Working With Kelly

The part you don’t get from a resume.

A resume can tell you what I've done. Case studies can show you what I've accomplished. But neither really tells you what it's like to have me on your team.

So, here's that part.

How I show up

Five things worth knowing before we work together.

The honest version—ambition, spreadsheets, hard lessons, and all.

Give Me Something to Chase

I do my best work when there's a clear goal and something meaningful to improve.

Give me a metric that's moving in the wrong direction, a customer problem nobody quite owns, a process everyone complains about, or a project that needs to get across the finish line, and I'm probably going to want to fix it.

I like knowing what success looks like. I like figuring out what's standing in the way. And I really like watching the numbers move once we start getting it right.

That's shown up throughout my career: improving CSAT, reducing repeat contacts, increasing QA and adherence, shortening turnaround times, rescuing delayed projects, and building processes where there weren't any before.

Competitive With Yesterday’s Number

I like winning.

But I've never been particularly interested in winning against my own team.

I'm much more interested in whether we can beat last month's CSAT, solve something faster, make a process easier, hit a goal everyone thought was ambitious, or take something that's working okay and make it work really well.

The scoreboard matters to me because it tells us whether what we're doing is actually working.

And when we win, I want the team to know they did that.

Structure, Not Rigidity

I'm organized. I'm detail-oriented. I make lists. I document things. I like clear expectations, defined ownership, and knowing who's doing what.

I also spent more than a decade in operations.

Sometimes the beautifully organized plan stops being relevant at 9:07 AM.

When that happens, I'm comfortable reprioritizing, making decisions with the information we have, communicating what's changing, and moving forward.

I don't believe following a process is more important than accomplishing what the process was designed to achieve.

Collaborative, Not Consensus-Dependent

My natural instinct is to find common ground.

I want people involved. I want the person closest to the work in the conversation. I want to understand why someone disagrees before deciding they're wrong.

Earlier in my leadership career, though, I sometimes confused collaboration with consensus.

I've learned that they're not the same thing.

Sometimes leadership means listening to everyone, making the decision anyway, explaining why, and being willing to own what happens next.

And sometimes it means being the person in the room who says, “No. I think we need to push harder on this.”

That's something I've gotten much better at.

People Give Me Energy

I'm an extrovert. There, I said it.

I genuinely enjoy talking to people.

I like coaching someone through a problem. I like brainstorming with a team. I like sitting with a developer and translating a customer problem into something we can actually build. I like presenting an idea to leadership. I even weirdly enjoy taking a messy, emotionally charged customer situation and figuring out how we're going to untangle it.

That doesn't mean I need constant meetings or can't work independently. Please, for the love of all things holy, do not interpret this paragraph as a request for more meetings.

It means I enjoy work more when there's collaboration involved.

Where I thrive

What Brings Out My Best Work

I'm at my best when I have a clear goal, ownership over the outcome, people to collaborate with, room to make decisions, and a problem worth solving.

I don't need everything figured out for me. In fact, I'd rather it wasn't.

Give me the destination and enough context to understand why we're going there. I'll help figure out the route.

The honest part

Things I’ve Had to Learn About Myself

Being driven has a downside.

I can care a lot about getting something right. I've had to learn when “better” actually matters and when “done” is the right answer.

I'm patient, sometimes to a fault. I've learned that giving something more time isn't always the compassionate or thoughtful choice. Sometimes delaying a decision just delays the consequences.

I'm naturally cooperative. I've learned that preserving harmony isn't always the same thing as doing right by your team.

And because I set high expectations for myself, I've had to learn that failure isn't evidence that I shouldn't have tried.

Those aren't things I figured out from a leadership book.
I learned them by occasionally getting them wrong.

The working agreement

What You Can Expect From Me

If we work together, you can expect me to care about the outcome, ask a lot of questions, tell you when I don't understand something, notice when something isn't working, bring ideas instead of just complaints, give people credit loudly, take responsibility when something is mine, and probably create a spreadsheet at some point.

You can also expect me to care about the people doing the work.

Because I've spent enough of my career chasing numbers to know that sustainable performance doesn't come from squeezing harder.

It comes from building an environment where people understand what's expected of them, have the tools to succeed, receive honest feedback, know their work matters, and trust that their leader will show up when things get difficult.

Keep exploring

See the evidence behind the working style.

I want to leave the team, the customer experience, and the operation better than I found them.

Let’s talk