July 10, 2024 • 10 mins
Kristin Lytle is CEO of The Leader’s Edge and has significant experience in talent assessment, leadership development, succession planning, and organizational design. Over the span of her career, she has worked with top organizations such as Vanguard, Kohler Company, Whirlpool, and Target.
Kristin has held leadership roles in business operations and human resources in both domestic and global capacities throughout her career. She has a proven track record for developing scalable and sustainable talent solutions that align with business priorities while enabling leaders to unlock their full potential. She has built a reputation for being a trusted partner to business leaders, by focusing on pragmatic solutions that drive measurable results.
Prior to joining The Leader’s Edge, Kristin held several senior leadership roles in talent management at Vanguard and most recently served as the Head of Professional Development where she established a company-wide program to address talent pipeline gaps and institute best practices for 18,000+ employees. At Whirlpool, Kristin helped design global HR programs to improve succession strategies and address pipeline development for the world’s largest appliance manufacturer. Earlier in her career at Kohler, she designed and deployed talent frameworks for both operations and general managers, both of which are still in use today.
Kristin is an experienced executive coach, dynamic presenter, and skilled facilitator. She holds a BS degree in International Business and Marketing with a minor in French and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance, both from Marquette University.
Kristin possesses a variety of certifications including Center for Creative Leadership Assessment Suite, PROSCI Change Management Certificate, the EQI 2.0 Emotional Intelligence Assessment and the Hogan Leadership Forecast Series. She is currently concluding her PCC certification with the International Coaching Federation.
Kristin is active in the community serving on the Board of Directors for The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia and acting as Co-Chair of the Women Against MS Committee for the National MS Society Chapter in Philadelphia. She is also a Board Member for the Committee of Seventy and is a member of The Forum of Executive Women.
Outside of work, Kristin is an avid reader and dog lover. She is also passionate about supporting veterans through career mentoring in partnership with American Corporate Partners (ACP) for the past eight years.
The Leader’s Edge
Kristin has held leadership roles in business operations and human resources in both domestic and global capacities throughout her career. She has a proven track record for developing scalable and sustainable talent solutions that align with business priorities while enabling leaders to unlock their full potential. She has built a reputation for being a trusted partner to business leaders, by focusing on pragmatic solutions that drive measurable results.
Prior to joining The Leader’s Edge, Kristin held several senior leadership roles in talent management at Vanguard and most recently served as the Head of Professional Development where she established a company-wide program to address talent pipeline gaps and institute best practices for 18,000+ employees. At Whirlpool, Kristin helped design global HR programs to improve succession strategies and address pipeline development for the world’s largest appliance manufacturer. Earlier in her career at Kohler, she designed and deployed talent frameworks for both operations and general managers, both of which are still in use today.
Kristin is an experienced executive coach, dynamic presenter, and skilled facilitator. She holds a BS degree in International Business and Marketing with a minor in French and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance, both from Marquette University.
Kristin possesses a variety of certifications including Center for Creative Leadership Assessment Suite, PROSCI Change Management Certificate, the EQI 2.0 Emotional Intelligence Assessment and the Hogan Leadership Forecast Series. She is currently concluding her PCC certification with the International Coaching Federation.
Kristin is active in the community serving on the Board of Directors for The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia and acting as Co-Chair of the Women Against MS Committee for the National MS Society Chapter in Philadelphia. She is also a Board Member for the Committee of Seventy and is a member of The Forum of Executive Women.
Outside of work, Kristin is an avid reader and dog lover. She is also passionate about supporting veterans through career mentoring in partnership with American Corporate Partners (ACP) for the past eight years.
The Leader’s Edge
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm the rain ballad borrow with CEOsyou should know, brought to you by
Comcast Business. Kristin Lettle. Iam CEO of the Leader's Edge. We're
an executive coaching, leadership development firmthat was founded a little over twenty years
ago right here in Philadelphia. Whatis the mission of your company? We
help organizations to stop wasting potential.No organization of our attempts to waste potential,
(00:24):
let's be clear about that. Butit so often happens because talent is
left either under resourced, not identified, or not encouraged to go ahead and
stretch to the links of their potential. And so we work with individuals via
executive coaching and leadership development programs tohelp people understand what's getting in between them
(00:44):
and their goals and their targets,and how to shrink that interference as much
as possible to help them accelerate.What are some of the typical challenges that
you encounter when working with a company. Often what we find is they will
say we have talent, they're justnot ready yet, and so we need
to really accelerate the readiness of thistalent pool. And often that is true,
(01:10):
no doubt, but it's also verymuch so that talent can get overlooked
or talent could have had one maybeoff day or off week, off quarter,
and then is no longer considered fordevelopment. But with those that we
get to work with most often,we find there's a couple of things going
on. Number one is high performingindividuals are often incredibly hard on themselves,
(01:32):
and we're helping them to understand whatto take accountability for and what is it
that they have to reach out andchange an ecosystem, change a culture at
a company for. And then secondarily, another component is this shift from being
a good leader of a team tobeing a good executive, and often that
means thinking not just up and down, meaning like my direct reports and what
(01:55):
are they producing and what does myboss know about? But how do I
navigate across an organization because it isa ecosystem, and so you do have
to understand what your peers are workingon and be a business what I like
to call a broker dealer of ideasthroughout the organization so that your strategies can
be funded, can get headcount.All those sorts of things tell us a
(02:16):
little of your origin story. Everyonehas an origin story of where they started
and where they needed to go.You are the CEO of your own business,
how did you get there? Sure? So I started off having absolutely
zero idea of what I was goingto do when I grew up. I
come from a family of all dentistsback in the Midwest, and so as
(02:38):
well intended as everybody was, noone could really offer me advice as to
what was the difference between marketing orcommunications or anything like that. So I
had to kind of figure it out. But I started off with Target the
very early part of my career,and as much as I believe in what
I call intentional careers today, it'salmost ironic that I ended up working for
(02:59):
Target. It because I got inthe line at Marquette University at the career
fair because it was long and Ifigured everybody else knew something. Needless to
say, I ended up going intoHR and Talent, finding such joy in
helping people identify what they were reallygood at and helping that shine and helping
them achieve more than what they thoughtwas possible for themselves. And I got
(03:21):
to the point where I had donethis with several large organizations across the world,
different industries, and I wanted tohave more of an impact on more
people. And so I thought tomyself, if I had the ability to
go ahead and find an organization tolead where I had the ability to work
with multiple organizations, multiple industries ata time and lead a team of individuals
(03:43):
to really unleash this capability of helpingindividuals find their full potential, That's what
I want to do. I wantedto have a broader impact that I could
have any one singular organization. Steppingout on your own involves a certain amount
of risk, a certain amount ofgoing for it, not knowing whether anyone
there's a net underneath. Right,So I wonder if you can distinguish for
(04:06):
us what had been like to beyour own boss of your own company.
How do you distinguish that from,say, what you were doing before.
Sure, I'll be honest, I'mstill figuring that one out a bit.
I've done with Leader's Edge for aboutthree years now and became CEO this past
de summer, so about six monthsago. That being said, I was
(04:28):
raised in corporate and large organizations,and that a bit like trained me as
to how to think about things,and so it was a resetting to understand,
Okay, what I get to setmy days. I set the priorities.
I determine what is the most important. And so what I've learned with
that is because there aren't structures tokind of keep me in line or keep
me in place, that sort ofthing, I have to have discipline about
(04:50):
what I'm prioritizing, because it's notso much that I struggle with prioritization of
getting work done. It's which workand how mu and in what order?
Because I was a bit of aaccomplished, accomplish, accomplished, check the
box, check the box, checkthe box, and there's no one to
tell me enough, you've accomplished enough, or you've done enough, or you
(05:15):
set out what you chose to dotoday and that should be fine. So
I have to really double down onmy prioritization and be really clear ahead of
time what do I want to accomplishthis week, this quarter, this month,
all those sorts of things, sothat I know when not to just
keep pushing because it's there that tome has been a big learning curve.
Everyone has these pivot points in theirlives. Our lives are comprised of a
(05:39):
lot of many, many different decisionsthat take you left or right you know
Robert Frost, the Road Not Taken, et cetera. And I wonder if
you can maybe isolate a moment,a pivot moment for you that really sets
you in the direction that has ledto who you are today. Yes,
a pivot point for me was anumber of years ago where I was leaving
(06:01):
an organization and headed to the nextorganization that I was recruited to. And
you usually get a couple of niceemails and words of kind things from individuals,
but there was this one thank younote I received from a woman that
I had worked with, and shehad been in a challenging situation a few
months prior, and I helped hernavigate to a new role with a new
(06:24):
leader, and she was really justcoming into her own and I was so
proud of her and the work shehad done and the courage she had shown
to go into this new role,this new area. And her note to
me said, Kristen, I cannotthank you enough. I am not only
a better employee, I'm a betterwife, I'm a better mother, I'm
(06:45):
a better daughter, I'm a bettersister because of you. And in my
head I was like, no,no, no, no, it was
not me I just helped you getthere. But just this impact that having
people helping people get to the rightrole for them and what that can have
that build over effect to the restof their lives. That's I'd had a
hypothesis I wanted to do this workbefore that moment cemented it without a doubt.
(07:10):
That's beautiful. So looking back inyour history, you're still, you
know, pretty young, but thinkabout your sixteen year old self and remember
how that was. Like, whatwould be your word of advice or word
of counsel to that sixteen year oldyoung woman? Trust yourself. You are
(07:38):
smarter than you give yourself credit for. You're more mature than you give yourself
credit for, and you're more capablethan you give yourself credit for. So
I was pretty hard on myself asa kid and was always kind of measuring
myself against people who are smarter thanme or better than me, and either
violin or tennis or name the activeand I would hold back a lot.
(08:01):
And so it was really truly myhusband, we'd been married a few years
and he goes, why aren't yougoing back for your MBA. You can
do it, And it was justwith him and his supporting me, It's
never been a question. He's justlike, of course, you can do
this, and so almost modeling thatfor my own self. And that's what
I wish I had known at sixteen, of trust yourself. You're a little
(08:22):
too cautious, you're a little toomuch of you always have a plan B.
As a Girl Scout, you're notgoing to go out and do anything
too nuts. Oh that's great,another fellow Girl Scout, I'm a lifetime
member. Well, anything else you'dlike to add before we close. The
advice I would give to my sixteenyear old self is when it comes to
careers and development and all those sortsof things, is that those who are
(08:45):
accelerating, those who are having greatcareers often are getting investments and support in
their careers. So if you wantto have that impact, remember careers are
finite and you need every support componentyou can to help accelerate through and become
that senior leader that can have theimpact you want to have as quickly as
possible. And so ask for thatdevelopment, ask for that support. I
(09:11):
liken it to that kid back inschool that would get the A plus and
claimed here she never studied for thetest. Don't fall for that they are
getting support or help or investment intheir careers and make sure you two are
also asking for that. If peoplewould like to know more about your company,
how do they find out more?If you'd like to know more about
The Leader's Edge, go to ourwebsite which is the dash leaders dash Edge
(09:35):
dot com and we also have avery robust presence on LinkedIn, so you
can find us at the dash Leader'sEdge on LinkedIn as well. CEOs you
Should Know brought to you by ComcastBusiness, offering the complete connectivity solution cybersecurity,
Internet and mobile, all from oneprovider, Comcast Business, powering possibilities
I'm the rain ballad borrow with CEOsyou should know, brought to you by
Comcast Business. Kristin Lettle. Iam CEO of the Leader's Edge. We're
an executive coaching, leadership development firmthat was founded a little over twenty years
ago right here in Philadelphia. Whatis the mission of your company? We
help organizations to stop wasting potential.No organization of our attempts to waste potential,
(00:24):
let's be clear about that. Butit so often happens because talent is
left either under resourced, not identified, or not encouraged to go ahead and
stretch to the links of their potential. And so we work with individuals via
executive coaching and leadership development programs tohelp people understand what's getting in between them
(00:44):
and their goals and their targets,and how to shrink that interference as much
as possible to help them accelerate.What are some of the typical challenges that
you encounter when working with a company. Often what we find is they will
say we have talent, they're justnot ready yet, and so we need
to really accelerate the readiness of thistalent pool. And often that is true,
(01:10):
no doubt, but it's also verymuch so that talent can get overlooked
or talent could have had one maybeoff day or off week, off quarter,
and then is no longer considered fordevelopment. But with those that we
get to work with most often,we find there's a couple of things going
on. Number one is high performingindividuals are often incredibly hard on themselves,
(01:32):
and we're helping them to understand whatto take accountability for and what is it
that they have to reach out andchange an ecosystem, change a culture at
a company for. And then secondarily, another component is this shift from being
a good leader of a team tobeing a good executive, and often that
means thinking not just up and down, meaning like my direct reports and what
(01:55):
are they producing and what does myboss know about? But how do I
navigate across an organization because it isa ecosystem, and so you do have
to understand what your peers are workingon and be a business what I like
to call a broker dealer of ideasthroughout the organization so that your strategies can
be funded, can get headcount.All those sorts of things tell us a
(02:16):
little of your origin story. Everyonehas an origin story of where they started
and where they needed to go.You are the CEO of your own business,
how did you get there? Sure? So I started off having absolutely
zero idea of what I was goingto do when I grew up. I
come from a family of all dentistsback in the Midwest, and so as
(02:38):
well intended as everybody was, noone could really offer me advice as to
what was the difference between marketing orcommunications or anything like that. So I
had to kind of figure it out. But I started off with Target the
very early part of my career,and as much as I believe in what
I call intentional careers today, it'salmost ironic that I ended up working for
(02:59):
Target. It because I got inthe line at Marquette University at the career
fair because it was long and Ifigured everybody else knew something. Needless to
say, I ended up going intoHR and Talent, finding such joy in
helping people identify what they were reallygood at and helping that shine and helping
them achieve more than what they thoughtwas possible for themselves. And I got
(03:21):
to the point where I had donethis with several large organizations across the world,
different industries, and I wanted tohave more of an impact on more
people. And so I thought tomyself, if I had the ability to
go ahead and find an organization tolead where I had the ability to work
with multiple organizations, multiple industries ata time and lead a team of individuals
(03:43):
to really unleash this capability of helpingindividuals find their full potential, That's what
I want to do. I wantedto have a broader impact that I could
have any one singular organization. Steppingout on your own involves a certain amount
of risk, a certain amount ofgoing for it, not knowing whether anyone
there's a net underneath. Right,So I wonder if you can distinguish for
(04:06):
us what had been like to beyour own boss of your own company.
How do you distinguish that from,say, what you were doing before.
Sure, I'll be honest, I'mstill figuring that one out a bit.
I've done with Leader's Edge for aboutthree years now and became CEO this past
de summer, so about six monthsago. That being said, I was
(04:28):
raised in corporate and large organizations,and that a bit like trained me as
to how to think about things,and so it was a resetting to understand,
Okay, what I get to setmy days. I set the priorities.
I determine what is the most important. And so what I've learned with
that is because there aren't structures tokind of keep me in line or keep
me in place, that sort ofthing, I have to have discipline about
(04:50):
what I'm prioritizing, because it's notso much that I struggle with prioritization of
getting work done. It's which workand how mu and in what order?
Because I was a bit of aaccomplished, accomplish, accomplished, check the
box, check the box, checkthe box, and there's no one to
tell me enough, you've accomplished enough, or you've done enough, or you
(05:15):
set out what you chose to dotoday and that should be fine. So
I have to really double down onmy prioritization and be really clear ahead of
time what do I want to accomplishthis week, this quarter, this month,
all those sorts of things, sothat I know when not to just
keep pushing because it's there that tome has been a big learning curve.
Everyone has these pivot points in theirlives. Our lives are comprised of a
(05:39):
lot of many, many different decisionsthat take you left or right you know
Robert Frost, the Road Not Taken, et cetera. And I wonder if
you can maybe isolate a moment,a pivot moment for you that really sets
you in the direction that has ledto who you are today. Yes,
a pivot point for me was anumber of years ago where I was leaving
(06:01):
an organization and headed to the nextorganization that I was recruited to. And
you usually get a couple of niceemails and words of kind things from individuals,
but there was this one thank younote I received from a woman that
I had worked with, and shehad been in a challenging situation a few
months prior, and I helped hernavigate to a new role with a new
(06:24):
leader, and she was really justcoming into her own and I was so
proud of her and the work shehad done and the courage she had shown
to go into this new role,this new area. And her note to
me said, Kristen, I cannotthank you enough. I am not only
a better employee, I'm a betterwife, I'm a better mother, I'm
(06:45):
a better daughter, I'm a bettersister because of you. And in my
head I was like, no,no, no, no, it was
not me I just helped you getthere. But just this impact that having
people helping people get to the rightrole for them and what that can have
that build over effect to the restof their lives. That's I'd had a
hypothesis I wanted to do this workbefore that moment cemented it without a doubt.
(07:10):
That's beautiful. So looking back inyour history, you're still, you
know, pretty young, but thinkabout your sixteen year old self and remember
how that was. Like, whatwould be your word of advice or word
of counsel to that sixteen year oldyoung woman? Trust yourself. You are
(07:38):
smarter than you give yourself credit for. You're more mature than you give yourself
credit for, and you're more capablethan you give yourself credit for. So
I was pretty hard on myself asa kid and was always kind of measuring
myself against people who are smarter thanme or better than me, and either
violin or tennis or name the activeand I would hold back a lot.
(08:01):
And so it was really truly myhusband, we'd been married a few years
and he goes, why aren't yougoing back for your MBA. You can
do it, And it was justwith him and his supporting me, It's
never been a question. He's justlike, of course, you can do
this, and so almost modeling thatfor my own self. And that's what
I wish I had known at sixteen, of trust yourself. You're a little
(08:22):
too cautious, you're a little toomuch of you always have a plan B.
As a Girl Scout, you're notgoing to go out and do anything
too nuts. Oh that's great,another fellow Girl Scout, I'm a lifetime
member. Well, anything else you'dlike to add before we close. The
advice I would give to my sixteenyear old self is when it comes to
careers and development and all those sortsof things, is that those who are
(08:45):
accelerating, those who are having greatcareers often are getting investments and support in
their careers. So if you wantto have that impact, remember careers are
finite and you need every support componentyou can to help accelerate through and become
that senior leader that can have theimpact you want to have as quickly as
possible. And so ask for thatdevelopment, ask for that support. I
(09:11):
liken it to that kid back inschool that would get the A plus and
claimed here she never studied for thetest. Don't fall for that they are
getting support or help or investment intheir careers and make sure you two are
also asking for that. If peoplewould like to know more about your company,
how do they find out more?If you'd like to know more about
The Leader's Edge, go to ourwebsite which is the dash leaders dash Edge
(09:35):
dot com and we also have avery robust presence on LinkedIn, so you
can find us at the dash Leader'sEdge on LinkedIn as well. CEOs you
Should Know brought to you by ComcastBusiness, offering the complete connectivity solution cybersecurity,
Internet and mobile, all from oneprovider, Comcast Business, powering possibilities
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