Each week we feature an AMAZING woman in business, and Kaitlyn Akers is a SUPER HUMAN who has achieved so much. She’s a quiet achiever, a selfless and generous lady who always gives so much to others and helps others realise and reach their true potential. Kaitlyn’s career is filled with exciting adventures and amazing opportunities, and she has attacked them all with zest and confidence, creating a life enriched by her courage to try new things and a dedication and passion for learning and self-development. You’re going to love this week’s story as we SHINE the Spotlight on… Kaitlyn Akers!

Kaitlyn – you’ve recently started a new business, tell us about this exciting venture and tell us a little about you journey and career hightlights to date:

PCOC is all about solving problems for people, we do this by providing contract leadership on projects and practical operations, with focus on people, culture to scale and building capacity in teams for specialist Business owners/Directors and Organisations.
Projects include, governance support, project commercialization of ideas, strategy planning, cultural assessment audits, HR and McQuaig Assessment s and documenting processes to join operations to strategy with scale for growth. I grew up between Western Queensland and the South East Corner, started my career over 20 years ago in the Finance industry during the recession we had to have, and accelerated from the ground up to achieve 10 years of Executive Leadership experience in Operations, People, Governance and Risk.  I have travelled widely and through career and travel I have learnt resilience and self-reliance, the value of friendship and the joy in giving anything and everything a go, learning and new is where the joy of youth and life; in the busy noisy end of life.

I am a proud Alumni of USC Executive MBA program, Stanford Graduate Business School and Harvard Business School, Professional Business Woman of the Year 2007, Suncorp Supervisor of the Year and National Deposit and Payment Specialist two of my first professional achievements which mean as much as the latest.  I am active in community leadership including  holding the Community portfolio for the SCBWN and proudly the first elected female Director of Surf Lifesaving Queensland. Now, one of three female business leaders to share the board table, my favourite responsibility is delivering the leadership introductory lecture to our next generation of leaders through our youth Excellence in Leadership program hosted by UQ.  I have learnt I am at my best when connecting with others and supporting their success. The trio of Government, NFP and Corporate experience, book-ended with Small Business, has given me an enviable depth of experience across all levels of business and drive to learn more every day.

What is your greatest achievement in life?

Personally, our children are always a mother’s greatest achievement, creating an independent thinker and watching that clever little girl, grow into a kind and smart woman who makes a positive impact on society; she has bravery and confidence, respects others and has a drive for learning, has a joy for life, laughs openly at herself and loves deeply.

Professionally, prior to taking the leap to my own company I enjoyed the rare privilege of working with a great team of humans, for great clients, in a great company, to achieve the impossible thing in a really short time and well.  I got to lead a partnership with the ATO to provide inbound customer services with Stellar for the first time, the team established a new centre, the key management team and 250 Customer representatives, infrastructure, stakeholder relationships and delivered efficiency gain though piloting innovation in the first 12 months of operation, delighted our client, overcame obstacles and failure quickly, then delivered a profit and valued our people in the doing of our work.  Dedication to building a culture of achievement and good governance across all operational frameworks ensured the teams capabilities were fully realized in a fast-paced, heavily regulated environment. It will remain something to be proud of, mostly because 400 plus families on the coast now have sustainable employment and can share that wealth back into the community multiplying everyone’s benefit.

You’ve always been keen to further their self development – tell us about some of the things that you have done?

Education is the foundation of success in my mind, formal and informal it is something I actively pursue every day.  Some of the best lessons have come from the informal learning you get in stretching outside current knowledge.
Business coaching and mentorship, along with the original SHINE Business Women Barossa journey opened mind and heart to new possibilities for me this year. I am regularly attending monthly networking, mentor programs and professional development offered by my professional memberships, SCBWN, AICD and AIL. Reading, pod casts in the car during long drives to Brisbane and daily app updates all provide value, and I actively seek out opportunities for development with innovation thinking like Verne Harnish’s Gazelle for Growth series a few years ago.

Following my graduation Executive MBA, I applied and was excited to be accepted to a short course in the US, this meant a once in a lifetime leap to leave my role as GM in a finance group and go overseas to study. I wanted to shift my career story from “Manager in Finance Industry” to “People Leader and Influencer” following my drive and passion for how culture influences strategy and people’s ability to be their best, so now I hold a post graduate certificate qualification in Strategic Talent Management from Stanford University and followed this up with a short Executive Education specialist stream in Strategic Innovation and Sustainability from Harvard Business School.

What do you see as the traits of being a good leader?

Holding true core values is integral to providing a challenging environment that promotes consistent repeatable achievement where people to innovate while delivering great outcomes. Letting people have the space they need to achieve, equipped by tools and trust,

I have found it hard to move away from Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership model still relevant, with my own finesse of learning over the years.

• Model the Way, self-first, acknowledge critical incidents, reinforce and model values in all decision making.
• Inspire a shared vision, lead the purpose and the why behind the passion, activates a shared goal and gives others the ownership to drive and create.
• Challenge the process – experiment, question the sacred cows, prepare to fail make it safe but plan to succeed, challenge the rules and rule makers, respectfully, encourage initiative, execute everything well, search for opportunity with energy and initiative
• Enable others to act – set up a place of trust, share knowledge, educate and develop, build confidence, link accountability to empowerment and delegation, give space
• Encourage the heart – set high expectations, provide genuine feedback, appreciate and recognise contributions publicly

Adding a couple of extras of my own – Openly and Often Collaborate and Communicate, Regularly turn your mind Internally and Externally for reflection and a pulse check on innovation outside your area of expertise, back up expectation with sensitivity to capacity of the individual and the environment, and finally take a 100 year view; if someone was checking in on your actions next century, would it be worthwhile then and now.

You’ve held a number of exciting corporate roles. What made you decide to set up your own business?

All business owners ask themselves this, originally it was financial, to build an asset of value, stability and longevity for my family. It has become more than that, I am drawn by the vision that I can create a working space that allows women to contribute value in an environment that values the skills they bring to the table, with ethical foundation, strong client orientation and care for the workplace of the future and occasionally I get to work at home with my dogs.

In the past 2 years we have led a strategic realignment for a company who required top down organisational redesign to scale in a sustainable way. This project required integrated technology, client key account management and robust administration to support the now global operation. I also managed a change in technology and remediated cultural challenges within a service providers team, through implementing a robust change program to build trust and redirect energy to deliver on revenue using lean project methodology backed by 30-day sprints based on operational and financial security, resulting in delivering 20% net growth in 12 months, reduced turnover and absenteeism, structured to support the innovation and capacity growth. We documented processes and created a prospectus that supported a former owner to build value in her family business and prepared it for sale after family illness forced action, I delivered a cultural audit report for an NGO and supported board remediation of governance and processes, built an expert team to deliver a series of internal HR quality and compliance reviews, and look forward to supporting small business to develop business continuity plans for risk and governance that are operationally fit for purpose in the coming months and have delivered many more.

Recently being able to contract other women to support some work and enable them to work around needs on a significant challenge worthy of her skill set has been an achievement I am keen to repeat.  None of these projects would be open to me in the restriction of a corporate world PD and to enable others appeals to my purpose, allows me to use my skill set in a way that aligns with my values.  I enjoy the satisfaction that comes with influencing a successful outcome that adds value, grows other’s capability and impacts the wider community in a positive way.

Tell us about some of the challenges you’ve experienced (if any) with making the change?

So many, the most significant and first lesson, and one that took a few practises to learn, was to stop giving and acting like an employee instead of a business owner with my clients.  After so many years in corporate and not valuing my time I found it difficult to separate from the service in the first months of creating the business. A pricing structure helped with this, I still am not brave enough yet to charge what I am worth, or to stop giving some additional unpaid hours to a job, due to my own quality orientation and work ethic but have got a lot better.

Controls around hours will help if you are used to being someone who gives a standard 70 hours per week and is ok with only being paid for 38. As a business owner you need to be paid for the 38, work the 38 and then stop and spend the other 32 hours on your own business if you still want to work 70 hours per week. Also budget your hours for charity work in your Freebie allowance, stick to it as this will affect your cash flow in an unintended negative way if you don’t.

Where to next for Kaitlyn – what’s next on the horizon?

The next twelve months have a couple of goals, first one being backing myself as “Kaitlyn the Leader, Strategist and Connector, in business and community” already I am known for getting stuff done, on and off the beach, next I want PCOC to be the go-to for business owners who want to solve their problems which are preventing them from moving from under $2M in turnover to over $5M in turnover. To be the place where professionals want to supply services to because they know they will get challenging and flexible jobs that value their skills and drive satisfaction from achievement of work done well and appreciated. Personally, earn a spot at the world lifesaving titles in Italy in 2020, some more travel and another learning challenge in a yet to be determined place, open space for new role of Meema to precious Elsie.

Longer term create a solid foundation of leadership, with new organisations in a board role that specialises in people and governance, at the end of next year to hand over my state director role to another capable, clever human to innovate and stretch the organisation, write something real and continue to surround myself with interesting folk who are different from me to learn from, walk the beach, swim in the ocean, play on a couple of skinny branches at least once a month and find some youthful joy in discovering something new and sharing it with someone else.

How do you relax?

Hanging out with friends and family, in the ocean, at sport, on the beach, away or at home nothing better than getting of wisdom from others, sharing stories and a delicious meal after a day in the sun.

What mantra do you live by? 

Be your own best Prince Charming, surround yourself with doers, thinkers, movers, believers and artists, all the good things in life will come and fill your soul.

What book are you currently reading? 

Always have a couple on the go, our beautiful Kim Morrisons Art of Self Love is the most recent favourite, still working through Winging It by Emma Isaacs in the car between meetings and an old favourite Clive James’ Unreliable Memoirs is back for a visit after finishing his last book, Latest Readings.

To find out more about Kaitlyn and her business – PCOC Solutions – head to:
 www.pcocsolutions.com.au

Facebook:
@pcocHQ

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlyn-akers-59a881a/