Ep. 126 - Kitty Chaney-Reed is the recipient of the most powerful and influential woman award and the Woman of the Year award. Kitty gives us the blueprint for becoming a successful executive in a large company and maintaining that role to progress upwards. Find out what responsibilities are really involved in a high-level executive position and how to manage multiple priorities. Her attitude about both the customer and her staff are part of what qualifies her as an outstanding leader. Her mantra is "put people first." Kitty Chaney-Reed talks about how to meet the challenge of being underestimated. Kitty's leadership goes beyond the job which is partly the key to her success. She personifies the word TrailBlazer through her daily actions and demonstrates why she won the most powerful and influential woman award. You will find this podcast fascinating and a great "how to" in exceeding expectations in a corporate environment.
Top Takeaways:
-
- The value of forming important work relationships that could help further your career
- How to use technology to perform redundant tasks in your business as you focus on high-value ones
- The importance of honing the skill of building relationships and collaborating as a leader
- The importance of speaking up when you see a problem and presenting a solution
Listen in to learn what it means to be IBM's Vice President of Enterprise Operations and senior state executive.
"Be a problem solver, not a problem explainer." -Kitty Chaney Reed
CAREER OF A SUCCESSFUL WOMAN EXECUTIVE
Kitty Chaney-Reed joined IBM in 2017 as the Vice President of Quote to Cash for North America and Latin America and has been recently promoted Vice President of Enterprise Operations and selected as Senior State / Senior Location Executive for Georgia. She and her team are responsible for the end-to-end sales support process. They engage from the proposal with the team all the way through the end to end process of registering a contract, invoicing the client and the collecting and applying the cash. She's been vice president of several divisions of IBM and was Vice President of NCR Corporation
She has a proven ability to build high performing cross-functional teams, increase profitability and improve customer satisfaction. Ms. Chaney Reed has a wide range of expertise in technology and business that was gained from more than 25 years of hands-on experience in solution design and implementation, service delivery, and operations, client services, shared services, business transformation, mergers and acquisitions, Human Resource Operations, and Retail operations.
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Kitty Chaney-Reed has a strong passion for diversity and inclusion. She is the executive sponsor for the Atlanta Global Women in IBM initiative and also serves on IBM's Black Executive Council. She is also senior state executive for IBM in Georgia.
HONORS
In 2015, she was awarded the Most Powerful and Influential Woman Award from the Georgia Diversity Council in recognition of her efforts. She was named Woman of the Year for enterprise businesses with over 2500 employees by the Atlanta-based organization, Women in Technology.
She received a CFO Excellence Award with NCR.
CIVIC INVOLVEMENT OF AN INFLUENTIAL WOMAN EXECUTIVE
Kitty Chaney-Reed mentors and coaches girls and women who aspire to lead in the areas of business and technology because she believes in paying it forward. She served on the Women in Technology board of directors as the treasurer for 3 years and now serves on their advisory board. She is a volunteer with the Boys and Girls Club of America.
EDUCATION
She has a B.A. in Business Administration and Finance from Clark Atlanta University.
Learn the importance of having leadership qualities like offering solutions, grit, determination, and willingness to collaborate.
In this episode you'll discover:
Kitty narrates how she started her career leading teams and then working in technology, which she describes as her best decision yet [2:45]
She explains how she was selected to become senior state executive for IBM in Georgia [6:27]
What the role of senior state executive entails, which includes engaging employees, especially during the pandemic [8:00]
Kitty describes her former role of Vice President of Quote to Cash- having the responsibility of everything from the initiation of the contract [11:34]
How they use the robotic process automation which means figuring ways to use technology to do redundant tasks as they focus on high-value tasks [13:31]
How IBM is committed to the advancement of women and celebrating their accomplishments within the corporation through the Atlanta Global Women Initiative [14:58]
How the Black Executive Council is committed to using tech for good, investing, and moving political reforms and justice in the black and underrepresented communities [16:26]
Some of the initiatives that IBM has committed to in Georgia and all over the world, especially providing technology during the pandemic [18:43]
The commitment that IBM has made to HBCUs and the black community that dates back to the mid-1900s [22:22]
She describes her willingness to connect with people and being vulnerable as what she is best at in her job [24:02]
How Kitty uses outcomes to demonstrate that she earned her spot and will continue keeping it when people underestimate her [25:43]
She explains the boldest moment in her career, which paved way for respect and confidence from her seniors [26:48]
How she is driven by the impact she makes through her work [31:25]
Kitty describes her wonderful childhood which highly influenced who she is today [32:42]
Why Kitty wouldn't refer to herself as an activist even though she fights for diversity and inclusion [37:32]
She describes her passion for giving back to the community together with her family [38:14]