As Dolly Parton sings, “I like to cook, and I love to bake breads and cookies and pies and cakes…” I love to cook. The combining of varied ingredients with their unique textures and smells into something cohesive and delicious while delighting family and friends likens to the same sense of reward I feel when I think of why I worked so hard to create and grow KGL.
The opportunity to combine unique and skilled people into a great team is why I created my own public relations agency in the first place – for the freedom, the satisfaction and the ability to write our own story. And I do think you can learn a lot about an organization by how it works together. Is it functioning like a team, a perfectly risen bread loaf or a warm buttery biscuit or just a handful of individuals sitting in the same space, reminiscent of a blob of dough with the butter pooled around it?
For context, let me go back a little in time. If you’ve worked with me before, you know I have a bit of construction in my blood from my father. It’s been a longtime source of curiosity and fascination for me and so it’s no surprise that my career has taken me from the District’s Department of Transportation through to working on subways, buses and infrastructure.
Without getting too deep in the weeds on my own journey I can say with confidence that it remains challenging for a woman to thrive in male-dominated businesses and industries. I can also say that while I had many personal triumphs in my professional years, I also encountered more than my share of glass ceiling limitations and roadblocks that prevented me from taking paths that I felt made good sense.
It was one of the reasons that I was so thrilled in 2019 to create KGL Communications; I felt for the first time that I would be able to trust my own instincts on storytelling and do exactly what I thought would make the most sense for my clients. It was of course more than that too…being my own boss, setting my own goals and work streams and being able to work on projects that mattered to me; all of that was a significant part of my motivation for creating KGL.
But there was more. A big part of what I wanted to do was create a woman-owned enterprise that would be truly committed to equity, diversity and full inclusion of all; not just in words but in practice. As my own boss, I could create that by making intentional decisions and putting into practice hiring and recruitment policies that I knew would accomplish my goals.
Now nearly four years in, we’re firmly on that path. The team we’re created at KGL reflects the full diversity of background and viewpoint that I wanted to achieve. And what I’ve found is that this team is all learning from one another, just as much as we are benefiting from the range of perspectives and ideas. For example, on many of our accounts we have young and old, Black and White, rural and urban and many other perspectives reflected and that diversity in voices benefits us AND our clients.
As the leader of KGL, I take pride in being able to mentor and share some of what I have learned over the years with the staff here. But I often find my own eyes opened by the team here – each of us contributing on behalf of clients to come up with the best path forward for them to accomplish their goals.
With KGL headed into 2023, I know this team will continue to thrive, to grow and to mature in ways that make the entire firm a great place to work and an organization that does great work for our clients. I look forward to the year ahead, I’m grateful to all the clients that have trusted us with their needs and I’m super excited to write new chapters for the people we will work with in the future.
