Connecting with Kathryn Finney

How have relationships influenced your professional development and leadership style? 

My relationships- with friends, family, colleagues, and mentors- are so central to my life and my growth. You do not get anywhere in life by yourself, so having supportive relationships are a crucial part of all successful people’s paths.  There are people who have opened doors for me that help me be able to build. My friends often joke that they’re  “FOKers” (Friend of Kathryn) and that there’s nothing like being in the “Kathryn vortex”- which is that I draw people into my life and once there you don’t want to leave. As a result of this, I’ve had to do quite a bit of personal development around setting and maintaining boundaries.

 Do you have any tips for maintaining and building strong relationships?

Defining your core values is crucial to building and maintaining relationships. These values are your own personal truism- the things you hold dear and are central to you as a person. It could be “honesty” or “abundance”, but these are your North Stars and help you assess which relationships you want to nurture and those to let go. It is important to have Empathy- which is one of my core values. Empathy allows me to understand that everyone is fighting/winning a battle that I may not see. I give space to myself and others to win but also to make mistakes (and to correct them); I see the whole person.

How have you intentionally built inclusiveness into your circles?

Since it’s just who I am, inclusiveness isn’t something I have to focus on doing, it just is. I’m a black cis gendered woman. I grew up in an inclusive community in Minneapolis, MN where my best friends were of every race, gender, and sexual preference. My high school had a LGBTQ student union in the mid 1990s. My parents had friends from all over the world. 

I currently live in one of the most segregated states in the country (Georgia) and inclusiveness is such a part of my inner being that I naturally drifted to the most diverse neighborhood in the city of Atlanta. We chose a school for our son that has diverse families- not just by race but also by family structures. It wasn’t necessarily intentional- it was because diverse spaces are where I am most comfortable and where I thrive. 

What community or communities are you proud to be a part of?

I’m a proud member of a lot of communities, but I think being a member of a community of amazing Black women who built companies, now institutions, that fundamentally shifted culture and our country is one community I'm particularly proud to be a member of. People want to believe in the power of community, they want to believe in you. Make them believe. 

I loved being a part of eclectic communities that may seem divergent at first, but really are built around a sense of shared experiences. I love to swim and I’m a part of a community of fellow swimmers, in which I'm the only Black person. My family are direct descendants of survivors of the Tulsa Massacre and there’s a very active community built around that shared history and the fight for reparations. 

Who’s a Connector that's made a difference in your life?

There’s a number of people who have generously connected me: Lisa Stone, one of the Founders of BlogHer, has been a longtime mentor/connector who has been so generous to me. I have a group of Black women CEO friends with whom we share contacts and opportunities in the longest running text in history.