“Learn how to rely on others,” Katie Klein from Omnicom

Meet Katie Klein, Chief Investment Officer at Omnicom Media Group, where she brings over 20 years of experience to her role in leading the strategic vision and creation of partnerships across all paid media channels. She was an early pioneer of audience-first investment strategies and crafted some of the industry’s first cross-screen, cross-content deals. Katie focuses on leading teams of integrated investment practitioners that provide clients with holistic expertise across all media channels in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. She leads with passion to balance partnerships that tap into the biggest moments in culture with activations that drive business outcomes.

Katie joined Morgan James, Content Marketing Specialist at SiriusXM Media, to be a part of a special, upcoming season of the Pass the Mic Podcast called Mentor Me. In her interview, they discussed the challenges of navigating work-life balance as you rise in your career and how up-and-coming female leaders can find balance.

Check out Katie’s advice in her full interview below, then listen to the conversation highlights. 

Ask for help.

Highlight: “You can't achieve balance alone. You cannot be afraid to ask for help. Sometimes as you're starting your career, and you're trying to prove yourself, some people may think that is a sign of weakness or a sign that I can't do it. And the advice that I would give is understanding when to bring in help, when to bring in outside expertise, that is a sign of strength… You're not gonna get the job done without it, and you're not going to achieve your own balance if you don't learn how to best rely on others.” - Katie Klein

Communicate your expectations. 

Highlight: “I think it's prep, planning, and setting the expectations and boundaries, to a certain extent, of everybody around you so that you're giving yourself the space to accomplish it. When it comes to work goals, it's incredibly important to be communicative of the expectation. So what I try to do when there is a task or a project is again, assemble the right team, make sure they know why they are there, explain what the end goal is of what we are trying to accomplish and why.” - Katie Klein

Allow yourself to have transitions.

Highlight: “Allow yourself to have those transitions throughout your career. Because I think, truthfully, what has helped me a lot is knowing every other change and every other transition that I've ever been through, I've gotten through. So you understand that certain things are temporary and the drinking from the fire hose period is temporary.” - Katie Klein

You have to shift.

Highlight: “Every time you're making a jump, particularly a big jump into a much more senior leadership role, everything that you've done to date is what got you here… But the new job that you're in is going to require a shift in that definition of what is successful… The art of delegation is so important and who you surround yourself with is so Important because you have to shift." - Katie Klein

Carve out time to get things done. 

Highlight: “It's carving out periods of time where you can be focused. Work on the weekend is unavoidable sometimes, but when I know that there's going to need to be work on weekends, I'll say, ‘What I'm going to do Saturday is nothing. Saturday is dedicated to them. Sunday, I'm going to get up early, and while they're at activities or maybe still sleeping, I'll get some stuff done.' So it really is about carving out that time… Managing expectations for yourself and for your family is really important.” - Katie Klein

Katie’s words of wisdom shine a light on the importance of harmonizing work and life. For younger generations looking to find balance, take Katie’s advice and learn to rely on others when you need it. For more inspirational content, check out the Pass the Mic page.

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