Kelly Allard

Years ago, I worked for a manager who set an incredible example for me. We were in a meeting where I was presenting new rates to the CEO and board. Before the meeting, I had told her what I thought we should do, but she told me to take it back to the drawing board and go in a different direction - the safer way. During the presentation, the CEO asked why we didn't do it my original way. My manager literally jumped in and said, 'I'm gonna say it right now, I told her not to. I told her to go in a different direction. She had the right instinct, and I went the safer way. She already did that work, she can show you the whole presentation. Give us a couple of days and we'll come back with that. But she's already done it, and I shut her down.' From that point on, I realized that was the kind of leader I wanted to be. I wanted to make sure I was always celebrating people's successes and taking accountability when I made the wrong call. It wasn't about the group making the wrong call - when we win, we win together and I celebrate all of your achievements as your achievements. But when we fail, that's my responsibility. I take the hit in front of people. I fully believe I don't want to be the kind of person who stole credit for an idea or didn't credit someone who had the better idea that I overrode. That's how I've driven my career from then on, and I feel like I've built a lot of trust with that approach.

I would say don't be intimidated. People are going to try to intimidate you, and you're gonna constantly feel like you're not the expert because it's still a very male-dominated field. You start to feel like you don't have that expertise or you don't know, but really, look at the difference. You have that expertise, you've built up that capability. Trust in yourself - it's hard to do, but remember that you did it, and most of the time, they didn't. So trust yourself. I've spent a lot of time fighting with guys in my career telling me that I couldn't do things. The most frustrating thing on the planet is just getting your own ideas regurgitated back to you from someone else. My favorite thing there is just pulling up the presentation that you put together about it months and months before and being like, 'oh, you mean like this?' You put it up there, and they have to walk it back. They can't pull the credit or take the credit at that point.

There are a ton of challenges in both the AI space and consulting. In the AI space, a lot of the challenges are around adoption, understanding what adoption is, and thinking about the moral and ethical implications of using AI and AI's impact on the environment. There's a lot of controversy because of the news we're hearing about companies laying off people because of AI and AI replacing humans. There's a lot of reluctance. I feel like part of my job is showing people that it's a tool, it's a partnership - it's not a magic wand. It's grown-up statistics. It's a system that takes statistical models and predicts what the next thing is going to be. What are those impacts? What is it going to do? You're seeing people run too fast in the wrong direction, or you're seeing people hold back. It's a relatively exciting but challenging space. In the consulting industry, a lot of the challenges right now are because of AI. That knowledge worker space is really starting to have to find other ways to generate value. What value do we bring when you can ask ChatGPT to do the same work in far less time? Really showing what is the difference, what can we do, how do we help, and what do we bring to the table that isn't coming from AI. Helping people to understand what AI is good for and what it's not good for - I think there's a lot of misunderstanding in that space.