#97 Leading with Purpose: Women Shaping the Future of Leadership

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Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Proteus Leaders Show. I'm your host, Marie-Olive, and I'm thrilled to bring you this special Women's Day episode where we celebrate the power of women in leadership and the incredible contribution they make in shaping the future of business. Today, I'm honored to be joined by someone who has inspired me personally and professionally, Katie McCarty. Katie and I worked together at General Electric, where she led the corporate audit staff, and I was lucky enough to learn from her leadership. Since then, Katie has built an extraordinary career helping to scale mission-driven growth companies in industries like e-commerce, software tech, and healthcare. Her track record as a CEO, CFO, board member, and strategic leader speaks volumes about her ability to drive results while staying true to a company's purpose. Katie, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Marie, and, and thank you for that kind introduction. It's fantastic to see you again.

It's so exciting to have you here to talk about leadership, mission-driven businesses, and the importance of empowering women in the workplace. So let's dive in.

Sounds good.

So you've had such a dynamic career, starting from your role as Vice President of the Corporate Office itself. Thinking back to our time there, how did those early experiences shape your leadership style and your perspective as a woman leading in male-dominated industries?

I think for, for both of us, and really for all of us who experienced the GE audit staff, it was a really unique opportunity. It was an opportunity to see so much of the world, to learn how to work with people from different backgrounds, experience different cultures, learn how to adapt, be flexible, and figure it out. You know, I think the biggest thing that I learned during that time that helped me was you may not know the industry very well or this particular area very well, But how do you figure out how to work with a team to leverage the experts and get up to speed and have confidence that you will and can figure it out?

Leverage the experts and you don't have to know everything.

Right.

It's—

you can't. And I think that was the other really important— the idea often behind what we were asked to do or when I was leading what we asked others to do was put them in a situation where they could build up their expertise in an area that wasn't as familiar and then build upon that and challenge someone. You know, if you'd never operated outside the United States and you were American, give them that chance. If you were born in France and you'd never been to China, perhaps, how would you do in that environment? I thought, I think it was an amazing experience.

And I would go even further because, you know, my background is engineering and I was given the chance to become an auditor and I didn't know about debits and credits. And, you know, you guys just said, welcome, and you're going to bring a different perspective, link operations to finance in a way that finance people cannot do it.

That's a great example. And there was also a lot of thought put into making sure that the teams were balanced, that, you know, so you could leverage expertise. So there might have been somebody with more experience in finance or accounting, but that you would come in and bring a different perspective. Because in the end of the day, finance is about business operations and understanding, you know, what drives business operations. And I think it was really a good, at least for me, helped me Understand that teams need people with different strengths, and those are the best teams when they can come together and, and really build upon the strengths of the entire team, not maybe just one person who happens to be the best at this particular thing. And we really saw that play out.

Yes, the power of teams. And often we talk about diversity, thinking about gender, and— but this diversity of background experiences that also brings so much value to teams.

I, I agree with that. And I, and I think the unique opportunity of traveling with and really living with these teams for, you know, 4 months at a time, a lot of your learning didn't just happen on— happen in the office. It was perhaps having dinner with people and getting to know, having lunch with someone who was from a completely different background than, than you were, and really building up your, your character and, and your life skills in addition to your technical and business acumen skills.

Yes, I cannot agree more with that. You know, now that I am also a coach, I see one of the key leadership traits, you know, that successful leaders have is versatility, the ability to adapt, you know, to understand, you know, different styles. And I think audit staff was a great school for that because we worked with so many different people. Right.

And often under challenging, tight timelines. And I think that was another amazing gift that I received was how to prioritize and how to really determine what is most important and realize that there's so much to do at the end of the day, you can't do everything. So what are the top things that must be accomplished before the end of the day, before the end of the week, before the end of the audit? And how do you prioritize your deliverables?

Now, one thing that's stands out in your career is your commitment to companies with strong missions, from healthcare to e-commerce and SaaS. So what attracts you to mission-driven businesses, and how do you ensure that purpose remains central while scaling for growth?

I think that that really started— I think GE Healthcare really showed me how technology could be used to really help change lives and improve outcomes. And, you know, I wanted to continue to continue on with that passion for technology, but in different spaces and in some cases, smaller companies that needed to grow and scale. So, and the mission can be different. I worked for an e-commerce company who really wanted to tap into the passion of people who loved video games, who wanted to find the inner geek in themselves and have a place to celebrate it. That was really about the passion for these customers and how do you make sure that you continue to ignite it by innovating products and technology that really they could celebrate. I've also worked in, more recently, in software companies, software as a service companies, one of which is focused on basically returns, retail returns, which create a huge issue for the environment. Last year in the US alone, there were $890 billion in retail returns. E-commerce growth has, has just absolutely made this skyrocket. So how do you use technology to simplify retail returns process and avoid things ending up in landfills where, where they often do, unfortunately? And then also return— also technology for clinical trials. So another healthcare company focused in on how do you reduce the cycle time and improve the efficacy of clinical trials was another big passion for me.

And so when you have that passion, I guess it gives you the energy and animates you at work. Like, how do you transfer that to the team? I mean, how do you kind of bring it to life on a daily basis with the teams?

Well, fortunately, I think the companies that I joined, the employees had that passion. who founded and started those companies, and it really did translate into the people that were hired. But it was critical to make sure that as you brought on more individuals that, you know, they obviously had the skill set needed for the role, the teamwork needed for the role, but they also could share that similar passion. And it was important upfront to understand that. And in many cases, I was building the finance team From basically from scratch where you come in a startup company, that's not the first thing that people do, right? You want to innovate your product. You want to launch your product, make sure there's a market. And then finance has to help scale the company. And so was it critical to find people who are passionate about their job, finance and accounting, but also really had a mission that they were excited about by working at the company? Because people can work in a lot of places and you want them to feel really good about where they're, where they're coming every day. Not just the work they're doing, but the, the com— what the company represents.

Because especially finance is such a transferable skill that they could do finance almost in any company. But here in this case, I am hearing that they, they were interested in the product, the service, so they could relate to it in some ways.

Yeah. And one of the things we're seeing, you know, especially over the last 10 years or so, as Generation Z enters the workforce, You know, and there have been, there have been studies about this, and we've done surveys at, at companies I work for. They're even more focused on working for a company that they feel passionate about, that they, that they can get excited about what that company is accomplishing. For sure.

I see that in coaching too, kind of finding your purpose. It's becoming more of a priority. And I think COVID also has, has had Definitely. Because people are like, you know, is it worth it?

Yeah. And I think through board positions too, you know, there, you know, there are so many opportunities to get involved and hopefully use your skill set to, to help, help a board get to the next level or support a great cause, whatever it is. It's— I'm heading that phase in my career where, you know, I'm still, still passionate about helping companies, but I also want to, want to help nonprofits as well.

Now, As we're approaching Women's Day, I'd love to talk about, you know, the unique challenges that women leaders face in the workplace. So in your experience, what are some of the challenges and opportunities that you've encountered and how have you overcome them? You know, what advice would you give to other women aspiring to lead?

Thank you for that question. You know, I think as you said in the question, there There are challenges, but there are also opportunities. In terms of challenges, I mean, back in the very beginning when I started, there certainly were fewer women. And in some cases, you'd be in a situation where you might be the only person. That sometimes still happens. So it prepared you for that. Like, it may happen in certain conversations that you're having depending on the industry you work in or a board you might be interacting with. But I think it also was a really unique opportunity to try to learn from everyone, learn from men that you work with, learn from women that you saw and admired, and also stand out in some cases, right? If there were fewer people, there's an opportunity to distinguish yourself. So I think that, sure, there's challenges, but there are also opportunities. And you need to learn how to take advantage of them. If they give you a chance to do something unique, you know, if you can jump at it, it's great. I think one of the challenges, though, in general, is it can be more difficult sometimes for, for women to, to jump for those opportunities because of other things they may be trying to balance. That, that isn't true for just women. It's true for everyone. But as people start to have more than one career in a family or a partnership, you know, That those are things that have to be balanced.

I'm curious about what you were telling yourself, you know, when you were that only woman in the room, you know, maybe that initially your voice wasn't heard, or like, how did you fight that?

Well, you know, one thing I tried to do was, you know, look at leaders who, who I admire their style, and, and that, and it, it could have, it could have been male leaders as well. That what I tried to do is, okay, I might not get a chance to say that much. So when I say something, it needs to have a very big impact. And I saw many different styles of leadership, and there, there were some people who, who listened a lot, took in the information, and then when they said something, it made a large impact. So I tried to—

Mm-hmm.

To emulate that. And I think, you know, rather than being someone who's saying something all the time— and believe me, I am a person that probably could be known for talking too much in certain scenarios— but in those scenarios, make sure if you're going to say something, have an impact.

Yeah, I was with 40 women last week and moderating kind of an event, and one of them said, you know, if, if you talk all the time, you lose your voice. Exactly back to the power of observing, listening, and when you intervene, you have an impact.

And it does take time to learn that. Like, for anyone who's listening, like, earlier in a career, often, you know, in this world where everyone is distracted and there's devices and you're, you're, you know, having to look at— you have your phone and you're trying to listen. It's, it's really important to learn those listening skills and, and giving someone your full attention. And, and I I think, you know, it is, it is something though that often in early career takes time to train. It takes time to improve upon, but it's important. It's important to learn.

Cannot agree more. And often in coaching, you know, we, we work on that because a lot of people listen to speak because, you know, there is that confidence gap and they think, you know, I need to speak. But when you actually listen to understand, That makes your intervention more powerful because you've been able to maybe reframe some of the things that were said, you know, synthesize. So, so then you add more value on top of what people said.

Exactly. And I think sometimes, you know, I try to practice, what I heard you say is this, or, you know, because it may be also that you're, you're not getting it, and then you appear that you're not understanding. So sometimes rephrasing, saying, I think what I heard you say was this for really effective communication.

And I think sometimes it's okay if you misunderstood, because then it's the opportunity to clarify, as you said, and to enhance that communication and dialogue. And people appreciate that you, you're kind of making an effort to get the point. Doesn't mean you agree with them.

Exactly. It doesn't necessarily mean you agree with them. You know, I think, I think one of the things that You know, you, you had asked, I, I'm not sure I answered, was, you know, what are some of the challenges for, for the women? And, and whether it was for me previously or today, and I think, I think in general, it's, it's, you know, how do you, how do you balance it all? And this, this really is for everyone, but I think sometimes it can, it can really fall upon the woman to, to balance certain things. And, and we feel We feel especially guilty if we don't feel we're doing our part at home or with family. And it changes over the years in terms of what that looks like. Whether, you know, for people with small children, it can be, you know, am I— do I spend enough time with my child? Are they in daycare or with care? Older, you want to be at the events. You want to make sure you're supportive. You're doing all those right things. You're there for them. And then later it's, it's a different role. And for people my age now, it's our, our children may be through college. It's now we have parents and there's caregiving supporting that's needed there. So it's how do you balance that? That's again, that impacts everyone in a family and everyone that, that is, um, part of that family. But I do think that's something women have to try to, to find balance. And I think Sometimes flexibility is going to be really important there. The other thing I would say is if you have help you can reach out to and that you have family members or friends or, you know, you don't have to do it all yourself, get help and try to leverage others if you can. So too much stress doesn't fall upon you.

Thank you for sharing that, P. I mean, it really resonates with me and there's often that Desire to do it all by yourself. You know, I think the realization that there are people that are present to help and reaching out is important.

And I also think for, for people, it is important also to really have a candid conversation with your, your manager, your leader, to, to let them know if there's things that are going on, like, hey, you know, I I have to do this thing and have to pick up by this hour, but I'm going to hit all my deliverables and get these things done and do this and that. And, or if there's some situation going on, I think candid communication is always really important.

What role do you think mentorship and allyship play in supporting women leaders? And maybe that those managers you were talking about, or mentors in companies you've worked at.

I think it can play a really important role. I mean, I think it, for me, it works best when it can happen somewhat naturally, but I also am really supportive of mentorship programs that give people exposure to people they, they wouldn't otherwise meet and coaching they may, they might not otherwise get. You know, I don't, I don't have one person to point to in terms of my own career. What I would say is that I always tried to seek out like different types of leaders. to learn from and try to pick the best of what I saw in them and make sure that I learned from not one style because I think that's important. One thing that did influence me, though, I was fortunate very early on when I started out in training in the 1990s. I worked in the financial management training program at GE, which many people might be familiar with. You know, I already had some good role models that I saw who had actually gone on the audit staff at a time when very few women did. And then they had dual careers and they were able to have, have a family and, and be part, you know, keep going. And really, that was inspirational. And there were many terrific women who preceded me at the audit staff and at Really influenced me quite a bit.

Same way you influenced me. Oh, thank you. I remember when I joined, I knew that you were a mom, you know, I was like, oh, so it's possible. I think when you see women you admire that are doing it, then you're like, maybe I can do it too.

Right. And I think, you know, and it's important to keep that mindset, you know, in terms of supporting women, one of the things, and families, you know, I would hope that men who've worked with me would say the same thing is it's important to have empathy and to keep it because, you know, you might be at— like, I might be at a stage where I no longer have, you know, someone who has to be picked up here or, you know, has to go to daycare. But I know exactly what that was like. And I can— and balancing out, you know, more than one career. You have to remember that. You can't forget it because it's over for you, because so many others are going through it. And then there might be new challenges that you end up having to face. Again, I mentioned elder parents. There are many types of caregivers. People have a lot of things going on. And I think it's just important to maintain empathy for people's situations. The expectation is still there of performance. The deliverables are still there. Maintaining empathy can help be supportive.

I love what you said about, you know, having empathy. We all think of that, but to keep it, because sometimes we forget how it was.

They forget. Yeah. You forget. Right.

And really connecting on that deeper level.

Yeah. Like, on the one hand, right, technology has enabled so much. Like, it's, it's made, you know, it's, it's made things possible. Like, we're on a Zoom today, and that's great. And it's fantastic to be able to converse with you on Zoom and, you know, makes things possible to sometimes work remotely, work from home. At the same time, technology never leaves. It's always there. It, it can follow you the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep and beyond if you let it. So it's also important to figure out boundaries, which is not really easy to do, but important.

I feel you anticipated my last question, which is about, you know, sharing some practical advice with our listeners, because we love leaving our listeners with 3 things that they can do starting today. In this case, you know, to advance their careers, make a bigger impact, you know, work for purposeful companies. What would those tips be? Katie?

Well, I think one of them, it was something I used to share even back when I was— when we met, when I was at the GE audit staff. I think it's really important, maybe now more than ever, that you have to build some— you need to balance your depth with breadth. And what I mean by that is you need to build some expertise. And yet, you know, so you need to be good at something. You need to have something that is your strength. But get exposure to different things if possible. Like, so how I'd make that practical today would be, you know, what's your technical competency that you have? Make sure you work at something long enough to get that. I'm well aware that everyone does not stay at companies as long as we used to. I was at GE for 18 years. That now seems really, really long. So people are going to move around, but how do you make sure you're not trying to jump too quickly without building, checking off the skills you need? And I work with software engineers a lot, have for several years now, and it's just making sure that, you know, you want the promotion to the next level, but did you build all the skills you needed before you got that promotion? So that's one. A second one I believe is very important is, you know, be a team player. Be someone that people want to work with. Be willing to step in, to roll up your sleeves if needed to get things done. I've spent the better part of the last 10, 15 years in, in more of that startup company to late-stage startup to a public company that was more like a startup. And the great thing is you get exposure to so many things. Sometimes you've got to jump in and do things. There's no one else to do it. And so prove yourself that you'll jump in. If someone leaves or goes out, you know, help them out, jump in. And that doesn't mean, you know, let people walk all over you and give you too many tasks, but be someone who people want to have on the team. And for women especially, that doesn't mean, you know, you can't be tough. But what it means is, you know, you want to be fair and you want to do things in the right way. You can make hard decisions. You just want to do, do things and communicate them in, in the right way that shows why we're doing this and why it is important for the team. I think the final thing I'd say is be good to yourself. You mentioned something earlier. We women in particular can be hard on ourselves. That inner voice can be very critical.

Mm-hmm.

And that's probably true for, for many men as well, but I catch myself beating myself up a lot about why didn't you do this?

What—

stop. Turn it around, make it positive if possible, and give yourself a break. And, and part of that is also really do give yourself a break and make sure you've got some outlets that you can, that can reduce your stress. So that might be exercise for some people. It is for me. It could be reading. It could be meditating, traveling. Spending time with family and friends. Just make sure, because, you know, it is, it is easy to burn out if, if you don't have that. And so make sure you just take care of yourself too.

This is so good. So balance breadth versus depth, you know, be an A-team player ready to jump in and be kind to yourself, be good to yourself, you know. Yes. Find the things that work for you.

I think that's right. And I— and, you know, there are many, there are many people, I'm sure, who have, who have many great ideas. And the other thing I'd say is just make sure you're also exposing yourself to people you can learn from. And if you're not learning enough, you know, challenge that. Say, am I really— am I learning enough, or should I expose myself to people I can learn from more?

Thank you so much, Katie.

You're welcome.

For sharing your insights, stories, wisdom with us today. You know, it's been a pleasure exploring your journey and learning from your experiences. For me, you know, after all those years to see you again, it's just pure joy.

Thank you. It's, it's been a pleasure and so proud of everything you have accomplished. It is so impressive and can't wait to see more from you. And I know we will.

Thank you. Now, to our listeners, if you're inspired by Kathy's story like I am, take this as a call to action to implement those practical skills, to support and celebrate women leaders in your life. You know, let's work together to create workplaces and companies that not only achieve results but also honor the values we hold dear. And of course, If you want to explore how Produce can help you and your organization grow as leaders, visit us at produce-international.com. Thank you for tuning in, and until next time, here's to creating the life and leadership you truly want.

We hope you're feeling better equipped to create the career, the business, and the life you want. To find out more about how we support our clients in leadership leadership, learning, and change, visit us at proteus-international.com. Have an excellent day, and thanks for listening.