Trish Kinney, vice president of Innovation, Technology and Quality for Pet at General Mills, shared candid insights on career advancement and leadership during a recent Ask the Pet Food Pro Fireside Chat hosted by Women in Pet Food Leadership. Here are 10 key takeaways from the conversation.
1. Lower your confidence threshold to 50%
Men typically lean in when they have just 10% of the qualifications for a job, while women tend to wait until they're 100% confident, Kinney explained.
"If I'm at least 50% confident I'm right, then I'm gonna lean in, especially when it's something that is really a two-way door versus a one-way door," she said.
This shift in mindset helped her break through a six-year career plateau and led to multiple promotions within 18 months.
2. Progress over perfection applies to work and life
"If you try to be the A+ student on both of those things at the same time, you're just really going to kill yourself," Kinney said about balancing career and motherhood. She emphasized that trying to be perfect creates an endless to-do list and slows business progress.
"I'm probably not going to get an A+ as a mom and a person working for General Mills at the same time," she explained. "And that's okay, because I'm going to get different grades on different days."
3. Sit at the table, not on the perimeter
Early in her career, Kinney deliberately sat in perimeter seats to avoid being called on directly. "If you don't sit right at the table, nobody's going to ask you a direct question so you can fly under the radar," she said. "But that also means you're not bringing your perspective to that project discussion or whatever the conversation might be." She credits the book "Lean In" by Sheryl Sandberg with helping her change this behavior.
4. Identify what's holding back your confidence
A mentor helped Kinney recognize that her lack of business knowledge was undermining her confidence in technical roles. His advice: start reading the Wall Street Journal daily and commit to speaking up in every meeting.
"It was really a snowball," she said. "I became much more confident and now people would say I won't shut up in meetings, so I'm kind of the opposite."
5. Don't wait for permission to ask for what you need
After her fourth child, Kinney asked to move to a four-day work week for four years. "At the time it felt like I was really compromising my career, but no one at General Mills remembers that I went to four days a week," she said. "If you don't actually ask for the things that would help it work better for you as you're trying to figure out your life outside of work and your life at work, no one's going to read your mind."
6. Choose your priorities over external pressure
When a leader told Kinney she would "never get promoted again" after declining an international move to prioritize her four children (ages 1 to 11), she went to the bathroom, "sobbed for quite a long time," then decided to prove him wrong.
"I think you have to make the best decision with the information you have on that day and be true to yourself," said Kinney. "And when you do that, and then you're also a good employee, it's all going to work out in the end."
7. Seek mentors who are different from you
"If you have someone that's exactly your same profile, they may affirm every single thing you think is right moving forward," Kinney said.
Her best mentor came from HR and knew nothing about her technical work in innovation, technology and quality.
"When I would talk to him about a strategy, I had to explain it in a completely different way than a mentor within my own function," Kinney noted. She also sought out a mentor who had four children to help navigate work-life balance.
8. Parenthood makes you a better leader
"As the chaos at home increased, I had to change a bit," she said. "I had to get really comfortable with things not being perfect. I had to get a lot better at prioritization. I had to get comfortable of making decisions when I maybe didn't have all the information. All of those things make you a great leader too."
9. Don't believe anyone who says "never"
Multiple times throughout her career, Kinney was told she would never achieve certain roles. "I think anybody that says something will never happen, don't believe them. There is no such thing as it can never happen," she advised.
Instead, she learned to reframe the conversation: "What types of things would demonstrate to you that I could be a really competitive candidate for that role?"
10. Your proudest accomplishments may not be on your resume
When asked what she's proudest of in her career, Kinney didn't mention titles or achievements. "The thing I am proudest of is the people that I've had the chance to work with and hopefully coach and mentor the ones that didn't think they were capable of the roles that I see them in now," she said. "The ones that I used to tell I would like you to believe in yourself as much as I believe in you. And now I see them in really great roles."
To see the entire Fireside Chat with Kinney, click here.
To see on-demand or upcoming Ask the Petfood Pro sessions, click here.
To learn more about or get involved with Women in Petfood Leadership, click here.
