Chief Information Officer Shares Her Key Principles on How To Build a Leadership Brand + Executive Presence
Building your brand and executing on your leadership style is no easy task. It comes with multilayer questions - What do I want to be known for? What makes the most sense with my next career moves? How do I ensure my authenticity?
The way you show up as a leader and operate are key to defining your personal leadership brand and building your executive presence. Kelly Aronson, SVP and Chief Information Officer at Andersen Corporation shares, “Making career moves always presents a perfect time to step back and evaluate your leadership brand and determine what might need adjustments and tweaks. It’s still always important to bring your authentic self to the role, but understanding the most important areas of leadership focus will ensure a more smooth and successful transition.”
Kelly is responsible for enterprise information technology strategy and implementation and providing strategic partner support to each of Andersen’s divisions and functions. Previously, she was vice president of information technology (IT) responsible for Andersen enterprise customer experience technology (marketing, sales, quote & order, service, and portal). Prior to Andersen, Kelly held a variety of IT leadership positions at Target, Thomson Reuters and Accenture. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Olaf College. She is a board of trustee member for the Science Museum of Minnesota.
We are excited to dive deeper with Kelly as she shares her expertise and insights on how to build and develop your leadership brand + executive presence!
Career
You have had an incredible career impacting transformational technology. What motivates you?
I have many motivations including my amazing team, my incredible peers and colleagues, an insatiable quest for learning and gaining knowledge and serving the mission of our company. I have enjoyed a variety of different roles at really great companies under great leaders - it’s been an enjoyable ride!
What is your typical work day like?
There is no such thing as a typical work day! I love variety - and in this role it is always different. I’m often in the “office,” but some days that is all day, some days it’s part of a day, some days it’s taking meetings from a local Starbucks, some days it’s being on a plant floor, and sometimes its traveling to a location to be on-site with a tech team or to go to a conference or event to learn. My days are filled with a variety of meetings - to inform, learn, make decisions, and strategize. I love the variety, and I love what I have the opportunity to do every day!
“I practice ‘feedforward’ vs. feedback which is coaching for the future presentation vs. judging how a past presentation went. I find this to be much more effective.”
Given the growth in your career, is there anything you’ve done consistently to continuously build successful teams?
I think some of my key strategies that have produced successful teams is always thinking about org design and planning as fluid, building roles around people and their strengths vs. putting people in a predefined box, finding stretch opportunities for emerging talent, finding rotation opportunities for those that are hungry for different perspectives, and always keeping an open mind about my career and those around me.
Leadership Brand and Executive Presence
Effective leaders lead and inspire, live by strong core values, and communicate effectively. Where or by who do you get inspiration from to lead the way you do?
I am always watching and absorbing different leadership styles - to see what works well, what doesn’t work well, what people gravitate to, and different styles that are equally effective. I have learned a ton from previous and current leaders, peers, and from people totally outside of my business environment - people like Brene Brown and her leadership guidance, Oprah Winfrey, Glennon Doyle, and others that I gravitate to in order to grow my sense of self and my leadership style.
What are 3 key principles of your leadership style?
My leadership philosophy and style is how I approach life in general, which is to live and lead authentically in alignment with my values, lead with empathy, humility and grace, and above all, be kind. I am relationship focused, accessible, not afraid to be vulnerable, and still working on listening more and talking less. It always comes down to aspiring to leave people and situations better than I found them.
“I strive to ensure that I am prepared, work to make it interesting, focus on telling a story vs. reading slides, and make sure the key points are very clear and succinct.”
When you're tasked with building/growing a team, what strategies do you are building a strong team that will meet organizational goals?
Key strategies for building a strong team are ensuring the team is a healthy mix of experience, perspective, diversity of thought, and areas of strength. Another strategy is to build the team iteratively, adding people, moving people, tweaking the team, and being ok with taking a few attempts to create the right mix of team members. It’s also critically important the team has a clear understanding of their mission and objectives.
Do you face any challenges in implementing your leadership brand and style when making a career move?
Making career moves always presents a perfect time to step back and evaluate your leadership brand and determine what might need adjustments and tweaks. It’s also a good time to consider what will resonate best with the culture you are entering into. It’s still always important to bring your authentic self to the role, but understanding the most important areas of leadership focus will ensure a more smooth and successful transition.
What do you think is key to leading productive team meetings? Any particular structure?
It is way too easy to get comfortable going meeting to meeting, not truly evaluating the important questions - am I needed at this meeting? What is the purpose of this meeting? What is the structure of this meeting? Etc. It’s always a good practice to refresh meeting hygiene and etiquette to ensure you are calling meetings for a purpose, being clear about the objective, have the right agenda and time duration (not just filling the time), and ensuring you truly have the necessary audience. When those principles are applied, meetings are always more effective.
Building Confidence:
How do you prepare and build your confidence when leading a meeting/presentation? Any strategies or tips?
As you rise in leadership, leading a meeting and giving a presentation become almost daily events, so it’s good that you get a lot of practice. Doing it more often, building repetition, naturally gives you more confidence. I strive to ensure that I am prepared, work to make it interesting, focus on telling a story vs. reading slides, and make sure the key points are very clear and succinct. It’s important to watch the audience to ensure interest and understanding. And always ask what you can do better next time.
“It always comes down to aspiring to leave people and situations better than I found them.”
How do you help people on your team build the confidence to develop their own leadership presence?
There are lots of ways I try to give my team ways to build confidence including finding a mentor, taking leadership development courses, practicing in safe audiences, modeling the way for them, and practicing “feedforward” vs. feedback which is coaching for the future presentation vs. judging how a past presentation went. I find this to be much more effective.
Resources
Are there any books/podcasts/meetups you recommend for continuing to grow and develop your leadership skills and brand?
I encourage any and all practices that help people grow themselves as humans. I’ve been focused recently on meditation, listening to podcasts on mindset and mindfulness, leadership, technology and health and wellness. All inform me, grow me, and allow me to bring my best self to my environment.
We are excited to have Kelly at ModelExpand’s Women in Leadership Breakfast Series: How To Build Your Leadership Brand + Executive Presence on September 16th from 9:00am-10:15am PT.
RSVP below to join the webinar and receive the recording afterwards
Interested in working at Andersen? Click here for Andersen open positions.
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