As senior manager with Ernst & Young, Kelly Grier was comfortable working with companies all over the globe. “But to deeply understand what they were about, I realized I needed to go abroad.”
Just back from maternity leave in 2000, Grier learned Ernst & Young had a new client with significant overseas operations and needed to move a senior manager to Germany.
“Nobody asked me [about the position], since I was just back from maternity leave,” said Grier, who in order to start her family had not pursued an earlier opportunity to move to South America. “The more I talked with my husband and partners, the more passionate I became about that assignment.”
She snagged the job, overseeing teams working for the client in more than 30 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
But when she started in Munich, Germany, she was “met with distrust, no credibility,” she said. “I thought my job was bringing the American way to how they did things. I realized very quickly this wasn’t working. I needed to integrate those cultural differences into our decisions and started dialogues on how to do that. It was a paradigm shift with how I work with my teams.”
In July, Grier, 40, was appointed managing partner of Ernst & Young’s Chicago office.
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Q. How did you change how you work with teams?
A. Diversity is one of those concepts you hear people talk about in abstract that everyone conceptually believes in. When you have to live it, where you’re part of a very diverse team, in the minority and there is no majority, diversity becomes something profoundly different. You really appreciate the power of diversity — the contributions people make, the different perspectives — in a very real way.
If everyone is sharing all of themselves and no one’s holding back, diversity is incredibly rich and very powerful. You realize how differently people see the world, through different angles
Q. How do you balance work-life?
A. I’m a great partner, a great mother and a great wife. But, I’m rarely all three of those things on the same day. Sometimes, it’s 2/3. On a phenomenal day, it’s 3/3.
From a home perspective, we’ve outsourced everything we can. When we’re together as a family, we’re not distracted by day-to-day tasks or chores.
Q. What does that entail?
A. My husband, John, works for a human resources consulting firm with limited travel. By comparison, I travel a fair amount. When I’m in China for a week, on my return I’ll take the day off and spend it with John and Jack, our son, to reconnect with them.
I also really leverage the people around me. I’ve got strong teams and have empowered them to continue to advance whatever we’re doing, whether I’m around or not.
Q. In 2007 you were asked to co-chair gender-equity initiatives at work. Did this change you?
A. I was really surprised, because I’d always thought of myself as a client-service leader.
It was an epiphany, the opportunity to make a different kind of impact in the firm, how we develop our people and influence culture. That first taste of firm leadership intrigued me. I hadn’t seen myself in that capacity.
As a result of that experience, I also changed how I work. I’ve become much more attuned to my responsibility to mentor everybody — men, women.
I schedule lunch every week with a group of colleagues to hear what’s on their minds, share personal experiences. I’m spending more time with on-the-job coaching.
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Step by step
July 2009-present: Chicago office managing partner, Ernst & Young, Chicago
2008: Midwest client service and accounts leader, Ernst & Young
2006: Resident partner, Ernst & Young Consumer Products Center of Excellence
2004: Global client service partner, Ernst & Young,
2002-04: Global client service partner, Ernst & Young, Zurich
2002 Partner, Ernst & Young, Zurich
2000-02: Senior manager Ernst & Young, Zurich
2000: Senior manager, Ernst & Young, Munich, Germany
1999-2000: Senior manager, Ernst & Young, Chicago
1997-99: Manager, Ernst & Young, Chicago
1993-96: Senior accountant, Ernst & Young, Chicago
1991-93: Staff accountant, Ernst & Young, Chicago
1991: Bachelor of arts, St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind.
1989-91: Controller, South Bend White Sox, South Bend, Ind.
1988-89: Infirmary receptionist, St. Mary’s College
1988: Summer assistant, Thomas Buttweiler, attorney, St. Cloud, Minn.
1987-88: Dining hall helper, St. Mary’s College
1987: Summer machinist, St. Joseph Machine Shop, St. Joseph, Minn.
1984-87: Food service worker, Burger Treat, Avon, Minn.
1981-87: Baby-sitter, Avon, Minn.
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atpalmer42@aol.com
How they did it: To read previous stories by Ann Therese Palmer on how executives have developed their job skills, go to chicagotribune.com/careerpath
