When Casey McCarty first joined the Idea Foundry, her role was largely behind the scenes. She was in charge of operations, something she compares to your organs, in that "you don't really think about them unless there's something going awry.
But then, last August, she ascended to the top job at the makerspace. Early in her tenure as CEO, though, she learned an important lesson about what it takes to be the "frontman" of an organization.
"I was still running into situations where'd I be, say, upstairs in our coworking space, chatting with people around some coffee and someone would say … 'Which business do you run?" McCarty recalled during a recent taping of our Women of Influence podcast. Sheepishly, she would answer, "This one."
"So that's a lesson learned," McCarty said during our interview. "Even if your job description isn't necessarily out if in front, if you have career aspirations, you better make sure people know your face."
Check out our full conversation with McCarty for more leadership lessons and to learn more about how her background in criminal justice impacts the way she does her job today.
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