‘I Love My Job’: Authentic Relationships, Fun Work, and Growing the Next Generation of Women Leaders

Welcome to I Love My Job, the series where we hear from women who really love their jobs. In this edition, we sat down with Kylea Robb, the Senior Manager, Consumer & Industrial Products at West Monroe.

When asked to describe the culture at West Monroe, Robb tells us that it’s all about authenticity and fun. “My favorite value at West Monroe is making work fun, and the way that we're really able to do that is by showing up authentically,” she explains. 

Robb shares that she’s empowered to show up as authentically herself to clients. “When we are joining a project team and when we are interfacing with clients, what we're ultimately doing is showing up as the experts that we actually are,” notes Robb. “Since we get to go and be ourselves, we form really strong relationships on teams. We are jokesters, and we make work fun, both in our workshops with the clients and internally. We get to make our clients part of our culture.”

In fact, it’s this very culture that makes West Monroe so special to employees like Robb by empowering them to build truly authentic relationships — both internally and externally. It’s no surprise then that Robb’s favorite part of working at West Monroe are the client relationships that she gets to build. 

“Coming to West Monroe, one of the things that I found is that we are the promise-makers and the promise-keepers,” she tells us. “We get to go in, develop strategies that are based on our clients’ actual goals, and then walk with them on the journey.” Due to this, Robb finds that she’s often working with clients for years, enabling her to not only gain a deep understanding of their business needs and goals but also help them make and execute on a tailored roadmap.

“We get to develop very long-lasting, very deep relationships because we're ultimately delivering exactly what we said we were going to do,” Robb says. “We get to go actually build those results as a team with our client. I think this makes us really special. And it’s the thing that I am most proud of working here.”

In the video below, Robb shares more about why she loves working at West Monroe. We also provide lightly edited highlights from the video discussion in the following article.

In case you have trouble watching this video, please click here to watch it on YouTube.

Please tell us a bit about your career journey with West Monroe.

I've been with the firm for about five years. Throughout my tenure here, I've had a couple of different roles, both external and internal.

In my external roles, I started in our process optimization practice in our productivity team. So, I worked on, very specifically, making sure processes were optimized within various industries, reducing waste, and doing enablement with our clients. 

I've since transitioned back into consumer and industrial products — going back to my roots in the manufacturing space. I lead digital value creation initiatives, including both the strategy and the enablement with our mid-market and upper-mid-market clients. 

As for the internal roles that I really enjoy doing, I am the women's leadership network lead for the Dallas office. Here, I get to do education and create connections both across the firm and specifically within our Dallas community. And, last but not least, I am the long-serving chief of wine in the Dallas office. I get to do wine pairing and wine tasting events both for our internal teams and for our clients.

So, not only can I help you make your wine-making organization more digital, I can also serve the wine, too.

What’s a project you’re working on that you find really exciting? 

I am working on a CPG carve-out for a large brand from their parent organization right now, where I am specifically leading our operational technology and network cutovers. My team and I are in charge of ensuring that all of the machinery, all of the equipment, and all of the devices that currently make their products are able to be used when they're a new organization. [We’re also ensuring that the network is functional] so everything that it connects to — all of those devices, all of those digital tools, all of those computers — are still able to work post-separation.

The reason I find this so exciting is that I'm creating a digital foundation for a brand new organization. We’re setting up manufacturing and a digital foundation for their growth for the next 10, 15, 20 years. Making sure we get this right now ensures that a brand new organization is going to be able to grow, scale, and use their data. My team and I are having a blast working with them all while making a big impact on this new organization!

How does West Monroe support you in managing work-life balance or supporting your career? 

In reality, it's both of those things. I am a big runner. That is one of my biggest passions in the world. At West Monroe, we not only have the ability to support people as they're learning about their career, we also support them as they're going through and achieving their passions. It is not uncommon for me to have to ping my team and say, “Hey guys, I'm going to be a little bit late. This 10-mile run sucks way more than I thought it was going to, so I'm going to be late today.” And this is encouraged and fine. 

The other thing from a supporting aspect is our culture is really built around developing the next generation of leaders and supporting people in their stretch roles or as they fail forward. The beginning of every project looks about the same: we join a team, and we figure out what the scope of the project is going to be. But then, we talk about the goals for the project: “Why are you staffed here? What do you want to get out of this?”

For me, I sometimes reach out to others [and mention that] I might make some missteps, so please help me out and look out for me. And the other half of that is that junior consultants come to me or the other leaders [and make requests like] “I would love to take over the financial management”, or “I would love to lead this work stream.” Then, it’s time to figure out a way to get me out of their way and allow them to go do that in a way that is very supported and safe. We can go take those risks, but, ultimately, we're not going to have it impact the client. 

The ability to support holistically, not just from a leadership down, but from an entire environment, is the way that I have felt the most safe and most able to advance here.

What advice would you give to other women looking to work at West Monroe?

Over the past five years, I've seen not only a shift of people who look, act, and talk like me in leadership positions, but I've also become one of those leaders. The ability to not be afraid when you're going into those situations, when you don't see anyone that looks like you, is actually a big opportunity.

I get to go make the norms. I get to go make the expectations of what a woman in leadership looks like. I get to go be that person for the next generation of women leaders to say, “this is what a leader looks like. This is what they act like. And that's okay.” So, don't be scared. Do it scared.

Fairygodboss is proud to work with West Monroe. Find a job there today!

Check out other posts in the ‘I Love My Job’ series:

• 'I Love My Job’: I Found My ‘Forever Home’ at a Firm Where Everyone Truly Supports One Another

• ‘I Love My Job’: A Culture Like a ‘Warm and Inviting Cup of Tea’ Where I Can Be My Authentic Self

• ‘I Love My Job’: ‘Your Voice Will Be Heard and You Will Make a Difference’ at My Company

• ‘I Love My Job’: Incredible People, Outstanding Benefits, Growth, and the Chance to Shape the Future

• ‘I Love My Job’: From Ax Throwing to Volunteering — Exploring an Inviting and Inclusive Workplace