Kathryn Patterson
Every step counts.
KP
2023
Profile & Career Aspirations
EVERY STEP COUNTS
Specialties: Cybersecurity, Strategic Development, Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC), Policies & Standards, Regulatory Exam Preparation, Risk/Controls/Process Management, Third Party Assessments, Issues Management, Communications, Culture & Transformation, Reporting & Metrics
Get to Know Me
I have come to realize that every step counts on your journey, which includes every person you meet, every challenge you encounter, and every opportunity you embrace. It's up to you to make it count.
We all have a spirit animal...Myron is mine! This also sums up my life in six seconds.
BRAND
would you rather?
Me in a "Minute"
IMPERFECTION
Individual Performance
BE THE BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF EVERY DAY
I have learned over the years, what's required can vary based on mission, vision, management, and role. Understanding my audience influences everything I do, however, I'm an individual with unique talents and have the chance to create a story or legacy with every opportunity.
One key to being successful as an individual contributor or a people leader is the ability to listen, communicate, and collaborate. I also believe in the importance of putting your authentic self forward to establish trust and credibility with others.
While it may sound counterintuitive to individual performance, another major key to success is relationships. If cultivated carefully, you can end up with a valuable and trusted partner and ally.
Performance is evolutionary, not just a static ability.
My philosophy and approach to individual performance includes five objectives:
Be clear about expectations.
Seek out mentorship opportunities and leadership learning.
Own your mistakes.
Embrace change.
Never apologize for ambition or diminish it in others.
Performance diversity makes you memorable.
In a 2015 Harvard Business Review, Allen Smith suggested a more personal assessment approach relative to performance reviews and the lens through which individual performance can be understood and rated; one being "I would always want the employee on my team" (Smith, 2018).
Success is judged by many things, including initiative, delivery excellence, and metrics. Performance is evolutionary, not just a static ability. It is learning new skills, increasing decision-making capabilities, and delivering responsibly on both a small and large scale (Colquitt et al., 2021).
Individual performance is your contribution and a way to add value, creativity, innovation, and demonstrate knowledge.
Individual performance should include a WHAT goal and a HOW goal, to reflect not only the result you will deliver but the journey you will take to get there.
References
Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2021). Organizational behavior:
Improving performance and commitment in the workplace (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Smith, A. (2018, May 18). More employers ditch performance appraisals. SHRM.
Retrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-andcompliance/employment-law/pages/more-employers-ditch-performance-appraisals
Team Performance
BEING HEARD STARTS WITH LISTENING
Teams need chemistry, communication, cooperation, and connection. Teams must work together to accomplish a goal, and everyone's place within a team is unique.
"Trust is an integral part of teamwork because team tasks require a high level of interdependence between members" (Mach et al., 2010).
Teams represent relationships, and those require cultivation and attention.
Teams must produce a meaningful outcome or product.
Teams require partnership and compromise.
Teams contribute to a greater or broader goal versus accomplishing a single task.
Collaboration
Uniqueness
Quality Leadership
Different Roles
References
Mach, M., Dolan, S., Tzzafrir, S. (2010). The differential effect of team members' trust on team performance: The mediation role of team cohesion.
Journal of occupational and organizational psychology, Vol.83 (3), p.771-794.
Organizational Performance
ALWAYS A "WE" THING
Organizational performance is a team sport and success must be measurable.
Organizational behavior supports this expectation through commitment and engagement.
Meaningful attributes of engagement with others through social processes are awareness and execution.
Together, establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) is imperative to document and track progress.
KPIs - key performance indicators - are important for gauging performance and trends against expectations.
KPIs give employees measurable steps of progress to achieve a particular goal.
KPIs are a mapping and checkpoint system that allows tracking progress at critical tollgates within a strategic roadmap.
Colquitt et al., 2021
Dr. Marcus Vollmer offers KPIs through a much more personalized definition. Instead of key performance indicators, he suggests it is perhaps better defined as “Keep people interested, keep people informed, keep people involved, and keep people inspired" (LinkedIn.com).
Organizational Risk
Another part of understanding organizational performance is calculating organizational risk.
Every industry measures risk and risk reduction directly impacts a firm's risk appetite and challenges internal controls to ensure those controls protect systems and processes appropriately.
Inherent
Risk
CONTROLS
Residual
Risk
Reporting
Organizational communication should include the classification of action: AWARENESS, ESCALATION, or DECISION.
Metrics should be shared at multiple levels to ensure visibility and transparency across the organization. Metric trending and consequence modeling should be used in order to manage metric discipline and reporting accuracy.
Data and disclosure should support second-line challenge and audit integrity.
References
Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2021). Organizational behavior:
Improving performance and commitment in the workplace (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Vollmer, M., Dr. (2022) The real secret of #kpi - what do you think? Retrieved from: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marcellvollmer_kpi-worklife-motivation-activity
Leadership Challenge
DAILY CHALLENGES LEAD TO DAILY OPPORTUNITIES
Research suggests that four fundamental tenets of leadership must exist to support successful teams. What does a real LEADER look like?
Leaders must establish credibility and ensure there is trust.
Leaders must build goals on common ground and engage everyone involved.
Leaders must establish the relationship of their position to others, as selling a concept, theory, or approach takes finesse and dialogue.
Leaders must connect emotionally: collaborating across disciplines, as the commitment to emotional engagement and investment in a particular topic or process takes understanding.
By balancing these traits, transformational leadership can yield well-functioning teams who deliver successful outcomes, and this tone must come from the top within organizations.
LEADERSHIP
VISION
strategy
TRANSFORMATION
INNOVATION
RISK FOCUS
COMMITMENT
COMMUNICATION
RELATIONSHIPS
"Transformational leadership does not solely lie in the hands of the CEO or a firm's senior leadership team."
(Esser et al., 2020)
People's commitment to participate and engage translates into leadership among peers, attitudes toward management, and higher self-governance and accountability in day-to-day business practices.
Wang, 2011
LeadershipTraits
In my career, I have experienced the joy and privilege of working for successful leaders, and the pain of working for leaders who should not have been leaders at all.
Key traits I look for are passion/compassion, strength, and intelligence/mental toughness. This combination is unstoppable and makes for a leader that people can confidently follow.
References
Esser Sr., Forsgren, N., Nambiar, C., Wester, J., Zentgraf, D. The Five Dimensions of Transformational Leadership.
Retrieved from https://itrevolution.com/the-five-dimensions-of-transformational-leadership. June 8, 2020.
Wang, H., Tsui, A., Xin, K. CEO leadership behaviors, organizational performance, and employees’ attitudes. February 2011. The Leadership Quarterly. Vol. 22, Issue 1, pgs. 92-105.
WHAT's NEXT
AI: INFINITE IMPACT
What is AI - Artificial Intelligence.
And let's break down even more granularly, the two words themselves.
As we evolve into the landscape of generative AI, which technologically isn't really new at all, we will encounter various challenges: boundary considerations, privacy and confidentiality ramifications, data risk, accuracy and integrity scrutiny, etc. Ultimately, we will have to decide how and what we trust.
Trust is something we all begin to learn early in life, and continue to evolve and mature that in relationships, both personal and professional. Trust is not inherent, it is earned, nurtured, secured, and most importantly, must be proven.
When we talk about the term artificial, trust is typically not the first word that comes to mind. By definition, artificial means not real, or inauthentic. On the other hand, the term intelligence inherently implies soundness, knowledge and logic. Who wouldn't trust that?
This is the complexity that is AI and our potential for trusting in its power.
EVERY STEP COUNTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Saying thank you at the end of this journey doesn't seem like enough. It has been a long road, with so many supporting me along the way. All I know is how grateful I am, from the bottom of my heart.
Professors
To each one of you across this eleven-year reboot, your support, feedback, suggestions, and encouragement have meant the world to me. As an adult student, I found such a rich satisfaction in the discussions, learning and in many cases, the one-on-one dialogue and relationships you've allowed me to have with you. I am happy to have met you all, and I thank you for your contributions to my academic success!
Lisa P. (2023)
Becky B. (2022)
Paul K. (2022)
Jennifer G. (2022, 2017)
Allan D. (2021)
Lisa F. (2021)
Elhrick C. (2021)
Heather H. (2020)
Mark M. (2020)
Jim M. (2019)
Michelle H. (2019)
Tom H. (2018)
Vicki S. (2018)
Pooja S. (2017)
Robert W. (2016)
Clinton R. (2016) John B. (2016)
James V. (2015) James B. (2014)
Richard C. (2014)
Elizabeth F. (2013)
Kacee B. (2013)
And a special thank you to my advisor, Emily. I appreciate your guidance, for answering a million questions, and for supporting my atypical and very long journey!
I would also be remiss if I did not mention the instructors who started it all. These selfless individuals poured into me early on, helping me become the person who chased this dream for this long. You each set the bar and are the examples I hold dear to this day.
Liz C.
Shelby D.
Eddie L.
Minerva K.
Paula S.
Dana T.
Lexie G.
Company
To firms everywhere that provide tuition assistance to their employees - who encourage people to better their lives, strengthen their skills, and accomplish anything - THANK YOU for investing in people well beyond traditional educational timing.
And to the firms and leaders who supported ME with those amazing programs, it is hard to put my gratitude into words. I simply could not have completed my crazy, atypical, academic journey without your partnership. Thank you for investing in me so that I could keep investing in you!
TIAA
BOK Financial , NA
Friends & Family
To my friends and colleagues who knew about this little side gig, one class per semester (OMG, will she ever get done?!), your support meant everything to me.
Through reading assignments that were sometimes tough on aging eyes (no, I never caved and rented large-print textbooks), through long papers that I never thought I'd write (but who are we kidding, I can write for days, almost as long as I can talk!), it was all worth it. Your encouragement was sustaining.
And for my managers who not only approved my tuition requests, but were understanding when I was out of brainpower sometimes, because I was up until 4 am knocking out assignments...THANK YOU!
I've never been treated differently because I didn't have the degree. Leaders and mentors never held me back. Instead, they chose to see my potential, which is why I am where I am in my career today. I think that's why this means so much. It's never been about the actual degree per se, it's been about the ambition and patience it took to get it.
To my husband, who encouraged me to keep going, who listened (albeit reluctantly) when I rambled on about discussion posts and APA citations, who had to adjust plans at times because of conflicts with class commitments, and who understood how important this was to me, thank you. Love you, dear.
To my son, who started his official academic journey the same year I restarted mine (2013), I think I did this as much for you as I did it for me. I wanted you to know what it looks like to finish what you start, and show you that it is NEVER too late. It may not be easy, and it can take time, but it's worth the pride you feel when you're done, trust me! I am proud to be your mom and I hope I've made you proud. Love you, bro. Boomer! (forever!)
To Mimi (2017), Norman (2018), and Seneca (2022) - for all the nights you listened to me reading my papers and perspectives out loud, over and over. Your purring (approval) and snoring (magical indifference) are what I miss every day.
To Kent, Karen and Kari, who each went without, somewhere down the line just because I happened to be born first. I know and will never forget your sacrifices. Thank you for celebrating this with me.
And to my parents, who have made countless sacrifices, as parents tend to do, I hope you are proud. Thank you for the beginning of this journey and the pound of flesh that took (in spades). The weight of that is not lost on me, even 34 years later. I am happy you are here to share in this, now that it's done.
finita!
