Kathryn Kearney

I definitely attribute my success to how I was raised, which built a very strong work ethic into me at a young age. I was taught that I need to deserve and earn the money I get paid for whatever job I'm doing, and that brings a commitment to doing the best job I can do. The reality is that I also have a very supportive partner. My husband and I have been together for 27 years, and we've made some of our biggest life decisions together, like moving countries twice. Having that supportive partner to be a sounding board and having his support with every decision we make as a family has been really important. That foundation of support has made me feel comfortable with the big decisions I make. I think that combination of strong work ethic and a supportive home environment has been the foundation for my success.

Regardless of industry or even gender, the best thing I can offer is to take every opportunity you get. I have a very consistent, tried-and-tested process when I get an opportunity and need to make a decision. I literally create a pros and cons list with the information I have available at that given time, and I make the decision on the back of that. I really focus on what opportunity would I say no to versus what I would say yes to, and how do I make sure that when an opportunity does seem apparent, I take it on, as opposed to staying in a more comfortable space. For women in particular, my advice is: ask. You won't get if you don't ask. For almost whatever percentage of things I've ever asked for, very few folks have said no to me, and I was just like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I asked for that, and they didn't say no. Women in particular struggle with maybe feeling empowered that they deserve what they're asking for, because of the trend that they have to be 100% sure that they should get a yes in order to ask. I'm hoping that the next generation of leaders and folks successful in the workplace will just be strong enough to ask.

Right now, we have this critical moment where AI is everywhere, and the question is how do we make our workforce of the future ready for that? I think that's one of the things I'm trying to establish a service around and make sure that I'm considered a thought leader in that space. With so much opportunity, I want to take full advantage of the intersectionality and the privilege that I have of being across all of these areas between higher ed, startups which I do a lot of consulting and advising for, and my Corporate Education Network as well. In the technology space especially, the challenge is how we can expect adults to learn at the pace that we are, but regardless of the content or whatever you're learning, I think being curious and always being willing to learn is really important.

Always being curious and learning are values that are really important to me, and I think it coincidentally or not turns out that I'm doing a master's in adult education because I'm fascinated with how we can expect adults to learn, and certainly in the technology space, how we can expect them to learn at the pace that we are. But regardless of the content or whatever you're learning, I think be curious and always be willing to learn. I think that's a really important one, and it comes back to maybe a lot of the successes I've had. I've learned along the way, and I think that was a really valuable one. The other thing I very consciously do is I value networks, and I'm constantly trying to think about when I meet somebody new, how I can bring value to them. I'm very privileged with a network that I can rely on, but that's been built up over many years. Being a person that is reliable and trustworthy, and being able to identify how to connect folks through my network, I think is a really strong value that I bring as well. Being a constant connector is a valuable one for me.