at Walgreens really pushed me to think about higher education and drove me to explore an MBA and a future role in consulting. Even now, my first boss at Delta, my second boss at Delta, and others that I've worked with throughout Delta have been huge influences. Delta has a huge culture of fostering those mentors, and I think it's super important for overall career success and satisfaction.

The biggest piece of advice I've received is the importance of building your network. It's so important throughout your career as you go into different positions and different companies to continue to foster those relationships. That way you can continue to explore, gain and stay in touch with those people, gain knowledge around those spaces, but also if you need something, you're able to have that network and that support system to go to. Delta has a big culture of getting to know people and having coffee chats, but this principle goes beyond just one company.

The biggest piece I'd say is the aspect of just staying curious. I learned early on that rather than just taking what you're given and accepting it and staying in your lane, it's so important to understand the why behind things, understand different areas, and see different opportunities that maybe isn't the norm, but could become huge things that we look back on and wonder why we never did that. I think it leads into you understanding more of the why and having more motivation. It allows you to grow your knowledge and find different opportunities that allow you to perform better, but it also comes back to that networking piece. People want you to tell them about what they're doing and what they're working on, and it just gives you an opportunity to gain more of that enterprise mindset rather than being stuck in a silo.

I think challenges can be getting consensus across a variety of different stakeholders and driving forward and making sure everyone's on board. Another one is thinking about the fact that Delta is a huge company, and we have a ton of SkyMiles members, so how do you drive impact at scale from an engagement strategy? Whether somebody is a diamond medallion with us or is flying Delta for the first time, how do you make sure they experience that elevated experience, and specifically get a chance to engage with our SkyMiles program and understand how we bring value at scale? It's also about how you continue to innovate and bring new and exciting things to members based on what they are asking or providing back in terms of feedback through our Consumer Insights team. As a big company, you have to work with a lot of different teams, thinking about technology prioritization and how you continue to push that work and prioritize that to bring it to life.