Karen McBride: Growing through being challenged by senior leaders and developing our soft skills.

From Glasgow to New York and New Zealand, Karen discusses her Audit and Finance career and what she has learnt from her experiences. Topics include the importance of having a senior leader who can challenge you for your own development, how we can develop our soft skills and her first experience of being a Non-Executive Director. This episode is for you whether you work in professional services or industry, if you question whether you’re learning enough from senior leaders or if you are a senior leader wondering if you are having enough of a positive impact on people’s development. Outline of timings:2:09-4:29: Career and current role. 4:30-7:04: Calculated risk. Grabbing opportunities that might be perceived as risky but going for them if the risk is worth taking. 7:05-10:22: Developing soft skills. 10:23-15:53: Progressing in her career because of the inner motivation to add value rather than because of sole ambition or being competitive. 15:54-21:30: Being shaped by senior leaders as well as through working in Audit and Professional Services. 21:31-25:11: Why I moved from professional services to industry but what I missed from Audit. 25:12-32:00: Developing yourself without formal CPD and thinking about the bigger picture to do a better job and also positively impact others. 32:01-37:02: What is having a balance between work and life in professional services? 37:03-40:08: Mentorship. Learning from current and past mentors to help your career but also to help others when you are in a senior leader position. 40:09-46:37: What Karen has learnt from her first Non-Executive Director (NED) role and her goals for the next 12 months. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.